Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 73:1
A Psalm of Asaph. Truly God [is] good to Israel, [even] to such as are of a clean heart.
1. Truly ] It is possible to render with R.V. marg., Only good is God. Though He permits His people to suffer, He is wholly loving-kindness toward them. Cp. Lam 3:25. But it is preferable to render with R.V. text, Surely. The particle ak in this connexion expresses the idea Nay but after all.
such as are of a clean heart ] R.V., such as are pure in heart. ‘Israel’ is thus defined as the true Israel of God. To them, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, He manifests His goodness (Exo 33:19). Purity of heart and life is the condition of admission to His presence (Psa 24:4 ff.), of ‘seeing God’ (Mat 5:8).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1, 2. The Psalmist begins by stating the conclusion to which he had been led through the trial of his faith.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 14. Faith tried by the sight of the prosperity of the wicked.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Truly God is good to Israel – That is, to his people; to the righteous; to those who serve him. That is, God is the real friend of the righteous. He has not forgotten them. He does not abandon them. He is not indifferent to them. He is not the friend of wicked people; and the administration of his government is not in favor of wickedness. After all that seems to indicate this, after all that troubles the mind in regard to his dealings, it is a truth that God is the friend of righteousness, and not of wickedness, and that there is advantage in his service. To see the force of what is said here by the psalmist we must realize that the train of thought in the psalm had passed through his mind, and that his perplexities had been relieved in the manner specified in the psalm. The margin here is yet; yet God is good to Israel. This word yet would, in this place, be a happy translation. The psalmist then would be represented as having been engaged in meditating on the subject and in looking at all its perplexities, and then he says, Yet God is good; notwithstanding all the difficulties in the case, it is nevertheless true that he is the friend of his people – the friend of righteousness.
Even to such as are of a clean heart – Margin, as in Hebrew, clean of heart. See Psa 73:13. The reference is to those who are truly righteous, for all true righteousness has its seat in the heart. See Psa 51:10.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 73:1-28
Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
The trouble of Asaph
In human biographies men are wont to cover up their heroes imperfections. They see no reason why they should be recalled, but many why they should not. And in religious biographies what evident exaggeration there often is. But this can never be said of the lives of the men told of in the Bible. They are evidently men like ourselves. They have known our misery, passed through our struggles, and often, like us, have had to bow their heads in repentance. By this single trait I recognize the book of God. Nothing but the guidance of the Spirit of truth could have held back these writers from glorifying their national heroes. Now, this psalm tells of one who undoubtedly was a believe, but nevertheless passed through doubt and knew all its bitterness. See–
I. What made asaph doubt. It was the sorrow Of those who feared God combined with the prosperity of the wicked. The spectacle of this world is a great school for unbelief, and makes more unbelievers than all the books of atheists. Instinctively we believe in the God of holiness and love; but when we look out into the world we cannot find Him. Fatality is what we see. In nature, for it cares neither for our prayers nor our tears. In history, for if now and then there seems to be a providential law therein, more often there is no trace of anything of the kind See the fate of those vast empires which for ever have passed away. In life: was not the old prophet deceived when he said he had never seen the righteous forsaken? How often our prayers are not heard. Fatalism is what the world teaches every hour. Antiquity was fatalistic, and so are our chief thinkers of to-day. What problems are brought before us by the sorrows that befall the godly. Poverty, sickness, injustice–this most unendurable of all.
II. What saved him from his doubt.
1. He believed in God, the God of his race and people. He came–and it is a blessed thing to come–of a holy race.
2. But he could not explain these problems. Human reason cannot. There are the mysteries, insoluble, of affliction; yet more of sin; and of the future life. Science has no answer for them.
3. But Asaph went into the sanctuary of God, and then he understood the end, the purpose of God in all this which the future alone, and not the short-lived present, can unfold. Now, Asaph saw Gods purpose in regard to the wicked, and his tone changed from bitterness to pity, as he thought of the slippery places in which they stood, and of the destruction which was their end. How all changes to our eyes when we consider things from Gods point of view. And he saw Gods purpose in regard to those who wait on Him and fear Him. Even now consolation, sweetness, peace are theirs. The meanest calling is invested with grandeur when God is served in it. Without doubt the struggles of Gods people have been terrible. But consider their end–Nevertheless I am continually with thee. Asaph has come out of the sanctuary, and his face is beaming; his tears are effaced. His look is brightened by a divine hope, and it is a song of thanks which comes from his lips. And so shall it be with all them whose trust is in Asaphs God. (E. Bersier.)
The Asaph psalms
Here in the beginning of the third book of the Psalter we have eleven psalms which are grouped together as being Asaphs psalms. Those psalms have very much of a common character and a common style; they are the production of some oriental Bacon, of some Tacitus of grace. They are obscure if you will, they are oracular, they are sententious, they are occasionally, it must be admitted, sublime. And, first of all, Asaphs was no affected scepticism; Asaph was a real doubter. In a certain sense he may be looked upon as the St. Thomas of the Old Testament, but the doubt of St. Thomas, as we all know, was about a fact and about a dogma which underlay that fact–the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead–the doubt of Asaph was about the moral truth of the government of God, for the cause of his doubt about the goodness of God was the inequality of human society, the fatal injustice as it appears to some in the distribution of the good things of this life. It was the base and mean character of many of those who are the most tremendous winners in what seems to be the ignoble lottery sometimes of a successful life. These men did not repeatedly hear the summons of the grim sergeant, Death; they were not repeatedly dragged by chains; there are no bands in their death; that oppressive burden that lies on the rest of our suffering humanity–they seem for a time clean outside of it; they are not in trouble as other men. And then there comes the deterioration of character, the encompassing pride, being robed with violence; the fulfilment of the words of that fierce satire, Their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than their hearts can wish. There are hearts and hearts, and they have all, more than all, that hearts like theirs can wish for. Now, the means of removing Asaphs doubt we find to have been these four.
1. In the first place, there was his own spiritual life. If these haunting doubts about the goodness and the justice of God were real, if there was no good God in the heaven above, then his whole spiritual life was worthless. Well might he say in the thirteenth verse, if it were so, Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
2. And the second means of the removal of this doubt was the spiritual life of the children of God–If I say I will speak thus, behold I should offend against the generation of Thy children–he would be doing wrong to them, he would be breaking faith with the saints of God, who had lived this life upon earth and who had passed into the home beyond with this full faith.
3. Then a third means of removing this doubt we find in the closing part of the psalm (Psa 73:23-28). The spiritual life is also an eternal life, an eternal life in God and with God. Now, this psalm might almost be marked as the great psalm of the Hebrew Summum Bonum, The Highest Good. We are told by St. Augustine that the ancient classical philosophy had worked out no less than two hundred and eighty-eight different views or solutions of the Summum Bonum, the highest good of man. It was, we have been told on great authority, a sort of scholastic theology of the Pagans, but here is Asaphs view of the Summum Bonum, hero is the view of all the saints of God. How nobly the psalm begins! The prophet had long been encompassed about with the shadows of darkness and doubt. At last he looks upward and he says, And yet, after all, God is good to Israel, even to those who are of a clean heart; and as the psalm begins so it ends: It is good for me to draw nigh unto God. Take this in, take in the eternal life with God in the home above, take in that and no doubt will arise about the distribution of Gods good things, and we shall say with the psalmist: So foolish was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before Thee.
4. And then the fourth means was this–it was a revelation in the sanctuary: When I thought upon this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God. All of us who love the Psalter have critical friends who tell us not to be too mystical in our views, not to think of Christ or Heaven in the psalms; but when they comment upon this verse they begin to turn mystical and say, Think of some inward sanctuary in your mind, think of some place where you may be alone with God; to which I only reply, My literal friend, you must be literal here at all events. The word unquestionably means the outward sanctuary of God, the visible sanctuary built up upon Mount Zion, the place upon which men walked with human feet, and listened with human ears. This was where Asaph learned to find the solution of his difficulty. (A. Alexander.)
A perplexing problem, and satisfactory solution
I. A perplexing problem. We live under the government of God, and His government extends to all persons, and all interests in every life. This is a fundamental fact. From what we know of the character of God as good and just, and seeing that He has power to carry out all His decisions, we might expect that in every instance virtue would be rewarded and vies would be punished. But, in observing the circumstances of men, this expectation is falsified. For a time, at least, some of the wicked prosper, and some of the righteous do not prosper, until bad men say, and good men are tempted to say in their depression and doubt, surely the sympathy of the Divine Ruler must be on the side of vies, the reins of government must have fallen out of His hands, and what ought to be an orderly creation is simply a chaos. Why is the life of many a good man embittered by the wickedness of his son, whilst the ungodly father in some instances is surrounded by the best children? Why is the breadwinner taken away when the family seem to need most the strength of his arm, the intelligence of his mind, and the influence of his example? Why is it that some of the beautiful and noble, full of intellectual and Christian promise, are out off in youth, whilst not a few of the stained and mean are allowed to drag their ignominy through a long, stained and dishonoured life? Why is it that sunshine and sorrow seem in so many eases to follow no rule of effort or desert? Ah! those are some of the dark riddles, the strange perplexities, of which many a life is full. Here we are confronted with a business problem. Now, nothing is more clear than that in worldly affairs the battle is not always to the strong. Whatever we may say in our conceit, worldly success does not always reflect commercial genius. It is surprising indeed with how little brains some business men succeed. They ought to succeed in business, for they exhaust themselves in the one supreme and strenuous effort of money-making, and have no time or taste for anything else. Some of the most shallow and superficial men I have met are men of this mould. Beecher said of such: They resemble a pyramid, which is broad where it touches the ground, but grows narrower as it reaches the sky. In saying this I do not wish it to be understood that the righteous man is less fit and likely to succeed in temporal affairs than the unrighteous. No, religion helps a man to get on in the world. Other things being equal in the man, that man who is honest, industrious and persevering is more likely to succeed than his neighbour, who may have the same natural ability, but no Christian principle. Undoubtedly religion quickens and expands the whole man, and fertilizes the wide area of life. A man who is formed, reformed, and informed by religion will do far more effectual work than the same man without religion. Another fact must also be borne in mind. Some good men, whom we like to hear sing and pray in the sanctuary, are not strong and smart at the receipt of customs. Business is not their forte. They are estimable men in their home and Church relations, but they lack the keenness, suspicion, alertness, push, and enterprise so greatly necessary in these days of keen competition and quick movement. One can easily see why some easy, confiding, unsuspicious men who do not adapt themselves to certain changed conditions in business do not succeed. The wonder would be if they did. But baying said this, we all know worthy men who comply with the conditions Of worldly success, and are even then disadvantaged, kept down and back by the greedy, avaricious worldlings, with whom they do not and cannot compete in certain questionable and wicked practices. Some are too delicately fibred, too considerate of justice, generosity, handsome behaviour, too Scripturally conscientious to chord in practice with those who do not scruple at lying advertisements, fictitious capital, adulterated articles. And so they secretly and silently suffer in mind and state. They are beaten and baffled, not simply by the greedy and gigantic monopolies, which appear to be the order of the day, but by the positive wrong-doing of the unscrupulous, who will have gain by means fair or foul. And so it is in my pastoral round, I have seen the good man–a struggling tradesman fretting because of evil-doers, envious against the workers of iniquity.
1. It tries his trust. It is easy to trust God when the cup runneth over. But it is very hard for a man with an ill-stocked larder, and an ill-furnished wardrobe, to lean his whole weight upon God.
2. It proves his zeal. Money is a defence. The rich man is protected by earthworks against much that beats pitilessly and cruelly upon the poor man.
3. It tests his humility. To retrench the pleasant superfluities of life, to abridge his sphere of usefulness, to curtail his gifts, to live in a smaller house, to miss his name from the subscription list, to rank among the unfortunates and be quiet–all this goes against the grain of a spirited, mettled man, who, although poor, is still a man of desire and ambition.
4. It taxes patience. Baffled and utterly bewildered, there are sad moments when the tempted Christian says he cannot understand the Divine dealings with him.
II. A satisfactory solution. For a moment Asaphs conscience wavered, for a time giddiness seized him. How is it he did not fall into the abyss? Asaph believed in God. He could not after all believe in chance. That was the saving thought. Like a ship swinging at anchor, he swayed about by the ebb and the flow of the tide, but he did not drift from his moorings. What was it that wrought the vast change in the psalmist? It was going into the house of God. This is the Divinely-appointed place where God graciously answers those who are perplexed and pained, and who kneel, saying, Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth. The judicial faculty to weigh things, to take a calm survey of the entire situation, needs stillness and retreat. It is here, in the sanctuary, we see the relationship of this brief and broken life on earth to the wide, boundless kingdom of the eternal. Wait calmly until the clouds roll by. Said Dr. Dixon, It is in the nature of a cloud to pass away. Possess your soul in patience, and, amid the sweet silences and kindling visions of the sanctuary, you shall change your murmur to a psalm. Revelation reconciles, if it does not explain, by telling us that there is a magnificent future, veiled, but certain, for which present inequalities and seeming injustices are the necessary, the suitable, the merciful preparation. You are now moving in the twilight, but it is the morning twilight, to be followed by the glory of eternity, when all these tangled things shall be smoothed out, and the vexed things of earth made plain in the light of heaven. (G. Woodcock.)
The goodness of God to Israel
I. The description given of the people of God.
1. Their name.
2. Their character.
II. The considerations by which their interest in the Divine love may be proved.
1. By His Son He has saved them from hell.
2. By His Spirit He purifies them from sin.
3. By His providence He guides and guards them on earth.
4. At their death He receives them to heaven.
Lessons:
1. If the goodness of God to the true Israel be thus great, how great should be their confidence in Him, and the love with which they love Him in return!
2. Let the sinner so come and share with the Israel of God in the blessing described in the text. (Evangelical Preacher.)
Bad men in good circumstances, and a good man in a bad temper
I. Bad men in good circumstances. The bad men are described as the foolish and the wicked. Folly and wickedness are convertible terms. Sin is folly. Man sinning is man violating all the laws of reason, all the principles of true policy. Such are the bad characters before us, and they are found in good circumstances, they are in great prosperity. The material heavens shine on them, the earth yields up her fruit to gratify their every taste and to supply their every want. Providence pours into their lap those gifts which it denied the Son of God Himself.
II. A good man in a bad temper. Asaph, the supposed writer of this psalm, acknowledges that he was envious of these bad men who were living in good circumstances.
1. He was in an envious temper.
(1) Now, envy is ever a bad thing. It is ever the attribute of selfishness, and selfishness is the root of wrong.
(2) Nor could envy well appear in a more unreasonable aspect. He was envious at the wicked. This is truly irrational. Poor godless wretches, what have they of which the good should be envious?
2. He was in a murmuring temper (Psa 73:18).
(1) A right act. Cleansing the heart and washing the hands means the cultivation of personal holiness; and this is certainly a right work for man. It implies–
(1) The consciousness of personal defilement.
(2) The possession of a cleansing element.
(3) The effort of personal application. Moral evil is the defilement; Christianity is the cleansing element; and practical faith is the personal application.
3. A wrong opinion. The writer thought that it was in vain. Three facts show that this is a great mistake:
(1) That moral holiness involves its own reward.
(2) That moral holiness is promoted by temporal adversity.
(3) That moral holiness will meet with its perfect recompense hereafter.
No; this cleansing the heart is no vain work. No engagement is so real and profitable. Every fresh practical idea of God is a rising in the scale of being and of bliss; every conquest over sense, appetite, and sin, is a widening and strengthening of our spiritual sovereignty; every devout sentiment, earnest resolve, and generous sacrifice attunes our hearts to higher music. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM LXXIII
The psalmist speaks of God’s goodness to his people, 1;
shows how much he was stumbled at the prosperity of the wicked,
and describes their state, 2-12;
details the process of the temptation, and the pain he suffered
in consequence, 13-16;
shows how he was delivered, and the dismal reverse of the state
of the once prosperous ungodly man, by which his own false
views were corrected, 17-22;
his great confidence in God, and the good consequences of it,
23-28.
NOTES ON PSALM LXXIII
THIS is the commencement of the THIRD BOOK of the Psalter; and the Psalm before us has for title, A Psalm of Asaph; or, as the margin has it, A Psalm for Asaph. The title in the Hebrew is mizmor leasaph; “A Psalm of Asaph:” and it is likely that this Asaph was the composer of it; that he lived under the Babylonish captivity; and that he published this Psalm to console the Israelites under bondage, who were greatly tried to find themselves in such outward distress and misery, while a people much more wicked and corrupt than they, were in great prosperity, and held them in bondage.
Verse 1. Truly God is good to Israel] Captives as they were, they still had many blessings from God; and they had promises of deliverance, which must be fulfilled in due time.
Such as are of a clean heart.] Those who have a clean heart must have inward happiness: and, because they resemble God, they can never be forsaken by him.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Truly; or, nevertheless. The beginning is abrupt and sufficiently intimates that he had a great conflict within himself about this matter, and that many doubts and objections were raised in his mind concerning it. But at last he breaks forth like the sun out of a cloud, and having by Gods grace silenced and conquered his scruples, he lays down this following conclusion.
God is good to Israel; though he may sometimes seem negligent of, and harsh and severe to, his people, yet, if all things be considered, it is most certain, and another day will be made manifest, that God is really and superlatively good, i.e. most kind and bountiful, and a true friend to them, and that they are most happy in him, and have no reason to envy sinners their present and seeming felicity.
