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.
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.