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Psalm 73

¹Truly God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart.

²But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.

³For I was envious of the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴For they have no pain; their bodies are sound and sleek.

⁵They are not in trouble as others are; they are not plagued like other people.

⁶Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them like a garment.

⁷Their eyes swell out with fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.

⁸They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.

⁹They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues range over the earth.

¹⁰Therefore the people turn and praise them, and find no fault in them.

¹¹And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

¹²Such are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.

¹³All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.

¹⁴For all day long I have been plagued, and am punished every morning.

¹⁵If I had said, “I will talk on in this way,” I would have been untrue to the circle of your children.

¹⁶But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,

¹⁷until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.

¹⁸Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.

¹⁹How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!

²⁰They are like a dream when one awakes; on awaking you despise their phantoms.

²¹When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,

²²I was stupid and ignorant; I was like a brute beast toward you.

²³Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.

²⁴You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me with honor.

²⁵Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.

²⁶My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

²⁷Indeed, those who are far from you will perish; you put an end to those who are false to you.

²⁸But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, to tell of all your works.

Psalm 74

¹O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

²Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago, which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.

³Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.

⁴Your foes have roared within your holy place; they set up their emblems there.

⁵At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.

⁶And then, with hatchets and hammers, they smashed all its carved work.

⁷They set your sanctuary on fire; they desecrated the dwelling place of your name, bringing it to the ground.

⁸They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

⁹We do not see our emblems; there is no longer any prophet, and there is no one among us who knows how long.

¹⁰How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?

¹¹Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?

¹²Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the earth.

¹³You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.

¹⁴You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

¹⁵You cut openings for springs and torrents; you dried up ever-flowing streams.

¹⁶Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and the sun.

¹⁷You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and winter.

¹⁸Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs, and an impious people reviles your name.

¹⁹Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals; do not forget the life of your poor forever.

²⁰Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.

²¹Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.

²²Rise up, O God, plead your cause; remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.

²³Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.

Psalm 75

¹We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks; your name is near. People tell of your wondrous deeds.

²At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity.

³When the earth totters, with all its inhabitants, it is I who keep its pillars steady. Selah

⁴I say to the boastful, “Do not boast,” and to the wicked, “Do not lift up your horn;

⁵do not lift up your horn on high, or speak with insolent neck.”

⁶For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up;

⁷but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.

⁸For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed; he will pour a draught from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.

⁹But I will rejoice forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

¹⁰All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.