Psalm 73

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.