MARY, OUR MOTHER

Amazingly, this is one of the psalms for today, 9/11,
in the Liturgy of the hours.

Psalm 74

Why O God, have you cast us off for ever?
Why does thy anger blaze against the sheep of thy pasture?
Remember thy people which thou hast gotten of old,
which thou hast redeemed to be thy own possession!
Remember Mount Zion, where thou hast dwelt.

Direct thy steps to the perpetual ruins;
the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!
Thy foes have roared in the midst of thy holy house;
they set up their own emblems for signs.
At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.

And then all its carved wood they broke down
with hatchets and hammers.
They set thy sanctuary on fire;
to the ground they desecrated the dwelling place of thy name.

They said to themselves, "We will utterly crush them";
they burned all the shrines of God in the land.
We do not see a sign from God; there is no longer any prophet,
and there is none among us who knows how long.

How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
Is the enemy to insult thy name for ever?
Why dost thou hold back thy hand?
Why dost thou keep thy right hand hidden?

Yet God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
Thou didst divide the sea by thy might;
thou didst break the heads of the monsters on the waters.

Thou didst crush the heads of Leviathan,
thou didst give him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
Thou didst cleave open springs and brooks;
thou didst dry up ever-flowing streams.

Thine is the day, thine also the night;
thou hast established the luminaries and the sun.
Thou hast fixed all the bounds of the earth;
thou hast made both summer and winter.

Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs,
and an impious people insults thy name.
Do not deliver the soul of thy dove to the wild beasts;
do not forget the life of thy poor ones for ever.

Have regard for thy covenant; for the dark places of the land
are full of the habitations of violence.
Let not the downtrodden be put to shame;
let the poor and needy bless thy name.

Arise, O God, defend thy cause;
remember how the impious scoff at thee all the day!
Do not forget the clamor of thy foes,
the uproar of thy adversaries which goes up continually!