{1} O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

{3} Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. {4} Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy assemblies; they set up their ensigns for signs. They behaved like men wielding axes to cut through a thicket of trees. But now they smash the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers. They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground. {8} They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land. {9} We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.

{10} O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever? {11} Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom. {12} For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. {13} Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. {14} Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

{15} Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers. {16} The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. {17} Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter. {18} Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.

{19} O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever. {20} Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. {21} O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name. {22} Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily. {23} Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually."

The care with which the Temple of God was built, so great a care that the noise of a hammer was never heard in the construction process. Every stone was carved off site to precise measurements and then assembled on site. The interior was completely covered with carved cedar so that no stone was visible anywhere. The cedar was covered with carved decoration of palm trees and pomegranates, then overlaid with pure gold, worked into the carving. It must have been an interior of staggering beauty. The building of the Temple, as much as the service of it, was an act of worship.

Only when you understand all this, can you grasp what a crushing blow the destruction of the Temple was to the people who had seen it. When the barbarians came,

They behaved like men wielding axes to cut through a thicket of trees. They smashed all the carved paneling with their axes and hatchets. They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground. They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together:

This Psalm is written in a very hard time.