To such as are of a clean heart; to all true Israelites, who love God with their whole heart, and serve him in spirit, and truth, and uprightness. See Joh 4:23; Rom 2:28,29. So this clause limits the former, and takes off a great part of the force of the objection, even all that concerns the calamities which befell the profane or false-hearted Israelites, which were vastly the greatest number of that people.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. The abrupt announcement ofthe theme indicates that it is the conclusion of a perplexing mentalconflict, which is then detailed (compare Jer12:1-4).
Trulyor, “Surelyit is so.”
clean heart (Ps18:26) describes the true Israel.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Truly God is good to Israel,…. To Israel, literally understood; in choosing them to be his people above all people on earth; in bringing them into a good land; in favouring them with many external privileges, civil and religious; in giving them his word, statutes, and ordinances, as he did not to other nations: or, spiritually understood, the Israel whom God has chosen, redeemed, and called by his special grace; verily of a truth, God is good to these; there is abundant proof and evidence of it; [See comments on Ps 34:8],
or “only” God is good to such; though he is good to all in a providential way, yet only to his chosen and redeemed ones in a way of special favour; the goodness others share is but a shadow of goodness, in comparison of what they do and shall partake of; they are blessed with blessings indeed, and are only blessed; so this particle is rendered in
Ps 62:2, or “but”, or “notwithstanding” b, God is good, c. that is, though he suffers the wicked to prosper, and his own people much afflicted, yet he is good to them he supports them under their afflictions, and makes all to work for their good; gives them grace here, and glory hereafter;
even to such as are of a clean heart; this character excludes the carnal Israelites, who were pure in their own eyes, but not cleansed from their filthiness, and describes the true Israel of God, and explains who are meant by them, such as are pure in heart, inwardly Jews, Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile; this is not natural to men, their hearts are by nature unclean, nor is it in their power to make them clean: this is God’s work, he only can create a clean heart, and renew a right spirit; which is done by the sanctifying influences of his grace, and by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, and thus purifying their heart’s by faith; yet so as not to be free from all impurity of spirit, but as to have a conscience purged from the guilt of sin, and to have the heart sincere and upright towards God.
a Sept. “Asaph ipsi”, Pagninus, Montanus; “Asapho”, Gejerus; so Ainsworth. b “attamen”, Tigurine version, Piscator, Gussetius, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
, belonging to the favourite words of the faith that bids defiance to assault, signifies originally “thus = not otherwise,” and therefore combines an affirmative and restrictive, or, according to circumstances, even an adversative signification (vid., on Psa 39:6). It may therefore be rendered: yea good, assuredly good, or: only good, nothing but good; both renderings are an assertion of a sure, infallible relation of things. God appears to be angry with the godly, but in reality He is kindly disposed towards them, though He send affliction after affliction upon them (Lam 3:25). The words are not to be taken together, after Gal 6:16 ( ); not, “only good is it with the Israel of Elohim,” but “only good to Israel is Elohim,” is the right apprehension of the truth or reality that is opposed to what seems to be the case. The Israel which in every relationship has a good and loving God is limited in Psa 73:1 to the pure in heart (Psa 24:4; Mat 5:8). Israel in truth are not all those who are descended from Jacob, but those who have put away all impurity of disposition and all uncleanness of sin out of their heart, i.e., out of their innermost life, and by a constant striving after sanctification (Psa 73:13) maintain themselves in such purity. In relation to this, which is the real church of God, God is pure love, nothing but love. This it is that has been confirmed to the poet as he passed through the conflict of temptation, but it was through conflict, for he almost fell by reason of the semblance of the opposite. The Chethb (cf. Num 24:4) or (cf. 2Sa 15:32) is erroneous. The narration of that which is past cannot begin with a participial clause like this, and , in such a sense ( non multum abfuit quin , like , nihil abfuit quin ), always has the perfect after it, e.g., Psa 94:17; Psa 119:87. It is therefore to be read (according to the fuller form for , which is used not merely with great distinctives, as in Psa 36:8; Psa 122:6; Num 24:6, but also with conjunctives out of pause, e.g., Psa 57:2, cf. Psa 36:9, Deu 32:37; Job 12:6): my feet had almost inclined towards, had almost slipped backwards and towards the side. On the other hand the Chethb is unassailable; the feminine singular is frequently found as predicate both of a plural subject that has preceded (Psa 18:35, cf. Deu 21:7; Job 16:16) and also more especially of one that is placed after it, e.g., Psa 37:31; Job 14:19. The footsteps are said to be poured out when one “flies out or slips” and falls to the ground.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| God’s Goodness to His People; Unsanctified Prosperity. | |
A psalm of Asaph.
1 Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. 2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. 3 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. 5 They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. 6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. 7 Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. 8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. 9 They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. 10 Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. 11 And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? 12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. 13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. 14 For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
This psalm begins somewhat abruptly: Yet God is good to Israel (so the margin reads it); he had been thinking of the prosperity of the wicked; while he was thus musing the fire burned, and at last he spoke by way of check to himself for what he had been thinking of. “However it be, yet God is good.” Though wicked people receive many of the gifts of his providential bounty, yet we must own that he is, in a peculiar manner, good to Israel; they have favours from him which others have not.
The psalmist designs an account of a temptation he was strongly assaulted with–to envy the prosperity of the wicked, a common temptation, which has tried the graces of many of the saints. Now in this account,
I. He lays down, in the first place, that great principle which he is resolved to abide by and not to quit while he was parleying with this temptation, v. 1. Job, when he was entering into such a temptation, fixed for his principle the omniscience of God: Times are not hidden from the Almighty, Job xxiv. 1. Jeremiah’s principle is the justice of God: Righteous art thou, O God! when I plead with thee, Jer. xii. 1. Habakkuk’s principle is the holiness of God: Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, Hab. i. 13. The psalmist’s, here, is the goodness of God. These are truths which cannot be shaken and which we must resolve to live and die by. Though we may not be able to reconcile all the disposals of Providence with them, we must believe they are reconcilable. Note, Good thoughts of God will fortify us against many of Satan’s temptations. Truly God is good; he had had many thoughts in his mind concerning the providences of God, but this word, at last, settled him: “For all this, God is good, good to Israel, even to those that are of a clean heart.” Note, 1. Those are the Israel of God that are of a clean heart, purified by the blood of Christ, cleansed from the pollutions of sin, and entirely devoted to the glory of God. An upright heart is a clean heart; cleanness is truth in the inward part. 2. God, who is good to all, is in a special manner good to his church and people, as he was to Israel of old. God was good to Israel in redeeming them out of Egypt, taking them into covenant with himself, giving them his laws and ordinances, and in the various providences that related to them; he is, in like manner, good to all those that are of a clean heart, and, whatever happens, we must not think otherwise.
II. He comes now to relate the shock that was given to his faith in God’s distinguishing goodness to Israel by a strong temptation to envy the prosperity of the wicked, and therefore to think that the Israel of God are no happier than other people and that God is no kinder to them than to others.
1. He speaks of it as a very narrow escape that he had not been quite foiled and overthrown by this temptation (v. 2): “But as for me, though I was so well satisfied in the goodness of God to Israel, yet my feet were almost gone (the tempter had almost tripped up my heels), my steps had well-nigh slipped (I had like to have quitted my religion, and given up all my expectations of benefit by it); for I was envious at the foolish.” Note, 1. The faith even of strong believers may sometimes be sorely shaken and ready to fail them. There are storms that will try the firmest anchors. 2. Those that shall never be quite undone are sometimes very near it, and, in their own apprehension, as good as gone. Many a precious soul, that shall live for ever, had once a very narrow turn for its life; almost and well-nigh ruined, but a step between it and fatal apostasy, and yet snatched as a brand out of the burning, which will for ever magnify the riches of divine grace in the nations of those that are saved. Now,
2. Let us take notice of the process of the psalmist’s temptation, what he was tempted with and tempted to.
(1.) He observed that foolish wicked people have sometimes a very great share of outward prosperity. He saw, with grief, the prosperity of the wicked, v. 3. Wicked people are really foolish people, and act against reason and their true interest, and yet every stander-by sees their prosperity. [1.] They seem to have the least share of the troubles and calamities of this life (v. 5): They are not in the troubles of other men, even of wise and good men, neither are they plagued like other men, but seem as if by some special privilege they were exempted from the common lot of sorrows. If they meet with some little trouble, it is nothing to what others endure that are less sinners and yet greater sufferers. [2.] They seem to have the greatest share of the comforts of this life. They live at ease, and bathe themselves in pleasures, so that their eyes stand out with fatness, v. 7. See what the excess of pleasure is; the moderate use of it enlightens the eyes, but those that indulge themselves inordinately in the delights of sense have their eyes ready to start out of their heads. Epicures are really their own tormentors, by putting a force upon nature, while they pretend to gratify it. And well may those feed themselves to the full who have more than heart could wish, more than they themselves ever thought of or expected to be masters of. They have, at least, more than a humble, quiet, contented heart could wish, yet not so much as they themselves wish for. There are many who have a great deal of this life in their hands, but nothing of the other life in their hearts. They are ungodly, live without the fear and worship of God, and yet they prosper and get on in the world, and not only are rich, but increase in riches, v. 12. They are looked upon as thriving men; while others have much ado to keep what they have, they are still adding more, more honour, power, pleasure, by increasing in riches. They are the prosperous of the age, so some read it. [3.] Their end seems to be peace. This is mentioned first, as the most strange of all, for peace in death was every thought to be the peculiar privilege of the godly (Ps. xxxvii. 37), yet, to outward appearance, it is often the lot of the ungodly (v. 4): There are no bands in their death. They are not taken off by a violent death; they are foolish, and yet die not as fools die; for their hands are not bound nor their feet put into fetters,2Sa 3:33; 2Sa 3:34. They are not taken off by an untimely death, like the fruit forced from the tree before it is ripe, but are left to hang on, till, through old age, they gently drop of themselves. They do not die of sore and painful diseases: There are no pangs, no agonies, in their death, but their strength is firm to the last, so that they scarcely feel themselves die. They are of those who die in their full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet, not of those that die in the bitterness of their souls and never eat with pleasure,Job 21:23; Job 21:25. Nay, they are not bound by the terrors of conscience in their dying moments; they are not frightened either with the remembrance of their sins or the prospect of their misery, but die securely. We cannot judge of men’s state on the other side death either by the manner of their death or the frame of their spirits in dying. Men may die like lambs, and yet have their place with the goats.
(2.) He observed that they made a very bad use of their outward prosperity and were hardened by it in their wickedness, which very much strengthened the temptation he was in to fret at it. If it had done them any good, if it had made them less provoking to God or less oppressive to man, it would never have vexed him; but it had quite a contrary effect upon them. [1.] It made them very proud and haughty. Because they live at ease, pride compasses them as a chain, v. 6. They show themselves (to all that see them) to be puffed up with their prosperity, as men show their ornaments. The pride of Israel testifies to his face,Hos 5:5; Isa 3:9. Pride ties on their chain, or necklace; so Dr. Hammond reads it. It is no harm to wear a chain or necklace; but when pride ties it on, when it is worn to gratify a vain mind, it ceases to be an ornament. It is not so much what the dress or apparel is (though we have rules for that, 1 Tim. ii. 9) as what principle ties it on and with what spirit it is worn. And, as the pride of sinners appears in their dress, so it does in their talk: They speak loftily (v. 8); they affect great swelling words of vanity (2 Pet. ii. 18), bragging of themselves and disdaining all about them. Out of the abundance of the pride that is in their heart they speak big. [1.] It made them oppressive to their poor neighbours (v. 6): Violence covers them as a garment. What they have got by fraud and oppression they keep and increase by the same wicked methods, and care not what injury they do to others, nor what violence they use, so they may but enrich and aggrandize themselves. They are corrupt, like the giants, the sinners of the old world, when the earth was filled with violence,Gen 6:11; Gen 6:13. They care not what mischief they do, either for mischief-sake or for their own advantage-sake. They speak wickedly concerning oppression; they oppress, and justify themselves in it. Those that speak well of sin speak wickedly of it. They are corrupt, that is, dissolved in pleasures and every thing that is luxurious (so some), and then they deride and speak maliciously; they care not whom they wound with the poisoned darts of calumny; from on high they speak oppression. [3.] It made them very insolent in their demeanour towards both God and man (v. 9): They set their mouth against the heavens, putting contempt upon God himself and his honour, bidding defiance to him and his power and justice. They cannot reach the heavens with their hands, to shake God’s throne, else they would; but they show their ill-will by setting their mouth against the heavens. Their tongue also walks through the earth, and they take liberty to abuse all that come in their way. No man’s greatness or goodness can secure him from the scourge of the virulent tongue. They take a pride and pleasure in bantering all mankind; they are pests of the country, for they neither fear God nor regard man. [4.] In all this they were very atheistical and profane. They could not have been thus wicked if they had not learned to say (v. 11), How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? So far were they from desiring the knowledge of God, who gave them all the good things they had and would have taught them to use them well, that they were not willing to believe God had any knowledge of them, that he took any notice of their wickedness or would ever call them to an account. As if, because he is Most High, he could not or would not see them, Job 22:12; Job 22:13. Whereas because he is Most High therefore he can, and will, take cognizance of all the children of men and of all they do, or say, or think. What an affront is it to the God of infinite knowledge, from whom all knowledge is, to ask, Is there knowledge in him? Well may he say (v. 12), Behold, these are the ungodly.
(3.) He observed that while wicked men thus prospered in their impiety, and were made more impious by their prosperity, good people were in great affliction, and he himself in particular, which very much strengthened the temptation he was in to quarrel with Providence. [1.] He looked abroad and saw many of God’s people greatly at a loss (v. 10): “Because the wicked are so very daring therefore his people return hither; they are at the same pause, the same plunge, that I am at; they know not what to say to it any more than I do, and the rather because waters of a full cup are wrung out to them; they are not only made to drink, and to drink deeply, of the bitter cup of affliction, but to drink all. Care is taken that they lose not a drop of that unpleasant potion; the waters are wrung out unto them, that they may have the dregs of the cup. They pour out abundance of tears when they hear wicked people blaspheme God and speak profanely,” as David did, Ps. cxix. 136. These are the waters wrung out to them. [2.] He looked at home, and felt himself under the continual frowns of Providence, while the wicked were sunning themselves in its smiles (v. 14): “For my part,” says he, “all the day long have I been plagued with one affliction or another, and chastened every morning, as duly as the morning comes.” His afflictions were great–he was chastened and plagued; the returns of them were constant, every morning with the morning, and they continued, without intermission, all the day long. This he thought was very hard, that, when those who blasphemed God were in prosperity, he that worshipped God was under such great affliction. He spoke feelingly when he spoke of his own troubles; there is no disputing against sense, except by faith.
(4.) From all this arose a very strong temptation to cast off his religion. [1.] Some that observed the prosperity of the wicked, especially comparing it with the afflictions of the righteous, were tempted to deny a providence and to think that God had forsaken the earth. In this sense some take v. 11. There are those, even among God’s professing people, that say, “How does God know? Surely all things are left to blind fortune, and not disposed of by an all-seeing God.” Some of the heathen, upon such a remark as this, have asked, Quis putet esse deos?–Who will believe that there are gods? [2.] Though the psalmist’s feet were not so far gone as to question God’s omniscience, yet he was tempted to question the benefit of religion, and to say (v. 13), Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and have, to no purpose, washed my hands in innocency. See here what it is to be religious; it is to cleanse our hearts, in the first place, by repentance and regeneration, and then to wash our hands in innocency by a universal reformation of our lives. It is not in vain to do this, not in vain to serve God and keep his ordinances; but good men have been sometimes tempted to say, “It is in vain,” and “Religion is a thing that there is nothing to be got by,” because they see wicked people in prosperity. But, however the thing may appear now, when the pure in heart, those blessed ones, shall see God (Matt. v. 8), they will not say that they cleansed their hearts in vain.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms BOOK III
(Psalms 73-89)
Psalms 73
Victory Over Doubt
This begins the third book of the Psalms, Psalms 73-89, corresponding with Leviticus, the third book of the Pentateuch. It sets forth how a redeemed and delivered people need and may secure daily cleansing and victory over the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
This 73rd Psalm, much like the 37th, teaches how one may have victory over doubts and uncertainties of life. This is usually referred to as “The Psalm of Asaph.” It poses the problem of the prosperity of the wicked while the righteous seem to suffer, a thing that has plagued the minds of men in every generation. Only the Bible provides a satisfactory solution to the problem. Asaph had once expressed the cynicism and skepticism of Macbeth who said, “Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,” until, like David, he considered their latter end, in the light of God’s Word, v. 16, 17; Psalms 37.
Scripture v. 1-28:
Verse 1 teaches that God is only good, truly good to those of Israel, people who are redeemed, who have a “clean heart,” called Israelites “in whom is no guile,” Joh 1:47. The term “clean heart” refers to people with a “pure heart,” those “who shall see God,” Mat 5:8. Those who are Israelites, only in appearance, are considered as heathen before God. Men’s hearts, of all races, may be made pure by faith in Jesus Christ, Act 15:9. Such only, are good before the Lord, as Barnabas, Act 11:24.
Verses 2, 3 assert that before Asaph came to this conclusion his feet were almost gone; And his steps were nigh slipped from under him. For he was “envious at the foolish, when he saw the prosperity of the wicked.” His faith had wavered; He was indignant with envy and covetousness when he saw the temporary flare of the prosperous wicked.
