Psalms 73

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

A Psalm of aAsaph.

1 Truly God is good to bIsrael,
to those who are cpure in heart.
2But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3 dFor I was eenvious of the arrogant
when I saw the fprosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not gstricken like the rest of mankind.
6Therefore pride is htheir necklace;
violence covers them as ia garment.
7Their jeyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8They scoff and kspeak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find lno fault in them.
Probable reading; Hebrew the waters of a full cup are drained by them

11And they say, nHow can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they oincrease in riches.
13All in vain have I pkept my heart clean
and qwashed my hands in innocence.
14For all the day long I have been rstricken
and srebuked tevery morning.
15If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed uthe generation of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me va wearisome task,
17until I went into wthe sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their xend.
18 Truly you set them in yslippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19How they are destroyed zin a moment,
swept away utterly by aaterrors!
20Like aba dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when acyou rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22I was adbrutish and ignorant;
I was like aea beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you afhold my right hand.
24You agguide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will ahreceive me to glory.
25 aiWhom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 ajMy flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is akthe strength
Hebrew rock
of my heart and my amportion anforever.
27 For behold, those who are aofar from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is apunfaithful to you.
28But for me it is good to aqbe near God;
I have made the Lord God my arrefuge,
that I may astell of all your works.
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