This is a psalm by *Asaph, or one that somebody wrote for him or his music group. You can read about *Asaph at the end of this psalm. The *psalmist had a problem. Bad people had plenty of money and things. Good people did not. Why? Would it be better for him to be bad? Then he went into God's house. There he understood that bad people would die, but good people would always live with God! In this psalm, we have translated "bad people" as "*godless". This meant: - before 500 BC, people who were not *Israelites - after 500 BC, people who did not obey God and fought against him; it did not matter who they were BC means years Before Christ came to live on the earth. About 500 BC was when many *Israelites returned home from the *exile. They came from Babylon. So the *psalmist starts with what he had learned: God is good to the people whose hearts are clean.