Psalms 73

¹The understanding of Asaph. O God, why have you rejected us to the end. Why has your fury become enraged over the sheep of your pasture?

²Be mindful of your congregation, which you have possessed from the beginning. You redeemed the scepter of your inheritance, mount Zion, in which you have dwelt.

³Lift up your hands against their arrogance in the end. How great the malice of the enemy has been in the sanctuary!

⁴And those who hate you have been glorified, in the midst of your solemnity. They have set up their own signs as a proof,

⁵as if it had been issued from on high; yet they did not understand. As in a forest of chopped wood,

⁶they have cut down the entrances themselves. With axe and hatchet, they have brought it down.

⁷They have set fire to your Sanctuary. They have polluted the tabernacle of your name on earth.

⁸They have said in their heart, the whole group of them together: “Let us cause all the feast days of God to cease from the land.

⁹We have not seen our proof; there is now no prophet. And he will no longer know us.”

¹⁰How long, O God, will the enemy place blame? Is the adversary to provoke your name until the end?

¹¹Why do you turn your hand away, even your right hand, from the midst of your sinews, until the end?

¹²But God is our king before all ages. He has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.

¹³In your virtue, you confirmed the sea. You crushed the heads of the serpents in the waters.

¹⁴You have broken the heads of the serpent. You have given him as food for the people of the Ethiopians.

¹⁵You have disrupted the fountains and the torrents. You have dried up the rivers of Ethan.

¹⁶Yours is the day, and yours is the night. You have made the morning light and the sun.

¹⁷You have made all the limits of the earth. The summer and the spring were formed by you.

¹⁸Be mindful of this: the enemy placed blame against the Lord, and a foolish people has incited against your name.

¹⁹Do not hand over to beasts the souls that confess to you; and do not forget the souls of your poor until the end.

²⁰Consider your covenant. For those who have been darkened upon the earth have been filled by the iniquity of the houses.

²¹Do not allow the humble to be turned away in confusion. The poor and the needy will praise your name.

²²Rise up, O God, judge your own case. Call to mind the accusations against you, which are made by the foolish all day long.

²³Do not forget the voices of your adversaries. The arrogance of those who hate you rises up continually.

Psalms 73

¹Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.

²But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.

³For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.

⁵They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.

⁶Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.

⁷Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.

⁸They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.

⁹They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.

¹⁰Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.

¹¹And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?

¹²Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.

¹³Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.

¹⁴For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.

¹⁵If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.

¹⁶When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;

¹⁷Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.

¹⁸Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.

¹⁹How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.

²⁰As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

²¹Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.

²²So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.

²³Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.

²⁴Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

²⁵Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.

²⁶My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

²⁷For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.

²⁸But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.