1A Psalm of Asaph. Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.2But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.3For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity 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 stricken like the rest of mankind.6Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.7Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.8They scoff and speak 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 no fault in them.*11And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”12Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.13All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.14For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.15If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children.16But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,17until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.18Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.19How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!20Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.21When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,22I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.23Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.24You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.25Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.26My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength* of my heart and my portion forever.27For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.28But 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.
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