Psalms 73

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 [Psalm Of Asaph] Indeed God is good to Israel, the Lord to those who are pure of heart.	1 The understanding of Asaph. O God, why have you rejected us to the end. Why has your fury become enraged over the sheep of your pasture?
2 My feet were on the point of stumbling, a little more and I had slipped,	2 Be mindful of your congregation, which you have possessed from the beginning. You redeemed the scepter of your inheritance, mount Zion, in which you have dwelt.
3 envying the arrogant as I did, and seeing the prosperity of the wicked.	3 Lift up your hands against their arrogance in the end. How great the malice of the enemy has been in the sanctuary!
4 For them no such thing as pain, untroubled, their comfortable portliness;	4 And those who hate you have been glorified, in the midst of your solemnity. They have set up their own signs as a proof,
5 exempt from the cares which are the human lot, they have no part in Adam's afflictions.	5 as if it had been issued from on high; yet they did not understand. As in a forest of chopped wood,
6 So pride is a necklace to them, violence the garment they wear.	6 they have cut down the entrances themselves. With axe and hatchet, they have brought it down.
7 From their fat oozes out malice, their hearts drip with cunning.	7 They have set fire to your Sanctuary. They have polluted the tabernacle of your name on earth.
8 Cynical y they advocate evil, loftily they advocate force.	8 They have said in their heart, the whole group of them together: “Let us cause all the feast days of God to cease from the land.
9 Their mouth claims heaven for themselves, and their tongue is never stil on earth.	9 We have not seen our proof; there is now no prophet. And he will no longer know us.”
10 That is why my people turn to them, and enjoy the waters of plenty,	10 How long, O God, will the enemy place blame? Is the adversary to provoke your name until the end?
11 saying, 'How can God know? What knowledge can the Most High have?'	11 Why do you turn your hand away, even your right hand, from the midst of your sinews, until the end?
12 That is what the wicked are like, piling up wealth without any worries.	12 But God is our king before all ages. He has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 Was it useless, then, to have kept my own heart clean, to have washed my hands in innocence?	13 In your virtue, you confirmed the sea. You crushed the heads of the serpents in the waters.
14 When I was under a hail of blows al day long, and punished every morning,	14 You have broken the heads of the serpent. You have given him as food for the people of the Ethiopians.
15 had I said, 'I shal talk like them,' I should have betrayed your children's race.	15 You have disrupted the fountains and the torrents. You have dried up the rivers of Ethan.
16 So I set myself to understand this: how difficult I found it!	16 Yours is the day, and yours is the night. You have made the morning light and the sun.
17 Until I went into the sanctuaries of the gods and understood what was destined to become of them.	17 You have made all the limits of the earth. The summer and the spring were formed by you.
18 You place them on a slippery slope and drive them down into chaos.	18 Be mindful of this: the enemy placed blame against the Lord, and a foolish people has incited against your name.
19 How sudden their hideous destruction! They are swept away, annihilated by terror!	19 Do not hand over to beasts the souls that confess to you; and do not forget the souls of your poor until the end.
20 Like a dream upon waking, Lord, when you awake, you dismiss their image.	20 Consider your covenant. For those who have been darkened upon the earth have been filled by the iniquity of the houses.
21 My heart grew embittered, my affections dried up,	21 Do not allow the humble to be turned away in confusion. The poor and the needy will praise your name.
22 I was stupid and uncomprehending, a clumsy animal in your presence.	22 Rise up, O God, judge your own case. Call to mind the accusations against you, which are made by the foolish all day long.
23 Even so, I stayed in your presence, you grasped me by the right hand;	23 Do not forget the voices of your adversaries. The arrogance of those who hate you rises up continually.
24 you will guide me with advice, and wil draw me in the wake of your glory.
25 Who else is there for me in heaven? And, with you, I lack nothing on earth.
26 My heart and my flesh are pining away: my heart's rock, my portion, God for ever!
27 Truly, those who abandon you will perish; you destroy those who adulterously desert you,
28 whereas my happiness is to be near God. I have made the Lord Yahweh my refuge, to tel of al yourworks.