Psalms 73

¹A song of Asaph. Surely God is good to Israel, to those pure of heart. ²But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped, ³because I envied the boastful when I saw the well-being of the wicked. ⁴For there are no pains up to their death, and their bodies are ⌞healthy⌟. ⁵They do not have ⌞ordinary trouble⌟, and they are not plagued as other people. ⁶Therefore pride is their necklace; an outfit of violence covers them. ⁷Their eye bulges from fat. Imaginings overflow their heart. ⁸They mock and speak maliciously of oppression; they speak as though from on high. ⁹They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue roams the earth. ¹⁰Therefore his people turn there, and abundant waters are slurped up by them. ¹¹And they say, “How does God know?” and, “Does the Most High have knowledge?” ¹²See, these are the wicked, and they increase wealth, ever carefree. ¹³Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure, and washed my hands in innocence. ¹⁴And I have been plagued all day and rebuked ⌞every morning⌟. ¹⁵If I had said, “I will speak thus,” behold, I would have acted treacherously against your children’s generation. ¹⁶When I thought about how to understand this, it was troubling in my eyes ¹⁷until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I understood their fate. ¹⁸Surely you set them on slippery places. You cause them to fall onto ruin. ¹⁹How they become a desolation in a moment! They come to a complete end by terrors. ²⁰Like a dream upon awakening, when you wake up, O Lord, you will despise their fleeting form. ²¹When my heart was embittered and I felt stabbed in my kidneys, ²²then I was brutish and ignorant. With you I was like the beasts. ²³But I am continually with you; you have hold of my right hand. ²⁴You will guide me with your advice, and afterward you will take me into honor. ²⁵Whom do I have in the heavens except you? And with you I have no other desire on earth. ²⁶My flesh and heart failed, but God is the ⌞strength⌟ of my heart and my reward forever. ²⁷For indeed, those distancing themselves from you will be ruined. You destroy each who abandons you for harlotry. ²⁸But as for me, the approach to God is for my good. I have set the Lord Yahweh as my refuge, in order to tell all your works.