Psalm 73-74

Common English Bible

BOOK III

(Psalms 73–89)

Psalm 73

A psalm of Asaph.

73 Truly God is good to Israel,
    to those who are have a pure heart.
²But me? My feet had almost stumbled;
    my steps had nearly slipped
³    because I envied the arrogant;
    I observed how the wicked are well off:
⁴They suffer no pain;
    their bodies are fit and strong.
⁵They are never in trouble;
    they aren’t weighed down like other people.
⁶That’s why they wear arrogance like a necklace,
    why violence covers them like clothes.
⁷Their eyes bulge out from eating so well;
    their hearts overflow with delusions.
⁸They scoff and talk so cruel;
    from their privileged positions
    they plan oppression.
⁹Their mouths dare to speak against heaven!
    Their tongues roam the earth!
¹⁰That’s why people keep going back to them,
    keep approving what they say.^[a]
¹¹And what they say is this: “How could God possibly know!
    Does the Most High know anything at all!”
¹²Look at these wicked ones,
    always relaxed, piling up the wealth!

¹³Meanwhile, I’ve kept my heart pure for no good reason;
I’ve washed my hands to stay innocent for nothing.
¹⁴I’m weighed down all day long.
    I’m punished every morning.
¹⁵If I said, “I will talk about all this,”
    I would have been unfaithful to your children.
¹⁶But when I tried to understand these things,
    it just seemed like hard work
¹⁷    until I entered God’s sanctuary
        and understood what would happen to the wicked.
¹⁸You will definitely put them on a slippery path;
    you will make them fall into ruin!
¹⁹How quickly they are devastated,
    utterly destroyed by terrors!
²⁰As quickly as a dream departs from someone waking up, my Lord,
    when you are stirred up, you make them disappear.^[b]

²¹When my heart was bitter,
    when I was all cut up inside,
²²I was stupid and ignorant.
    I acted like nothing but an animal toward you.
²³But I was still always with you!
    You held my strong hand!
²⁴You have guided me with your advice;
    later you will receive me with glory.
²⁵Do I have anyone else in heaven?
    There’s nothing on earth I desire except you.
²⁶My body and my heart fail,
    but God is my heart’s rock and my share forever.
²⁷Look! Those far from you die;
    you annihilate all those who are unfaithful to you.
²⁸But me? It’s good for me to be near God.
    I have taken my refuge in you, my Lord God,
        so I can talk all about your works!

Psalm 74

A maskil^[c] of Asaph.

74 God, why have you abandoned us forever?
    Why does your anger smolder
    at the sheep of your own pasture?
²Remember your congregation
    that you took as your own long ago,
    that you redeemed to be the tribe of your own possession—
    remember Mount Zion, where you dwell.
³March to the unending ruins,
    to all that the enemy destroyed in the sanctuary.

⁴Your enemies roared in your own meeting place;
    they set up their own signs there!
⁵It looked like axes raised
    against a thicket of trees.^[d]
⁶And then all its carvings
    they hacked down with hatchet and pick.
⁷They set fire to your sanctuary, burned it to the ground;
    they defiled the dwelling place of your name.
⁸They said in their hearts, We’ll kill all of them together!
    They burned all of God’s meeting places in the land.
⁹We don’t see our own signs anymore.
    No prophet is left.
        And none of us know how long it will last.

¹⁰How long, God, will foes insult you?
Are enemies going to abuse your name forever?
¹¹Why do you pull your hand back?
Why do you hold your strong hand close to your chest?

¹²Yet God has been my king from ancient days—
    God, who makes salvation happen in the heart of the earth!
¹³        You split the sea with your power.
        You shattered the heads of the sea monsters on the water.
¹⁴        You crushed Leviathan’s heads.
        You gave it to the desert dwellers for food!
¹⁵        You split open springs and streams;
        you made strong-flowing rivers dry right up.
¹⁶        The day belongs to you! The night too!
        You established both the moon and the sun.
¹⁷        You set all the boundaries of the earth in place.
        Summer and winter? You made them!

¹⁸So remember this, Lord:
    how enemies have insulted you,
    how unbelieving fools have abused your name.
¹⁹Don’t deliver the life of your dove to wild animals!
    Don’t forget the lives of your afflicted people forever!
²⁰Consider the covenant!
    Because the land’s dark places are full of violence.
²¹Don’t let the oppressed live in shame.
    No, let the poor and needy praise your name!

²²God, rise up! Make your case!
Remember how unbelieving fools insult you all day long.
²³Don’t forget the voices of your enemies,
the racket of your adversaries that never quits.