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, Thou hast redeemed into a 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;

6 and now all the carvings in it have been destroyed at one time with axes and reeds;

7 they have set fire to thy sanctuary; they have utterly defiled the dwelling place of thy name;

8 And they said in their hearts, 'Let us destroy them utterly,' and they burned all the places of assembly of God on the earth.