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,

As nothing, have my steps slipped, For I have been envious of the boastful,

The peace of the wicked I see, That there are no bands at their death,

And their might is firm.

In the misery of mortals they are not, And with common men they are not plagued.

Therefore hath pride encircled them, Violence covereth them as a dress.

Their eye hath come out from fat. The imaginations of the heart transgressed;

They do corruptly, And they speak in the wickedness of oppression, From on high they speak.

They have set in the heavens their mouth, And their tongue walketh in the earth.

Therefore do His people return hither, And waters of fulness are wrung out to them.

And they have said, `How hath God known? And is there knowledge in the Most High?'

Lo, these are the wicked and easy ones of the age, They have increased strength.

Only--a vain thing! I have purified my heart, And I wash in innocency my hands,

And I am plagued all the day, And my reproof is every morning.

If I have said, `I recount thus,' Lo, a generation of Thy sons I have deceived.

And I think to know this, Perverseness it is in mine eyes,

Till I come in to the sanctuaries of God, I attend to their latter end.

Only, in slippery places Thou dost set them, Thou hast caused them to fall to desolations.

How have they become a desolation as in a moment, They have been ended--consumed from terrors.

As a dream from awakening, O Lord, In awaking, their image Thou despisest.

For my heart doth show itself violent, And my reins prick themselves,

And I am brutish, and do not know. A beast I have been with Thee.

And I am continually with Thee, Thou hast laid hold on my right hand.

With Thy counsel Thou dost lead me, And after honour dost receive me.

Whom have I in the heavens? And with Thee none I have desired in earth.

Consumed hath been my flesh and my heart, The rock of my heart and my portion is God to the age.

For, lo, those far from Thee do perish, Thou hast cut off every one, Who is going a whoring from Thee.

And I--nearness of God to me is good, I have placed in the Lord Jehovah my refuge, To recount all Thy works!