A Maskil of Asaph
1-11 “Why?!”
O God, why do You cast us off forever? [נצח, netzach] Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
נצה (netzah) = “strife” / “struggle”
נצח (netzach) = “triumph” / “forever”
2 Remember Your congregation [עדת, eidat], which You have acquired of old, which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where You have dwelt. 3 Lift up Your feet to the perpetual [נצח] ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary! 4 Your foes have roared in the midst of Your meeting place [מועד, mo’ed]; they set up their own signs for signs. 5 They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees. 6 And all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers. 7 They set Your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of Your name, bringing it down to the ground. 8 They said together in their hearts, “We will utterly subdue them”. They burned all the meeting places [מועד, mo’ed] of God in the land. 9 We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long. 10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile Your name forever [נצח]? 11 Why do You hold back Your hand, Your right hand? Take it from the fold of Your garment and destroy them!
12-17 A Note of Hope
Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. 13 You divided the sea by Your might; You broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters. 14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness. 15 You split open springs and brooks; You dried up ever-flowing streams. 16 Yours is the day, Yours also the night; You have established the heavenly lights and the sun. 17 You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; You have made summer and winter.
18-23 Your reputation is at stake
Remember this, Adonai, how the enemy scoffs, and a foolish people reviles Your name. 19 Do not deliver the soul of Your dove to the wild beasts; do not forget the life of Your poor forever [נצח]. 20 Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence. 21 Let not the crushed one turn back in shame. Let the poor and needy praise Your name. 22 Arise, O God, fight Your fight. Remember how the foolish insult You all the day! 23 Do not forget the voice of Your foes, the uproar of those who rise against You, which goes up continually!
REFERENCES:
Verse 1
Hosea 8:1-2 Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of Adonai, because they have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My Torah. To Me they cry, “My God, we – Israel – know You.”
Verse 4
Genesis 1:14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons (מועדים, moedim), for days and years.”
Verse 7
Deuteronomy 12:5 But you shall seek the place that Adonai your God will choose out of all your tribes to put His name and make His habitation there. There you shall go.
Deuteronomy 16:2 And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to Adonai your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that Adonai will choose, to make His name dwell there.
Verse 9
1Chronicles 25:1-2 David and the chiefs of the service also set apart for the service the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who prophesied with lyres, with harps, and with cymbals. The list of those who did the work and of their duties was: Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asharelah, sons of Asaph, under the direction of Asaph, who prophesied under the direction of the king.
Verse 20
Leviticus 26:42,45 Then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land… But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am Adonai.”
