The Psalter of David
15 But if I had said, 'I will reason thus,' I should have been guilty before the generation of thy sons.
16 And I thought how to understand these things, but it was difficult in my eyes,
17 until I entered into the sanctuary of God, and understood their end.
E-18 Yes! Thou hast set them on slippery paths, and hast cast them into the abyss.
19 How accidentally they came to ruin, vanished, perished from terrors!
20 As a dream after waking up, so thou, O Lord, when thou awakest them, shalt destroy their dreams.
21 When my heart was boiling, and my inward parts were tormented,
22 then I was ignorant, and did not understand; I was like cattle before you.
23 But I am always with you: you hold me by the right hand;
24 Thou hast guided me by thy counsel, and afterwards thou shalt receive me into glory.
25 Who am I in heaven? and with Thee I desire nothing on earth.
26 My flesh and my heart are faint: God is the stronghold of my heart, and my portion for ever.
27 For behold, they that keep themselves away from thee perish; Thou destroyest every one who departs from Thee.
28 But it is good for me to draw near to God! In the Lord God I have placed my trust, to declare all thy works [in the gate of the daughter of Zion].
Psalm 73
The Teaching of Asaph.
1 Wherefore, O God, hath cast us away for ever? Is Thy wrath kindled against the sheep of Thy pasture?
2 Remember thy assembly, which thou hast acquired of old, which thou hast redeemed for the rod of thy inheritance, this mount Zion, on which thou hast rejoiced.
3 Move Thy feet to the ruins of the ages: the enemy hath destroyed all things in the sanctuary.
4 Thy enemies roar in the midst of thy assemblies; they have put their signs in place of our signs;
5 showed themselves to be like one lifting up an axe on the intertwined branches of a tree;