Priestly Intro
1 For the chief musician,
for the sons of Korah,
a maskil.
Exilic Lament
God, in our tears we have heard,
our fathers have told it to us,
the work you worked in their days,
in the days of old.
2 You drove out the nations,
and your hand smote them.
You afflicted the people
and sent them forth.
3 For they did not possess the land
by their sword,
and their arm did not save them.
4 But your right hand your arm,
and the light of your presence,
for you favored them.
Old Northern War Song
5 You are my king, God,
command salvations for Jacob.
In you we defeat our enemies.
In your name we tread under
those who rise up.
6 For I will not trust in my bow,
and my sword will not save me.
7 For you have saved us from our enemies.
And you have put to shame those who hate us.
8 In God we trust all the day,
and we will praise your name forever.
Selah
9 But you have cast us off
and put us to shame,
and you do not go out with our armies.
10 You make us turn back from the enemy,
and those that hate us spoil for themselves.
11 You have given us for food like sheep,
and scattered us among the nations.
12 You sell your people for nothing,
and do not profit from their sale.
13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
a scorn and derision to those around us.
14 You make us a byword among the nations,
a shaking of the head among the people.
15 All the day my confusion is before me,
and the shame of my face has covered me,
16 from the voice of the reproacher
and the blasphemer,
from the face of the enemy and the avenger.
17 All this has come upon us,
though we did not forget you,
though we did not fail in your covenant.
18 Our heart did not turned back,
and our steps did not depart from you way.
19 But you have broken us in the place of dragons,
and covered us in the shadow of death.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God,
or stretched out our hand to a strange god,
21 would God not search this out?
For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22 For your sake we are slain all the day,
we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
23 Awake! Why do you sleep?
Arise, Lord!
Do not cast off forever.
24 Why do you hide your face?
Do not forget our affliction and our oppression,
25 for our soul is bowed down to the dust,
our belly cleaves to the dust.
26 Arise! Help us!
Redeem us for the sake of your mercy.