Psalm 73

⁸Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

¹¹For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.

³²Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.

⁸Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.”

¹⁸If I say, “My foot is slipping,” Your loving devotion, O Lord, supports me.

⁹He guards the steps of His faithful ones, but the wicked perish in darkness; for by his own strength shall no man prevail.

⁸For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

¹⁶For I said, “Let them not gloat over me—those who taunt me when my foot slips.”

⁵My steps have held to Your paths; my feet have not slipped.

¹⁵But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the Lord, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”

⁷Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?

¹Righteous are You, O Lord, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?

⁷Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men prosper in their ways, when they carry out wicked schemes.

¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always continue in the fear of the Lord.

¹Of David. Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong.

¹Do not envy wicked men or desire their company;

²³One man dies full of vigor, completely secure and at ease.

²⁴His body is well nourished, and his bones are rich with marrow.

¹⁶For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool!

²²One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried.

¹⁵In my futile life I have seen both of these: A righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.

¹⁴from such men, O Lord, by Your hand—from men of the world whose portion is in this life. May You fill the bellies of Your treasured ones and satisfy their sons, so they leave their abundance to their children.

²⁰The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is broken like a tree.

¹²Behold, these are the wicked—always carefree as they increase their wealth.

⁹Their homes are safe from fear; no rod of punishment from God is upon them.

¹⁹Those I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.

¹Righteous are You, O Lord, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?

²You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their hearts.

⁶When I remember, terror takes hold, and my body trembles in horror.

⁸If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

¹⁸The cursing that he wore like a coat, may it soak into his body like water, and into his bones like oil.

⁵Young men, in the same way, submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

³⁰the king exclaimed, “Is this not Babylon the Great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?”

⁹For they are a garland of grace on your head and a pendant around your neck.

²⁶The weight of the gold earrings he had requested was 1,700 shekels, in addition to the crescent ornaments, the pendants, the purple garments of the kings of Midian, and the chains from the necks of their camels.

³¹Do not envy a violent man or choose any of his ways;

²⁷Though his face is covered with fat and his waistline bulges with flesh,

²⁸They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

¹⁰They have closed their callous hearts; their mouths speak with arrogance.

¹²Behold, these are the wicked—always carefree as they increase their wealth.

³⁶When Abigail returned to Nabal, there he was in the house, holding a feast fit for a king, in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing until morning light.

⁹The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves.

¹⁶These men are discontented grumblers, following after their own lusts; their mouths spew arrogance; they flatter others for their own advantage.

¹⁰They have closed their callous hearts; their mouths speak with arrogance.

²In pride the wicked pursue the needy; let them be caught in the schemes they devise.

¹⁸With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.

¹³There is a generation—how haughty are their eyes and pretentious are their glances—

¹⁴there is a generation whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are knives, devouring the oppressed from the earth and the needy from among men.

¹For the choirmaster. According to Mahalath. A Maskil of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their ways are vile. There is no one who does good.

²God looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if any understand, if any seek God.

⁶And the beast opened its mouth to speak blasphemies against God and to slander His name and His tabernacle—those who dwell in heaven.

⁶The tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

²But Pharaoh replied, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”

²⁵He will speak out against the Most High and oppress the saints of the Most High, intending to change the appointed times and laws; and the saints will be given into his hand for a time, and times, and half a time.

¹⁵So now, do not let Hezekiah deceive you, and do not let him mislead you like this. Do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my hand!”

¹⁵Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the statue I have made, very good. But if you refuse to worship, you will be thrown at once into the blazing fiery furnace. Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?”

⁸For a cup is in the hand of the Lord, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours from His cup, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to the dregs.

²But they fail to consider in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.

¹²And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men settled in complacency, who say to themselves, ‘The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.’

⁷They say, “The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob pays no heed.”

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O Lord, You have searched me and known me.

²You know when I sit and when I rise; You understand my thoughts from afar.

²¹would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?

¹²“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’”

⁷“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”

⁷A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands.

⁸And Ephraim boasts: “How rich I have become! I have found wealth for myself. In all my labors, they can find in me no iniquity that is sinful.”

²⁸They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

¹Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.

²Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes.

¹⁴from such men, O Lord, by Your hand—from men of the world whose portion is in this life. May You fill the bellies of Your treasured ones and satisfy their sons, so they leave their abundance to their children.

³⁵I have seen a wicked, ruthless man flourishing like a well-rooted native tree,

⁶I wash my hands in innocence that I may go about Your altar, O Lord,

¹⁵Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’

⁹For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.’

⁸Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

¹⁴You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the Lord of Hosts?

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

⁵And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.

¹²Blessed is the man You discipline, O Lord, and teach from Your law,

²“Only you have I known from all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

¹⁸Why is my pain unending, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become like a mirage to me—water that is not there.

³So I am allotted months of futility, and nights of misery are appointed to me.

