BOOK III

Psalms 73–89

Surely God Is Good to Israel

1A Psalm of Asaph.

1 Surely God is good to Israel,

to those pure of heart.

2And as for me, at a little stretching out of my feet,

my steps had nearly poured out.

3For I was envious of those boasting

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4For there are no pangs until their death,

and their body is fat.

5They are not in the trouble of mankind,

and with men they are not are they plagued.

6Therefore pride is their necklace;

a garment of violence is a covering for them.

7Their eye has bulged out from fat,†

the imaginations of their heart overflow.

8They scoff and speak with malice;

from a high place they speak oppression.

9They have set their mouth in the heavens,

and their tongue walks through the earth.

10Therefore his people turn here,

and waters of fullness are wrung out for them.

11And they say, “How can God know?

And is there knowledge in the Most High?”

12Behold, these are the wicked,

and at ease always, they have increased in wealth.

13Surely in vain I have cleansed my heart,

and I have washed my hands in innocence.

14For I have been stricken all the day,

and chastened in the morning.

15If I had said, “I will speak like this,”

behold, I would have betrayed the generation of Your sons.

16And I thought to know this—

it was toil in my eyes—

17until I came to the sanctuary of God,

and discerned their end.

18Surely You set them on slick ground;

You make them fall to destruction.

19How they have become a desolation in a moment!

They are swept away completely by terrors.

20As a dream from awakening,

O Lord, in rousing Yourself, You shall despise their image.

21For my heart had grown sour,

and my kidneys pierce themselves.

22And I was brutish and could not know;

I was a beast before You.

23And I am always with You;

You hold my right hand.

24May You lead me with Your counsel,

and afterward You will receive me in glory!

25Who is unto me in the heavens?

And besides You I do not take delight on the earth.

26My flesh and my heart may be consumed,

the rock† of my heart and my portion

is God to the age.

27For behold, those far from You will perish.

You destroy everyone prostituting himself from You!

28But I—the nearness of God is good for me—

I have placed my refuge in the Lord YHWH,

to recount all Your works.