Sermon Text: Psalm 73

Psa. 73:1 Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
Psa. 73:2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
Psa. 73:3 For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Psa. 73:4 For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
Psa. 73:5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Psa. 73:6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
Psa. 73:7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
Psa. 73:8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
Psa. 73:9 They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
Psa. 73:10 Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.*
Psa. 73:11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
Psa. 73:12 Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
Psa. 73:13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
Psa. 73:14 For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
Psa. 73:15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
Psa. 73:16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
Psa. 73:17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their wend.
Psa. 73:18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
Psa. 73:19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
Psa. 73:20 Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
Psa. 73:21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
Psa. 73:22 I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
Psa. 73:23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
Psa. 73:24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Psa. 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
Psa. 73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength* of my heart and my portion forever.
Psa. 73:27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
Psa. 73:28 But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.