¹For the music director, by the Korahites; a well-written song. O God, we have clearly heard; our ancestors have told us what you did in their days, in ancient times. ²You, by your power, defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; you crushed the people living there and enabled our ancestors to occupy it.³For they did not conquer the land by their swords, and they did not prevail by their strength, but rather by your power, strength, and good favor, for you were partial to them.⁴You are my king, O God. Decree Jacob’s deliverance. ⁵By your power we will drive back our enemies; by your strength we will trample down our foes. ⁶For I do not trust in my bow, and I do not prevail by my sword. ⁷For you deliver us from our enemies; you humiliate those who hate us.⁸In God we boast all day long, and we will continually give thanks to your name. (Selah)⁹But you rejected and embarrassed us. You did not go into battle with our armies. ¹⁰You made us retreat from the enemy. Those who hate us take whatever they want from us.¹¹You handed us over like sheep to be eaten; you scattered us among the nations. ¹²You sold your people for a pittance; you did not ask a high price for them.¹³You made us an object of disdain to our neighbors; those who live on our borders taunt and insult us.¹⁴You made us an object of ridicule among the nations; foreigners treat us with contempt. ¹⁵All day long I feel humiliated and am overwhelmed with shame, ¹⁶before the vindictive enemy who ridicules and insults me.¹⁷All this has happened to us, even though we have not rejected you or violated your covenant with us.¹⁸We have not been unfaithful, nor have we disobeyed your commands. ¹⁹Yet you have battered us, leaving us a heap of ruins overrun by wild dogs; you have covered us with darkness. ²⁰If we had rejected our God, and spread out our hands in prayer to another god, ²¹would not God discover it, for he knows a person’s secret thoughts? ²²Yet because of you we are killed all day long; we are treated like sheep at the slaughtering block.²³Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Wake up! Do not reject us forever. ²⁴Why do you look the other way, and ignore the way we are oppressed and mistreated? ²⁵For we lie in the dirt, with our bellies pressed to the ground. ²⁶Rise up and help us. Rescue us because of your loyal love.