Of Solomon.
[73:1] Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
[73:2] But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.
[73:3] For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
[73:4] For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.
[73:5] They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
[73:6] Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.
[73:7] Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
[73:8] They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
[73:9] They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.
[73:10] Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.
[73:11] And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
[73:12] Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.
[73:13] All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
[73:14] For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.
[73:15] If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
[73:16] But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
[73:17] until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.
[73:18] Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.
[73:19] How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!
[73:20] Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
[73:21] When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,
[73:22] I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.
[73:23] Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.
[73:24] You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.
[73:25] Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
[73:26] My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
[73:27] For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
[73:28] 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.