BOOK THREE
(Psalms 73 – 89)
A melody of Aʹsaph.+
73 God is indeed good to Israel, to those clean in heart.+
2 As for me, my feet had almost turned aside,+
My steps had nearly been made to slip.+
3 For I became envious of the boasters,+
[When] I would see the very peace of wicked people.+
4 For they have no deathly pangs;+
And their paunch is fat.+
5 They are not even in the trouble of mortal man,+
And they are not plagued the same as other men.+
6 Therefore haughtiness has served as a necklace to them;+
Violence envelops them as a garment.+
7 Their eye has bulged from fatness;+
They have exceeded the imaginations of the heart.+
8 They scoff and speak about what is bad;+
About defrauding they speak in an elevated style.+
9 They have put their mouth in the very heavens,+
And their tongue itself walks about in the earth.+
10 Therefore he brings his people back hither,
And the waters of what is full are drained out for them.
11 And they have said: “How has God come to know?+
And does there exist knowledge in the Most High?”+
12 Look! These are the wicked, who are at ease indefinitely.+
They have increased [their] means of maintenance.+
13 Surely it is in vain that I have cleansed my heart+
And that I wash my hands in innocence itself.+
14 And I came to be plagued all day long,+
And my correction is every morning.+
15 If I had said: “I will tell a story like that,”
Look! against the generation of your sons
I should have acted treacherously.+
16 And I kept considering so as to know this;+
It was a trouble in my eyes,
17 Until I proceeded to come into the grand sanctuary of God.+
I wanted to discern their future.+
18 Surely on slippery ground is where you place them.+
You have made them fall to ruins.+
19 O how they have become an object of astonishment as in a moment!+
[How] they have reached their end, have been brought to their finish through sudden terrors!
20 Like a dream after awaking, O Jehovah,+
[So] when arousing [yourself] you will despise their very image.+
21 For my heart was soured+
And in my kidneys I was sharply pained,+
22 And I was unreasoning and I could not know;+
I became as mere beasts from your standpoint.+
23 But I am constantly with you;+
You have taken hold of my right hand.+
24 With your counsel you will lead me,+
And afterward you will take me even to glory.+
25 Whom do I have in the heavens?+
And besides you I do have no other delight on the earth.+
26 My organism and my heart have failed.+
God is the rock of my heart and my share to time indefinite.+
27 For, look! the very ones keeping away from you will perish.+
You will certainly silence every one immorally leaving you.+
28 But as for me, the drawing near to God is good for me.+
In the Sovereign Lord Jehovah I have placed my refuge,+
To declare all your works.+