Page:KJV 1769 Oxford Edition, vol. 1.djvu/555

The fearful end of the wicked. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most high?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the ‖ rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs.

A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.

But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.

† They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.

They said in their hearts, Let us † destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.

We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.

O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?

Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom.

For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

Thou didst † divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the ‖ dragons in the waters.

Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up † mighty rivers.

The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.

Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast † made summer and winter.

Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.

O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever.

Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name.

Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: