Reading for July  Psalms 73:1 — Isaiah 10:34  

July 1
Psalms 73:1 — 77:20

BOOK THREE

(Psalms 73 – 89)

A melody of Asaph.

73 God is indeed good to Israel, to those clean in heart.

 2 As for me, my feet had almost turned aside,

      My steps had nearly been made to slip.

 3 For I became envious of the boasters,

      [When] I would see the very peace of wicked people.

 4 For they have no deathly pangs;

      And their paunch is fat.

 5 They are not even in the trouble of mortal man,

       And they are not plagued the same as other men.

 6 Therefore haughtiness has served as a necklace to them;

       Violence envelops them as a garment.

 7 Their eye has bulged from fatness;

       They have exceeded the imaginations of the heart.

 8 They scoff and speak about what is bad;

       About defrauding they speak in an elevated style.

 9 They have put their mouth in the very heavens,

       And their tongue itself walks about in the earth.

10 Therefore he brings his people back hither,

       And the waters of what is full are drained out for them.

11 And they have said: “How has God come to know?

       And does there exist knowledge in the Most High?”

12 Look! These are the wicked, who are at ease indefinitely.

       They have increased [their] means of maintenance.

13 Surely it is in vain that I have cleansed my heart

        And that I wash my hands in innocence itself.

14 And I came to be plagued all day long,

        And my correction is every morning.

15 If I had said: “I will tell a story like that,”

        Look! against the generation of your sons

        I should have acted treacherously.

16 And I kept considering so as to know this;
 It was a trouble in my eyes,

17 Until I proceeded to come into the grand sanctuary of God.

       I wanted to discern their future.

18 Surely on slippery ground is where you place them.

       You have made them fall to ruins.

19 O how they have become an object of astonishment as in a moment!

       [How] they have reached their end, have been brought to their finish through sudden terrors!

20 Like a dream after awaking, O Jehovah,

       [So] when arousing [yourself] you will despise their very image.

21 For my heart was soured
 And in my kidneys I was sharply pained,

22 And I was unreasoning and I could not know;

       I became as mere beasts from your standpoint.

23 But I am constantly with you;

       You have taken hold of my right hand.

24 With your counsel you will lead me,

       And afterward you will take me even to glory.

25 Whom do I have in the heavens?

       And besides you I do have no other delight on the earth.

26 My organism and my heart have failed.

       God is the rock of my heart and my share to time indefinite.

27 For, look! the very ones keeping away from you will perish.

       You will certainly silence every one immorally leaving you.

28 But as for me, the drawing near to God is good for me.

       In the Sovereign Lord Jehovah I have placed my refuge,

       To declare all your works.

 

A maskil. Of Asaph.

74 Why, O God, have you cast off forever?

      Why does your anger keep smoking against the flock of your pasturage?

 2 Remember your assembly that you acquired long ago,

      The tribe that you redeemed as your inheritance,

      This Mount Zion in which you have resided.

 3 Do lift up your steps to the long-lasting desolations.

      Everything the enemy has treated badly in the holy place.

 4 Those showing hostility to you have roared in the middle of your meeting place.

      They have set their own signs as [the] signs.

 5 One is notorious in being like him that brings up axes on high against a thicket of trees.

 6 And now the very engravings of it, one and all, they strike even with hatchet and iron-tipped beams.

 7 They have thrust your sanctuary into the fire itself.

      They have profaned the tabernacle of your name to the very earth.

 8 They, even their offspring, have said together in their own heart:

       “All the meeting places of God must be burned in the land.”

 9 Our signs we have not seen; there is no prophet anymore,

      And there is no one with us knowing how long.

10 How long, O God, will the adversary keep reproaching?

       Will the enemy keep treating your name with disrespect forever?

11 Why do you keep your hand, even your right hand, withdrawn

       From the midst of your bosom to make an end [of us]?

12 And yet God is my King from long ago,

       The One performing grand salvation in the midst of the earth.

13 You yourself stirred up the sea with your own strength;

       You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.

14 You yourself crushed to pieces the heads of Leviathan.

       You proceeded to give it as food to the people, to those inhabiting the waterless regions.

15 You were the One that split the spring and the torrent;

       You yourself dried up ever-flowing rivers.

16 To you the day belongs; also, to you the night belongs.

       You yourself prepared the luminary, even the sun.

17 It was you that set up all the boundaries of the earth;

       Summer and winter—you yourself formed them.

18 Remember this: The enemy himself has reproached, O Jehovah,

       And a senseless people have treated your name with disrespect.

19 Do not give to the wild beast the soul of your turtledove.

       Do not forget the very life of your afflicted ones forever.