Such a spirit is unbecoming to any child of God, especially one in a position of leadership, in the home or in the church, Psa 22:14; For the foolish, boasting, temporarily prosperous wicked shall be brought low in judgment, Psa 5:5; Psa 75:5; Luk 12:20-21; Luk 16:25.
Verse 4 adds “There are no bands in their death; but their strength is firm.” The wicked had no growing pains from a need of food or medical treatment “unto” their death, as they obstinately died as a fool dieth, even as the rich man of Luk 12:20, and that of Luk 16:25; Job 21:7.
Verse 5 adds further, “They are not troubled as other men (of poorer fare); neither are they plagued like other men, the rest of the less fortunate in material things of Adam’s race., Job 14:1. But in the sanctuary he had learned the lesson of “after this the judgment,” Ecc 12:13-14; Heb 9:27-28.
Verse 6 continues “therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain, (to enslave them), violence covereth them as a garment,” Their pride is like a chain that binds a criminal or a slave. A violent dungeon sentence awaits the proud and haughty who are rebels against God, living for this world only, with insolent ingratitude toward God, the Giver and Sustainer of their daily lives, Psa 75:5; Isa 3:16; Ecc 8:11; Pro 8:13; Pro 6:16-17; Pro 16:18.
Verse 7-9 further indict the prosperous wicked with “eyes that stand out (puffed out) with fatness,” bloated eyes from riotous conduct of gluttony and lustful fleshly living, “Having more than heart could wish,” but not content therewith, like the rich barn builder, Luk 12:13-21. They are described as “corrupt and speaking wickedly concerning oppression.” They speak loftily regarding it, their mastery over the oppressed, indicating their cruel-hearted words and deeds toward the less fortunate, the poor and the oppressed of the moment, 2Pe 2:18; Jud 1:16.
Verse 9 adds “they set their minds against the heavens” as “their tongue walks through the earth,” Rev 13:6; They blasphemed like Satan, Job 1:7; Job 2:2.
Verses 10, 11 declare “therefore his people (those of God) return thither (to such ways also) and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them,” or they are “sucked up” in the ways of the wicked, as their souls also carnally covet material prosperity, without regards for an’ hour of judgment after death, Psa 75:8; Psa 51:16. “So they (people of God say) how doth God know? And is there knowledge in the most High?” Job 22:13; Psa 10:11. The apostate soon comes to question God’s providence altogether, to his own eternal hurt, Rom 8:28.
Verses 12, 13 observe “Behold these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world. They increase in riches,” with seeming tranquillity, perpetually. Let it be observed that impatience too often exaggerates, for riches, pursued without, God, lead to shame, guilt, and fear, 1Ti 6:9-11; 1Ti 6:17-19; Gal 6:7-8. Asaph concluded “Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain (for no profit), and washed my hands in innocency,” v. 1; Psa 26:6; Mal 3:14, breathes the same bad spirit or disposition of a doubting soul, like Thomas, who thought he had lost it all in the natural death of the Lord, Joh 10:19-22; Jas 4:8.
Verses 14-16 add “all day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning,” in contrast with the prosperous wicked, v. 5, morning after morning, in every day. Verse 15 relates that Asaph hesitated to speak openly of the evil thoughts that he had in his heart toward God, about this, in his apostate state, v. 11. Else he would deal treacherously toward God, whom he purported to represent in music and song in Israel, Job 15:4; Psa 14:5; Deu 14:11.
Verse 16 asserts: “When I thought to know this … (or meditate to understand it) it was too painful for me.” His conscience was burdened, knowing his thoughts were those of an hypocrite, living for one world only, as expressed Ecc 8:17; 1Jn 2:15-17; Rom 12:1-2.
Verse 17 unkeys (unlocks) the eye door of mystery, to those who have a carnal mind, that are willing to be subject to open them to Divine truth. He understood the end of the prosperous when he had gone into God’s sanctuary, learned wisdom there, Psa 27:4; Psa 77:13; Psalms 119; Psalms 121; Heb 10:24-25; 2Ti 3:16-17.
Verses 18, 19 described Asaph’s changed view of the prosperous, proud, boastful wicked, after he had gone to God’s sanctuary, and had a Divine preview of their “later end,” when judgment came, v. 17. He beheld them from the sanctuary, as they would be judged who had been put at the judgment, where they had chosen to live, as on “slippery ground, cast down to destruction”, Psa 5:6. They were brought to desolation, utterly consumed with terrors, as in a moment, at the final judgment, as Pharaoh was at the Red Sea, Sodom and Gomorrah in Lot’s day, and Sennacherib in his stand against Jerusalem; See Job 18:11; Eze 26:21; Rev 20:11-15.
Verses 20-22 declare that when the Lord awakes, to final judgment of the prosperous, proud, obstinate wicked, it will be like one, awakening from a bad dream; as the Lord will “despise their image,” Job 20:8; Job 34:26; Dan 12:2; Joh 5:29; Rom 2:4-9. Asaph adds, “thus was my heart grieved (embittered) or soured, and I was as a beast before you,” Isa 55:8-9.
Verses 23, 24 conclude that in spite of his former doubts, envy, cynicism, and covetousness, he had come back to be continually in communion with the Lord, and enjoyed being led by His right hand, since his eyes were opened in the house of the Lord, Mat 14:31; as also expressed by David, Psalms 122. ); and Paul, 1Ti 3:15. He also pledged “Thou shaft guide me with thy counsel (hereafter) and afterward receive me to glory,” to your glory-presence, Joh 14:3; Psa 16:7; Psa 25:9; Psa 143:8-10; Pro 3:5-6; Isa 58:8. See also 2Co 5:1; 2Ti 4:8.
Verse 25 Inquires “Whom have I in heaven but thee?” as his supreme good, Son 5:10; Act 4:12. He added, “There is none upon earth that I desire (spiritually yearn for) besides thee,” Joh 7:17; Isa 26:8-9; Hab 3:17-18; Mat 10:37; Php_3:8.
Verse 26 adds “My flesh and my heart failed (continually); But God is (exists as) the strength or rock of my heart and my portion or provision forever,” without end, Psa 18:1-2; Psa 24:2; Job 19:25-27; La 3:24.
Verse 27 certifies that all those who are afar from the Lord shall perish, dying in that state, Joh 3:18; Joh 3:36; Mar 16:16; Joh 8:24. It emphasizes that he has determined to destroy all those who go a whoring from the Lord, whether it be by idolatry or by covetousness, as the prosperous wicked had done, Lev 20:6; Num 14:33.
Verse 28 witnesses, “But it is good (the ideal thing) for me to draw near to God,” as admonished Heb 10:22; Zep 3:2; Jas 4:8. It is good for it brings both salvation and a life of usefulness to God and ones fellowman, followed by rewards, 1Co 3:8; Rev 22:12. Asaph related that as a result of taking his doubts and fears to the sanctuary of God, putting his full trust in the word of God, he was now resolved to declare all the works of the Lord as righteous, by what he said and the way he lived, Mat 5:15-16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
As to the author of this psalm, I am not disposed to contend very strongly, although I think it probable that the name of Asaph was prefixed to it because the charge of singing it was committed to him, while the name of David, its author, was omitted, just as it is usual for us, when things are well known of themselves, not to be at the trouble of stating them. How much profit we may derive from meditation upon the doctrine contained in this psalm, it is easy to discover from the example of the prophet, who, although he had been exercised in no ordinary degree in true godliness, yet had great difficulty in keeping his footing, while reeling to and fro on the slippery ground on which he found himself placed. Nay, he acknowledges that, before he returned to such soundness of mind as enabled him to form a just judgment of the things which occasioned his trial, he had fallen into a state of almost brutish stupidity. As to ourselves, experience shows how slight impressions we have of the providence of God. We no doubt all agree in admitting that the world is governed by the hand of God; but were this truth deeply rooted in our hearts, our faith would be distinguished by far greater steadiness and perseverance in surmounting the temptations with which we are assailed in adversity. But when the smallest temptation which we meet with dislodges this doctrine from our minds, it is manifest that we have not yet been truly and in good earnest convinced of its truth.
Besides, Satan has numberless artifices by which he dazzles our eyes and bewilders the mind; and then the confusion of things which prevails in the world produces so thick a mist, as to render it difficult for us to see through it, and to come to the conclusion that God governs and extends his care to things here below. The ungodly for the most part triumph; and although they deliberately stir up God to anger and provoke his vengeance, yet from his sparing them, it seems as if they had done nothing amiss in deriding him, and that they will never be called to account for it. (149) On the other hand, the righteous, pinched with poverty, oppressed with many troubles, harassed by multiplied wrongs, and covered with shame and reproach, groan and sigh: and in proportion to the earnestness with which they exert themselves in endeavoring to do good to all men, is the liberty which the wicked have the effrontery to take in abusing their patience. When such is the state of matters, where shall we find the person who is not sometimes tempted and importuned by the unholy suggestion, that the affairs of the world roll on at random, and as we say, are governed by chance? (150) This unhallowed imagination has doubtless obtained complete possession of the minds of the unbelieving, who are not illuminated by the Spirit of God, and thereby led to elevate their thoughts to the contemplation of eternal life. Accordingly, we see the reason why Solomon declares, that since “all things come alike to all, and there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked,” the hearts of the sons of men are full of impiety and contempt of God, (Ecc 9:2😉 — the reason is, because they do not consider that things apparently so disordered are under the direction and government of God.
Some of the heathen philosophers discoursed upon, and maintained the doctrine of a Divine Providence; but it was evident from experience that they had notwithstanding no real and thorough persuasion of its truth; for when things fell out contrary to their expectation, they openly disavowed what they had previously professed. (151) Of this we have a memorable example in Brutus. We can hardly conceive of a man surpassing him in courage, and all who intimately knew him bore testimony to his distinguished wisdom. Being of the sect of the Stoic philosophers, he spake many excellent things in commendation of the power and providence of God; and yet when at length vanquished by Antony, he cried out, that whatever he had believed concerning virtue had no foundation in truth, but was the mere invention of men, and that all the pains taken to live honestly and virtuously was only so much lost labor, since fortune rules over all the affairs of mankind. Thus this personage, who was distinguished for heroic courage, and an example of wonderful resolution, in renouncing virtue, and under the name of it cursing God, shamefully fell away. Hence it is manifest, how the sentiments of the ungodly fluctuate with the fluctuation of events. And how can it be expected that the heathen, who are not regenerated by the Spirit of God, should be able to resist such powerful and violent assaults, when even God’s own people have need of the special assistance of his grace to prevent the same temptation from prevailing in their hearts, and when they are sometimes shaken by it and ready to fall; even as David here confesses, that his steps had well nigh slipped? But let us now proceed to the consideration of the words of the psalm.
1. Yet God is good to Israel. The adverb אך, (152) ach, does not here imply a simple affirmation certainly, as it often does in other places, but is taken adversatively for yet, notwithstanding, or some similar word. David opens the psalm abruptly; and from this we learn, what is worthy of particular notice, that before he broke forth into this language, his mind had been agitated with many doubts and conflicting suggestions. As a brave and valiant champion, he had been exercised in very painful struggles and temptations; but, after long and arduous exertion, he at length succeeded in shaking off all perverse imaginations, and came to the conclusion that yet God is gracious to his servants, and the faithful guardian of their welfare. Thus these words contain a tacit contrast between the unhallowed imaginations suggested to him by Satan, and the testimony in favor of true religion with which he now strengthens himself, denouncing, as it were, the judgment of the flesh, in giving place to misgiving thoughts with respect to the providence of God. We see then how emphatic is this exclamation of the Psalmist. He does not ascend into the chair to dispute after the manner of the philosophers, and to deliver his discourse in a style of studied oratory; but, as if he had escaped from hell, he proclaims, with a loud voice, and with impassioned feeling, that he had obtained the victory. To teach us by his own example the difficulty and arduousness of the conflict, he opens, so to speak, his heart and bowels, and would have us to understand something more than is expressed by the words which he employs. The amount of his language is, that although God, to the eye of sense and reason, may seem to neglect his servants, yet he always embraces them with his favor. He celebrates the providence of God, especially as it is extended towards genuine saints; to show them, not only that they are governed by God in common with other creatures, but that he watches over their welfare with special care, even as the master of a family carefully provides for and attends to his own household. God, it is true, governs the whole world; but he is graciously pleased to take a more close and peculiar inspection of his Church, which he has undertaken to maintain and defend.
This is the reason why the prophet speaks expressly of Israel; and why immediately after he limits this name to those who are right of heart; which is a kind of correction of the first sentence; for many proudly lay claim to the name of Israel, as if they constituted the chief members of the Church, while they are but Ishmaelites and Edomites. David, therefore, with the view of blotting out from the catalogue of the godly all the degenerate children of Abraham, (153) acknowledges none to belong to Israel but such as purely and uprightly worship God; as if he had said, “When I declare that God is good to his Israel, I do not mean all those who, resting contented with a mere external profession, bear the name of Israelites, to which they have no just title; but I speak of the spiritual children of Abraham, who consecrate themselves to God with sincere affection of heart.” Some explain the first clause, God is good to Israel, as referring to his chosen people; and the second clause, to those who are right of heart, as referring to strangers, to whom God would be gracious, provided they walked in true uprightness. But this is a frigid and forced interpretation. It is better to adhere to that which I have stated. David, in commending the goodness of God towards the chosen people and the Church, was under the necessity of cutting off from their number many hypocrites who had apostatised from the service of God, and were, therefore, unworthy of enjoying his fatherly favor. To his words corresponds the language of Christ to Nathanael, (Joh 1:47,) “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” As the fear of God among the Jews was at that time well nigh extinguished, and there remained among them almost nothing else but the “circumcision made with hands,” that is to say, outward circumcision, Christ, to discriminate between the true children of Abraham and hypocrites, lays it down as a distinguishing characteristic of the former, that they are free from guile. And assuredly in the service of God, no qualification is more indispensable than uprightness of heart.
(149) “ Il semble qu’ils ont bon marche de se mocquer de luy, et qu’il n’en sera autre chose.” — Fr.
(150) “ Que le monde tourne a l’aventure, et (comme on dit) est gouverne par fortune ?” — Fr.
(151) “ Ce poinct de doctrine, lequel ils avoyent fait mine de tenir bien resoluement.” — Fr. “This doctrine, which they had made a show of holding very resolutely.”
(152) This particle here expresses the state of mind of a person meditating a difficult question in which he is much interested, and is hardly come to a conclusion; — a state, in the Psalmist’s case, between hope and despair, though strongly inclining to the former.” — Horsley.
(153) “ Ceux qui estans descendus d’Abraham n’ensuyvoyent point sa sainctete.” — Fr. “Those who being descended from Abraham did not follow his holiness.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
GODS WAYS JUSTIFIED
Psalms 73
IN presenting this chapter it is well for us to recall the fact that the Book of the Psalms is divided into five parts; in other words, it is a Pentateuch. Book I, covering chapters 1 to 41; Book II, chapters 42 to 72; Book III, chapters 73 to 89; Book IV, chapters 90 to 106; Book V. chapters 107 to 150.
It has been supposed also by some that the Pentateuch of the Psalms presents the spiritual side of the Mosaic Pentateuch. The first Book reveals man a sinner in need of salvation; the second Book presents the way of redemption; the third Book suggests holiness; the fourth Book, militant service; and the fifth Book, the shift from Law to Grace.
We should note also in this study the circumstance that we deal with a new author. Many people imagine that David wrote all the Psalms; not at all so; the Psalms claim a number of authors. One of the greatest of them all was penned by Moses, the ninetieth Psalm; and the greater portion of this Book, the third, chapters seventy-three to eighty-three, is attributed to Asaph, as is also the fiftieth Psalm.
There is to be found also in this Psalm, in the original language, one of the stones of stumbling over which modernism has tripped again and again, namely, the almost constant use of the word Elohim in reference to God. The references here are Elohistic rather than Jahvistic; a fact which would not bear the claim of a composite authorship, for those portions that introduce different names for God, but would only suggest the more limited range of words on the part of its author. We shall not attempt at this time to treat the entire third Book, or the chapters 73 to 89, containing Asaphs great contributions to the incomparable psaltery.
For the present, we call your attention to the 73rd, or the opening Psalm in this section. Different writers naturally effect different divisions of the Psalm and draw different suggestions from it. Beyond all question, Asaph passed through the identical experience that many keen observers have had. He looked on the prosperity of the wicked and compared the same with the sufferings of certain righteous ones that he knew, and the comparison wrought havoc with his faith, and he came to doubt the goodness of God, and almost to wonder whether there was a God! But further investigation proved the error of any such conclusion; and when he sees the more complete truth he feels called upon to give his fellows the benefit of his discovery; and, with the enthusiasm of one who has come into the light, he breaks upon us with the declaration, Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. And then he rehearses the black night through which he has walked, saying, But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. And he tells us why! He had founded it all on
THE PROSPERITY OF THE CRIMINAL
He says,
I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked,
For there are no bands in their death; but their strength is firm.
They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High?
Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
In studying these verses one is impressed with several suggestions:
The prosperity of the wicked is offensively evident. Pride compasseth them about as a golden chain adorns their bodies; and violence covereth them as did their body garments. Their eyes stand out with fatness, indicative of feasting. They have more than heart could wish; suggestion of needless surplus! They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression, and even loftily, as if there were no judgment for them.
