Why have you rejected us forever?
							
																								
								(Psalm 79:1-13; Jeremiah 52:1-11)							
																								
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									AN INSTRUCTION OF ASAPH. Why, O God, have You cast off forever? Your anger smokes against the flock of Your pasture.
								
							 
																								
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									Remember Your congregation || [That] You purchased of old, || You redeemed the rod of Your inheritance, || This Mount Zion—You dwelt in it.
								
							 
																								
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									Lift up Your steps to the continuous desolations, || Everything the enemy did wickedly in the sanctuary.
								
							 
																								
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									Your adversaries have roared, || In the midst of Your meeting-places, || They have set their ensigns as ensigns.
								
							 
																								
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									He is known as one bringing in on high || Against a thicket of wood—axes.
								
							 
																								
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									And now they break down its engravings, || Together, with axe and hatchet,
								
							 
																								
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									They have sent Your sanctuary into fire, || They defiled the Dwelling Place of Your Name to the earth,
								
							 
																								
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									They said in their hearts, “Let us oppress them together,” || They burned all the meeting-places of God in the land.
								
							 
																								
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									We have not seen our ensigns, || There is no longer a prophet, || Nor with us is one knowing how long.
								
							 
																								
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									Until when, O God, does an adversary reproach? Does an enemy despise Your Name forever?
								
							 
																								
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									Why do You turn back Your hand, || Even Your right hand? Remove [it] from the midst of Your bosom.
								
							 
																								
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									And God [is] my king of old, || Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
								
							 
																								
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									You have divided [the] sea by Your strength, || You have shattered heads of dragons by the waters,
								
							 
																								
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									You have broken the heads of leviathan, || You make him food for the people of desert-dwellers.
								
							 
																								
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									You have cleaved a fountain and a stream, || You have dried up perennial flowings.
								
							 
																								
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									The day [is] Yours, || The night [is] also Yours, || You have prepared a light-giver—the sun.
								
							 
																								
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									You have set up all the borders of earth, || Summer and winter—You have formed them.
								
							 
																								
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									Remember this—an enemy reproached YHWH, || And a foolish people have despised Your Name.
								
							 
																								
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									Do not give up to a [wild] creature, || The soul of Your turtle-dove, || Do not forget the life of Your poor ones forever.
								
							 
																								
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									Look attentively to the covenant, || For the dark places of earth, || Have been full of habitations of violence.
								
							 
																								
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									Do not let the oppressed turn back ashamed, || Let the poor and needy praise Your Name,
								
							 
																								
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									Arise, O God, plead Your plea, || Remember Your reproach from a fool all the day.
								
							 
																								
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									Do not forget the voice of Your adversaries, || The noise of Your withstanders is going up continually!
								
							 
																						
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