A Psalm of Asaph
1-5 [1] Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. 2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. 3 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. 5 They are not in trouble as others are. They are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
אך (ach) = “surely” / “certainly”
ואני (va’ani) = “and I”
6-12 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. 7 Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. 8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. 9 They put their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. 10 Therefore His people turn back to them, and lap up their words. 11 And they say, “How could God know? Is there knowledge with the Most High?” 12 Behold! Such are the wicked. Always at ease, they increase in wealth.
13-17 [2] Surely in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. 14 For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. 15 Had I said, “I will tell it as it is,” behold, I would have betrayed a generation of Your children. 16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task …
17 – until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I discerned their end.
18-20 [3] Surely you set them in slippery places. You make them fall to ruin. 19 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! 20 Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when You rouse Yourself, You despise them as phantoms.
21-24 When my heart was soured (lit. “leavened”), when I was pricked in my thoughts (lit. “kidneys”), 22 but as for me I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast toward You. 23 But as for me, I am continually with You. You hold my right hand. 24 You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will receive me to glory.
25-28 Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27 For behold, those who are far from You shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to You. 28 But as for me, God’s nearness is my good. I have made the Lord Adonai my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.
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Superscript
1Chronicles 15:16-17 David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy. So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel; and of his brothers Asaph the son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari, their brothers, Ethan the son of Kushaiah.
1Chronicles 16:1-7 And they brought in the ark of God and set it inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. 2 And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Adonai 3 and distributed to all Israel, both men and women, to each a loaf of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. 4 Then [David] appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of Adonai, to invoke, to thank, and to praise Adonai, the God of Israel. 5 Asaph was the chief, and second to him were Zechariah, Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel, who were to play harps and lyres. Asaph was to sound the cymbals, 6 and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests were to blow trumpets regularly before the ark of the covenant of God. 7 Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to Adonai by Asaph and his brothers.
1Chronicles 16:37 So David left Asaph and his brothers there before the ark of the covenant of Adonai to minister regularly before the ark as each day required.
1Chonicles 25:2 Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asharelah, sons of Asaph, under the direction of Asaph, who prophesied under the direction of the king.
2Chonicles 29:30 And Hezekiah the king and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to Adonai with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped.
Verse 15
Proverbs 21:18 The wicked is a ransom for the righteous, and the traitor (בדג, bogeid) for the upright.