Psalms, 73

BOOK THREE

(Psalms 73 – 89)

A melody of Aʹsaph.

¹ God is indeed good to Israel, to those clean in heart.

² As for me, my feet had almost turned aside, My steps had nearly been made to slip.^*1

³ For I became envious of the boasters, [When] I would see the very peace of wicked people.

⁴ For they have no deathly pangs; And their paunch is fat.

⁵ They are not even in the trouble of mortal man,^*1 And they are not plagued the same as other men.^*2

⁶ Therefore haughtiness has served as a necklace to them; Violence envelops them as a garment.

⁷ Their eye has bulged from fatness; They have exceeded the imaginations of the heart.

⁸ They scoff and speak about what is bad; About defrauding they speak in an elevated style.

⁹ They have put their mouth in the very heavens, And their tongue itself walks about in the earth.

¹⁰ Therefore he brings his people back hither, And the waters of what is full are drained out for them.

¹¹ And they have said: “How has God^*1 come to know? And does there exist knowledge in the Most High?”

¹² Look! These are the wicked, who are at ease indefinitely. They have increased [their] means of maintenance.

¹³ Surely it is in vain that I have cleansed my heart And that I wash my hands in innocence itself.

¹⁴ And I came to be plagued all day long, And my correction is every morning.

¹⁵ If I had said: “I will tell a story like that,” Look! against the generation of your sons I should have acted treacherously.

¹⁶ And I kept considering so as to know this; It was a trouble in my eyes,

¹⁷ Until I proceeded to come into the grand sanctuary of God. I wanted to discern their future.

¹⁸ Surely on slippery ground is where you place them. You have made them fall to ruins.

¹⁹ O how they have become an object of astonishment as in a moment! [How] they have reached their end, have been brought to their finish through sudden terrors!

²⁰ Like a dream after awaking, O Jehovah,^*1 [So] when arousing [yourself] you will despise their very image.

²¹ For my heart was soured And in my kidneys I was sharply pained,

²² And I was unreasoning and I could not know; I became as mere beasts from your standpoint.

²³ But I am constantly with you; You have taken hold of my right hand.

²⁴ With your counsel you will lead me, And afterward you will take me even to glory.

²⁵ Whom do I have in the heavens? And besides you I do have no other delight on the earth.

²⁶ My organism and my heart have failed. God is the rock of my heart and my share to time indefinite.

²⁷ For, look! the very ones keeping away from you will perish. You will certainly silence every one immorally leaving you.

²⁸ But as for me, the drawing near to God is good for me. In the Sovereign Lord Jehovah I have placed my refuge, To declare all your works.^*1