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I am able to say it now: God is good to us,
to the single-hearted.
And yet I had nearly slipped, I came so close to falling.
I was bitter at the prosperity of those godless and insolent men.
They are people without cares: they are in excellent health,
they have no troubles of their own, and no thought for other people's suffering.
They are robed in violence, and wear their arrogance as a badge of honour.
Their eyes gleam from fat faces; their hearts overflow with corruption.
They are cynical, malicious, and full of menace.
Their evil-speaking reaches up to heaven, and covers the earth.
Yet people pay them honour and find no fault in them!
People hang on
their words: "Does God notice? Does God care?"
That's how
it is with these men: nothing at all troubles them -
they
just get richer and richer.
I asked myself why I ever trusted in you, God -
why I
kept my hands clean,
when every day punishes me, every morning
beats me down.
I have been sorely tempted to go along with them.
But
that would have meant turning my back on you.
So I tried,
instead, to understand, difficult though it was for me.
And at last you let me penetrate the mystery,
and I realised what was in
store for them.
Their life is built on sand and will end in ruin.
In
a moment of terror they will be swept away;
they will vanish like a
dream.
When I was rebellious and eaten up with envy,
I
was being stupid, ignorant, like an animal before you.
The
truth is, I am always with you - you are holding my
hand.
You are guiding me in your wisdom,
and you will bring me
to fulfilment.
It is you only I want, in heaven and on earth.
Though heart
and body fail,
you are my rock, my God, my future.
To be distant from you is to be nothing,
to be false to you is to be no one.
It is my happiness to be close to you, to be secure in
you -
and to testify to your goodness.
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