For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.
O God, we have heard with our ears,
Our fathers have told us
The work that You did in their days,
In the days of old.

But for Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

Yet You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor,
And do not go out with our armies.

For by their own sword they did not possess the land,
And their own arm did not save them,
But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence,
For You favored them.

Would not God find this out?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.

Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O Lord?
Awake, do not reject us forever.

Why do You hide Your face
And forget our affliction and our oppression?

You with Your own hand drove out the nations;
Then You planted them;
You afflicted the peoples,
Then You spread them abroad.

In God we have boasted all day long,
And we will give thanks to Your name forever. Selah.

You are my King, O God;
Command victories for Jacob.

Through You we will push back our adversaries;
Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us.

Rise up, be our help,
And redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness.

If we had forgotten the name of our God
Or extended our hands to a strange god,

You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
A scoffing and a derision to those around us.

You make us a byword among the nations,
A laughingstock among the peoples.

Yet You have crushed us in a place of jackals
And covered us with the shadow of death.

For I will not trust in my bow,
Nor will my sword save me.

All day long my dishonor is before me
And my humiliation has overwhelmed me,

You give us as sheep to be eaten
And have scattered us among the nations.

You sell Your people cheaply,
And have not profited by their sale.

All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You,
And we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant.

Our heart has not turned back,
And our steps have not deviated from Your way,

But You have saved us from our adversaries,
And You have put to shame those who hate us.

For our soul has sunk down into the dust;
Our body cleaves to the earth.

Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
Because of the presence of the enemy and the avenger.

You cause us to turn back from the adversary;
And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.