Psalms 73:9-28

⁹They have set their mouth in the heavens, while their tongue struts about on the earth.

¹⁰Small wonder that people resort to them, and drink deep draughts of their lore.

¹¹“How does God know?” they say, “And has the Most High any knowledge?”

¹²See! These are the godless, with wealth and ease ever increasing.

¹³Yes, in vain have I kept my heart pure, and washed my hands in innocence;

¹⁴for all the day long was I plagued not a morning but I was chastised.

¹⁵But to resolve to speak like they do would be treachery to your children.

¹⁶So I sought to understand it, but a wearisome task it seemed:

¹⁷till I entered the holy world of God and saw clearly their destiny.

¹⁸Yes, you set them on slippery places; down to destruction you hurl them.

¹⁹One moment and then what a horror of ruin! They are finished and ended in terrors.

²⁰Like a dream, when one wakes, shall they be, whose phantoms the waker despises.

²¹So my bitterness of mind and the pain that stabbed my heart

²²show how dull I was and stupid just like a beast before you.

²³But I am always with you, you have hold of my right hand.

²⁴By a plan of yours you guide me and will afterward take me to glory.

²⁵Whom have I in the heavens but you? And on earth there is none I desire beside you.

²⁶Though flesh and heart waste away, yet God is the rock of my heart, yet God is my portion forever.

²⁷For see! Those who are far from you must perish, you destroy all who are false to you.

²⁸But I am happy when close to God; the Lord my God I have made my refuge, that I may recount all the things you have done.