2.4 KiB
Book ThreeGod Is My Strength and Portion Forever
Chapter 73
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Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
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But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.
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For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
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For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.
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They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
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Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.
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Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
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They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
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They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.
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Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.
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And they say, "How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?"
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Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.
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All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
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For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.
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If I had said, "I will speak thus," I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
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But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
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until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.
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Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.
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How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!
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Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
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When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,
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I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.
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Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.
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You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.
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Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
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My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
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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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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.