We all know the kind herein described. We, like the Psalmist, have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. It is doubtful if there is any feature of life that has produced more infidelity, or so effectively disturbed society, and excited those baser elements of jealousy, hatred, envy, contempt, than this parading of prosperity on the part of the wicked. At this present moment England is in a bad way, so far as employment is concerned; and her statesmen of genius are seriously engaged in trying to discover a solution of the labor problem.
Beyond all question the man described in the text has complicated that problem to the point of greatest difficulty. Newell Dwight Hillis, in one of his books, tells the story of an expensive strike in Englands history. The miners of a certain coal field had suffered a severe cut in wages. They had met and, after due counsel, had decided to accept it, though it would take some of their children out of school and require them to live without meat at the dinner meal. They appointed their committee to appear in the conference of the day following, and announce the consent to the cut; but when the hour of the conference arrived the owner of the mines appeared in a liveried carriage, footman in place, prancing horses decorated with gold-plated harness; and at the sight of his elegance and needless expenditure, the committee thought of the starving wives and uneducated children, and reversed the decision, and reported that they would not furnish footmen and gold-plated harness for his horses as against three meals a day for our wives and school for our children; we will not surrender. The ensuing strike cost England $25,000, 000; and, to this day the chief difficulty in that land is the essential difference between the riches of the rich and the poverty of the poor; and the fact that the former have too long paraded their opulence in the faces of the latter.
When one sees this as clearly as I saw it in Antrim County, Ireland, this past year where Lord Antrim owns almost all the country and where hundreds of men were lined up, as we passed, to receive their daily dole, that they might live at all, he can understand why Asaph, studying a kindred sight, was made a skeptic.
Asaph noted further that this man seemed to face the future without fear. There are no band in their death; little trouble in this life. He seemed to be freed from the plagues of other men. Sometimes it is so. It was so with Dives! He went his way in opulence. He looked askance at the Lazarus who lay at the gate, and instead of pitying his sores, prided himself that he did not have them. He felt all the physical superiority that was boasted by the Pharisee, and doubtless thanked God that he was not as this man.
This phrase, There are no bands in their death in this translation is a bit difficult to understand. It seems that they lived without conscience and would die without fear. And, often it is so! Some of you will remember the tragedy that took place on this street, three blocks beyond this church, when a young bandit, having succeeded in robbing the filling station on two Saturday nights, attempted it a third time, to find two policemen in hiding and ready to meet his demand for money. When he drew his pistol and put it in the face of the young man in charge, and demanded the receipts of the day, those policemen shot him down. With a sardonic smile on his face, and a wave of the hand, he said, You win; I die! There are no hands in their death: but their strength is firm.
That is not so mysterious as seems. When a man comes to believe that there is no God, and consequently no future, and no possible judgment, he can face death in his unfaith, and without fear. But that no more proves that the future holds a further peaceful existence for him than the comfortable death of a drowning man demonstrates that death is not real.
Doubtless Asaph had finally thought this through and so the failure of his former perplexity is made plain.
But Asaph makes a further charge against the wicked.
He says, He even dares to defy God. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. * * And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches (Psa 73:9; Psa 73:11-12).
Oftentimes the very favor of God becomes the occasion of ones infidelity. We have in America a man who has made his tens of thousands as an author. God gave to him his being, endowed him with a healthy body, and bestowed upon him an active, efficient brain. Instead of recognizing God as the Author of these good gifts, he imagines himself an evolved monkey, and is extremely proud of the position to which he has come, and once publicly challenged God to prove His existence and power by daring to strike him dead.
Since God did not descend to the challenge and stain His holy hands with the smiting, he concluded that God does not exist, and employs his literary pen in producing books that are said, by those who know his personal life, to be a perfect reflection of his own course and conduct; but instead of making confession, he charges that conduct against the ministry and the church; holding in contempt the teachings of the Bible, he jokes about Heaven and laughs at hell!
Dean Farrar was a professed liberal, and has been claimed by the Universalists; but in speaking one day to the Cambridge students, he said: Does the denial of hell abolish it? Can we be so very certain that there is no hereafter, seeing that here indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish fall upon every soul of man that doeth evil; seeing that the Scriptures, from beginning to end, blaze like the walls of Belshazzars palace with messages of doom; seeing that God hath declared His wrath against sin as clearly as though He had engraven it upon the sun or written it in stars upon the midnight sky? This presumptuous ease about the after life; this growing indifference to the thought of future punishment; this philosophy which is so treacherous and so timid, seems to me, and I say it deliberately, at once an aberration of the intellect and an infatuation of the will. Oh, better surely that a sinner should tremble with agony, as the last leaves of the aspen shudder in the late autumnal wind, than that he should thus falsely presume that he knows more of God than God Himself. The Psalmist is not mistaken when he writes, The face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
But Asaph was further disturbed by
THE PROBLEM OF COMPARISON
He seemed to see the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency (Psa 73:12-13).
Who has not seen it so? Practically every community holds at least one prospered criminal, and one suffering saint. Yea, more; and if one got his eyes upon the individual case, he might easily be disturbed by what he sees.
But is this a just view of society or judgment of God? Is it not, rather, the exercise of envy a hated attribute not supposed to be found with believers at all? Leave it to Caligula to slay his brother because he is more beautiful than himself. Leave it to Mutius, the Roman, whose envious, malevolent disposition, was such that one day, when Publius passed him, and noted his sad countenance, he said, Either some great evil has happened to Mutius or some great good has happened to another! Plutarch said of Dionysius, the tyrant, that he punished Philoxenius, the musician, because he could sing better than himself; while Cambyses killed his brother Smerdis because he could draw a stronger bow than himself.
We have yet to meet one single Christian who was envious of the prosperity of others and yet reminded us of Christ, or who was full of complaint concerning his own misfortune, and yet impressed us with his Christianity.
Asaph complained that he had been grossly misunderstood. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. If I say, I will speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation of Thy children.
This also is a reflection upon the Psalmist rather than upon society. Some people are always misunderstood. All across America, at this moment, there are bickerings in the household of believers and many hearts are bleeding in consequence of a certain book published a bit ago by a man whose position demanded that his utterances should be Scriptural. His book has been most unfavorably received and its teachings criticised by the best informed Bible students in all the land. The author therefore, is filled with complaints that he is misunderstood. He believes himself to be misrepresented, and his standard maligned. But again, this spirit is a reflection upon himself, as in the case of Asaph, rather than against society or believing brethren.
Asaph still further contends that the whole problem of life becomes painful for him. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me (Psa 73:16).
It would have been most unfortunate for this psalm not to have been written; it so accurately describes the mental processes of so many people, and even people who profess faith in God and in His Word.
Victor Hugo, in Les Miserables, tells us of how Jean Valjean finally got bewildered in mind, confused in intellect, and of him he says, Sometimes in the midst of his work in the galleys he would stop and begin to think. His reason, more mature, and at the same time, perturbed more than formerly, would revolt. All that had happened to him would appear absurd; all that surrounded him would appear impossible. He would say to himself, It is a dream. He would look at the jailer standing a few steps from him, and imagine him a phantom, when all at once the phantom would give him a blow with a stick. For him the external world had scarcely an existence. It would be almost true to say that for Jean Valjean there was no sun, no beautiful summer days, no radiant sky; no fresh April dawn, some dim window light was all that shone in his soul.
We know people who are Jeans spiritual counterparts. They seem confused; for them the sun does not shine; the moon is darkened and the stars are smitten and life is a painful round. Life for them is one prolonged agony, and speech only an expression of pain, and breaths are but sighs.
It is interesting, therefore, to watch this man work his way out into the light again; and to study the process by which he reached
THE PROPER CONCLUSION
When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;
Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
Surely Thou didst set them in slippery places: Thou castedst them down into destruction.
How are they brought into desolation, as in a, moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.
As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise their image.
Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.
So foolish was I, and ignorant; I was as a beast before Thee.
Nevertheless I am continually with Thee: Thou hast holden me by my right hand (Psa 73:16-23).
This part of the Scripture is full of spiritual suggestion and soul profit.
It was in the sanctuary that he was shown the way. For how many millions of men has the sanctuary, the holy place, the house of God, become the place of enlightenment. I was preaching in a theatre in this city, some twenty-five years ago. It was a secular place temporarily converted into a sanctuary. A young man of Jewish belief casually dropped in because it was the noon hour; his meal was over, and the work time was not yet. Twenty years later he bore his testimony, It was in that meeting that I saw the way out of the wretched life that I was leading, and from that time I have walked in a path of sexual purity.
It was in a church in Indiana thirty-five years ago that I lectured one night, but introduced into the lecture a spiritual appeal. Fully one-fourth of a century later one came to me and said, Up to that time I had been addicted to liquor; but in the sanctuary that night I saw the better way.
It was less than a year ago that a letter came to my desk. It rehearsed a life of sin and consequent failure, a sinking of heart and a decision to suicide. But on the way to the river, which was open, being early spring, the house of God was passed, and the man said, I thought I had best go in and see what could be said to one who had lost all hope. I entered; you preached; the Word laid hold upon my heart. I saw my folly and determined to live, and to live as God would have me live.
Oh, how much the sanctuary has meant to men! How many millions have seen the way there who would never have seen it had the sanctuary not been, or had their folly kept them from entering.
The Literary Digest of January 19, 1929, carries an article from the pen of Ward Adair, Editor of the Railway Men, a monthly publication of the New York Central lines, written for the Homiletical Review, on Shall I Leave the Church? It is worthy of the perusal of any man, and especially of the young man. Adair says this, Frankly, I am disappointed with many things about the church. I find her program lacking in grasp and aggressiveness, her methods bungling and unintelligent, her leadership inadequate, and her opportunities bigger than she is able to cope with. And then he adds, When I can find a superior organization to supplant the Christian Church of the present day, I will feel it both my duty and my privilege to leave an institution that is marred by imperfections, and give time, effort, and allegiance to the newer and better instrument for the welfare of the human family, and for the bringing of the kingdom of God on earth. And further, If the brilliant minds in the realm of atheism, agnosticism, indifferentism, and simple nonconformity, would unite their powers to invent a new and better agency, it would not seem altogether impossible, with the boundless increase of enlightenment which the centuries have brought, to improve vastly upon the loosely organized and poorly managed organization which twelve ignorant men brought into being nineteen centuries ago. But he declares finally, Such a preferable institution seems far from easy. * * It might not be unjust to say that the visible prospect of success is not one whit more in evidence than it was five hundred years ago.
Then, if the sanctuary is the best we have, let us patronize it; and if it is not what it ought to be, let us make our personal contribution and improve it. If it is true today, as it was then, that men, who, in their meanderings, are lost seldom or never find their way, save in the sanctuary, let us do our part to get them within the sacred walls.
It was then that he understood the justice of Gods judgments. It is in the sanctuary that one gets not only a clear, but a more extensive view of Gods dealings with men, for the sanctuary holds the history of at least six thousand years, and as one sees the books opened and the inspired penman pictures the past, he finds that God is in His world and that His judgments are just. The day that Cain killed Abel it seemed as if the wicked had triumphed; but when judgment came upon Cain his cry was, My punishment is greater than I can bear. There was a day when it looked as though Haman, the wicked was favored beyond Mordecai, the righteous and loyal Jew; but time exchanged their positions and Mordecai came into the Kings favor and Haman hung on his own gallows. There was a time when it looked like Absalom, the rebel, the ingrate, the parasite, was the prospered man in all the land, and the popular idol of the people; but there came a day when that young beauty hung between earth and sky, dead in his dishonor; and David, Gods man, while sorrow-stricken, was saved. There was a time when Dives, the prospered wicked, came out his front gate and either turned his head that he might not see the festering form of the righteous Lazarus, or turned upon him a contemptuous stare; but there came a day when Dives, the first, was in hell, and in torment, and Lazarus, the second, was in blessed peace in Abrahams bosom.
There is a better reason for having the righteous holy come out ahead in works of fiction than the mere attempt to gratify the reader. Fiction is only popular in proportion as it reflects fact, and the observing writer knows that facts favor the justification of the righteous and the condemnation of the wicked. The man who stands before a good mirror always sees the reflection of his own face; but the man who looks into the mirror of history sees not so much the reflection of Gods face as he does the record of Gods just judgment; and where is there such history; history so clear; history so dependable as in the sanctuary? The pulpit Bible is the best mirror of mans history found in existence. The histories that Wells and Van Loon have contributed to the world reflect the infidelity of their own brains and are composed of fiction vs. fact; but the history that was started by Moses and completed by John, reviews the life struggle of man as perfectly as Lake Louise, on a glorious day, reflects the mountains that stand on either side. That is one reason that the Bible has been the basis of true faith, the guide in conduct, the monitor of character, and finally the solution of lifes problems and the justification of the Divine orders.
In this truth the Psalmist found both rebuke and blessing. The rebuke was felt first and the Psalmist voices it after this manner,
So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.
Nevertheless I am continually with Thee: Thou hast holden me by my right hand.
Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to Glory.
Whom have I in Heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
For, lo, they that are far from Thee shall perish: Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from Thee.
But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that L may declare all Thy works (Psa 73:22-28).
The man who can sing after that manner is the man who need not fear. Like the morning, or the heart of the noon-day, or the darkness that follows the sundown, he can join with Horatio Bonar in saying, and even singing,
O wondrous day!
Gods day, not mans, as heretofore;
Christs hour, not Satans as before;
When right shall all be might,
And might shall all be right;
And truth, for ages sorely tried,
By error mocked, reviled, defied,
No longer on the losing side,
Shall celebrate its victory,
And wave its ancient palm on high;
When good and ill unmixed flow on for ever,
Each in its distant channel fixed,
An everlasting river!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
INTRODUCTION
Superscription.A Psalm of Asaph, or, as in the margin, for Asaph. See introduction to Psalms 50.
Subject.The mental difficulties arising from the contemplation of the temporal prosperity of the wicked and the adversity of the righteous under the government of God. The Psalm is very nearly related to the 37 and 49, as far as its contents are concerned. Amyraldus took quite a correct view as to what distinguishes it from these Psalms, and forms its individual physiognomy. In Psalms 37 the prophet merely shows how believers ought to conduct themselves when they perceive the prosperity of the ungodly: he himself did not stumble at it. But here Asaph, though a great and pious man, acknowledges that the providence of God in this respect did sometimes appear to him mysterious, and that he felt great difficulty in justifying it. Yea, from the beginning of this Psalm we see how he merged out of the deep thoughts into which his spirit, agitated and vexed by doubts, had sunk, until, in the end, better views obtained the ascendancy. He has adopted this method in order that believers might contemplate, as in a picture, the conflict to which at times they are exposed, and might see what weapons they have to seise against the assaults of the flesh.Hengstenberg.
THE GOOD MANS CONFIDENCE OF GODS GOODNESS TO HIS PEOPLE
(Psa. 73:1.)
I. He indicates the character of Gods people.
Israel, such as are of a clean heart. The Psalmist held that they were not all Israel which were of Israel; neither because they were the seed of Abraham were they all children. He speaks not of those who were Israelites merely according to the flesh, but of those who in spirit and principle and conduct were Israelites indeed. The true Israelite was clean not only ceremonially, but also spiritually. So now the people of God are not those who merely claim to be the elect of God, or those who merely profess and call themselves Christians, or those who merely say unto Jesus Christ, Lord, Lord; but those who do the will of the Father which is in heaven. God requires of His people truth in the inward parts.
1. Mans heart by nature it impure.
2. God has provided means for the purification of mans heart. (Isa. 1:18; Zec. 13:1; 1Jn. 1:7-9.)
3. God requires man to avail himself of these means. (Isa. 1:16; 1Th. 4:7; Heb. 12:14.)
4. The true people of God are complying with this requirement.
II. He asserts Gods special goodness to His people.
God is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works; but He is especially good to His own people. This may be seen in that,
1. He over-rules all circumstances and events for their well-being. Mercies and afflictions shall turn to their good; the most poisonous drugs shall be medicinal; the most cross providence shall carry on the design of their salvation. All things work together for good to them that love God.
2. He guides and sustains them in this life (Psa. 73:23-24). In the cloudy and dark day He leads them wisely and safely, and when lifes burden seems greater than their strength can bear, He makes His grace to abound unto them.
3. He Himself is their everlasting portion and joy (Psa. 73:25-26). His presence breathes peace within them even amidst outward agitation and conflict, fills their heart with supernal music even amidst the most hoarse and tumultuous voices of the world, and so enriches their being that they feel that they have all things in Him.
4. He will receive them into ever-increasing glory (Psa. 73:24). The fulness of life and treasure, of joy and blessedness, which is reserved in heaven for them, is unspeakably great. Truly God is good to Israel. This Asaph had once doubted, sadly and painfully doubted. Now he doubts it no longer, but asserts it with the clear accent of deep conviction. He is confident that God is thus good to Israel,
1. Notwithstanding all appearances tending to an opposite conclusion (Psa. 73:3-14.)
2. Notwithstanding his own dark doubts (Psa. 73:3; Psa. 73:11; Psa. 73:13).
3. As may be proved satisfactorily to men of sincere heart by many considerations, e.g., () Our ignorance (Psa. 73:22). We see only a small part of His ways. () The brevity of the prosperity of the wicked (Psa. 73:18-19). () The vast superiority of the portion of the good man (Psa. 73:23-26). It is superior in its nature, duration, &c.
THE TEMPORAL PROSPERITY OF THE WICKED
(Psa. 73:2-14.)
I. The temporal prosperity of the wicked is sometimes clearly manifest.
1. In their exemption from trouble. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. It is not unfrequently the case that men who are living selfish and sinful lives appear enjoy to complete immunity from the sufferings and trials to which the great majority of men are subjected. It almost seems as though there had been some special interposition of Providence in their favour, warding away from them the ills that flesh is heir to. They are the most ill-deserving, yet they have the best portion. To unaided human reason this is an inexplicable anomaly; but to the meek believer there ariseth light in the darkness. There are stones which are so common that no lapidary will attempt to cut or polish them into brilliance and beauty. There are others which they manipulate with fond care and patient enthusiasm. Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, &c.
2. In the gratification of their desires. Their eyes stand out with fatness; they have more than heart could wish. Their luxury and self-indulgence are so great that they are manifest in their countenance, and especially in their eyes. The face, that index of the soul, proclaims to all observers the nature of their portion and its plenteousness. They fare sumptuously every day. The crumbs which fall from their table would be a feast in the eyes of many a poor saint. Their wishes are gratified, and more; their very greediness is exceeded; they call for water, and the world gives them milk; they ask for hundreds, and thousands are lavished at their feet.
3. In the increase of their possessions. They prosper in the world; they increase in riches. They are like the rich man whose grounds brought forth so plentifully that he had not where to bestow his fruits and goods. Their harvests are not injured by blight or mildew or storm; their vessels are not wrecked at sea; their business is not ruined by losses or the failures of other men. Swiftly and surely they increase in riches. Such was the temporal prosperity of the wicked which met the eye, and arrested the attention, and troubled the soul of the Psalmist. It was unmistakably great and manifest.
II. The temporal prosperity of the wicked is sometimes continued even to the very end of life.
It might have been thought that as they drew near to the end of life their peace and pleasure would have been exchanged for anxiety and pain; and that their death would be marked by remorse and dread. But there are no bands in their death; but their strength is firm, Their prosperity apparently endures to the very last moment of their life in this world. They have lived in pleasure, and they die in peace. Their spiritual sensibilities are so blunted that death and eternity make no impression upon them. Or their hearts have become hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Or they delude themselves with false hopes, and believe a lie.
III. The temporal prosperity of the wicked has an injurious effect upon their character.
1. It generates pride. Pride compasseth them about as a chain; they speak loftily. Their temporal prosperity awoke in them no feeling of gratitude, no humble sense of want of desert; but a conceited notion and feeling that they were incomparably superior to other men. When prosperity humbles us with the feeling of our unworthiness it is truly a blessing; when it leads us to ask, What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits to me? it is enriching our souls. But when by reason of it we are inflated with presumption and pride it becomes to us a great curse. How vain and mistaken is pride of wealth even in the man of greatest possessions!
2. It generates tyranny and violence. Violence covereth them as a garment; they speak wickedly concerning oppression. Their own prosperity, which should have made them generous and kind to the unfortunate, made them violent and tyrannical. Violence was their habit; they wore it as a garment. They oppressed the poor, and, so far from feeling ashamed of themselves for so doing, or having any misgivings as to their conduct, they boasted of it, they gloried in it. They were tyrannical, and paraded their tyranny. They were cruel, and exulted in their cruelty. Such conduct reveals the meanness and cowardice of their nature, and stamps them as belonging to the basest and blackest of the race of evil-doers.
3. It generates blasphemy. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. So far are they from acknowledging God as the Author of their prosperity that they speak against Him. They are so puffed up that they imagine themselves independent of God and masters of the world; and they blaspheme His name. Surely such sinnersproud, oppressive, violent, blasphemous sinnersare ripening for destruction. Sure as there is justice in the universe, sooner or later it must smite them, unless they turn from their evil way. They are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. The temporal prosperity of these men is not to blame for their wickedness. In the nature of prosperity itself there is nothing fitted to deprave human character. On the other hand, it has often been the means of great spiritual blessing. Nor in granting such prosperity does God design the corruption or hardening of human hearts. All His designs aim at human blessedness. It is the depraved heart of man that perverts the blessing of temporal prosperity and educes so much evil from it. Sinful man can pervert the bread of life into rankest poison, and even turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.
IV. The temporal prosperity of the wicked is a great trial to the people of God.
1. It generates painful doubts concerning Him. As they reflect upon the prosperity of these wicked men they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? Can it be that God sees all this prosperity and all this wickedness, and yet allows it? If He knew these apparently great anomalies which perplex and distress His people, would He not prevent them? It is difficult at times for a thoughtful mind to believe in the omniscience of an Almighty and righteous and good God. And the contemplation of good men suffering, and outrageously wicked men triumphing, frequently occasions such doubt.
2. It generates doubts as to the value of religion. Asaph felt that he had cleansed his heart in vain, and washed his hands in innocency in vain. It seemed to him that it was of no use that he had striven after purity in his inner and outer life.
3. Occasions great sorrow to them. His people return hither, and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. They returned again and again to the contemplation of this subject, and as often as they returned they would drink deep draughts of sorrow. The mysteries of Providence are sometimes painful to believers; and when faith is sorely tried in any matter that pertains to God, great is the grief of His people. Asaph was frequently and greatly afflicted. All the day long he was plagued, and chastened every morning; while the proud rebels were exulting in their prosperity.
4. Imperils their spiritual safety. The Psalmist felt that his feet were almost gone, his steps had well-nigh slipped. His faith almost failed him in his great trial; unbelief was almost victorious.
CONCLUSION.
1. Let those who are prospering temporally learn to grasp their blessings with a grateful hand, and to dispense them with a generous hand, lest they become a curse to them.
2. Let the proud sinner humble himself penitently before God and sue for mercy ere it is too late.
3. Let the perplexed saint learn with patience to wait till God explains the mysteries of His government. What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.
CRISES IN THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
(Psa. 73:2.)
Considering these crises as illustrated by this of Asaphs, we remark
I. That they are sometimes occasioned by the providence of God. It was so in the case before us. Nearly every thoughtful person has felt the difficulty which perplexed the Psalmist. So also when useful and valued lives are cut off in the midst of their days, while hoary-headed sinners are left cumbering the ground, or afflicted saints who long for release are left to linger here in pain;or when generous and diligently prosecuted plans of usefulness end in apparent failure, while selfish and evil projects succeed, our faith in the government of God is sorely shaken. Ah! there are times when the working out of the arrangements of Providence leads us to cry out, How doth God know? &c. At such times nothing seems real, everything eludes our grasp, we can obtain no sure footing, &c.
These crises of the inner life are sometimes occasioned by temptations in business, or in society, or in solitude; the temptation is real, has great influence over us, we are on the point of yielding, our feet are almost gone, &c.
II. That they are painful to the soul. Asaph tried to overcome his doubts and fears, but his speculations were all baffled, his reason was overmatched, and his heart was pained. His greatest suffering was in this, that he was perplexed in reference to his God. To a true man doubt as to Gods character and government is ever a distressing thing. Only fools glory in doubting, criticising, and denying the great truths which are the stay of human hearts. He who parades his doubts has never experienced true faith, and his doubts are unreal or he could not parade them. Such sham doubts never cause any spiritual crises. The doubts of a living soul are faith in conflict with difficulties, faith fighting against such aspects and interpretations of life, and against such arguments that threaten her life. Such struggles of faith are always painful. To the sincere soul to doubt Gods wisdom, righteousness, and love, is unspeakable anguish.
III. That they are surmounted in communion with God. In drawing near to God the Psalmist received such revelations as strengthened his faith and hope, and such inspirations as gave calmness and joy to his heart (Psa. 73:17). In fellowship with God mental difficulties vanish, temptations lose their power, spiritual perils cease. The meek will He guide in judgment, &c. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, &c. Such as are of a clean heart will surely pass victoriously from the darkness and pain of doubt into the light and joy of assured confidence.
Perplext in faith, but pure in deeds,
At last he beats his music out.
Take your doubts to God, tell Him of your temptations, hide yourself in Him in the time of danger, and you will come out of every trial and crisis of your inner life more than conqueror.
Our subject urges the importance of
1. Watchfulness, lest we fall.
2. Maintaining purity of heart and righteousness of life. Integrity, truthfulness, love, are ever right and beautiful. In the densest mental darkness cleave to these things. If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine, &c.
3. Seeking fellowship with the best and highest, especially with God Himself. If trouble, and doubt, and pain send us into the sanctuary of God to seek help, they will prove blessings in disguise. If the great trials of our spiritual life are the means of bringing us nearer to the heart of God, they will turn out to be our greatest blessings.
THE VALUE OF DYING EXPERIENCES
(Psa. 73:4.)
The calm deaths of the wicked perplexed the Psalmist. They not only lived in pleasure; they also died with ease. Let us consider The Value of Dying Experiences
I. The calm death of the wicked is no proof of Divine support. Such calmness may arise from
1. Unconcern. Their spiritual susceptibilities may be so blunted, and their spiritual faculties so enervated, that they have no lively apprehensions of the spiritual and eternal state though they are so near to it. Conscience may be cold and dead, so that when the man comes to die he is utterly callous to the unseen things of Gods other world, and his friends say that he died like a lamb. Like brutes they live, like brutes they die. Such a death may be quiet, but it is unspeakably terrible. Such unconcern is more deplorable than wild alarm. Think of the man when the unconcern is broken!
2. Hardihood. Careless persons become case-hardened, and continue presumptuously secure even to the last. There have been persons so hardened in profanity and crime that they have determined, to quote their own words, to die game. Lord Byron asked, Shall I sue for mercy? After a long pause he added, Come, come, no weakness, lets be a man to the last
3. False and presumptuous hopes in Divine mercy. We have known persons who have neglected God and His service all their life, and who, when remonstrated with have said, God is merciful; if when we come to die we ask Him to save us, He will do so. And in such a state they have died. But theirs was not Christian faith or hope, but sinful presumption. And they encouraged the presumption until they accepted the delusion as reality, and believed the lie to be true (Pro. 11:7).
II. Shrinking and fear on the part of the righteous as they approach death are no proof that the divine support is withdrawn.
In the last hours, pain and a sense of the solemnity of the great change may be a sore trial to the child of God. Our Lord Himself as He drew near to death cried out in mysterious and awful anguish of spirit. We need not then be surprised if His humble followers cry out as they draw near to the awful bourn.This point is admirably illustrated in Christian and Hopeful passing through the river of death, in Bunyans Pilgrims Progress.
III. The most precious religious testimonies of the dying are poor compared with the testimony of a useful and godly life.
I would not in the least undervalue the testimonies of dying men to the truth of Christianity, or to the faithfulness of God, or to the preciousness of Christ. To loving friends and relatives such testimonies are unspeakably precious. Some of these testimonies are held as a sacred possession by the Christian Church at large. (See an excellent collection of them in The Dict. of Illus. Prose, Dickinson.) But we hold that they are not to be compared with the testimony of the life. What are a few dying words, however beautiful and precious, to years of holy living and useful working? Moreover, the mental state of the dying is often affected by the nature of the disease, or by the medicines administered.
1. Learn to estimate truly the worth of death-bed scenes and testimonies. A quiet death is no more a proof of Gods favour than a life of temporal prosperity.
2. Learn to live devoutly and righteously, because so to live is the will of God.
A GREAT NECESSITY OF ALL MEN AND A GREAT MISTAKE OF SOME MEN
(Psa. 73:13.)
I. A great necessity of all men. Purity of heart and life. My heart, my inner life my hands, my outer life. Heart and hands represent spirit and conduct. Asaph had sincerely striven after purity in both. His words imply
1. Consciousness of impurity in heart and life.
2. Knowledge of a cleansing element or influence (Isa. 1:18; Zec. 13:1; Heb. 9:13-14; 1Jn. 1:7; 1Jn. 1:9).
3. Personal application of this element or influence. (Isa. 1:16; Rev. 7:14.)
II. A great mistake of some men. In vain. In this Asaph was mistaken; for,
1. In itself purity is better than impurity.
2. The desire and effort to attain purity enrich and strengthen the soul.
3. The reward of purity is spiritual, not material, and is largely realised in the present.
4. The reward of purity is to a great extent in the future.
THE TRANSITION OF A TROUBLED SOUL FROM CONFLICT TO VICTORY
(Psa. 73:15-17.)
The passage of the Poet from doubt to confidence as here set before us was marked by
I. Thoughtful consideration of others.
Asaph felt that, if he published his inward doubts, and made known the dark suggestions which occurred to him, and the painful experiences through which he passed, he would be acting wrongly towards Gods people. All his trouble he kept to himself, lest by making it known he should injure the children of God. Doubtless there are times when we may and even ought to speak of our mental perplexities. We may speak of them with a view of obtaining help to overcome them. To those who, by reason of large spiritual experience, or patient and devout study, or eminent piety, are able to assist us in solving the enigmas which perplex us, we may advantageously speak of our difficulties and doubts. We may speak of them with the view of affording help to others who may be engaged in the conflict. If we have overcome our difficulties and have entered into rest, the story of our battle and victory may nerve the heart of some brother who is fighting a similar battle. If we know such an one let us tell him of the trial of our faith, and how we overcame, and what God hath done for our soul. But we may not speak of them to those who are strangers to such questionings. Untold mischief may be the result if we do. We have no right to infect others with the doubts which distress us. And without this kindly consideration of others, which the Psalmist exercised, we shall not be likely to attain the victory over our own doubts. Let us be ever ready to speak wise and helpful words, which may tend to increase mens faith and hope; but let us bear our own pain in silence rather than obtain relief by communicating our doubts to those who are strangers to such experiences, and thereby injuring them perhaps irremediably.
O thou that after toil and storm
Mayst seem to have reachd a purer air,
Whose faith has centre everywhere,
Nor cares to fix itself to form;
Leave thou thy sister when she prays,
Her early Heaven, her happy views;
Nor thou with shadowd hint confuse
A life that leads melodious days.
Tennyson.
II. Personal effort for himself.
According to Psa. 73:16, the Psalmist made earnest efforts to overcome his mental difficulties, but without success. He looked at the subject in many aspects, he approached it from various directions, he considered carefully the respective portions of it, he reasoned with himself concerning it; but he could not overcome his doubts. His perplexities remained in full force. The enigma still confronted him, sphinx-like and distressing. Human reason is unable to fully understand the workings of Divine Providence. Its mysteries and seeming anomalies arouse many inquiries to which we are utterly unable to give any satisfactory response. We think to know this, but it is too painful for us. Nor is this surprising, when we consider
1. Our proneness to error. We are liable to err in judgment Our moral imperfections prevent us from obtaining clear views of spiritual truth. At times bodily suffering and mental distress lead us to meditate almost exclusively upon the pain and travail of life; we close our eyes to its brightness and beauty and joy. In all ages mankind has exhibited an extraordinary willingness to follow cunningly-devised fables; and even sincere truth-seekers have often wandered into strange districts of error and untruth.
2. The vast disparity between the student and the subject of investigation. We strive to comprehend eternal Providence, and justify the ways of God to man; and we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon the earth are as a shadow. The great plan of Gods government is so vast and complicated, it has already been in operation so long, it is destined to continue to operate so long, and the span of its operations is so wide that we can only see a very small portion of its working. In our endeavour to interpret His way and work we are speedily baffled and bewildered, while He calmly carries forward the development of His great plans and purposes, leaving us to work and wait with patience the unfolding of their significance. We see parts of His ways; but how little a portion is heard of Him? but the thunder of His power who can understand? Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare if thou hast understanding. O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!
3. The Divine reserve. Many things are intentionally hidden from us by God. Secret things belong unto the Lord our God. Clouds and darkness are round about Him. His way is in the sea, and His path in the great waters, and His footsteps are not known. Mystery is educational. It excites to inquiry and investigation. It promotes humility and reverence. Mystery is merciful. If the secret things were revealed to us the knowledge may be overwhelming. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
III. Approach unto God.
The Psalmist goes here with the feet of his heart into the sanctuary, draws near to God, and gets from this clear fountain the insight which natural reason could not give him. He sought fellowship with God, and in that fellowship he obtained the help which he needed. He entered the holy place of Divine communion, and there received such intelligence and inspiration as brought confidence and peace to his soul.
1. Light was imparted to him. The sinners portion and the saints heritage appeared to him in new and different aspects. He saw the perils which surround the wicked, and the fearful end which awaits them. He saw also the strong right hand that upholds, the infallible counsel that guides, and the exceeding glory that awaits the good; and he felt the vast superiority of the saints portion. Gods revelation in providence should be studied in the light which proceeds from His revelation in His Word.
2. His faith was increased. In communion with God Asaph saw clearly his own insufficiency and Gods all-sufficiency, and his faith grew strong. As he contemplated the revelations of the future which he received in the sanctuary of God his confidence waxed strong and triumphant. Communion with God imparts assurance and peace to the soul. In His presence doubt expires.
3. His heart was strengthened. He felt no longer pained and powerless, but strong and joyful. His troubled and almost-despairing wail has given place to a hymn of rest and gladness; for God is the Rock of his heart, and his portion for ever.
CONCLUSION.
1. Let those who boast themselves in the strength of their reason learn how insufficient it is to comprehend the ways of God.
2. Let the perplexed and troubled child of God learn to seek help in communion with his FatherGod.
3. Let us all cultivate a large and loyal trust in the providence of God. He doeth all things well.
Im apt to think, the man
That could surround the sum of things, and spy
The heart of God and secrets of His empire,
Would speak but love; with him the bright result
Would change the hue of intermediate scenes,
And make one thing of all theology.
Gambold.
THE PRESENT POSITION AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE WICKED AS SEEN BY THE SPIRITUALLY ENLIGHTENED MAN
(Psa. 73:18-20.)
I. Their present position is perilous.
Surely Thou didst set them in slippery places. The prosperity of the wicked is not a stable, abiding thing. Riches frequently make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. All temporal prosperity and wealth must be laid down at death. When the rich man dieth he shall carry nothing away. In the grave all are equal. The poor wretch who died homeless and penniless is no poorer there than kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves, or princes that had gold and filled their houses with silver. And even while their wealth and pleasure continue, wicked men stand in slippery places; no solid rock supports them; they have no firm footing; their very wealth may prove the occasion of their overthrow; their self-indulgence and luxury may lead to their utter and painful ruin. Surely their position is not an enviable one. Better far is it to travel our life-journey upon a rugged and thorny road so that it be safe and lead to a blessed destiny, than to walk as on velvet lawns amid the odours of sweetest flowers, in constant peril, and with certain and fearful destruction awaiting us in the end.
II. Their future prospects are terrible.
Destruction lies before them as their portion in the next world. In this life prosperity, in the next perdition. In this life purple and fine linen and sumptuous fare; in the next the robe of flame, and not even a drop of water to allay their burning thirst.
1. Their destruction will be complete. Thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. Notwithstanding their wealth, and pomp, and power, justice smites them sternly and ruinously. They are punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power.
2. Their destruction will be sudden. In a moment. When they shall say, peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. In the midst of their prosperity, when their cup of pleasure is fullest, and their power greatest, and their sense of security most confirmed, they are smitten down into destruction and cast into hell.
They fall as falls the oak
At once, and blasted by the thunder stroke.
3. Their destruction is effected by God. Thou castedst them down into destruction. Not by chance does their ruin come upon them, but as a destruction from the Almighty. God comes forth in judgment against them to punish them for their corruption and pride, their oppression and violence, their presumption and blasphemy. There is justice in the universe; under Gods government evildoers are punished. Though the execution of the sentence may be long delayed, it will take place in due time. Sinners must either be saved by God in His mercy, or be destroyed by Him in His justice.
4. Their destruction will make manifest the unreality of their former prosperity. Ungodly men who have their portion in this life are asleep and dreaming as regards the realities of the great spiritual world. To them truth, righteousness, love, their own souls, and the great God, are very unreal and shadowy. Their temporal possessions, pleasures, and powers, they regard as realities grand and precious. But their dreams will come to an end. A great awakening is at hand for them. When awakened by God their estimate of things will be completely reversed. What were once their realities will have passed away from them as shadows; while the grand verities which once they set aside as myths and fables will be clear to them in all their reality and importance. They will awake to shame and everlasting contempt. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, in the awaking, Thou shalt despise their image. Who can fathom the abyss of sin and degradation which he has sounded whom God despises? To be despised by Godhow unutterably dreadful!
CONCLUSION.
1. Let the wicked take warning and turn from their evil way. The Lord is good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon Him.
2. Let the child of God never more envy the wicked their temporal prosperity.
THE LIFE OF UNGODLY MEN A DREAM
(Psa. 73:20.)
Human life on the earth has been compared to a Pilgrimage (Gen. 47:9).To a Race (1Co. 9:24).To a Battle (1Ti. 6:12).To a Stewardship (Mat. 25:14-30)and to a Dream, as in our text.
There is much in the present life of every good man that is very dreamlike.
We are such stuff as dreams are made of,
And our little life is rounded by a sleep.
In relation to spiritual and eternal verities the impressions of earnest godly men are but dim and dreamy as compared with the verities themselves. But our text represents the life of ungodly men as a dream. Let us notice some points of analogy between the two
I. Unreality. In dreams the mind is in a world of illusions, a world of fiction. Such is the life of the wicked, who have their portion in this world. See this in their ideas of pleasure, wealth, and usefulness. How false! See it especially in the things upon which their heart was set, as mentioned by Asaph, viz., temporal prosperity and worldly possessions.
1. They are evanescent. Wealth, rank, power, are often lost. They must all be laid down at death.
2. By their very nature they are not permanent things. Worldly power is essentially a shifting thing; worldly rank an adventitious thing; material wealth an unstable transitory thing.
3. The only permanent realities to spiritual beings must be spiritual. Truth, righteousness, love, the human soul, God, are real and abiding. But men call the shadows realities, &c.
II. Brevity. Dreams are very short. In our dreams we seem to live for hours, days, weeks, even in a few minutes. And, at the longest, how brief is this life of ours here!
1. When viewed with respect to the work to be done by us in it. Think of the work to be done by us in ourselves and for ourselves, and of the work we have to do for others. Unspeakably momentous issues depend upon our life in this world.
2. When contrasted with eternity. This present life is a mere twinkling of an eye when placed by the side of eternity. Yet men live as though it would last for ever. Surely they are dreaming; their life is a dream.
III. Termination. Dreaming is not a permanent state. Every dream has its ending. So is it with the dream of an ungodly life. There are two awakenings, one or other of which must arouse every sinful dreamer to realities.
1. Some awake in response to the call of Divine love. God says to them, Awake thou that sleepest, &c. They hear and obey, and are as it were in a new world. Old things have passed away; all things have become new. To them now life is real, life is earnest. They are converted. They have awoke to reality and blessedness.
2. Some awake only when aroused by the thunder peals of judgment. There is no refusing to listen to that call. They awake to
(.) Disappointment. Their realities have vanished; their hope expires; their trust becomes their confusion.
(.) Destitution. The things in which they rested all fail them now. Their fancied wealth is all gone. Now they know themselves to be wretched, and miserable, and poor, &c.
(.) Shame and Distress. Thou shalt despise their image. Think of their end. Thou castedst them down into, &c.
Are you awake? Or are you asleep and dreaming? God calls to you, Awake thou that sleepest, &c. Awake to righteousness, &c. Listen and obey. AWAKE NOW.
THE ATTITUDE OF A VICTORIOUS SOUL
(Psa. 73:21-28.)
Having considered the severe spiritual conflict of the Psalmist, and the transition from conflict to victory, and his estimate of the portion of the wicked after he had been spiritually enlightened, we now proceed to notice the attitude of his soul in victory. This was marked by two main features.
I. Deep self-abasement.
Having completely mastered his difficulties and come out of the battle more than conqueror, we listen to his voice, and hear no tone of self-applause, no sound of boasting, but rather a humble confession of his folly and ignorance. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast for thee. He felt deeply his own ignorance and folly, especially in this that he had considered human life in relation to the Providence of God as a beast might have done, and that in the presence of God. He looked only at the things which are seen and temporal, at the things of sense, like the beasts that perish. The things which are unseen and eternal, the spiritual things, the things which relate to a future state, he took no account of. In the light which he has received he sees how grievous was his mistake, and humbles himself before God on account thereof. Pride and spiritual enlightenment are incompatible. They cannot co-exist. When we are at a distance from God, and walking in darkness, we may conceitedly criticise His ways, and rashly pronounce judgment upon His doings. But let a man enter into the sanctuary of God and there commune with Him, and his soul will be humbled, his pride and presumption perish, and in self-abasement he will bow before God. Criticism now gives place to worship. Presumption is changed into adoration.
The more Thy glories strike mine eyes
The humbler I shall lie.
The victorious soul is profoundly humble, and cries, Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory. It is the revelation of the abounding grace of God that produces the deepest humility in us, and the manifestation of His glory that prostrates us in lowliest self-abasement.
II. Sublime Confidence in God.
The Psalmist had a glorious assurance of
1. The constant presence of God. I am continually with Thee. He says this not as an assertion of His faithfulness to God, but of Gods faithfulness to him, notwithstanding his ignorance, and folly, and unbelief. Evermore God besets us behind and before, and lays His hand upon us for good. We may wander from Him, but He does not abandon us. In our sorrow and blinded by our tears we may see in Him nothing more than an unsympathetic gardener, but it is He Himself continually with us, and waiting to bless us. Our unworthiness does not drive Him away from us. Through all the dark wanderings of our doubting and perplexed souls He accompanies us. And when we seek for Him, lo! He is at hand to help us, and to compass us about with songs of deliverance.
2. The unfailing support of God. Thou hast holden me by my right hand. As for the Psalmist, his feet were almost gone, his steps had well-nigh slipped, and he would have fallen had not God upheld him. In the trying journey when the little, weak hand of the child can no longer retain its hold upon the father, the father feels the relaxing grasp, and with his strong hand holds the little, weak one, and so leads and supports the dear child in safety. And so the heavenly Father supports us, His weak and erring children. Blessed be His name! Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with, &c. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, &c. As thy days, so shall thy strength be. The promises of His Holy Word, and the experience of His people, and especially His own character, give to us most encouraging assurance of His unfailing support. He will never forsake even the most imperfect of His people.
3. The infallible guidance of God. Asaph had tried his own counsel, and found it folly. He had made experiment of his own knowledge, and discovered it to be ignorance as of a beast. Now, with unfaltering confidence, He turns to the Divine counsel for guidance. He is willing that God should determine His destiny, that He should choose the path by which that destiny shall be reached, and he is confident that the destiny will be a glorious one. He who is guided through life by God
(1) Will never go astray. He cannot err. His understanding is infinite. He is perfectly acquainted with the traveller, and knows well every step of the road.
(2) Will enjoy the highest companionship. He Himself shall be with them, walking in the way, and the foolish shall not err therein. Our hearts burn within us while He walks with us by the way, and opens to us the Scriptures. This companionship is() Enlightening. () Strengthening. () Transforming. We are changed into the same image.
(3) Will be conducted to Divine honours. Afterward receive me to glory. Oh, that afterwards! What surprises of joy and blessedness God has for us in the endless afterwards!
4. The all-sufficiency of God. Asaph cannot sufficiently exalt the Lord his God. He regards Him as
(1) Superior to every other good that he possessed or desired. Whom have I in heaven, but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. In heaven, with all its high and holy, its wise and strong intelligences, he had no helper and saviour but God. And upon earth he had found no one who could satisfy the necessities and longings of the soul like God. Deep within each one of us there is the consciousness of guilt, we long for pardon. He alone has authority to say unto us, Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace. There are times when we are oppressed with the consciousness of moral weakness, we feel unable to live holily and labour usefully, we long for help. He alone can say, My grace is sufficient for thee. We feel our mortality, yet shrink from death, we long deeply and intensely for immortal and blessed lift. He alone can say, He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Our hearts are made to love and to be loved, we long for the love of some perfect being who will accept our affection and reciprocate it, in whom we realise the fulfilment of our highest ideal of excellence, and who will abide with us for ever. He, and He alone, can satisfy this longing. He loves us with an infinite love, He craves our love. He is the supremely Beautiful, the All-perfect One, and He is eternal. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? &c.
(2) Adequate to the souls needs when all other resources fail. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength, &c. He looks onward to the time of his dissolution, feels by anticipation the exhaustion of his physical powers, and his heart, the seat of vitality, failing him, and all human aids of no avail, and he is confident that even then he would find in his God all that he needed. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, and our heart faints and fails, He will be the Rock of our heart and our portion for ever. His resources are adequate to all our needs. In all the unknown possibilities of our future no want can occur to us which He will not be able to supply. And His love is as great as His resources. Both are infinite.
5. The righteousness of the government of God (Psa. 73:27-28). Of this he has not now the shadow of a doubt. Those who depart from God depart from life, and light, and blessedness. They shall perish. God will destroy them. Those who draw near to God shall find it good so to do. In His presence and fellowship there are life and fulness of joy. Of all this he is confident. He speaks with the clear accent of strong conviction. He is so assured that all Gods ways and works are just and right that he will declare them to others. Draw near to God, my brother, and His smile will banish all your darkness, and brighten and beautify your life. Heartily trust Him, and you will have occasion joyously to praise Him.
CONCLUSION.
1. How gloriously victorious are they whose confidence in God is strong.
2. How blessed are they who have God for their portion.
THE GOOD MANS PRESENT, PAST, AND FUTURE
(Psa. 73:23-24.)
What the Psalmist says of himself in these words merits much consideration. Observe
I. His present experience. I am continually with Thee. Every good man is with his Godin a way of communion, in a way of affection, in a way of delight, in a way of desire, and in a way of service.
II. His retrospective testimony. Thou hast holden me by my right hand. His experience has been realised by Gods people in every age; from them, therefore, his acknowledgment is due, and by them it will be readily made.
III. His prospective consolation. This is twofold, and respects what God secures to him in this life. How necessary is guidance considering our various difficulties and dangers. And it is proper always, from a consciousness that God alone can guide us, to ask of Him the guidance of His Word, of His Spirit, and of His Providence.
What God secures to him in the life to come. Glory is that to which we may look forward, as the consummation of our bliss; and in the expectation of this, we may rejoice, even as if we were already in possession of it
Let us, then, be stirred up to humble inquiry, and to devout adoration.W. Sleigh.
DEPARTING FROM GOD
(Psa. 73:27.)
Distance from God.
I. What it is. Go a whoring from Thee. Alienation from Him
1. Of fidelity.
2. Of affection.
3. Of worship.
II. What it leads to. Ruin, destruction.
1. Certain. Thou hast destroyed.
2. Complete. Perish, destroyed.
DRAWING NIGH TO GOD
(Psa. 73:28.)
It is good for me to draw near to God.
God is not far from any one of us. He is everywhere present. But to draw near to Him is to endeavour to realise His presence with us, to feel Him near, to commune with Him.
I. How may we draw near to God.
1. By devoutly reading His Word.
2. By meditation on Him.
3. By prayer to Him.
4. By praise of Him.
5. By imitating Him in life and work.
II. When should we draw near to God. We should at all times live near to Him. But there are times when we should specially seek His helpful Presence.
1. In time of painful doubt.
2. In time of suffering.
3. In time of gladness we should draw near to Him with our gratitude.
4. When entering upon and toiling in difficult enterprises.
III. The advantages of drawing near to God. By so doing,
1. Faith is increased.
2. Suffering is removed, or more grace is given to the sufferer, and the suffering is sanctified.
3. Gladness is hallowed and increased.
4. Wisdom and strength are imparted for difficult duties.
THE GOOD MANS ACCESS, TRUST, AND TESTIMONY
(Psa. 73:28.)
I. The blessedness of the good mans access to God.
II. The strength of the good mans trust in God.
III. The clearness of the good mans testimony for God.
All doubt is gone. With confident, glad, and grateful heart, he longs to declare all His works.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
THE PSALMS
BOOK THE THIRD
Psalms 73
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
Temptation, arising from the Prosperity of the Lawless, Triumphantly Overcome.
ANALYSIS
Stanza I., Psa. 73:1-5, Under Protest, the Psalmist Confesses how Nearly he had Fallen, by Observing the Prosperity of the Lawless. Stanza II., Psa. 73:6-9, The Evil Wrought in the Lawless Themselves by their Prosperity. Stanza III., Psa. 73:10-14, The Evil Wrought in Others, breeding Sceptical Discontent. Stanza IV., Psa. 73:15-17, The Psalmists Recoil from the Natural Effect of such a Frank but Incomplete Statement, leads him to Seek More Light. Stanza V. Psa. 73:18-20, The Startling Picture which More Light Reveals. Stanzas VI, VII, VIII, Psa. 73:21-22; Psalms 23, 24; Psalms 25, 26, The Psalmist Shames Away his Temptation in three stanzas of great power. Stanza IX., Psa. 73:27-28, A Final Contrast, Culminating in Public Song.
(Lm.) PsalmBy Asaph.
1
After all God is good
to Israel to the pure in heart.
2
But as for me
my feet had well-nigh stumbled,
my steps had almost slipped;
3
For I was envious of the boasters,
at the prosperity of the lawless I kept looking.
4
For unfettered they are,
sound[1] and fat is their body:
[1] So Gt.Gn. Cp. O.G. 359a.
5
Of the travail of common men have they none,
nor with the earth-born are they wont to be smitten.
6
Therefore a necklace for them is haughtiness,
violence doth envelope them as their garment:
7
Their iniquity[2] hath proceeded from fatness,
[2] So it shd. be (w. Sep., Syr., Vul.)Gn.
the imaginations of the heart have overflowed:
8
They mock and wickedly speak oppression,
from on high they speak:
9
They have set in the heavens their mouth,
and their tongue marcheth through the earth.
10
Therefore his people turn back hither,
and waters of abundance are discovered[3] by them;
[3] So some cod. (w. Sep., Syr., Vul.)Gn. M.T.: drained outDr. Supped upDel.
11
And they sayHow doth GOD know?
and is there knowledge in the Most High?
12
Lo! these are lawless men;
and yet secure for an age they have attained wealth!
13
After all in vain have I cleansed my heart,
and bathed in pureness my palms;[4]
[4] With special allusion to bribery. Here evidently referring to the keeping of the palms clean from bribery, robbery and just those forms of violence (Psa. 73:6 b) and oppression (Psa. 73:8 b) by which the wicked had to a great extent gained their wealth and prosperityBr.
14
And been smitten all the day,
and been rebuked morning by morning!
15
If thought I I must recount such things as these[5]
[5] So, conjecturally, O.G. 456a.
lo! the circle of thy sons shall I have betrayed.
16
So I began to think in order to understand this,
a travail was that in mine eyes:
17
Until I could enter the great sanctuary[6] of GOD,
[6] Ml.: holy places, or (possibly) holy things.
could give heed to their future.[7]
[7] Cp. on Psa. 37:37-38.
