Let God do justice to his people. The Lord owes us nothing since we are sinners.
① 1O God, the pagans have invaded your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
2They have given your servants’ corpses to the birds, and the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth.
3They have poured out the blood of your faithful like water around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.
4Mocked and reviled by those around us, we are scorned by our neighbors.
5How long will this last, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your wrath always burn to avenge your rights?
6Pour out your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you; on the kingdoms that do not call on your name.
7For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his homeland.
8Do not remember against us the sins of our fathers.
Let your compassion hurry to us, for we have been brought very low.
9Help us, God, our savior, for the glory of your name; forgive us for the sake of your name.
10Give not the nations a chance to say, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes let them know that you avenge the blood of your servants.
11Listen to the groans of the prisoners; by the strength of your arm, deliver those doomed to die.
12Return our neighbors sevenfold, O Lord, the taunts with which they have taunted you.
13Then we, your people, the flock of your pasture, will thank you forever. We will recount your praise from generation to generation.
- Here again is a psalm born of the religious persecution at the time of the Maccabees. The Bible liked to consider the psalms as prayers composed by David. When the apostles quote a psalm, they say: God said through the mouth of David... The psalms are in fact the prayer of a people that lived and suffered.
This psalm reminds God that his honor is at stake: what does he think? Are we ready to accept that the glory of God includes failure and and at times, humiliations for his people?
