Saint of the day · October 17

¹ A contemplation by Asaph. God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?

² Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance: Mount Zion, in which you have lived.

³ Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

⁴ Your adversaries have roared in the middle of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.

⁵ They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees.

⁶ Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers.

⁷ They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.

⁸ They said in their heart, “We will crush them completely.” They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.

⁹ We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.

¹⁰ How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?

¹¹ Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it from your chest and consume them!

¹² Yet God is my King of old, working salvation throughout the earth.

¹³ You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.

¹⁴ You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.

¹⁵ You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.

¹⁶ The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.

¹⁷ You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.

¹⁸ Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.

¹⁹ Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.

²⁰ Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.

²¹ Don’t let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.

²² Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.

²³ Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.