¹ Maschil of Asaph.

O God,
why hast thou cast us off for ever?
why doth thine anger [nose] smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
² Remember thy congregation,
which thou hast purchased of old;
the rod of thine inheritance,
which thou hast redeemed;
this mount Zion,
wherein thou hast dwelt.

³ Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations;
even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.
⁴ Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations;
they set up their ensigns for signs.
⁵ A man was famous
according as he had lifted up [as one sending up] axes upon the thick trees.
⁶ But now they break down the carved work thereof at once
with axes and hammers.
⁷ They have cast fire into thy sanctuary,
they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.
⁸ They said in their hearts,
Let us destroy them together:
they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
⁹ We see not our signs:
there is no more any prophet:
neither is there among us any that knoweth how long [until when].

¹⁰ O God,
how long [until long] shall the adversary reproach?
shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
¹¹ Why withdrawest thou thy hand,
even thy right hand?
pluck it out of thy bosom.
¹² For God is my King of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
¹³ Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength:
thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
¹⁴ Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces,
and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
¹⁵ Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood:
thou driedst up mighty rivers.
¹⁶ The day is thine,
the night also is thine:
thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
¹⁷ Thou hast set all the borders of the earth:
thou hast made summer and winter.

¹⁸ Remember this,
that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD,
and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.
¹⁹ O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked:
forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever.
²⁰ Have respect unto the covenant:
for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
²¹ O let not the oppressed return ashamed:
let the poor and needy praise thy name.
²² Arise, O God,
plead thine own cause [contend your contentions]:
remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily [all of the day].
²³ Forget not the voice of thine enemies:
the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually.

* NOTE: On Opening and Closing Comments in the Psalms.
[Some commentators take the Psalm in Habakkuk 3 to be a standard model for the Psalms.
Habakkuk's Psalm begins with the name of the composer (Habakkuk) and a musical notation ("upon Shigionoth").
It closes with a dedication or a "send to" notice ("To the chief singer on my stringed instruments").
I have arranged similar material, where it is found in the Psalter, in accord with the model in Habakkuk.]