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Book Three

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

A Psalm of Asaph.

 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.^[a]
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^[b] 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.

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 73:10 Probable reading; Hebrew the waters of a full cup are drained by them
2. Psalm 73:26 Hebrew rock

Cross references:

1. Psalm 73:1 : See Ps. 50, title
2. Psalm 73:1 : John 1:47
3. Psalm 73:1 : See Ps. 24:4
4. Psalm 73:3 : See Job 21:7
5. Psalm 73:3 : Ps. 37:1; Prov. 23:17
6. Psalm 73:3 : [Ps. 37:7; 92:7; Jer. 12:1]
7. Psalm 73:5 : [Isa. 53:4]
8. Psalm 73:6 : [Judg. 8:26]
9. Psalm 73:6 : [Ps. 109:18]
10. Psalm 73:7 : See Job 15:27
11. Psalm 73:8 : [2 Pet. 2:18; Jude 16]
12. Psalm 73:10 : [Job 15:16]
13. Psalm 73:11 : See Job 22:13
14. Psalm 73:12 : [ver. 3]
15. Psalm 73:13 : [ver. 1]; See Job 34:9
16. Psalm 73:13 : See Ps. 26:6
17. Psalm 73:14 : [See ver. 5 above]; [Isa. 53:4]
18. Psalm 73:14 : Rev. 3:19
19. Psalm 73:14 : [Ps. 101:8]
20. Psalm 73:15 : [Ps. 14:5]
21. Psalm 73:16 : Eccles. 8:17
22. Psalm 73:17 : Ps. 20:2
23. Psalm 73:17 : Ps. 37:38
24. Psalm 73:18 : Ps. 35:6
25. Psalm 73:19 : [Num. 16:21]
26. Psalm 73:19 : See Job 18:11
27. Psalm 73:20 : See Job 20:8
28. Psalm 73:20 : Ps. 78:65
29. Psalm 73:22 : See Ps. 49:10
30. Psalm 73:22 : Job 18:3; [Job 11:12]
31. Psalm 73:23 : Ps. 63:8; [Ps. 41:12]
32. Psalm 73:24 : Ps. 32:8
33. Psalm 73:24 : See Ps. 49:15
34. Psalm 73:25 : Ps. 16:2; [Phil. 3:8]
35. Psalm 73:26 : Ps. 40:12; See Ps. 84:2
36. Psalm 73:26 : Ps. 18:2
37. Psalm 73:26 : See Ps. 16:5
38. Psalm 73:26 : [Dan. 12:3]
39. Psalm 73:27 : Ps. 119:155
40. Psalm 73:27 : Ps. 106:39; Ex. 34:15; Num. 15:39; James 4:4
41. Psalm 73:28 : James 4:8; [Heb. 10:22]
42. Psalm 73:28 : See Ps. 14:6
43. Psalm 73:28 : See Ps. 118:17