Psalms 73
1 A PSALM OF ASAPH. Surely God [is] good to Israel, to the clean of heart. And I—as a little thing, My feet have been turned aside,
A psalm for Asaph. How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart!
2 As nothing, my steps have slipped, For I have been envious of the boastful,
But my feet were almost moved; my steps had well nigh slipped.
3 I see the peace of the wicked, That there are no bands at their death,
Because I had a zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the prosperity of sinners.
4 And their might [is] firm.
For there is no regard to their death, nor is there strength in their stripes.
5 They are not in the misery of mortals, And they are not plagued with common men.
They are not in the labour of men: neither shall they be scourged like other men.
6 Therefore pride has encircled them, Violence covers them as a dress.
Therefore pride hath held them fast: they are covered with their iniquity and their wickedness.
7 Their eye has come out from fat. The imaginations of the heart transgressed;
Their iniquity hath come forth, as it were from fatness: they have passed into the affection of the heart.
8 They do corruptly, And they speak in the wickedness of oppression, They speak from on high.
They have thought and spoken wickedness: they have spoken iniquity on high.
9 They have set their mouth in the heavens, And their tongue walks in the earth.
They have set their mouth against heaven: and their tongue hath passed through the earth.
10 Therefore His people return here, And waters of fullness are wrung out to them.
Therefore will my people return here and full days shall be found in them.
11 And they have said, “How has God known? And is there knowledge in the Most High?”
And they said: How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
12 Behold, these [are] the wicked and easy ones of the age, They have increased strength.
Behold these are sinners; and yet abounding in the world they have obtained riches.
13 Only—a vain thing! I have purified my heart, And I wash my hands in innocence,
And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent.
14 And I am plagued all the day, And my reproof—every morning.
And I have been scourged all the day; and my chastisement hath been in the mornings.
15 If I have said, “I recount thus,” Behold, I have deceived a generation of Your sons.
If I said: I will speak thus; behold I should condemn the generation of thy children.
16 And I think to know this, It [is] perverseness in my eyes,
I studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my sight:
17 Until I come into the sanctuaries of God, I attend to their latter end.
Until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning their last ends.
18 Surely You set them in slippery places, You have caused them to fall to desolations.
But indeed for deceits thou hast put it to them: when they were lifted up thou hast cast them down.
19 How they have become a desolation as in a moment, They have been ended—consumed from terrors.
How are they brought to desolation? they have suddenly ceased to be: they have perished by reason of their iniquity.
20 As a dream from awakening, O Lord, In awaking, You despise their image.
As the dream of them that awake, O Lord; so in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing.
21 For my heart shows itself violent, And my reins prick themselves,
For my heart hath been inflamed, and my reins have been changed:
22 And I am brutish, and do not know. I have been a beast with You.
And I am brought to nothing, and I knew not.
23 And I [am] continually with You, You have laid hold on my right hand.
I am become as a beast before thee: and I am always with thee.
24 You lead me with Your counsel, And after, receive me [to] glory.
Thou hast held me by my right hand; and by thy will thou hast conducted me, and with thy glory thou hast received me.
25 Whom do I have in the heavens? And none have I desired in earth [besides] You.
For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth?
26 My flesh and my heart have been consumed, God [is] the rock of my heart and my portion for all time.
For thee my flesh and my heart hath fainted away: thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever.
27 For behold, those far from You perish, You have cut off everyone, Who is going whoring from You.
For behold they that go far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that are disloyal to thee.
28 And [the] nearness of God to me [is] good, I have placed my refuge in Lord YHWH, To recount all Your works!
But it is good for me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the Lord God: That I may declare all thy praises, in the gates of the daughter of Sion.
