Rise Up, Be Our Help

For the choir director. Of the sons of Korah. A [†]Maskil.

1O God, we have heard with our ears,

Our fathers have recounted to us

The work that You did in their days,

In the days of old.

2You with Your own hand dispossessed the nations;

Then You planted them;

You afflicted the peoples,

Then You cast them out.

3For 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.

4You are my King, O God;

Command [†]salvation for Jacob.

5Through You we will push back our adversaries;

Through Your name we will tread down those who rise up against us.

6For I will not trust in my bow,

And my sword will not save me.

7But You have saved us from our adversaries,

And You have put to shame those who hate us.

8In God we have boasted all day long,

And we will give thanks to Your name forever. [†]Selah.

9Yet You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor,

And do not go out with our armies.

10You cause us to turn back from the adversary;

And those who hate us have plundered us for themselves.

11You give us as sheep [†]to be eaten

And have scattered us among the nations.

12You sell Your people [†]for no amount,

And You have not [†]profited from their price.

13You make us a reproach to our neighbors,

A mockery and a derision to those around us.

14You make us a byword among the nations,

A [†]laughingstock among the peoples.

15All day long my dishonor is before me

And [†]the shame of my face has covered me,

16Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,

Because of the presence of the enemy and the avenger.

17All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You,

And we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant.

18Our heart has not turned back,

Nor have our steps deviated from Your path,

19Yet You have crushed us in a place of jackals

And covered us with the shadow of death.

20If we had forgotten the name of our God

Or spread our [†]hands to a strange god,

21Would not God find this out?

For He knows the secrets of the heart.

22But for Your sake we are killed all day long;

We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

23Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O Lord?

Awake, do not reject us forever.

24Why do You hide Your face

And forget our affliction and our oppression?

25For our soul has sunk down into the dust;

Our [†]body cleaves to the earth.

26Rise up, be our help,

And redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness.