1 Surely God is good to Israel, To those who are pure in heart; 2 But I--within a little of turning aside were my feet, All but slipping were my steps.
3 For I was envious of the foolish, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For they have no bonds [dragging them] to death, And their body is lusty. 5 In the trouble belonging to frail mortals they have no part And [in common] with men they are not smitten. 6 Therefore pride is their necklace; Violence covers them as a robe.
7 Out of fat their eye flashes; The imaginations of their heart overflow. 8 They mock and speak wickedly of oppression, [As] from on high they speak. 9 They set in the heavens their mouth, And their tongue stalks on the earth. 10 Therefore he turns his people thither, And waters of abundance are drunk up by them.
11 And they say, How does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? 12 Behold! these are wicked, And, prosperous for ever, they have increased their wealth. 13 Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart, And in innocency have washed my hands. 14 Yet have I been smitten all the day, And my correction [came] every morning.
15 If I had said, I will speak thus, Behold, I should have been unfaithful to the generation of Thy children. 16 When I gave thought in order to understand this, It was too difficult in my eyes-- 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God, And gave heed to their end. 18 Surely in slippery places Thou dost set them; Thou castest them down to ruins.
19 How are they become a desolation in a moment, Are ended, consumed with terrors! 20 Like a dream on awaking, So Lord, on [Thy] arousing, Thou wilt despise their shadowy form. 21 For my heart was growing bitter, And I was pricked [in] my reins. 22 And I, I was brutish and ignorant, A [very] beast was I before Thee.
23 And yet I, I am continually with Thee; Thou hast grasped [me] by my right hand 24 In Thy counsel Thou wilt guide me, And afterwards to glory wilt "take" me. 25 Whom have I in heaven? And, possessing Thee, I have no delight on earth. 26 [Though] my flesh and my heart fail, The rock of my heart and my portion is God for ever.
27 For, behold, they that are far from Thee shall perish; Thou hast destroyed every one that goes whoring from Thee. 28 But I, I--to draw near to God is good to me; I have made in the Lord Jehovah my refuge, That I may recount all Thy works.
The perennial problem of reconciling God's moral government with observed facts is grappled with in this psalm, as in Psalms xxxvii. and xlix. It tells how the prosperity of the godless, in apparent flat contradiction of Divine promises, had all but swept the psalmist from his faith, and how he was led, through doubt and struggle, to closer communion with God, in which he learned, not only the evanescence of the external well-being which had so perplexed him, but the eternity of the true blessedness belonging to the godly. His solution of the problem is in part that of the two psalms just mentioned, but it surpasses them in its clear recognition that the portion of the righteous, which makes their lot supremely blessed, is no mere earthly prosperity, but God Himself, and in its pointing to "glory" which comes afterwards, as one element in the solution of the problem.
The psalm falls into two divisions, in the first of which (vv. 1-14) the psalmist tells of his doubts, and, in the second (vv. 15-28), of his victory over them. The body of the psalm is divided into groups of four verses, and it has an introduction and conclusion of two verses each.