PSALM 73

¹An Asaph psalm.

    Only good to Israel is God,

          to the pure of heart.

    ²As for me, my feet had almost strayed,

          my steps had nearly tumbled.

    ³For I envied the revelers,

          I saw the wicked’s well-being:

    ⁴“For they are free of the fetters of death,

          and their body is healthy.

    ⁵Of the torment of man they have no part,

          and they know not human afflictions.”

    ⁶Thus haughtiness is their necklace,

          outrage, their garment, bedecks them.

    ⁷Fat bulges round their eyes,

          imaginings spill from their heart.

    ⁸They mock and speak with malice,

          from on high they speak out oppression.

    ⁹They put their mouth up to the heavens,

          and their tongue goes over the earth.

    ¹⁰Thus the people turn back to them,

          and they lap up their words.

    ¹¹And they say, “How could God know,

          and is there knowledge with the Most High?”

    ¹²Look, such are the wicked,

          the ever complacent ones pile up wealth.

    ¹³But in vain have I kept my heart pure

          and in innocence washed my palms.

    ¹⁴For I was afflicted all day long,

          and my chastisement, each new morning.

    ¹⁵If I said, Let me talk like them.

          Look, Your sons’ band I would have betrayed.

    ¹⁶When I thought to know these things,

          it was a torment in my eyes.

    ¹⁷Till I came to the sanctuaries of God,

          understood what would be their end.

    ¹⁸Yes, You set them on slippery ground,

          brought them down to destruction.

    ¹⁹How they come to ruin in a moment,

          swept away, taken in terrors!

    ²⁰Like a dream upon waking, O Master,

          upon rising You despised their image.

    ²¹When my heart was embittered,

          and my conscience stabbed with pain,

    ²²I was a dolt and knew nothing,

          like cattle I was with You.

    ²³Yet I was always with You,

          You grasped my right hand.

    ²⁴You guided me with Your counsel,

          and toward glory You took me.

    ²⁵Whom else do I have in the heavens,

          and beside You whom would I want upon earth?

    ²⁶Though my flesh and my heart waste away,

          God is my heart’s rock and my portion forever.

    ²⁷For, look, those far from You perish,

          You demolish all who go whoring from You.

    ²⁸But I—God’s closeness is good to me,

          I make the Master the LORD my shelter,

                to recount all Your works.