Psalms 72:1-20

¹(73) A Psalm for Asaph. How good is God to Israel, to the upright in heart!

²But my feet were almost overthrown; my goings very nearly slipped.

³For I was jealous of the transgressors, beholding the tranquility of sinners.

⁴For there is no sign of reluctance in their death: and they have firmness under their affliction.

⁵They are not in the troubles of other men; and they shall not be scourged with other men.

⁶Therefore pride has possessed them; they have clothed themselves with their injustice and ungodliness.

⁷Their injustice shall go forth as out of fatness: they have fulfilled their intention.

⁸They have taken counsel and spoken in wickedness: they have uttered unrighteousness loftily.

⁹They have set their mouth against heaven, and their tongue has gone through upon the earth.

¹⁰Therefore shall my people return hither: and full days shall be found with them.

¹¹And they said, How does God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High?

¹²Behold, these are the sinners, and they that prosper always: they have possessed wealth.

¹³And I said, Verily in vain have I justified my heart, and washed my hands in innocency.

¹⁴For I was plagued all the day, and my reproof was every morning.

¹⁵If I said, I will speak thus; behold, I should have broken covenant with the generation of your children.

¹⁶And I undertook to understand this, but it is too hard for me,

¹⁷until I go into the sanctuary of God; and so understand the latter end.

¹⁸Surely you have appointed judgments to them because of their crafty dealings: you have cast them down when they were lifted up.

¹⁹How have they become desolate! suddenly they have failed: they have perished because of their iniquity.

²⁰As the dream of one awakening, O Lord, in your city you will despise their image.