⁴ Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place;
    they set up their own signs for signs.
⁵ They were like those who swing axes
    in a forest of trees.^[b]
6 And all its carved wood
    they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
⁷ They set your sanctuary on fire;
    they profaned the dwelling place of your name,
    bringing it down to the ground.
⁸ They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;
    they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

⁹ We do not see our signs;
    there is no longer any prophet,
    and there is none among us who knows how long.
¹⁰ How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
    Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
¹¹ Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
    Take it from the fold of your garment^[c] and destroy them!

¹² Yet God my King is from of old,
    working salvation in the midst of the earth.
¹³ You divided the sea by your might;
    you broke the heads of the sea monsters^[d] on the waters.
¹⁴ You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
    you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
¹⁵ You split open springs and brooks;
    you dried up ever-flowing streams.
¹⁶ Yours is the day, yours also the night;
    you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
¹⁷ You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
    you have made summer and winter.

¹⁸ Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,
    and a foolish people reviles your name.
¹⁹ Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts;
    do not forget the life of your poor forever.

²⁰ Have regard for the covenant,
    for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
²¹ Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame;
    let the poor and needy praise your name.

²² Arise, O God, defend your cause;
    remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
²³ Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
    the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!