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1 BOOK THREE PSALM 73 – 89 PSALM SEVENTY-THREE 1 Surely

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1 BOOK THREE PSALM 73 – 89 PSALM SEVENTY-THREE 1 Surely 1 Commentary to Psalms 73 thru 89 - Rev. John Schultz BOOK THREE PSALM 73 – 89 PSALM SEVENTY-THREE A psalm of Asaph. 1 Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. 2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. 3 For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. 5 They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills. 6 Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. 7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits. 8 They scoff, and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression. 9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. 10 Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. 11 They say, "How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?" 12 This is what the wicked are like-- always carefree, they increase in wealth. 13 Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. 14 All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning. 15 If I had said, "I will speak thus," I would have betrayed your children. 16 When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me 17 till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. 18 Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. 19 How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! 20 As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies. 21 When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, 22 I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. 23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27 Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. 28 But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds. This psalm is the first in a series of eleven psalms that carry the name of Asaph (Psalms 73 – 83). In the previous book, there was one, Psalm 50. Asaph was one of the prophets who, together with Heman and Jeduthun, had been appointed to conduct the music in the temple. At the bringing over of the ark to Jerusalem, we read: “David left Asaph and his associates before the ark of the covenant of the LORD to minister there regularly, according to each day’s requirements.”1 Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones published a series of sermons on this psalm under the title Trial of Faith. On the basis of vs. 15, (“If I had said, ‘I will speak thus,’ I would have betrayed your children”) he believes that Asaph presents us in this psalm, for the greater part, an unspoken prayer. He gives us a glimpse of the struggle of his soul that had never been put into words. This is an interesting and very plausible theory. According to Lloyd Jones, the psalmist opens with a conclusion: “Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.” It is through his inner turmoil that he has come to the conviction that God is good. He speaks from the vantage point of a victory, and from a pure heart. In the sixth beatitude, Jesus says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”2 One who had seen God wrote this psalm. 1 I Chr. 16:37 2 Matt. 5:8 © 2002 E-sst LLC All Rights Reserved Published by Bible-Commentaries.com Used with permission 2 Commentary to Psalms 73 thru 89 - Rev. John Schultz The opening verse also contains the confession that the struggle described in this psalm was the result of an impure heart. The thoughts that went through Asaph’s head were impure thoughts. Usually, when we speak of “impure thoughts” we give the term a sexual connotation. In this psalm, though, the impurity shows itself in a critical and jealous attitude, which distorts reality. Asaph’s question is never answered, but he does come to the conclusion that he had looked at reality from the wrong perspective. Seen from the right viewpoint, the questions disappear. His conclusion, therefore, is that God is good and that the condition to see this is a pure heart. The verses 2 and 3 are a confession, not from one who fell into sin, but from one who was tempted to sin. The words “almost” and “nearly” show that the psalmist had begun to slide down, but he did not fall. The sliding and slipping of the feet presupposes that the author was walking on a path. The immediate result of sin is that progress is halted. Jealousy hinders spiritual growth. We have no business to judge and analyze the lives of other people, except in cases where this is part of our job description. A teacher, for instance, should evaluate his pupils to a certain extent, an employer his employees, and parents their children. But that is quite different from our general tendency to compare other people to ourselves. If we give in to this, we immediatly use a double standard. On a moral level, we almost always consider ourselves better than others, but materially the others always seem to get better deals than we do. The context of the psalm suggests that the use of the term “wicked” is justified. The Hebrew word is rasha` which is defined by Strongs Definitions as “morally wrong; a bad person.” The KJV occasionally renders it with “ungodly.” The Apostle Paul tells the church in Corinth what to do with the wicked who belong to the church and those who do not belong: “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked man from among you.’ ”3 If Asaph had listened to the Apostle Paul, he would never have written this psalm! The psalmist does not, however, spend much time and energy about the moral aspect of his comparison; he concentrates particularly on the material discrepancy. This lack of balance causes the tension. When, at the end of the psalm the equilibrium is reestablished, the questions have all melted away. The fact that the comparison awakens jealousy in Asaph’s heart reveals more about Asaph than about the people he judges. Deep in his heart, he harbors the notion that physical well-being and material prosperity are more important than fellowship with God. At least, that is what was in his mind when he wrote this psalm. He also supposes that spiritual fellowship ought to bring about material advantage. In vs. 13 he comes to the conclusion that his spiritual relationship with the Lord has not produced the fruits he expected: “Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.” From the description of the wicked, we understand Asaph’s concept of the righteous. That which ought to have been positive is described as negative and vice versa. In Asaph’s mind, the righteous should always go through life without any problems; every child of God ought always to be in perfect health. But experience teaches him that such is not the case. We may assume that Asaph had based his conclusions upon some isolated cases only. Had he done an in depth study of a large segment of the population, he would, probably, have found that the differences between the righteous and the wicked, in the realm of physical well-being and economic prosperity, were not great. Sickness and health, poverty and riches are found among all people. Some righteous have healthy bodies. The difference among the groups lies in their reaction to well-being and prosperity, or the lack of it. A person who lives without God often has the notion that his good health is the result of his own endeavors. Before we comment on this mentality, we have to remind ourselves that Asaph fell in a trap of superficiality that believes that it would be good for a Christian to go through life without storms, or suffering, or tension. Evidently, the formation of character is not important to him. The German poet Goethe said: “A talent is formed in quietness, a character in the storms of life.” The basis of Asaph’s philosophy of life is that the world of men should be either black or white: piety should immediately receive its reward and sin should be punished without delay. The psalmist paints a vivid picture of the attitude of the wicked. They are proud people who do not recoil from violence. A member of the Jehovah Witness sect told me once that the phrase: “Therefore pride is their necklace” was a reference to the clerical white collar. The RSV renders vs. 7 with: “Their eyes swell out with fatness, their hearts overflow with follies.” In his Commentary on the Psalms, George Knight quotes a humorous translation of vs.
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