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A Psalm of Asaph.


 * Surely God is good to Israel,
 * Even to such as are pure in heart.
 * But as for me, my feet were almost gone;
 * My steps had well nigh slipped.
 * For I was envious at the arrogant,
 * When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
 * For there are no pangs at their death,
 * And their body is sound.
 * In the trouble of man they are not;
 * Neither are they plagued like men.
 * Therefore pride is as a chain about their neck;
 * Violence covereth them as a garment.
 * Their eyes stand forth from fatness;
 * They are gone beyond the imaginations of their heart.
 * They scoff, and in wickedness utter oppression;
 * They speak as if there were none on high.
 * They have set their mouth against the heavens,
 * And their tongue walketh through the earth.
 * Therefore His people return hither;
 * And waters of fullness are drained out by them.
 * And they say: 'How doth God know?
 * And is there knowledge in the Most High?'
 * Behold, such are the wicked;
 * And they that are always at ease increase riches.
 * Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart,
 * And washed my hands in innocency;
 * For all the day have I been plagued,
 * And my chastisement came every morning.


 * If I had said: 'I will speak thus',
 * Behold, I had been faithless to the generation of Thy children.
 * And when I pondered how I might know this,
 * It was wearisome in mine eyes;
 * Until I entered into the sanctuary of God,
 * And considered their end.
 * Surely Thou settest them in slippery places;
 * Thou hurlest them down to utter ruin.
 * How are they become a desolation in a moment!
 * They are wholly consumed by terrors.
 * As a dream when one awaketh,
 * So, O Lord, when Thou arousest Thyself, Thou wilt despise their semblance.
 * For my heart was in a ferment,
 * And I was pricked in my reins.
 * But I was brutish, and ignorant;
 * I was as a beast before Thee.


 * Nevertheless I am continually with Thee;
 * Thou holdest my right hand.
 * Thou wilt guide me with Thy counsel,
 * And afterward receive me with glory.
 * Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
 * And beside Thee I desire none upon earth.
 * My flesh and my heart faileth;
 * But God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever.
 * For, lo, they that go far from Thee shall perish;
 * Thou dost destroy all them that go astray from Thee.