# Psalm 73 A Psalm of Asaph. 
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1. Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. 
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2. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. 
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3. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 
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4. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. 
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5. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. 
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6. Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. 
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7. Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. 
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8. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. 
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9. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. 
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10. Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. 
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11. And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” 
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12. Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. 
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13. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. 
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14. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. 
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15. If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children. 
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16. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, 
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17. until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. 
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18. Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. 
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19. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! 
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20. Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. 
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21. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, 
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22. I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. 
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23. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. 
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24. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. 
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25. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 
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26. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 
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27. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. 
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28. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. 

(ESV)