Psalms 73

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

A Psalm of a Asaph.

1  Truly God is good to b Israel,
to those who are c pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3  d For I was e envious of the arrogant
when I saw the f prosperity of the wicked.
4  For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not g stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is h their necklace;
violence covers them as i a garment.
7 Their j eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and k speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9 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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