“Psalms 73”

 Psalm 73                 (ESV)

Book Three

GOD Is My Strength and Portion Forever

A Psalm of Asaph.

    “[1] 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 arrogant

        when I saw the 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 stricken like the rest of mankind. 

    [6] Therefore pride is their necklace;

        violence covers them as a garment. 

    [7] Their eyes swell out through fatness;

        their hearts overflow with follies. 

    [8] They scoff and 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 no fault in them. 

    [11] And they say, “How can GOD know?

        Is there knowledge in the MOST HIGH?” 

    [12] Behold, these are the wicked;

        always at ease, they increase in riches. 

    [13] All in vain have I kept my heart clean

        and washed my hands in innocence. 

    [14] For all the day long I have been stricken

        and rebuked every morning. 

    [15] If I had said, “I will speak thus,”

        I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

    [16] But when I thought how to understand this,

        it seemed to me a wearisome task, 

    [17] until I went into the sanctuary of GOD;

        then I discerned their end.

    [18] Truly YOU set them in slippery places;

        YOU make them fall to ruin. 

    [19] How they are destroyed in a moment,

        swept away utterly by terrors! 

    [20] Like a dream when one awakes,

        O LORD, when YOU rouse YOURSELF, YOU despise them as phantoms. 

    [21] When my soul was embittered,

        when I was pricked in heart, 

    [22] I was brutish and ignorant;

        I was like a beast toward you.

    [23] Nevertheless, I am continually with YOU;

        YOU hold my right hand. 

    [24] YOU guide me with YOUR counsel,

        and afterward YOU will receive me to 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 may fail,

        but GOD is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

    [27] For behold, those who are far from YOU shall perish;

        YOU put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to YOU. 

    [28] But for me it is good to be near GOD;

        I have made the LORD GOD my refuge,

        that I may tell of all YOUR works.”