Psalm 73:3-26

English Standard Version

⁴ For they have no pangs until death;
    their bodies are fat and sleek.
⁵ They are not in trouble as others are;
    they are not ^(D)stricken like the rest of mankind.
⁶ Therefore pride is ^(E)their necklace;
    violence covers them as ^(F)a garment.
⁷ Their ^(G)eyes swell out through fatness;
    their hearts overflow with follies.
⁸ They scoff and ^(H)speak with malice;
    loftily they threaten oppression.
⁹ They set their mouths against the heavens,
    and their tongue struts through the earth.
¹⁰ Therefore his people turn back to them,
    and find ^(I)no fault in them.^[a]
11 And they say, ^(J)“How can God know?
    Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
¹² Behold, these are the wicked;
    always at ease, they ^(K)increase in riches.
¹³ All in vain have I ^(L)kept my heart clean
    and ^(M)washed my hands in innocence.
¹⁴ For all the day long I have been ^(N)stricken
    and ^(O)rebuked ^(P)every morning.
¹⁵ If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
    I would have betrayed ^(Q)the generation of your children.

¹⁶ But when I thought how to understand this,
    it seemed to me ^(R)a wearisome task,
¹⁷ until I went into ^(S)the sanctuary of God;
    then I discerned their ^(T)end.

¹⁸ Truly you set them in ^(U)slippery places;
    you make them fall to ruin.
¹⁹ How they are destroyed ^(V)in a moment,
    swept away utterly by ^(W)terrors!
²⁰ Like ^(X)a dream when one awakes,
    O Lord, when ^(Y)you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
²¹ When my soul was embittered,
    when I was pricked in heart,
²² I was ^(Z)brutish and ignorant;
    I was like ^(AA)a beast toward you.

²³ Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
    you ^(AB)hold my right hand.
²⁴ You ^(AC)guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will ^(AD)receive me to glory.
^25 (AE)Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
^26 (AF)My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is ^(AG)the strength^[b] of my heart and my ^(AH)portion ^(AI)forever.