⁴When I lie down I think: ‘When will I get up?’ But the night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.

¹⁹Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all.

⁶But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

⁷Woe to the world for the causes of sin. These stumbling blocks must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!

²¹It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything to cause your brother to stumble.

⁶Such is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face, O God of Jacob. Selah

¹⁵If your brother is distressed by what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother, for whom Christ died.

⁸But you have departed from the way, and your instruction has caused many to stumble. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of Hosts.

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

¹⁷I saw every work of God, and that a man is unable to comprehend the work that is done under the sun. Despite his efforts to search it out, he cannot find its meaning; even if the wise man claims to know, he is unable to comprehend.

¹⁸They kept asking, “Why is He saying, ‘a little while’? We do not understand what He is saying.”

¹⁹Aware that they wanted to question Him, Jesus said to them, “Are you asking one another why I said, ‘In a little while you will not see Me, and then after a little while you will see Me’?

²Surely I am the most ignorant of men, and I lack the understanding of a man.

³I have not learned wisdom, and I have no knowledge of the Holy One.

³³O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

²Clouds and darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are His throne’s foundation.

³²He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon.

³³They will flog Him and kill Him, and on the third day He will rise again.”

¹³Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God?

²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

¹²Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives long, yet I also know that it will go well with those who fear God, who are reverent in His presence.

¹³Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.

⁴One thing I have asked of the Lord; this is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and seek Him in His temple.

²So I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and glory.

³⁷Consider the blameless and observe the upright, for posterity awaits the man of peace.

³⁸But the transgressors will all be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off.

¹²“Therefore their path will become slick; they will be driven away into the darkness and fall into it. For I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment,” declares the Lord.

⁶May their path be dark and slick, as the angel of the Lord pursues.

³⁵Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”

²³But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.

⁹They will suffer the penalty of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His might,

²³He will bring upon them their own iniquity and destroy them for their wickedness. The Lord our God will destroy them.

¹¹But disaster will come upon you; you will not know how to charm it away. A calamity will befall you that you will be unable to ward off. Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly.

¹The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

⁶his face grew pale and his thoughts so alarmed him that his hips gave way and his knees knocked together.

¹⁰In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

⁵the triumph of the wicked has been brief and the joy of the godless momentary?

¹³this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!

⁸He will fly away like a dream, never to be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty warrior overcome by wine.

⁵You sweep them away in their sleep; they are like the new grass of the morning—

⁶Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.

⁷All the many nations going out to battle against Ariel—even all who war against her, laying siege and attacking her—will be like a dream, like a vision in the night,

⁸as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, then awakens still hungry; as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, then awakens faint and parched. So will it be for all the many nations who go to battle against Mount Zion.

⁶Arise, O Lord, in Your anger; rise up against the fury of my enemies. Awake, my God, and ordain judgment.

³For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁷Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men prosper in their ways, when they carry out wicked schemes.

¹³He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.

¹³His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.

¹Of David. Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong.

¹⁸I said to myself, “As for the sons of men, God tests them so that they may see for themselves that they are but beasts.”

⁶A senseless man does not know, and a fool does not understand,

³The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”

¹⁰For it is clear that wise men die, and the foolish and the senseless both perish and leave their wealth to others.

⁹Do not be like the horse or mule, which have no understanding; they must be controlled with bit and bridle to make them come to you.

²Surely I am the most ignorant of men, and I lack the understanding of a man.

¹³For I am the Lord your God, who takes hold of your right hand and tells you: Do not fear, I will help you.

⁸My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.

²⁰and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

⁸I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

⁵Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”

⁴Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

⁸I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will give you counsel and watch over you.

¹¹The Lord will always guide you; He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land and strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;

⁶in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

¹⁷Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go.

¹⁴For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even till death.

⁹He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.

⁸More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ

²I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.”

³Because Your loving devotion is better than life, my lips will glorify You.

⁵The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure.

⁸Yes, we wait for You, O Lord; we walk in the path of Your judgments. Your name and renown are the desire of our souls.

⁹My soul longs for You in the night; indeed, my spirit seeks You at dawn. For when Your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.

⁴Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

⁹But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.

¹⁰That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

²⁹He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak.

³⁰Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.

³On the day I called, You answered me; You emboldened me and strengthened my soul.

²The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

⁸We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;

⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

¹⁶Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day.

¹⁷For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.

⁴You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.

¹⁵⁵Salvation is far from the wicked because they do not seek Your statutes.

¹⁵Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.

³⁹These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the commandments of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes.

³⁹They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.

¹Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters.

²The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.”

⁸Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁵Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us—none can compare to You—if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count.

¹⁹Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,

²⁰by the new and living way opened for us through the curtain of His body,

²⁵The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

²⁶It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

⁴Blessed is the one You choose and bring near to dwell in Your courts! We are filled with the goodness of Your house, the holiness of Your temple.

¹⁸For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,