1: A Psalm of Asaph. Only -- good to Israel [is] God, to the clean of heart. And I -- as a little thing, My feet have been turned aside, 2: As nothing, have my steps slipped, For I have been envious of the boastful, 3: The peace of the wicked I see, That there are no bands at their death, 4: And their might [is] firm. 5: In the misery of mortals they are not, And with common men they are not plagued. 6: Therefore hath pride encircled them, Violence covereth them as a dress. 7: Their eye hath come out from fat. The imaginations of the heart transgressed; 8: They do corruptly, And they speak in the wickedness of oppression, From on high they speak. 9: They have set in the heavens their mouth, And their tongue walketh in the earth. 10: Therefore do His people return hither, And waters of fulness are wrung out to them. 11: And they have said, 'How hath God known? And is there knowledge in the Most High?' 12: Lo, these [are] the wicked and easy ones of the age, They have increased strength. 13: Only -- a vain thing! I have purified my heart, And I wash in innocency my hands, 14: And I am plagued all the day, And my reproof [is] every morning. 15: If I have said, 'I recount thus,' Lo, a generation of Thy sons I have deceived. 16: And I think to know this, Perverseness it [is] in mine eyes, 17: Till I come in to the sanctuaries of God, I attend to their latter end. 18: Only, in slippery places Thou dost set them, Thou hast caused them to fall to desolations. 19: How have they become a desolation as in a moment, They have been ended -- consumed from terrors. 20: As a dream from awakening, O Lord, In awaking, their image Thou despisest. 21: For my heart doth show itself violent, And my reins prick themselves, 22: And I am brutish, and do not know. A beast I have been with Thee. 23: And I [am] continually with Thee, Thou hast laid hold on my right hand. 24: With Thy counsel Thou dost lead me, And after honour dost receive me. 25: Whom have I in the heavens? And with Thee none I have desired in earth. 26: Consumed hath been my flesh and my heart, The rock of my heart and my portion [is] God to the age. 27: For, lo, those far from Thee do perish, Thou hast cut off every one, Who is going a whoring from Thee. 28: And I -- nearness of God to me [is] good, I have placed in the Lord Jehovah my refuge, To recount all Thy works!
