A Psalm of Asaph.

¹ Truly God is good to Israel,
   to those who are pure in heart.
² But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
   my steps had nearly slipped.
³ For I was envious of the arrogant
   when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴ For they have no pangs until death;
   their bodies are fat and sleek.
⁵ They are not in trouble as others are;
   they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace;
   violence covers them as a garment.
⁷ Their eyes swell out through fatness;
   their hearts overflow with follies.
⁸ They scoff and speak with malice;
   loftily they threaten oppression.
⁹ They set their mouths against the heavens,
   and their tongue struts through the earth.
¹⁰ Therefore his people turn back to them,
   and find no fault in them.
¹¹ And they say, “How can God know?
   Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
¹² Behold, these are the wicked;
   always at ease, they increase in riches.
¹³ All in vain have I kept my heart clean
   and washed my hands in innocence.
¹⁴ For all the day long I have been stricken
   and rebuked every morning.
¹⁵ If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
   I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

¹⁶ But when I thought how to understand this,
   it seemed to me a wearisome task,
¹⁷ until I went into the sanctuary of God;
   then I discerned their end.

¹⁸ Truly you set them in slippery places;
   you make them fall to ruin.
¹⁹ How they are destroyed in a moment,
   swept away utterly by terrors!
²⁰ Like a dream when one awakes,
   O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
²¹ When my soul was embittered,
   when I was pricked in heart,
²² I was brutish and ignorant;
   I was like a beast toward you.

²³ Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
   you hold my right hand.
²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,
   and afterward you will receive me to glory.
²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?
   And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,
   but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

²⁷ For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
   you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
²⁸ But for me it is good to be near God;
   I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
   that I may tell of all your works.