18
After all in slippery places dost thou set them,
thou hast let them fall into ruins:
19
How have they become a desolation in a moment,
come to an end been consumed in consequence of terrors!
20
As a dream by one who awakeneth
Sovereign Lord! when thou bestirrest thyself their image wilt thou despise.
21
If my heart should become embittered,
and in my feelings[8] I should be wounded
[8] U.: reins.
22
Then should I be brutish and without knowledge,
a stupid beast[9] should I have become with thee.
[9] Ml.: A hippopotamusa plump colossus of flesh . emblem of colossal stupidityDel.
23
And yet I am continually with thee,
thou hast grasped my right hand:
24
By thy counsel wilt thou guide me,
and afterwards gloriously take me.
25
Who (is there) for me in the heavens?
and with thee[10] I have no delight on the earth.
[10] Having theeDr.
26
When have failed my flesh and my heart
the rock of my heart and my portion is God to the ages.
27
For lo! they who have gone far from thee shall perish,
thou wilt have exterminated every unchaste wanderer from thee.
28
But as for me approach to God for me is blessedness.
I have fixed in Adonai Jehovah my refuge,
to tell of all thy praises
in the gates of the daughter of Zion.[11]
[11] Thus found in Sep. and Vul., as in Psa. 9:14.
(Nm.)
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 73
How good God is to Israelto those whose hearts are pure.
2 But as for me, I came so close to the edge of the cliff! My feet were slipping and I was almost gone.
3 For I was envious of the prosperity of the proud and wicked.
4 Yes, all through life their road is smooth![12] They grow sleek and fat.
[12] Or, they never have any pains.
5 They arent always in trouble and plagued with problems like everyone else,
6 So their pride sparkles like a jeweled necklace, and their clothing is woven of cruelty!
7 These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for!
8 They scoff at God and threaten His people. How proudly they speak!
9 They boast against the very heavens, and their words strut through the earth.
10 And so Gods people are dismayed and confused, and drink it all in.
11 Does God realize what is going on? they ask.
12 Look at these men of arrogance; they never have to lift a fingertheirs is a life of ease; and all the time their riches multiply.
13 Have I been wasting my time? Why take the trouble to be pure?
14 All I get out of it is trouble and woeevery day and all day long!
15 If I had really said that, I would have been a traitor to Your people.
16 Yet it is so hard to explain itthis prosperity of those who hate the Lord.
17 Then one day I went into Gods sanctuary to meditate, and thought about the future of these evil men.
18 What a slippery path they are onsuddenly God will send them sliding over the edge of the cliff and down to their destruction:
19 An instant end to all their happiness, and eternity of terror.
20 Their present life is only a dream! They will awaken to the truth as one awakens from a dream of things that never really were!
21 When I saw this, what turmoil filled my heart!
22 I saw myself so stupid and so ignorant; I must seem like an animal to You, O God.
23 But even so, You love me! You are holding my right hand!
24 You will keep on guiding me all my life with Your wisdom and counsel; and afterwards receive me into the glories of heaven![13]
[13] Or, You will bring me unto honor.
25 Whom have I in heaven but You? And I desire no one on earth as much as You!
26 My health fails; my spirits droop, yet God remains! He is the strength of my heart; He is mine forever!
27 But those refusing to worship God will perish, for He destroys those serving other gods.
28 But as for me, I get as close to Him as I can! I have chosen Him and I will tell everyone about the wonderful ways He rescues me.
EXPOSITION
It is fortunate that the uniform rendering of the expressive particle ah, in Psa. 73:1; Psa. 73:13; Psa. 73:18 of this psalm, has led to such a striking commencement of a poem which embraces a precious mental history; since, by the combination, in that little word, of an affirmative with a restrictive meaning, it so happily opens the whole case, as to suggest to Perowne the following amplification: Yes, it is so; after all, God is good, notwithstanding all my doubts. This entitles him to say of the psalmist: That the result of the conflict is stated before the conflict itself is described. There is no parade of doubt merely as doubt. He states first, and in the most natural way, the final conviction of his heart.
The next point of importance is suggested by a comparison of Psa. 18:26 (To the pure thou didst shew thyself pure) with the final clause of the psalmists first statementto the pure in heart. Only a pure mind can vindicate a pure God. In confessing how nearly he had lost his confidence in Gods goodness, the psalmist admits that his thoughts had, in a measure, become defiled: he had looked, he had lustedwithout taking moral quality into account. Happily, he looked again: until he saw something more than prosperity; and that later look helped to clarify his thoughts. But at first he lingeringly viewed the glitter and the show, until he felt his feet slipping from under him. His attention had clearly been arrested by fascinating examples of godless prosperity: examples shewing the absence of fettering restrictions, sound health, freedom from common troubles, immunity from providential inflictions. It should here be noted how a premature and disturbing notice of the death of those well-to-do godless men is avoided, by a critical revision of the Hebrew text, which after all amounts to no more than a re-grouping of the Hebrew letters. Premature such an allusion would certainly be; for surely, says Delitzsch, the poet cannot begin the description of the prosperity of the ungodly with the painlessness of their death, and only then come to speak of their healthfulness. Moreover, when afterwards, in Psa. 73:18-19, the psalmist does undoubtedly confront the death of the lawless, it is very doubtful whether he intends to imply that it is painless. At all events, in his first stanza he confines himself to the fascination of the godless lives to which his attention had been repeatedly drawn.
In the second stanza, however, while the fascination still lingers, certain repulsive features begin to obtrude themselves. A necklace and a flowing robe are, no doubt, signs of opulence and social importance; but, when the former of these is haughtiness and the latter is violence, then, alas! for those who have to suffer from them. Fatness generates iniquity: perverse imaginations overflow in speech. Mocking at things sacred and divine, such assuming and insolent men speak oppression, as their appropriate dialect. With open profanity, their mouth sets divine law at defiance, and their tongue presumes to propose laws concerning all men and things in the earth to please themselvesin their unmitigated selfishness. Such is the purport of the second stanza. It is the result of a second look at the prosperous ungodly. It is proof of a determination to look even worldly fascinations full in the face. The discovery is already being made that it is not all gold that glitters; and, as the result, the snare is already nearly broken.
But, as stanza three shews, there is another source of danger to be considered: WHAT OTHER PEOPLE SAY sometimes perverts our own judgment. What, then, do they say? let us not fear to examine it. That these prosperous lawless ones wield a great influence, is, indeed, too apparent. Not only do they influence their own claneach wealthy prince his own people,as some expositors take Psa. 73:10 a to intimate; but even among His people that is, Gods,some there may be who are seduced into the expectation of discovering waters of abundance where these enviable wealthy men have already found them: And so these admirers reason themselves into scepticism. It is shallow reasoning, but it is taking. Look you, say these misguided onlookers, these are such as good people call lawless men; and yet see how they get on: see how, for a life-time, they have been secure from providential visitation, and to what wealth they have attained! Talk of Providencewhere is it? Does Godif there be oneknow anything about it? So much for Psa. 73:10-12 of this stanza.
It is probably best to take Psa. 73:13-14 as still continuing to describe what other people say who are unduly under the influence of the prosperous lawless ones: only, now, another class of them comes into viewnamely the hitherto punctilious people, more alive to their religious profit and loss account than to abstract reasonings about the Divine Government. We need not deny that, by voicing the precise difficulty felt by these whining and selfish religionists, the psalmist, at the same time, provides that his own transient doubts of the like kind shall find expression. Suffice it, that the pernicious influence of the ungodly rich has been amply described.
But it is time that the tables were turned, and a decisive solution of the problem were given; and so, here, at Psa. 73:15, we come to the second part of the psalm. It is observable, that the psalmist resumes where he left off; namely, with the consideration of what others would sayonly now the others are a very different class from those just described. He now brings before him those whom, in their collective capacity, he terms the circle of Gods sons, amongst whom, therefore, a sense of the Divine Fatherhood is still preserved. What will these say, he seems to ask, if I frankly tell them of these admirations of the godless rich, and these shallow reasonings about their example; if, at least, I tell the story as though I for myself seriously felt its spell? Will they not be shocked that I have so betrayed the honour of our Divine Fatherhood? Happy the reasoner who has a circle of brethren from whom such a counteracting and healing influence may be counted upon; so that, to think of frankly telling them of his mental difficulties, is to feel those difficulties more than half solved by anticipation. Thrice happy was Asaph, that he was one of such a companionship of pure hearted Israelitesthe more so, because he was both a thinker and a prophet: as a thinker, able to appreciate the mental travail involved in working out a difficult problem (Psa. 73:16); and, as a prophet, knowing by experience how a sudden flash of light from the Spirit of God could at once remove difficulties which no mere thinking could solve (Psa. 73:17). Hence, as he here intimates, although he at once began to think, he was not sanguine of the results to be expected from that process alone: he counted much more for success upon such a REVELATION as he felt would be more likely to be vouchsafed amidst the congenial influences of the great sanctuary of God than elsewhere: the great sanctuary, with its leisure and quiet, with its sacred associations, with its solemn sacrifices, with its inspiring music, and especially with its songs old and new, some of which, like 37 and 49, might be found to have anticipated his present difficulties, or at least to favour the making of fresh discoveries by his own mind. It should be noted, however, that the psalmists late experience and present ponderings are already putting him on the right track for search; that, in fact, he knows the precise point on which he needs illumination: namely the future of these ungodly prosperous men: until I could consider their future. We do wisely to be thus careful to observe precisely where this stanza breaks offthe exact point to which it leads up; and there can be no mistake that now the language of the psalm leads over from reflection and resolve to that of discovery. In Psa. 73:17 it is resolve: in Psa. 73:18 it is discovery. The discovery is introduced by the significant term after all, to which reference has already been made; and the disclosure is thenceforward continued in the form of direct address to Deity. Note the wording: thou dost set themthou hast let them fallwhen thou bestirrest thyselftheir image wilt thou despise. Plainly it is now the confident language of direct address to Deity. But the language is changed, because the scene has changed: the psalmist is now in the great sanctuary, and feels himself to be in the very presence of God, and by the confident directness and assurance of his words shews that he has now received the further light which he was resolved to seek concerning the future of these ungodly prosperous men. Thus, then, every word of the ensuing stanza demands our most careful attentionand our utmost confidence.
After all,he exclaims, in the very language of discovery: after all the wealth and all the power and show; after all the admiration and envy and the vain reasoning; after all the appearance of thine indifference, as though thou knewest not how thou wast being set at nought: after all, thou hast been very much in this very thing, carrying forward thy holy designs. For thou hast been setting these very men whom their fellows have so much envied, in slippery places of uttermost peril. We naturally and rightly supply, in undertone, from our other and it may be fuller knowledge of the fairness and equity of Gods ways, the important qualification: Thusfor sins already committedhast thou been punishing them for their presumption in wilfully persisting in doing without thee. And it was well, therefore, that we detected, in the first lines sketching the image of these men, the note of previous self-determination to evil: they had already become unfettered, having brushed aside Divine law and silenced the voice of conscience. As a punishment for this previous course of sin and self-hardening; and (should we not add?) as a last Divine resort to convince them of their folly: thou dost set them in slippery places. Alas! in the actual circumstances revealed to the psalmist, this punishment avails nothing for reformation, but takes effect as punishment with destructive effect. With startling fulness and vigour is this disclosure made: Thou hast let them fall into ruinslike a bowing wall which comes down of its own weight with a crash, its ruin being sudden and complete. With this revelation the psalmists mind is deeply impressedas its exclamatory form shows: How have they become a desolation in a momentso complete! so sudden! The final catastrophe is further described by terms piled up for effect: They have come to an end, have been consumed,how could complete destruction be more strongly expressed? But, to this, the significant addition is made: in consequence of terrorswho shall venture to say what these terrors are? As in Job. 18:11; Job. 18:14; Job. 24:17; Job. 27:20; Job. 30:15, they may be terrors within the bounds of this life, and closing it; or, as in Eze. 26:21; Eze. 27:36; Eze. 28:19, they may be terrors connected with the Hadean continuation of existence, and ending it. That they do terminate the being of these erewhile boasters, is the one thing which the disclosure makes plain. We have not yet done with this description. Let us complete our notice of it, before we turn back to ask what it all means. With a simple oriental audacity which has in it no particle of irreverence, the psalmist represents the Sovereign Lord as having been asleep while these godless rich have been indulging their lust of wealth and pomp and powerand cruelty: by all which we understand no more than that Adonai had interfered as little as though he had been asleep. But, working out this figurative vein, he says: as a dream (is despised) by one who awakeneth, Sovereign Lord! when thou bestirrest thyself (to deal with their case as it demands and deserves) their image wilt thou despise. Here, undoubtedly, much depends upon a right appreciation of the word image; since, whatever it is, it is something which Adonai despises, and it becomes us to be careful how we define an object of avowed Divine aversion! Scholars are not quite agreed in their renderings of this instance of the Hebrew zelem. The R.V., Perowne and Leeser follow the A.V. in translating it image; but Carter and Delitzsch represent it by shadow, Driver by semblance, Briggs and Wellhausen (in P.B.) by phantom. Now, undoubtedly, there is one passage, namely Psa. 39:6, in whichby reason of the contextsome such rendering is required; and it is further undeniable that the notion of shadow lies at the root of the original word; for which very reason, however, it is submitted that image is the better translation in the present instance; not only as connecting his passage with the account of mans creation in Genesis (Gen. 1:26-27, Gen. 9:6), and usefully reminding us in passing that even there mans likeness to his Makerconsisting in his capacity to rule (cp. Exposition on Psalms 8) was after all little more than a shadow of the Divine capacity and power to govern; but more particularly and most vitally that the very word image is the term which takes us to the heart of this most weighty passage. Their imageas a mere caricature of thine own, it is, O Sovereign Lord, which thou wilt despise! Assuredly, it is not the mere frailty of mans ordinary mortal condition, which God despises; nor is it the attenuated semblance of mans former self which alone can penetrate hades as far as the circle of his fathers (Psa. 49:19), which God despises. Out of the former, by transformation, he can raise up new men, mighty as angels and immortal as his own Son; and unto the latter, as still the work of his own hands, he may come to have a longing, as Job faintly hoped (Job. 14:15). Therefore it is neither of these semblances, as such, that Adonai despises; for despises is a strong word, and in neither of the above cases is it consistent with the known condescension of a faithful Creator (1Pe. 4:19). No! far other than merely these, is the object which here starts forth from the canvas as, so to speak, exciting the contempt of an awakened and affronted God. It is the primary image of God, wickedly, wantonly disfigured. Even we, under Asaphs sympathetic guidance, have, alreadywithin the compass of this psalmlooked on that image and loathed it: the unfettered free-thinker and free-liver; the fat, sleek pamperer of his precious self; the so-called pet of Providence, stranger alike to ordinary and extraordinary trouble; deeming it an adornment to be haughty, and a becoming robe to be violent; whose gross mind concocts evil schemes; whose vile mouth propounds and promotes and defends unblushing villainies; whose tongue talks as if all the earth had been made for his conveniencea man therefore who practically deems himself to be his own God! alas turned devil! Have we by this time learned to detest him? How great a wonder, then, that a holy God should have left him to himself so long!
Such then, in full, is the description given by Asaph of the revelation which he had received in the great sanctuary of God, concerning the future of the lawless rich bearing this debased image of God.
And now what does it all mean? Does it merely mean sudden death; or does it rather mean total death: an utter destruction of personal being? If any elect to say, Merely sudden death; may we not turn upon them with the question, how mere sudden death meets the case? Suppose we could (as we cannot, for want of evidence) accept it as an observed fact, that such presumptuous men do uniformly die sudden deaths; how would that alone solve this mystery of providence? Is there, after all, any such broad distinction to be drawn between slow death and sudden death? What does it signify so much, whether a man is struck down in a moment, or whether he slowly wastes and wears away? It is not at all plain that there is anything material in the difference. Besides, it may with confidence be affirmed, that this is not the direction in which the text points. Certainly, suddenness is thereat least relative suddenness (in a moment). But the point emphasized by the accumulated terms of the passage is rather the completeness of the destruction, than the suddenness of the death. Indeed, it looks as though the word death had been carefully avoided; but while the common word death is avoided, the word terrors is emphatically brought in, and some scope must naturally be given in which those terrors may be supposed to effect the terrible overthrow intended: an overthrow so terrible and complete that before the psalm is ended, it is termed both a perishing and an extermination. In fine, the impression made by the whole passage is, that it is not what is understood as an ordinary sudden death that is meant; but an awful infliction of the utter destruction of the whole being by some unendurable manifestation of Divine wrath: as a Christian, availing himself of New Testament language, might say,the first and second deaths being blended in one, and the terrors including the wrath of the Lamb (Rev. 6:16-17). These may be regarded as here foreshortened for the practical purpose of summary statement, and because the then current knowledge of the future could not bear the introduction of details. Reverting to what the O.T. itself does teach, we may usefully remind ourselves of that great passage in Isaiah (Isa. 57:16) which plainly intimates that there is possible such a protracted manifestation of Divine anger, as no man could sustain; and though, there, the intention seems to be, to let in a hope of mercy, yet here the intention is equally visible of excluding such hope. Of course, if death were ordinarily to be taken as equivalent to total extinction of personal being, all this would amount to nothing; and our exposition would have to remain unfinished. But, assuredly, we may, with the general consent of Bible readers, dismiss that devastating conception of death as extravagantly unwarrantable; and therefore may reaffirm our present contention that the utter desolation and final extinction of personal being is the true meaning of this passage: first, because it completely fills up the terms employed, and, second, because it solves the providential mystery it was given to explain. After such a revelation, who dare pray to be rich, who can desire to be set in such slippery places? The temptation is gone; and therefore it follows that the answer is complete. In further confirmation of all which, as thus far advanced, suffice it to call attention to the broad, fundamental harmony which this exposition of the Psalms unfolds. In the first of this series of Psalms 37, 49, 73, it was submitted that for the righteous man there is a future: for transgressors there is not! The confident assurance of the truth of that conclusion has helped us so far through this psalm and nothing else could. That conclusion stands as an immovable principle. Details are yet needed, but some particulars are already being supplied. Here we see not only the principle confirmed; but the detailed and penetrating lesson taught, that even in this life the Divine image may be so defaced and caricatured as to become an offence to the Almighty and ripe for destruction, as a consequence of unknown terrors!
