1-2 Don’t bother your head with braggartsor wish you could succeed like the wicked.In no time they’ll shrivel like grass clippingsand wilt like cut flowers in the sun.
3-4 Get insurance with God and do a good deed,settle down and stick to your last.Keep company with God,get in on the best.
5-6 Open up before God, keep nothing back;he’ll do whatever needs to be done:He’ll validate your life in the clear light of dayand stamp you with approval at high noon.
7 Quiet down before God,be prayerful before him.Don’t bother with those who climb the ladder,who elbow their way to the top.
8-9 Bridle your anger, trash your wrath,cool your pipes—it only makes things worse.Before long the crooks will be bankrupt;God-investors will soon own the store.
10-11 Before you know it, the wicked will have had it;you’ll stare at his once famous place and—nothing!Down-to-earth people will move in and take over,relishing a huge bonanza.
12-13 Bad guys have it in for the good guys,obsessed with doing them in.But God isn’t losing any sleep; to himthey’re a joke with no punch line.
14-15 Bullies brandish their swords,pull back on their bows with a flourish.They’re out to beat up on the harmless,or mug that nice man out walking his dog.A banana peel lands them flat on their faces—slapstick figures in a moral circus.
16-17 Less is more and more is less.One righteous will outclass fifty wicked,For the wicked are moral weaklingsbut the righteous are God-strong.
18-19 God keeps track of the decent folk;what they do won’t soon be forgotten.In hard times, they’ll hold their heads high;when the shelves are bare, they’ll be full.
20 God-despisers have had it;God’s enemies are finished—Stripped bare like vineyards at harvest time,vanished like smoke in thin air.
21-22 Wicked borrows and never returns;Righteous gives and gives.Generous gets it all in the end;Stingy is cut off at the pass.
23-24 Stalwart walks in step with God;his path blazed by God, he’s happy.If he stumbles, he’s not down for long;God has a grip on his hand.
25-26 I once was young, now I’m a graybeard—not once have I seen an abandoned believer,or his kids out roaming the streets.Every day he’s out giving and lending,his children making him proud.
27-28 Turn your back on evil,work for the good and don’t quit.God loves this kind of thing,never turns away from his friends.
28-29 Live this way and you’ve got it made,but bad eggs will be tossed out.The good get planted on good landand put down healthy roots.
30-31 Righteous chews on wisdom like a dog on a bone,rolls virtue around on his tongue.His heart pumps God’s Word like blood through his veins;his feet are as sure as a cat’s.
32-33 Wicked sets a watch for Righteous,he’s out for the kill.God, alert, is also on watch—Wicked won’t hurt a hair of his head.
34 Wait passionately for God,don’t leave the path.He’ll give you your place in the sunwhile you watch the wicked lose it.
35-36 I saw Wicked bloated like a toad,croaking pretentious nonsense.The next time I looked there was nothing—a punctured bladder, vapid and limp.
37-38 Keep your eye on the healthy soul,scrutinize the straight life;There’s a futurein strenuous wholeness.But the willful will soon be discarded;insolent souls are on a dead-end street.
39-40 The spacious, free life is from God,it’s also protected and safe.God-strengthened, we’re delivered from evil—when we run to him, he saves us.