Psalms - Chapter 73 - A Conservative Version
- Surely God is good to Israel, 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 of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
- For there are no pangs in their death, but their strength is firm.
- They are not in trouble as [other] men, nor are they plagued like [other] men.
- Therefore pride is as a chain around their neck. Violence covers them as a garment.
- Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could wish.
- They scoff, and in wickedness utter oppression. They speak loftily.
- They have set their mouth in the heavens, and their tongue walks through the earth.
- Therefore his people return here, and waters of a full [cup] are drained by them.
- And they say, How does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?
- Behold, these are the wicked, and those who always prosper. They have possessed wealth.
- Surely in vain I have cleansed my heart, and washed my hands in innocence,
- for all the day long I have been plagued, and chastened every morning.
- If I had said, I will speak thus, behold, I would have dealt treacherously with the generation of thy sons.
- When I thought how I might understand this, it was too painful for me,
- until I went into the sanctuary of God, and considered their latter end.
- Surely thou set them in slippery places. Thou cast them down to destruction.
- How they have become a desolation in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors.
- As a dream from awakening, O LORD, when thou waken, thou will despise their form.
- For my soul was grieved, and I was pricked in my heart.
- So I was brutish, and ignorant. I was a beast before thee.
- Nevertheless I am continually with thee. Thou have held my right hand.
- Thou will guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
- Whom have I in heaven? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.
- My flesh and my heart fails, [but] God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
- For, lo, those who are far from thee shall perish. Thou have destroyed all those who go a whoring from thee.
- But it is good for me to draw near to God. I have made lord LORD my refuge, that I may tell of all thy works.