BOOK 3
(Psalms 73—89)
A psalm of Asaph
73
📚✭✭Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 📚✭But as for me, my feet had almost
stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3 📚✭For I was envious
of the foolish,
when I saw the prosperity
of the wicked.
4 📚✭For there are no pangs in their death;
but their strength is firm.
5 📚They are not in trouble like other men,
nor are they plagued like other men.
6 📚Therefore pride surrounds them like a necklace;
violence covers them like
a garment.
7 📚Their eyes bulge with fat;
they have more than their heart
could wish.
8 📚They scoff, and speak wickedly
concerning oppression;
they speak arrogantly.
9 📚They set their mouth against
the heavens,
and their tongue walks through
the earth.
10 📚Therefore his people return here,
and waters of a full cup✭ are
drained by them.
11 📚And they say, “How does God know?”
and “Is there knowledge
in the Most High?”
12 📚See, these are the ungodly,
who prosper in the world;
they increase in riches.
13 📚✭Surely in vain I have
cleansed my heart,
and washed my hands
in innocence.
14 📚For all day long I have been plagued,
and punished every morning.
15 📚✭If I had said, “I will speak thus”,
see, I would have betrayed the
generation of your children.
16 📚When I thought to understand this,
it was too painful for me;
17 📚✭Until I went into the sanctuary
of God.
Then I understood their
coming end.
18 📚Surely you set them in
slippery places.
You cast them down to destruction.
19 📚How they are brought
into desolation,
as in a moment!
They are completely consumed
with terrors.
20 📚As a dream when one
awakes,
so, O Lord, when you awake,
you will despise their image.
21 📚✭Thus my heart was grieved,
and I was pierced in my inmost
being.
22 📚I was so foolish
and ignorant;
I was like a beast
in your presence.
23 📚Nevertheless✭ I am continually
with you.
You hold me by my right hand.
24 📚✭You will guide me
with your counsel,
and afterwards receive me
into glory.
25 📚✭Whom have I in heaven
but you?
And there is nothing✭ on earth that I
desire besides you.
26 📚✭My flesh and my heart fail,
but God is the strength
of my heart,
and my portion forever.
27 📚✭For, see, those who are far
from you will perish.
You destroy all those who go
from you acting like a prostitute✭.
28 📚✭But it is good for me
to draw near to God.
I have put my trust in the Lord God,
that I may declare all your works.