731 Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are of a pure heart. 2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped; 3 For I was envious at the arrogant, seeing the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For they have no pangs in their death, and their body is well nourished; 5 They have not the hardships of mankind, neither are they plagued like [other] men: 6 Therefore pride encompasseth them as a neck-chain, violence covereth them [as] a garment; 7 Their eyes stand out from fatness, they exceed the imaginations of their heart: 8 They mock and speak wickedly of oppression, they speak loftily: 9 They set their mouth in the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. 10 Therefore his people turn hither, and waters in fulness are wrung out to them. 11 And they say, How can God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High? 12 Behold, these are the wicked, and they prosper in the world: they heap up riches. 13 Truly have I purified my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency: 14 For all the day have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
15 If I said, I will speak thus, behold, I should be faithless to the generation of thy children. 16 When I thought to be able to know this, it was a grievous task in mine eyes; 17 Until I went into the sanctuaries of God; [then] understood I their end. 18 Truly thou settest them in slippery places, thou castest them down in ruins. 19 How are they suddenly made desolate! they pass away, consumed with terrors. 20 As a dream, when one awaketh, wilt thou, Lord, on arising despise their image.
21 When my heart was in a ferment, and I was pricked in my reins, 22 Then I was brutish and knew nothing; I was [as] a beast with thee. 23 Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden my right hand; 24 Thou wilt guide me by thy counsel, and after the glory, thou wilt receive me. 25 Whom have I in the heavens? and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee. 26 My flesh and my heart faileth: God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever. 27 For behold, they that are far from thee shall perish; thou destroyest every one that goeth a whoring from thee. 28 But as for me, it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord Jehovah, that I may declare all thy works.
771 To the chief Musician. On Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A Psalm. My voice is unto God, and I will cry; my voice is unto God, and he will give ear unto me. 2 In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord: my hand was stretched out in the night, and slacked not; my soul refused to be comforted. 3 I remembered God, and I moaned; I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. 4 Thou holdest open mine eyelids; I am full of disquiet and cannot speak. 5 I consider the days of old, the years of ancient times. 6 I remember my song in the night; I muse in mine own heart, and my spirit maketh diligent search. 7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? 8 Hath his loving-kindness ceased for ever? hath [his] word come to an end from generation to generation? 9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious? or hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. 10 Then said I, This is my weakness:—the years of the right hand of the Most High
11 Will I remember,—the works of Jah; for I will remember thy wonders of old, 12 And I will meditate upon all thy work, and muse upon thy doings. 13 O God, thy way is in the sanctuary: who is so great a ·god as God? 14 Thou art the God that doest wonders; thou hast declared thy strength among the peoples. 15 Thou hast with [thine] arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. 16 The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they trembled, yea, the depths were troubled: 17 The thick clouds poured out water; the skies sent out a sound, yea, thine arrows went abroad: 18 The voice of thy thunder was in the whirlwind, lightnings lit up the world; the earth was troubled and it quaked. 19 Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths are in the great waters; and thy footsteps are not known. 20 Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
781 Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter riddles from of old, 3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us: 4 We will not hide [them] from their sons, shewing forth to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, and his strength, and his marvellous works which he hath done. 5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; 6 That the generation to come might know [them], the children that should be born; that they might rise up and tell [them] to their children, 7 And that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but observe his commandments; 8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that prepared not their heart, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
9 The sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle. 10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; 11 And forgot his doings, and his marvellous works which he had shewn them. 12 In the sight of their fathers had he done wonders, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan. 13 He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and made the waters to stand as a heap; 14 And he led them with a cloud in the daytime, and all the night with the light of fire. 15 He clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave [them] drink as out of the depths, abundantly; 16 And he brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. 17 Yet they still went on sinning against him, provoking the Most High in the desert; 18 And they tempted God in their heart, by asking meat for their lust; 19 And they spoke against God: they said, Is God able to prepare a table in the wilderness? 20 Behold, he smote the rock, and waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; is he able to give bread also, or provide flesh for his people? 21 Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; and fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel: 22 Because they believed not in God, and confided not in his salvation; 23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of the heavens, 24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the corn of the heavens. 25 Man did eat the bread of the mighty; he sent them provision to the full. 26 He caused the east wind to rise in the heavens, and by his strength he brought the south wind; 27 And he rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the seas, 28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations: 29 And they did eat, and were well filled; for that they lusted after, he brought to them. 30 They were not alienated from their lust, their meat was yet in their mouths, 31 When the anger of God went up against them; and he slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. 32 For all this, they sinned still, and believed not in his marvellous works; 33 And he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror. 34 When he slew them, then they sought him, and returned and sought early after God; 35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and God, the Most High, their redeemer. 36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue; 37 For their heart was not firm toward him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. 38 But he was merciful: he forgave the iniquity, and destroyed [them] not; but many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his fury: 39 And he remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and cometh not again.
40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! 41 And they turned again and tempted God, and grieved the Holy One of Israel. 42 They remembered not his hand, the day when he delivered them from the oppressor, 43 How he set his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the field of Zoan; 44 And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink; 45 He sent dog-flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them; 46 And he gave their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust; 47 He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with hail-stones; 48 And he delivered up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts. 49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and distress,—a mission of angels of woes. 50 He made a way for his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; 51 And he smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the first-fruits of their vigour in the tents of Ham. 52 And he made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock; 53 And he led them safely, so that they were without fear; and the sea covered their enemies. 54 And he brought them to his holy border, this mountain, which his right hand purchased; 55 And he drove out the nations before them, and allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. 56 But they tempted and provoked God, the Most High, and kept not his testimonies, 57 And they drew back and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they turned like a deceitful bow. 58 And they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. 59 God heard, and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: 60 And he forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among men, 61 And gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor; 62 And delivered up his people unto the sword, and was very wroth with his inheritance: 63 The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not praised in [nuptial] song; 64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation. 65 Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth aloud by reason of wine; 66 And he smote his adversaries in the hinder part, and put them to everlasting reproach. 67 And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, 68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved; 69 And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath founded for ever. 70 And he chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: 71 From following the suckling-ewes, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. 72 And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands.
