Surely God is Good to Israel

1A 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,

2As nothing, have my steps slipped, For I have been envious of the boastful,

3The peace of the wicked I see, That there are no bands at their death,

4And their might [is] firm.

5In the misery of mortals they are not, And with common men they are not plagued.

6Therefore hath pride encircled them, Violence covereth them as a dress.

7Their eye hath come out from fat. The imaginations of the heart transgressed;

8They do corruptly, And they speak in the wickedness of oppression, From on high they speak.

9They have set in the heavens their mouth, And their tongue walketh in the earth.

10Therefore do His people return hither, And waters of fulness are wrung out to them.

11And they have said, ‘How hath God known? And is there knowledge in the Most High?’

12Lo, these [are] the wicked and easy ones of the age, They have increased strength.

13Only — a vain thing! I have purified my heart, And I wash in innocency my hands,

14And I am plagued all the day, And my reproof [is] every morning.

15If I have said, ‘I recount thus,’ Lo, a generation of Thy sons I have deceived.

16And I think to know this, Perverseness it [is] in mine eyes,

17Till I come in to the sanctuaries of God, I attend to their latter end.

18Only, in slippery places Thou dost set them, Thou hast caused them to fall to desolations.

19How have they become a desolation as in a moment, They have been ended — consumed from terrors.

20As a dream from awakening, O Lord, In awaking, their image Thou despisest.

21For my heart doth show itself violent, And my reins prick themselves,

22And I am brutish, and do not know. A beast I have been with Thee.

23And I [am] continually with Thee, Thou hast laid hold on my right hand.

24With Thy counsel Thou dost lead me, And after honour dost receive me.

25Whom have I in the heavens? And with Thee none I have desired in earth.

26Consumed hath been my flesh and my heart, The rock of my heart and my portion [is] God to the age.

27For, lo, those far from Thee do perish, Thou hast cut off every one, Who is going a whoring from Thee.

28And I — nearness of God to me [is] good, I have placed in the Lord Jehovah my refuge, To recount all Thy works!