Psalms 73

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

A Psalm of a Asaph.

Truly God is good to b Israel,
to those who are c pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
d For I was e envious of the arrogant
when I saw the f prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not g stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is h their necklace;
violence covers them as i a garment.
Their j eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and k speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find l no fault in them.
Probable reading; Hebrew the waters of a full cup are drained by them

11 And they say n How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they o increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I p kept my heart clean
and q washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been r stricken
and s rebuked t every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed u the generation of your children.
16  But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me v a wearisome task,
17 until I went into w the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their x end.
18  Truly you set them in y slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed z in a moment,
swept away utterly by aa terrors!
20 Like ab a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when ac you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was ad brutish and ignorant;
I was like ae a beast toward you.
23  Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you af hold my right hand.
24 You ag guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will ah receive me to glory.
25  ai Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26  aj My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is ak the strength
Hebrew rock
of my heart and my am portion an forever.
27  For behold, those who are ao far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is ap unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to aq be near God;
I have made the Lord  God my ar refuge,
that I may as tell of all your works.
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