My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? I have cried desperately for help, but still it does not come.

You are my king and my God; you give victory to your people,

Why have you refused to help us? Why do you keep your hands behind you?

But you have been our king from the beginning, O God; you have saved us many times.

Powerful nations are in commotion with a sound like the roar of the sea, like the crashing of huge waves.

At evening they cause terror, but by morning they are gone. That is the fate of everyone who plunders our land.

May they be like straw blown by the wind as the angel of the LORD pursues them!

God rises up and scatters his enemies. Those who hate him run away in defeat.

As smoke is blown away, so he drives them off; as wax melts in front of the fire, so do the wicked perish in God's presence.

In majestic triumph you overthrow your foes; your anger blazes out and burns them up like straw.

Are you trying to frighten me? I'm nothing but a leaf; you are attacking a piece of dry straw.

and blow them away like straw in the wind, or like dust carried away in a storm?

They are like young plants, just set out and barely rooted. When the LORD sends a wind, they dry up and blow away like straw.

"Who was it that brought the conqueror from the east and makes him triumphant wherever he goes? Who gives him victory over kings and nations? His sword strikes them down as if they were dust. His arrows scatter them like straw before the wind.

The LORD will scatter you like straw that is blown away by the desert wind.

He has his winnowing shovel with him to thresh out all the grain. He will gather his wheat into his barn, but he will burn the chaff in a fire that never goes out."