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!