Psalm 72
1 A Psalm for Asaph.
How good is God to Israel,
to the upright in heart!
2 But my feet were almost overthrown;
my goings very nearly slipped.
3 For I was jealous of the transgressors,
beholding the tranquillity of sinners.
4 For there is no sign of reluctance in their death:
and they have firmness under their affliction.
5 They are not in the troubles of other men;
and they shall not be scourged with other men.
6 Therefore pride hath possessed them;
they have clothed themselves with their injustice and ungodliness.
7 Their injustice shall go forth as out of fatness:
they have fulfilled their intention.
8 They have taken counsel and spoken in wickedness:
they have uttered unrighteousness loftily.
9 They have set their mouth against heaven,
and their tongue hath gone through upon the earth.
10 Therefore shall my people return hither:
and full days shall be found [1]with them.
11 And they said, How doth God know?
and [2]is there knowledge in the Most High?
12 Behold, these are the sinners, and they that prosper always:
they have possessed wealth.
13 And I said, Verily in vain have I justified my heart,
and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For I was plagued all the day,
and my reproof was every morning.
15 If I said, I will speak thus;
behold, I should have broken covenant with the generation of thy children.
16 And I undertook to understand this,
but it is too hard for me,
17 until I go into the sanctuary of God;
and so understand the latter end.
18 Surely thou hast appointed judgments to them because of their crafty dealings:
thou hast cast them down when they were lifted up.
19 How have they become desolate!
suddenly they have failed: they have perished because of their iniquity.
20 As the dream of one awakening,
O Lord, in thy city thou wilt despise their image.
21 For my heart hath rejoiced,
and my reins have been [3]gladdened.
22 But I was vile and knew not:
I became brutish before thee.
23 Yet I am continually with thee:
thou hast holden my right hand.
24 Thou hast guided me by thy counsel,
and thou hast taken me to thyself with glory.
25 For what have I in heaven but thee?
and what have I desired upon the earth besides thee?
26 My heart and my flesh have failed:
but God is the strength of my heart, and God is my portion for ever.
27 For, behold, they that remove themselves far from thee shall perish:
thou hast destroyed every one that goeth a-whoring from thee.
28 But it is good for me to cleave close to God,
to put my trust in the Lord;
that I may proclaim all thy praises
in the gates of the daughter of Sion.