Yet God is good to Is­ra­el,
To each pure-heart­ed one.
With me, my steps had near­ly slipped,
My feet were al­most gone.

For I was en­vi­ous, and grudged
The fool­ish ones to see,
When I per­ceived the wick­ed men
Enjoyed pros­per­ity.

Because their strength con­tin­ues firm;
Their death from bands is free.
They are not toiled like oth­er men,
Nor plagued, as oth­ers be.

Their pride doth there­fore like a chain,
Encompass them about;
And, as a gar­ment, vio­lence
Doth co­ver them through­out.

Their eyes stand out with fat, they have
More than their hearts could wish.
They are cor­rupt; their talk of wrong
Both lewd and lof­ty is.

They set their mouth against the heav’ns
In their blas­phem­ing talk;
And their re­proach­ing tongue at large
Throughout the earth doth walk.

His people, there­fore, oft­en­times
Look back, and turn about;
And in abun­dance un­to them
The wa­ters are poured out.

And thus they say, How can it be
That God these things doth know?
Or, Can there in the High­est be
Knowledge of things be­low?

Behold, how these, the wick­ed ones,
Do pros­per at their will
In world­ly things; how they in­crease
In wealth and rich­es still!

I ver­ily have sought in vain
My heart to pur­ify;
And vain­ly al­so washed my hands
In in­no­cence have I.

For dai­ly, and all day through­out,
Great plagues I suf­fered have;
Yea, ev­ery morning I anew
Did chas­tise­ment re­ceive.

If in this man­ner fool­ish­ly
To speak I would in­tend,
Thy child­ren’s ge­ne­ra­tion then
Behold I should of­fend.

When I this thought to know, it was
Too hard a thing for me;
Till to God’s ho­ly place I went,
Then I their end did see.

Them set upon a slip­pe­ry place
Assuredly Thou hast;
And sud­denly didst Thou, O Lord,
Them to de­struct­ion cast.

How in a mo­ment sud­den­ly
To ruin brought are they!
With fear­ful ter­rors ut­ter­ly
They are con­sumed away.

E’en like an emp­ty dream when one
From sleep­ing doth arise;
So Thou, when Thou awak­est, Lord,
Their im­age shalt des­pise.

Thus grieved with­in me was my heart,
And me my reins op­pressed:
So rude was I, and ig­norant,
And in Thy sight a beast.

Yet not with­stand­ing this, O Lord,
I ev­er am with Thee:
Thou hast me held by my right hand,
And still up­hold­est me.

With Thy good coun­sel while I live,
Thou wilt me safe­ly guide;
And in­to glo­ry af­ter­ward
Receive me to ab­ide.

O whom have I in hea­vens high
But Thee, O Lord, alone?
And in the earth whom I de­sire
Besides Thee there is none.

My flesh and heart do faint and fail,
But God my heart sus­tains;
The strength and por­tion of my heart
He ev­er­more remains.

For, lo, they that are far from Thee
Forever per­ish shall;
And as for those who from Thee stray
Thou hast de­stroyed them all.

But sure­ly it is good for me
That I draw near to God:
In God I trust, that all Thy works
I may de­clare abroad.