Nations Have Attacked Your House, Lord

1 Nations have attacked your house, LORD; your great temple they’ve defiled. They have wrecked your holy city; 2 servants’ bodies they have piled. Corpses have been fed to ravens – your saints’ bodies to the beasts. 3 All around your holy city blood has poured and has not ceased. No one’s left to bury bodies; 4 all our neighbors laugh with scorn. They deride us and reproach us; all your people are forlorn. 5 LORD, how long will this continue? Will your anger never pass? Will your jealous fire keep burning? LORD, how long must these things last? 6 Pour your wrath upon these nations that do not acknowledge you; lands that do not call upon you – 7 Jacob’s home they’ve rifled through. 8 Do not hold past sins against us, things that were our forebears’ deeds. May your mercy come down quickly, for we are in desperate need! 9 Help us now, O God our Savior, for the glory of your name. For your name’s sake, come and save us! Set us free from sin and blame. 10 Why should nations ask the question, “Where is now these people’s God?” Make it known among all nations you avenge your people’s blood. 11 May you hear the prisoners’ groaning; save the doomed by your great arm; 12 Pay back seven times our neighbors, for the times they’ve done you harm. 13 Then, we people of your pasture, evermore will sound your praise. To successive generations we will tell about your grace. – Albert Baxter, Portglenone Psalms, alt.