[1]A psalm for Asaph. How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart![2]But my feet were almost moved; my steps had well nigh slipped.[3]Because I had a zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the prosperity of sinners.[4]For there is no regard to their death, nor is there strength in their stripes.[5]They are not in the labour of men: neither shall they be scourged like other men.[6]Therefore pride hath held them fast: they are covered with their iniquity and their wickedness.[7]Their iniquity hath come forth, as it were from fatness: they have passed into the affection of the heart.[8]They have thought and spoken wickedness: they have spoken iniquity on high.[9]They have set their mouth against heaven: and their tongue hath passed through the earth.[10]Therefore will my people return here and full days shall be found in them.[11]And they said: How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?[12]Behold these are sinners; and yet abounding in the world they have obtained riches.[13]And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent.[14]And I have been scourged all the day; and my chastisement hath been in the mornings.[15]If I said: I will speak thus; behold I should condemn the generation of thy children.[16]I studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my sight:[17]Until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning their last ends.[18]But indeed for deceits thou hast put it to them: when they were lifted up thou hast cast them down.[19]How are they brought to desolation? they have suddenly ceased to be: they have perished by reason of their iniquity.[20]As the dream of them that awake, O Lord; so in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing.[21]For my heart hath been inflamed, and my reins have been changed:[22]and I am brought to nothing, and I knew not.[23]I am become as a beast before thee: and I am always with thee.[24]Thou hast held me by my right hand; and by thy will thou hast conducted me, and with thy glory thou hast received me.[25]For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth?[26]For thee my flesh and my heart hath fainted away: thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever.[27]For behold they that go far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that are disloyal to thee.[28]But it is good for me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the Lord God: That I may declare all thy praises, in the gates of the daughter of Sion.