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[1]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,
[2]As nothing, have my steps slipped, For I have been envious of the boastful,
[3]The peace of the wicked I see, That there are no bands at their death,
[4]And their might [is] firm.
[5]In the misery of mortals they are not, And with common men they are not plagued.
[6]Therefore hath pride encircled them, Violence covereth them as a dress.
[7]Their eye hath come out from fat. The imaginations of the heart transgressed;
[8]They do corruptly, And they speak in the wickedness of oppression, From on high they speak.
[9]They have set in the heavens their mouth, And their tongue walketh in the earth.
[10]Therefore do His people return hither, And waters of fulness are wrung out to them.
[11]And they have said, `How hath God known? And is there knowledge in the Most High?'
[12]Lo, these [are] the wicked and easy ones of the age, They have increased strength.
[13]Only -- a vain thing! I have purified my heart, And I wash in innocency my hands,
[14]And I am plagued all the day, And my reproof [is] every morning.
[15]If I have said, `I recount thus,' Lo, a generation of Thy sons I have deceived.
[16]And I think to know this, Perverseness it [is] in mine eyes,
[17]Till I come in to the sanctuaries of God, I attend to their latter end.
[18]Only, in slippery places Thou dost set them, Thou hast caused them to fall to desolations.
[19]How have they become a desolation as in a moment, They have been ended -- consumed from terrors.
[20]As a dream from awakening, O Lord, In awaking, their image Thou despisest.
[21]For my heart doth show itself violent, And my reins prick themselves,
[22]And I am brutish, and do not know. A beast I have been with Thee.
[23]And I [am] continually with Thee, Thou hast laid hold on my right hand.
[24]With Thy counsel Thou dost lead me, And after honour dost receive me.
[25]Whom have I in the heavens? And with Thee none I have desired in earth.
[26]Consumed hath been my flesh and my heart, The rock of my heart and my portion [is] God to the age.
[27]For, lo, those far from Thee do perish, Thou hast cut off every one, Who is going a whoring from Thee.
[28]And I -- nearness of God to me [is] good, I have placed in the Lord Jehovah my refuge, To recount all Thy works!
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