Psalm 73

Book Three

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

1. A Psalm of Asaph. 1 Truly God is good to Israel, 1 to those who are pure in heart.

2. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, 2 my steps had nearly slipped.

3. For I was envious of the arrogant 3 when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4. For they have no pangs until death; 4 their bodies are fat and sleek.

5. They are not in trouble as others are; 5 they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.

6. Therefore pride is their necklace; 6 violence covers them as a garment.

7. Their eyes swell out through fatness; 7 their hearts overflow with follies.

8. They scoff and speak with malice; 8 loftily they threaten oppression.

9. They set their mouths against the heavens, 9 and their tongue struts through the earth.

10. Therefore his people turn back to them, 10 and find no fault in them.[a]

11. And they say, “How can God know? 11 Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

12. Behold, these are the wicked; 12 always at ease, they increase in riches.

13. All in vain have I kept my heart clean 13 and washed my hands in innocence.

14. For all the day long I have been stricken 14 and rebuked every morning.

15. If I had said, “I will speak thus,” 15 I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

16. But when I thought how to understand this, 16 it seemed to me a wearisome task,

17. until I went into the sanctuary of God; 17 then I discerned their end.

18. Truly you set them in slippery places; 18 you make them fall to ruin.

19. How they are destroyed in a moment, 19 swept away utterly by terrors!

20. Like a dream when one awakes, 20 O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

21. When my soul was embittered, 21 when I was pricked in heart,

22. I was brutish and ignorant; 22 I was like a beast toward you.

23. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; 23 you hold my right hand.

24. You guide me with your counsel, 24 and afterward you will receive me to glory.

25. Whom have I in heaven but you? 25 And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

26. My flesh and my heart may fail, 26 but God is the strength[b] of my heart and my portion forever.

27. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; 27 you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.

28. But for me it is good to be near God; 28 I have made the Lord God my refuge, 28 that I may tell of all your works.

Footnotes:
a. Psalm 73:10: Probable reading; Hebrew the waters of a full cup are drained by them
b. Psalm 73:26: Hebrew rock