How Long, O Lord?

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;

they have defiled your holy temple;

they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

²They have given the bodies of your servants

to the birds of the heavens for food,

the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.

³They have poured out their blood like water

all around Jerusalem,

and there was no one to bury them.

⁴We have become a taunt to our neighbors,

mocked and derided by those around us.

⁵How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever?

Will your jealousy burn like fire?

⁶Pour out your anger on the nations

that do not know you,

and on the kingdoms

that do not call upon your name!

⁷For they have devoured Jacob

and laid waste his habitation.

⁸Do not remember against us our former iniquities;1

let your compassion come speedily to meet us,

for we are brought very low.

⁹Help us, O God of our salvation,

for the glory of your name;

deliver us, and atone for our sins,

for your name's sake!

¹⁰Why should the nations say,

“Where is their God?”

Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants

be known among the nations before our eyes!

¹¹Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;

according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!

¹²Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors

the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!

¹³But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,

will give thanks to you forever;

from generation to generation we will recount your praise.