Psalm 72 (Kathisma 10)
Read on Wednesday (Tuesday and Thursday during Lent)
A Psalm for Asaph; an Ode to the Assyrian.
(Psalm 73 – Hebrew Numbering)
How good is God to Israel, to them that are upright of heart!
But as for me, my feet were all but shaken; my steps well nigh had slipped.
For I was jealous of the transgressors, when I beheld the peace of sinners.
For they make no sign of refusal in the time of their death, and they have steadfastness in the time of their scourging.
They are not in such toils as other men, nor with other men shall they be scourged.
Wherefore, their pride hath utterly mastered them, they have wrapped themselves in their injustice and ungodliness.
Their injustice shall go forth as out of fatness, they have passed through to their heart?s intent.
They have thought and spoken in wickedness, they have spoken unrighteousness in arrogance.
They have set their mouth against heaven, and their tongue roveth in the earth.
Therefore shall my people return hither, and full days shall be found in them.
And they said: How doth God know?
And is there knowledge in the Most High?
Behold, these are the sinners; they prosper in this age and have obtained riches.
And I said: Surely in vain have I kept justice in my heart and washed my hands among the innocent.
And I became a man scourged all the day long, and reproof was mine in every morning.
And I said: I shall speak thus: Lo, I should have broken covenant with the generation of Thy sons.
And I sought to understand, but this was toilsome in my sight, until I come into the sanctuary of God and understand their end.
Surely, for their crafty dealings Thou hast appointed evils for them; Thou hast cast them down in their exaltation.
How are they come unto desolation in a moment!
They have ceased to be; they have perished because of their iniquity.
As a dream of one who waketh, O Lord, in Thy city Thou shalt bring their image to nought.
For my heart was fired and my reins have been changed; and I was brought to nought and knew it not.
I became as a beast before Thee, and I am ever with Thee.
Thou hast held me by my right hand, and by Thy counsel Thou hast guided me, and with glory hast Thou taken me to Thyself.
For what have I in heaven?
And besides Thee, what have I desired upon earth?
My heart and my flesh have failed, O God of my heart; and God is my portion for ever.
For behold, they that remove themselves from Thee shall perish; Thou hast destroyed all that go a whoring from Thee.
But it is good for me to cleave unto God, to put my hope in the Lord, that I may declare all Thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion.