Surely God is Good to Israel

1{72:1}A psalm for Asaph. How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart!

2{72:2}But my feet were almost moved; my steps had well nigh slipped.

3{72:3}Because I had a zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the prosperity of sinners.

4{72:4}For there is no regard to their death, nor is there strength in their stripes.

5{72:5}They are not in the labour of men: neither shall they be scourged like other men.

6{72:6}Therefore pride hath held them fast: they are covered with their iniquity and their wickedness.

7{72:7}Their iniquity hath come forth, as it were from fatness: they have passed into the affection of the heart.

8{72:8}They have thought and spoken wickedness: they have spoken iniquity on high.

9{72:9}They have set their mouth against heaven: and their tongue hath passed through the earth.

10{72:10}Therefore will my people return here and full days shall be found in them.

11{72:11}And they said: How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?

12{72:12}Behold these are sinners; and yet, abounding in the world they have obtained riches.

13{72:13}And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent.

14{72:14}And I have been scourged all the day; and my chastisement hath been in the mornings.

15{72:15}If I said: I will speak thus; behold I should condemn the generation of thy children.

16{72:16}I studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my sight:

17{72:17}Until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning their last ends.

18{72:18}But indeed for deceits thou hast put it to them: when they were lifted up thou hast cast them down.

19{72:19}How are they brought to desolation? they have suddenly ceased to be: they have perished by reason of their iniquity.

20{72:20}As the dream of them that awake, O Lord; so in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing.

21{72:21}For my heart hath been inflamed, and my reins have been changed:

22{72:22}And I am brought to nothing, and I knew not.

23{72:23}I am become as a beast before thee: and I am always with thee.

24{72:24}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{72:25}For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth?

26{72:26}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{72:27}For behold they that go far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that are disloyal to thee.

28{72:28}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.