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- {A Psalm of Asaph.}
Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are of a pure heart.
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- But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped;
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- For I was envious at the arrogant, seeing the prosperity of the wicked.
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- For they have no pangs in their death, and their body is well nourished;
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- They have not the hardships of mankind, neither are they plagued like [other] men:
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- Therefore pride encompasseth them as a neck-chain, violence covereth them [as] a garment;
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- Their eyes stand out from fatness, they exceed the imaginations of their heart:
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- They mock and speak wickedly of oppression, they speak loftily:
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- They set their mouth in the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
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- Therefore his people turn hither, and waters in fulness are wrung out to them.
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- And they say, How can God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High?
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- Behold, these are the wicked, and they prosper in the world: they heap up riches.
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- Truly have I purified my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency:
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- For all the day have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
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- If I said, I will speak thus, behold, I should be faithless to the generation of thy children.
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- When I thought to be able to know this, it was a grievous task in mine eyes;
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- Until I went into the sanctuaries of God;
[then] understood I their end.
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- Truly thou settest them in slippery places, thou castest them down in ruins.
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- How are they suddenly made desolate!
they pass away, consumed with terrors.
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- As a dream, when one awaketh, wilt thou, Lord, on arising despise their image.
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- When my heart was in a ferment, and I was pricked in my reins,
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- Then I was brutish and knew nothing;
I was [as] a beast with thee.
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- Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden my right hand;
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- Thou wilt guide me by thy counsel, and after the glory, thou wilt receive me.
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- Whom have I in the heavens?
and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee.
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- My flesh and my heart faileth: God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever.
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- For behold, they that are far from thee shall perish;
thou destroyest every one that goeth a whoring from thee.
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- 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.
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