Psalm 73-74

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁴ For they have no pain;
    their bodies are sound and sleek.
⁵ They are not in trouble as others are;
    they are not plagued like other people.^(D)
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
    violence covers them like a garment.^(E)
7 Their eyes swell out with fatness;
    their hearts overflow with follies.^(F)
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
    loftily they threaten oppression.^(G)
9 They set their mouths against heaven,
    and their tongues range over the earth.

¹⁰ Therefore the people turn and praise them^[a]
    and find no fault in them.^[b]
11 And they say, “How can God know?
    Is there knowledge in the Most High?”^(H)
12 Such are the wicked;
    always at ease, they increase in riches.^(I)
13 All in vain I have kept my heart clean
    and washed my hands in innocence.^(J)
14 For all day long I have been plagued
    and am punished every morning.^(K)

¹⁵ If I had said, “I will talk on in this way,”
    I would have been untrue to the circle of your children.
¹⁶ But when I thought how to understand this,
    it seemed to me a wearisome task,^(L)
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
    then I perceived their end.^(M)
18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
    you make them fall to ruin.^(N)
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
    swept away utterly by terrors!^(O)
20 They are^[c] like a dream when one awakes;
    on awaking you despise their phantoms.^(P)

²¹ When my soul was embittered,
    when I was pricked in heart,
²² I was stupid and ignorant;
    I was like a brute beast toward you.^(Q)
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
    you hold my right hand.
²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will receive me with honor.^[d](R)
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.^(S)
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength^[e] of my heart and my portion forever.^(T)

²⁷ Indeed, those who are far from you will perish;
    you put an end to those who are false to you.^(U)
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
    I have made the Lord God my refuge,
    to tell of all your works.^(V)

⁴ Your foes have roared within your holy place;
    they set up their emblems there.^(Z)
5 At the upper entrance they hacked
    the wooden trellis with axes.^[f](AA)
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers,
    they smashed all its carved work.
⁷ They set your sanctuary on fire;
    they desecrated the dwelling place of your name,
    bringing it to the ground.^(AB)
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;
    they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.^(AC)

⁹ We do not see our emblems;
    there is no longer any prophet,
    and there is no one among us who knows how long.^(AD)
10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
    Is the enemy to revile your name forever?^(AE)
11 Why do you hold back your hand;
    why do you keep your hand in^[g] your bosom?^(AF)

¹² Yet God my King is from of old,
    working salvation in the earth.^(AG)
13 You divided the sea by your might;
    you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.^(AH)
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
    you gave him as food^[h] for the creatures of the wilderness.
¹⁵ You cut openings for springs and torrents;
    you dried up ever-flowing streams.^(AI)
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night;
    you established the luminaries^[i] and the sun.^(AJ)
17 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth;
    you made summer and winter.^(AK)

¹⁸ Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,
    and an impious people reviles your name.^(AL)
19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals;
    do not forget the life of your poor forever.^(AM)

²⁰ Have regard for your^[j] covenant,
    for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.^(AN)
21 Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame;
    let the poor and needy praise your name.^(AO)
22 Rise up, O God, plead your cause;
    remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.^(AP)
23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
    the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.^(AQ)