BOOK III

Psalms 73–89

Surely God Is Good to Israel

1O how louynge is God vnto Israel, to soch as are of a clene hert?

2Neuerthelesse my fete were allmost gone, my treadinges had wel nye slipte.

3And why. I was greued at ye wicked, to se the vngodly in soch prosperite.

4For they are in no parell of death, but stonde fast like a palace.

5They come in no misfortune like other folke, nether are they plaged like other men.

6And this is the cause that they be so puft vp in pryde, & ouerwhelmed with cruelte and vnrigthuousnesse.

7Their eyes swell for fatnesse, they do euen what they lyst.

8Corrupte are they, and speake blasphemies maliciously, proude and presumptuous are their wordes.

9They stretch forth their mouth vnto the heauen, & their tonge goeth thorow the worlde.

10Therfore fall the people vnto them, and there out sucke they no small auauntage.

11Tush (saye they) how shulde God perceaue it? is there knowlege in the most hyest?

12Lo, these are the vngodly, these prospere in the worlde, these haue riches in possession.

13Shulde I then clense my hert in vayne (thought I) & wash my hondes in innocency?

14Wherfore shulde I be then punyshed daylie, & be chastened euery mornynge?

15Yee I had allmost also sayde euen as they: but lo, then shulde I haue condemned the generacion of thy children.

16Then thought I to vnderstonde this, but it was to harde for me.

17Vntill I wete in to ye Sanctuary of God, & considered the ende of these men.

18Namely, how thou hast set the in a slippery place, that thou maiest cast the downe headlynges & destroye the.

19O how sodenly do they consume, perish, & come to a fearfull ende?

20Yee euen like as a dreame when one awaketh, so makest thou their ymage to vanish out of the cite.

21Thus my hert was greued, & it wente euen thorow my reynes.

22So foolish was I and ignoraunt, and as it were a beest before the.

23Neuerthelesse, I am allwaye by the, thou holdest me by my right hande.

24Thou ledest me with thy coucel, and afterwarde receauest me vnto glory.

25O what is there prepared for me in heauen? there is nothinge vpo earth, that I desyre in comparison of the.

26My flesh and my herte fayleth, but God is the strength of my hert, and my porcion for euer.

27For lo, they that forsake the, shal perishe, thou destroyest all them that committe fornicacion agaynst the.

28But it is good for me, to holde me fast by God, to put my trust in the LORDE God, and to speake of all thy workes.