Book Three

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

A Psalm of bAsaph.

¹Truly God is good to cIsrael,

to those who are dpure in heart.

²But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,

my steps had nearly slipped.

³eFor I was fenvious of the arrogant

when I saw the gprosperity of the wicked.

⁴For they have no pangs until death;

their bodies are fat and sleek.

⁵They are not in trouble as others are;

they are not hstricken like the rest of mankind.

⁶Therefore pride is itheir necklace;

violence covers them as ja garment.

⁷Their keyes swell out through fatness;

their hearts overflow with follies.

⁸They scoff and lspeak with malice;

loftily they threaten oppression.

⁹They set their mouths against the heavens,

and their tongue struts through the earth.

¹⁰Therefore his people turn back to them,

and find mno fault in them.1

¹¹And they say, n“How can God know?

Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

¹²Behold, these are the wicked;

always at ease, they oincrease in riches.

¹³All in vain have I pkept my heart clean

and qwashed my hands in innocence.

¹⁴For all the day long I have been hstricken

and rrebuked severy morning.

¹⁵If I had said, “I will speak thus,”

I would have betrayed tthe generation of your children.

¹⁶But when I thought how to understand this,

it seemed to me ua wearisome task,

¹⁷until I went into vthe sanctuary of God;

then I discerned their wend.

¹⁸Truly you set them in xslippery places;

you make them fall to ruin.

¹⁹How they are destroyed yin a moment,

swept away utterly by zterrors!

²⁰Like aa dream when one awakes,

O Lord, when byou rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

²¹When my soul was embittered,

when I was pricked in heart,

²²I was cbrutish and ignorant;

I was like da beast toward you.

²³Nevertheless, I am continually with you;

you ehold my right hand.

²⁴You fguide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will greceive me to glory.

²⁵hWhom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

²⁶iMy flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is jthe strength2 of my heart and my kportion lforever.

²⁷For behold, those who are mfar from you shall perish;

you put an end to everyone who is nunfaithful to you.

²⁸But for me it is good to obe near God;

I have made the Lord God my prefuge,

that I may qtell of all your works.