Psalms

¹ We have heard with our ears, O God;

our fathers have told us

the work You did in their days,

in the days of old.

² With Your hand You drove out the nations

and planted our fathers there;

You crushed the peoples

and cast them out.

³ For it was not by their sword that they took the land;

their arm did not bring them victory.

It was by Your right hand,

Your arm, and the light of Your face,

because You favored them.

⁴ You are my King, O God,

who ordains victories for Jacob.

⁵ Through You we repel our foes;

through Your name we trample our enemies.

⁶ For I do not trust in my bow,

nor does my sword save me. ^[b]

⁷ For You save us from our enemies;

You put those who hate us to shame.

⁸ In God we have boasted all day long,

and Your name we will praise forever.

Selah

⁹ But You have rejected and humbled us;

You no longer go forth with our armies.

¹⁰ You have made us retreat from the foe,

and those who hate us have plundered us.

¹¹ You have given us up as sheep to be devoured;

You have scattered us among the nations.

¹² You sell Your people for nothing;

no profit do You gain from their sale.

¹³ You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,

a mockery and derision to those around us.

¹⁴ You have made us a byword among the nations,

a laughingstock ^[c] among the peoples.

¹⁵ All day long my disgrace is before me,

and shame has covered my face,

¹⁶ at the voice of the scorner and reviler,

because of the enemy, bent on revenge.

¹⁷ All this has come upon us,

though we have not forgotten You

or betrayed Your covenant.

¹⁸ Our hearts have not turned back;

our steps have not strayed from Your path.

¹⁹ But You have crushed us in the lair of jackals; ^[d]

You have covered us with deepest darkness.

²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God

or spread out our hands to a foreign god,

²¹ would not God have discovered,

since He knows the secrets of the heart?

²² Yet for Your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. ^[e]

²³ Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping?

Arise! Do not reject us forever.

²⁴ Why do You hide Your face

and forget our affliction and oppression?

²⁵ For our soul has sunk to the dust;

our bodies cling to the earth.

²⁶ Rise up; be our help!

Redeem us on account of Your loving devotion.