20 Take a look at the covenant,

       For the dark places of the earth have become full of the abodes of violence.

21 O may the crushed one not return humiliated.

       May the afflicted one and the poor one praise your name.

22 Do arise, O God, do conduct your own case at law.

       Remember your reproach from the senseless one all day long.

23 Do not forget the voice of those showing hostility to you.

      The noise of those rising up against you is ascending constantly.

To the director. “Do not bring to ruin.” A melody. Of Asaph. A song.

75 We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks to you,

      And your name is near.

      Men have to declare your wondrous works.

 2 “For I proceeded to take a set time;

      I myself began judging with uprightness.

 3 The earth and all its inhabitants being dissolved,

      It was I that adjusted its pillars.” Selah.

 4 I said to the foolish ones: “Do not be foolish,”

      And to the wicked ones: “Do not exalt the horn.

 5 Do not exalt YOUR horn on high.

      Do not speak with an arrogant neck.

 6 For neither from the east nor from the west,

      Nor from the south is there an exalting.

 7 For God is the judge.

      This one he abases, and that one he exalts.

 8 For there is a cup in the hand of Jehovah,

      And the wine is foaming, it is full of mixture.

      And he will surely pour out its dregs from it;

      All the wicked ones of the earth will drain [them] out, drink [them].”

 9 But as for me, I shall tell [of it] to time indefinite;

      I will make melody to the God of Jacob.

10 And all the horns of the wicked ones I shall cut down.

       The horns of the righteous one will be exalted.

 

To the director on stringed instruments. A melody. Of Asaph. A song.

76 God is known in Judah;

      In Israel his name is great.

 2 And his covert proves to be in Salem itself,

      And his dwelling place in Zion.

 3 There he broke the flaming shafts of the bow,

      The shield and the sword and the battle. Selah.

 4 You are enveloped with light, more majestic than the mountains of prey.

 5 The ones powerful in heart have been despoiled,

      They have drowsed away to their sleep,

      And none of all the valiant men have found their hands.

 6 From your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the charioteer and the horse have fallen fast asleep.

 7 You—fear-inspiring you are,

      And who can stand before you because of the strength of your anger?

 8 From heaven you caused the legal contest to be heard;

      The earth itself feared and kept quiet

 9 When God rose up to judgment,

      To save all the meek of the earth. Selah.

10 For the very rage of man will laud you;

       The remainder of raging you will gird upon yourself.

11 Vow and pay to Jehovah YOUR God, all YOU who are round about him.

       Let them bring a gift in fear.

12 He will humble the spirit of leaders;

       Fear-inspiring he is to the kings of the earth.

 

To the director on Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A melody.

77 With my voice I will even cry out to God himself,

      With my voice to God, and he will certainly give ear to me.

 2 In the day of my distress I have searched for Jehovah himself.

      At night my very hand has been stretched out and does not grow numb;

      My soul has refused to be comforted.

 3 I will remember God and be boisterous;

      I will show concern, that my spirit may faint away. Selah.

 4 You have seized hold of my eyelids;

      I have become agitated, and I cannot speak.

 5 I have thought upon the days of long ago,

      On the years in the indefinite past.

 6 I will remember my string music in the night;

      With my heart I will show concern,

      And my spirit will carefully search.

 7 Will it be to times indefinite that Jehovah keeps casting off,

      And will he no more be pleased again?

 8 Has his loving-kindness terminated forever?

      Has [his] saying come to nothing for generation after generation?

 9 Has God forgotten to be favorable,

      Or has he shut off his mercies in anger? Selah.

10 And shall I keep saying: “This is what pierces me through,

       The changing of the right hand of the Most High”?

11 I shall remember the practices of Jah;

       For I will remember your marvelous doing of long ago.

12 And I shall certainly meditate on all your activity,

       And with your dealings I will concern myself.

13 O God, your way is in the holy place.

       Who is a great God like God?

14 You are the [true] God, doing marvelously.

       Among the peoples you have made your strength known.

15 With [your] arm you have recovered your people,

       The sons of Jacob and of Joseph. Selah.

16 The waters have seen you, O God,

       The waters have seen you; they began to be in severe pains.

       Also, the watery deeps began to be agitated.

17 The clouds have thunderously poured down water;

       A sound the cloudy skies have given forth.

       Also, your own arrows proceeded to go here and there.

18 The sound of your thunder was like chariot wheels;

       Lightnings have lighted up the productive land;

       The earth became agitated and began to rock.

19 Through the sea your way was,

       And your path was through many waters;

       And your very footprints have not come to be known.

20 You have led your people just like a flock,

       By the hand of Moses and Aaron.