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,

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

For they have no pangs in their death, and their body is well nourished;

They have not the hardships of mankind, neither are they plagued like other men:

Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.

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

Therefore they have more than enough food to eat, and even suck up the water of the sea.

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

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

Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.

For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.

If I have said, 'I recount thus,' Lo, a generation of Thy sons I have deceived.

You have certainly set them in slippery places; you will make them fall to their ruin.

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

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

But I [am] continually with you; you have hold of my right hand.

Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.

Failed have my flesh and my heart, The rock of my heart - and my portion, is God unto times age-abiding.

For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you.

But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.

Why, O God, have you rejected [us] forever? [Why] does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old,
Which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance;
Remember Mount Zion, where You have dwelt.

Go up and see the unending destruction; all the evil which your haters have done in the holy place;

Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine assembly; They have set up their ensigns for signs.

And now its carved works altogether they have smashed with axe and hammer.

They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.

They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.

Our ensigns we have not seen, There is no more a prophet, Nor with us is one knowing how long.

The day is Yours, the night also is Yours;
You have established and prepared the [heavenly] light and the sun.

You have defined and established all the borders of the earth [the divisions of land and sea and of the nations];
You have made summer and winter.

Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.

Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

To the Overseer. -- 'Destroy not.' -- A Psalm of Asaph. -- A Song. We have given thanks to Thee, O God, We have given thanks, and near is Thy name, They have recounted Thy wonders.

The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I have set up the pillars of it. Selah

I have said to the boastful, 'Be not boastful,' And to the wicked, 'Raise not up a horn.'

Do not be so certain you have won! Do not speak with your head held so high!

As for me, I will continually tell what you have done; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob!

The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands.

From Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, Both rider and horse have been fast asleep.

In the day I [have] trouble, I seek the Lord. At night my hand stretches out {continually}; my soul refuses to be comforted.

Thou hast taken hold of the watches of mine eyes, I have been moved, and I speak not.

I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.

Has His lovingkindness ceased forever?
Have His promises ended for all time?

Has God forgotten to have compassion? Or has he closed off his mercies in anger? Selah

And I have meditated on all Thy working, And I talk concerning Thy doings.

You are the [awesome] God who works [powerful] wonders;
You have demonstrated Your power among the people.

You have with Your [great] arm redeemed Your people,
The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

The waters have seen Thee, O God, The waters have seen Thee, They are afraid -- also depths are troubled.

Poured out waters have thick clouds, The skies have given forth a noise, Also -- Thine arrows go up and down.

The voice of Thy thunder is in the spheres, Lightnings have lightened the world, The earth hath trembled, yea, it shaketh.

In the sea is Thy way, And Thy paths are in many waters, And Thy tracks have not been known.

You have led your people like a flock by the hands of Moses and Aaron. An instruction of Asaph

I will open my mouth in similitudes, and will speak forth things which have been kept secret from the beginning of the world;

Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

So that the generation to come might have knowledge of them, even the children of the future, who would give word of them to their children;

Sons of Ephraim -- armed bearers of bow, Have turned in a day of conflict.

They have not kept the covenant of God, And in His law they have refused to walk,

They have forgotten what he has done, his awesome deeds that they witnessed.

Lo! he hath smitten a rock, And waters, have gushed out, Yea, torrents, have rushed along, - Food also, can he give? Or provide flesh for his people?

For they have not believed in God, Nor have they trusted in His salvation.

They have not been estranged from their desire, Yet is their food in their mouth,

With all this they have sinned again, And have not believed in His wonders.

And their heart hath not been right with Him, And they have not been stedfast in His covenant.

Yea, they turn back, and try God, And the Holy One of Israel have limited.

They have not remembered His hand The day He ransomed them from the adversary.

He let his wrath have its way; he did not keep back their soul from death, but gave their life to disease.

And He leadeth them confidently, And they have not been afraid, And their enemies hath the sea covered.

And they tempt and provoke God Most High, And His testimonies have not kept.

And they turn back, And deal treacherously like their fathers, They have been turned like a deceitful bow,

His young men hath fire consumed, And His virgins have not been praised.

His priests by the sword have fallen, And their widows weep not.

From following the ewes that have their young he brought him, To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

{A Psalm of Asaph.} O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.

Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.

We have been a reproach to our neighbours, A scorn and a derision to our surrounders.

Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.

For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.

Remember not for us the iniquities of forefathers, Haste, let Thy mercies go before us, For we have been very weak.

And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.

Give ear, O Keeper of Israel, guiding Joseph like a flock; you who have your seat on the winged ones, let your glory be seen.

You have fed them the bread of tears,
And You have made them drink [bitter] tears in abundance.

You have made us [an object of] strife to our neighbors, and our enemies mock among themselves.

You have brought a vine out of Egypt: you have cast out the nations, and planted it.

Covered have been hills with its shadow, And its boughs are cedars of God.

Why hast Thou broken down its hedges, And all passing by the way have plucked it?

The wild boar out of the wood hath rooted it up, and the beasts of the field have devoured it.

Turn again [in favor to us], O God of hosts;
Look down from heaven and see, and take care of this vine,

Even the stock which Your right hand has planted,
And [look down on] the son that You have reared and strengthened for Yourself.

It is burned with fire, it is cut down;
They perish at the rebuke of Your [angry] appearance.

Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand,
Upon the son of man whom You have made strong for Yourself.

A testimony on Joseph He hath placed it, In his going forth over the land of Egypt. A lip, I have not known -- I hear.

You must neither have a foreign god over you or worship a strange god.

“But My people would not listen to My voice,
And Israel did not [consent to] obey Me.

I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.

The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.

He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

Defend the poor and fatherless, see that such as be in need and necessity have right.

I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.

For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.