In at length advancing to Stanza VI. of this psalm (Psa. 73:21-22), we have to express immeasurable obligation to Delitzsch for suggesting and defending the hypothetic colouring thrown upon it. How disconcerting it would have been to find the psalmist still floundering in (or, if not floundering in, at least lingering over) the doubts, from which the vision in the great sanctuary was given to deliver him! How delightful, by contrast and by helpfulness onward, to perceive that he is now merely shaming his former doubts into perpetual silence. How unmanly! he is now heard saying, to cherish such feelings any longer! How unworthy of the name of a man, to harbour such thoughts any more! He had modestly assumed to be a thinker, before he could find opportunity to go into the great sanctuary of God. But now that he has been thitheror is still perhaps remaining there, since his address to God is as yet unbrokenhe thinks again, and to some purpose; and his thought is, what a colossus of stupidity he would be, not now to be satisfied: I, a man, who can converse with thee, and receive such counsel as thou hast now been giving me! Furthermore, this merely hypothetic repetition of the old temptation enables us to advance at once, at the close of this stanza, to the natural rending of the preposition (with theeGk, rough breathing immaka) which has to do such important service in the very next line, namely the first of Stanza VII. The old doubt only hypothetically put, enables us to anticipate by saying with thee, here at the close of Psa. 73:22 : Being, as I am, with thee, how stupid such a doubt would now appear. And then he can follow on in Psa. 73:23 by saying, And yet I am continually with thee (immaka). In contrast with the smoothness of which, how awkward and even suspicious to have to render the same preposition first before thee (Psa. 73:22) and then with thee (Psa. 73:23). We are thus particular down to a particle, because of the extreme value of Delitzschs hypothetical translation of Psa. 73:21-22 : which, thus defended, may now be dismissed.
Stanza VII. thus at once bears us along into the midstream of near fellowship with God and of consequent victorious confidence in Him. Thou hast grasped my right hand, by thus disclosing to me that which for ever shames into silence my doubts. By Thy counsel wilt thou (continue to do as thou hast now done) guide me, And afterwards (leaving us easily to supply the thought, after lifes journey) gloriously take me. He knows not precisely how it will be done, but glorious in the manner of it will it assuredly be; and the decisive act done, he says, will be to take one, even as Enoch was taken to be with God; or, as Psa. 49:15if just sung in the great sanctuarymay have suggested, wilt take me (out of the hand of hades, whether by transformation preventing death, or by resurrection reversing death) The point of this revelation clearly cannot lie in details, which are confessedly not supplied; but in the broad and simple fact announced, of being taken by God. Obviously all turns on the character of him who takes. He who, as an enemy whom I hate, captures me, makes of me a slave, and excites my utmost fears; but he who, as a friend whom I admire and love, captures me, at the same time enraptures me, delights me, and excites my highest hopes. All, then, here turns on the character of God, and of his relation to me. And of this, the next stanza sings.
In language of extreme simplicity and brevitylike the lispings of a babe that has not yet learned to speakand yet of extreme beauty, because everything is suggested that is not expressed, the psalmist (Stanza VII.) says, Whofor mein the heavens? Andwith thee: having thee(whether there or here) I have no delight on the earth (where are, or have been, all I have known and loved). Of course, the language is comparative, even while it shrinks from comparison; but the one clear thing which it reveals is the delight in his God now felt, as never before, by this pure-hearted Israelite. It is on the tide of this delight in God himself that he is carried over into the unknown, and is moved to express a conception to convey which no exact words had yet been coined; and the approximate words to express which amount to a contradiction in terms: When have failed my flesh and my heart(in other words, my body and my mind)the rock of my heart and my portion (then and on and ever) is God age-abidingly. The mind that rests on that rock cannot sink. The essential Ego will somehow survive the wreck; if it have nothing else in which to inhere, it will inhere in God, or else a sorry portion would he be! But, indeed, we have gone too far, in saying that for this conception no language had yet been coinedalthough, it is true, Asaph may not have been familiar with it: Into thy hands I commit my spirit (Psa. 31:5) probably is a prayer which exactly meets the case, and at all events was honoured by being used by Jesus and by his first martyr Stephen. Nevertheless, in any case, love finds out how to make itself understood; and absolute triumph over death is here radiant as the rising sun. Perfect love to a perfect God gives the victory: the nearest possible approach to that God (Stanza IX.) constitutes the highest attainable blessedness, and must ever prompt the most joyful songs of Zion whether earthly or heavenly.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
Read verse one and discuss whether or not the conclusion to the problem is here stated.
2.
There are several Psalms which discuss the problem of the prosperity of the wicked. (Cf. Psalms 27, 49) If it was solved before, why raise the issue again? Are there different facets of the problem in each Psalm? Discuss.
3.
If all we know about heaven was that which is contained in the Old Testament, how easy would it be for us to endure the arrogant prosperity of the wicked? Discuss.
4.
Into which sanctuary did the Psalmist go? Into what sanctuary can we go? Is the church building a sanctuary? Is there a better one?
5.
Please be honest with yourself and give a personal answer to the several questions asked in the text: (1) Does God realize what is going on?; (2) Have I been wasting my time?; (3) Why take the trouble to be pure?; (4) Whom have I in heaven but You?; (5) Whom do I desire on earth but Thee?
6.
A large part of the problem is in what others will see and say about the believerDiscuss.
7.
Is the problem of this Psalm larger in America or in Asia or Africa or Europe? Discuss.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Truly.See Note, Psa. 62:2. This particle often, like the Latin at, introduces a rejoinder to some supposed statement.
Drydens lines express the feeling of this opening
Yet sure the gods are good! I would fain think so,
If they would give me leave!
But virtue in distress, and vice in triumph,
Make atheists of mankind.
The question arises whether the second clause of the verse limits, or only repeats, the first. No doubt in theory God was understood to be good to Israel generally, but the very subject of the psalm seems to require a limitation here. The poet sees that a moral correspondence with their profession is necessary, even in the chosen peoplethe truth which St. Paul stated with such insistance, For they are not all Israel which are of Israel.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Truly God is good to Israel The psalmist has now passed through his temptation, and, being reassured, can “set to his seal [set his seal to it] that God is true.” Joh 3:33. The “truly,” certainly, here, is his amen or verily to the divine dealings, which now he perceives are “good,” not only in the sense of benevolence, but of moral fitness. This had been the point of his wavering. “Good to Israel,” here, indicates that he is not speaking on his own behalf merely, as reciting only a personal experience, but as the spokesman of the nation. It was God’s dealing with the nation that had stumbled him, which now he acknowledges “good.” The Hebrew word here rendered “good” is a broad term, and signifies the quality of perfect moral excellence.
A clean heart The pure of heart. Such was Israel by profession, and the really pure should receive the promise.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psalms 73
Theme – A summary of the theme of Psalms 73 can be found in Pro 23:17-18.
Pro 23:17-18, “Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.”
Psalms 37 also carries the same theme as Psalms 73.
Psa 37:1, “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.”
There are other passages in the Scriptures in which men of God cried out in despair of the prosperity of the wicked.
Job 21:7, “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?”
Ecc 8:12, “Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:”
Jer 12:1-3, “Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously? Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins. But thou, O LORD, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.”
Mal 2:17, “Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?”
One of the reasons that the wicked have their season of prosperity is because of God’s longsuffering to all mankind (2Pe 3:9). He works in everyone’s lives to bring them to salvation (2Ti 2:4).
2Pe 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
1Ti 2:4, “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
There were times in the Old Testament when God did not destroy the children of Israel because of His covenant with them.
2Ki 8:19, “Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah for David his servant’s sake, as he promised him to give him alway a light, and to his children.”
W. A. Criswell, long-time pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, notes other biblical passages of the problem of evil and suffering in the book of Job, Luk 13:1-5, Joh 9:1-3, Rom 8:18-39, and 2Co 1:3-5; 2Co 4:7 thru Psa 5:10, Psa 12:7-8. [85]
[85] W. A. Criswell, The Criswell Study Bible (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc, 1991), notes on Psalms 73.
Psa 73:13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
Psa 73:13
Scripture Reference – Note:
Deu 21:6-7, “And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley: And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.”
Psa 26:6, “ I will wash mine hands in innocency : so will I compass thine altar, O LORD:”
Mat 27:24, “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.”
Psa 73:23-24 Comments God’s Plan of Redemption Psa 73:23-24 reflects God’s plan of redemption in the areas of justification, sanctification, and glorification. The phrase “nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand” reveals that the psalmist is in right standing with God; the phrase “thou shalt guide me with thy counsel” reveals the psalmist is walking by God’s Word in lifestyle of indoctrination and divine service; the phrase “and afterward receive me to glory” reveals the psalmist’s future hope of glorification in heaven.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Comfort and Warning Concerning the Offense Given by the Good Fortune of the Godless.
A psalm of Asaph,
A Reflection upon the Apparent Good Fortune of the Wicked
v. 1. Truly, God is good to Israel, v. 2. But as for me, v. 3. For I was envious at the foolish, v. 4. For there are no bands in their death, v. 5. They are not in trouble as other men, v. 6. Therefore, v. 7. Their eyes stand out with fatness, v. 8. They are corrupt, v. 9. They set their mouth against the heavens, v. 10. Therefore his people return hither, v. 11. And they say, How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? v. 12. Behold, these are the ungodly,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THIS is the first of the “Psalms of Asaph,” whereof the present book contains eleven. They are characterized by a preponderating use of the name “Elohim” over that of” Jehovah,” by a great calmness and solemnity of tone, and by a pervading melancholy. The present psalm has for its subject the well worn problem of the prosperity of the wicked (Job 21:7-15; Psa 37:1-38; Jer 12:1-3, etc.). The writer has been troubled with respect to it, and has well nigh fallen away from God in consequence (verse 2); but, after a severe struggle (verses 13-16), his eyes have been enlightened on the subject, and he has found an explanation which is satisfactory to him (verses 17-20). He contrasts his former state of perplexity and danger with his present satisfaction and security (verses 21-24); and concludes by expressing an unqualified trust in the ultimate salvation of the righteous and destruction of the wicked.
Metrically, the psalm seems to fall into eight stanzas; the first and last of two verses each, the remaining six each of four verses.
Psa 73:1
Truly God is good to Israel; i.e. verily, in spite of appearances to the contrary, which had for a time made the writer doubt. It is suggested that the triumph of Absalom may have been the circumstance that shook Asaph’s faith. Even to such as are of a clean heart; i.e. to the pious in Israel, who are the true Israel. God is really on their side, though he may seem for a time to favour the wicked. (On the need of a pure heart, see Psa 24:4.)
Psa 73:2
But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. The psalmist had doubted God’s goodness and righteousness, on account of the prosperity of the wicked. He feels now that his doubt had been a sin, and had almost caused him to give up his confidence and trust in the Almighty. He had well nigh slipped from the rock of faith into the abyss of scepticism.
Psa 73:3
For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked (comp. Psa 37:1). To envy the wicked because they prosper is to make more account of the good things of this life than of God’s favourto prefer physical good to moral. It is also to doubt that God governs the universe by the strict rule of justice. The word translated “foolish” means rather, “vain arrogant boasters.” Such the wicked commonly become when they prosper (comp. Psa 5:5).
Psa 73:4
For there are no bands in their death; or, no sufferings (, Aquila; “torments,” Cheyne); comp. Job 21:13, “They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave;” and Job 21:23, “One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.” Such deaths often happen, and are a severe trial of faith to those who have no firm conviction of the reality of a hereafter. But their strength is firm; literally, their body is plump (Cheyne). But the Authorized Version probably gives the true meaning. They drop into the grave while their strength is still undiminished.
Psa 73:5
They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men (comp. Job 21:8-10). There is, no doubt, something of Oriental hyperbole in this representation, as there is in the account given by Job (l.s.c.), which he afterwards qualifies (Job 27:13-23). But still a certain immunity from suffering does seem often to attach to the wicked man, whom God does not chasten, because chastening would be of no service to him.
Psa 73:6
Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; or, is as a chain about their neck (Revised Version)makes them stiffen their neck, and hold their head aloft. Not being afflicted, they regard themselves as favourites of Heaven, and are therefore puffed up with pride, which they show in their gait and bearing. Violence covereth them as a garment. Pride and self-conceit naturally lead on to violence, which becomes so habitual to them that it seems like their ordinary apparel (comp. Psa 109:18, Psa 109:19). The violence of the great ones in Israel is continually denounced, both by psalmists and prophets (see Psa 11:2; Psa 55:9; Psa 58:2; Psa 72:14, etc.; Isa 1:15; Isa 3:15; Isa 59:3-7; Hos 4:1, Hos 4:2; Amo 3:10, etc.).
Psa 73:7
Their eyes stand out with fatness. Their eyes, which gloat upon the luxuries around them, seem to stand out from their fat and bloated faces (comp. Job 15:27; Psa 17:10). They have mere than heart could wish; literally, the imaginations of their heart overflew. The exact meaning is doubtful.
Psa 73:8
They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily; rather, they scoff, and speak wickedly; of oppression do they speak from heaven‘s height; i.e. “they scoff at the righteous, and speak wickedly concerning them; they talk of the oppressive acts which they meditate, as though they were Divine beings, speaking from the heavenly height” (Cheyne).
Psa 73:9
They set their mouth against the heavens. So Hupfeld and Canon Cook, who understand the expression of blasphemy; but most modern critics translate, “They have set their mouth in the heavens,” and regard the meaning as nearly allied to that of the second clause of the preceding verse, “They speak as though they were inhabitants of the heavens.” And their tongue walketh through the earth. Their tongue is always busily employedboasting (Psa 73:3), lying, backbiting.
Psa 73:10
Therefore his people return hither; rather, therefore he turns his people hitherward; i.e. by his great pretensions and his audacity, he (the wicked man) turns his followers to his own courses, and induces them to act as he acts. And waters of a full cup are wrung out to them; rather, and waters in abundance are drained by them. They “drink iniquity like water” (Job 15:16), “draining” the cup which is handed to them.
Psa 73:11
And they say, How doth God know? Their wickedness breeds scepticism in them. They wish God not to know, and therefore begin to question whether he does or can know (comp. Psa 10:4, Psa 10:11, Psa 10:13). And is there knowledge in the Most High? Does God concern himself at all with the things that take place on earth (comp. Psa 94:7)? IS not man too weak and contemptible to attract his attention?
Psa 73:12
Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; rather, and they prosper always. They increase in riches. This is the impression which the psalmist has received from the general course of human affairs in his day. It is closely allied to the view taken by Job (Job 21:7-15).
Psa 73:13
Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. Such was the psalmist’s first instinctive feeling, when he noticed the prosperity of the wicked. The Prayer book Version inserts, between this verse and the last, the words, “and I said;” which is correct, though somewhat free, exegesis. Compare with the expression, “I have washed my hands in innocency,” Job’s remarkable words, “If I wash myself with snow, and make my hands never so clean” (Job 9:30).
Psa 73:14
For all the day long have been plagued. While the ungodly have prospered, and net been plagued at all (Psa 73:5), I, the representative of the righteous, have been “plagued,” or afflicted, continually. What, then, does goodness advantage me? And chastened every morning; literally, and my chastisement has been every morning (comp. Job 7:18).
Psa 73:15
If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children; or, if I had said (Revised Version). If, when these feelings assailed me, and the lot of the ungodly man seemed to me much better than my own, I had resolved to speak out all my thoughts, and let them be generally known, then should I have dealt treacherously with (Revised Version) the generation of thy children. I should have deserted their cause; I should have hurt their feelings; I should have put a stumbling block in their way. Therefore, the psalmist implies, he said nothinga reticence well worthy of imitation.
Psa 73:16
When I thought to know this; literally, and I meditated, that I might understand this. A process of careful thought and consideration is implied, during which the psalmist tried hard to understand the method of God’s government, and to explain to himself its seeming anomalies. But he says, It was too painful for me. He did not succeed; he was baffled and perplexed, and the whole effort was a pain and a grief to him.
Psa 73:17
Until I went into the sanctuary of God; literally, the sanctuaries (comp. Psa 68:35; Psa 84:1; Psa 132:7). The three subdivisions of both the tabernacle and the first temple, viz. the court, the holy place, and the holy of holies, constituted three sanctuaries. The psalmist, in his perplexity, took his doubts into the sanctuary of God, and there, “in the calmness of the sacred court” (Kay), reconsidered the hard problem. Compare Hezekiah’s action with the perplexing letter of Sennacherib (2Ki 19:14). Then understood I their end. There came to him in the sanctuary the thought that, to judge aright of the happiness or misery of any man, it is necessary to await the end (comp. Herod; 1:32; Soph; ‘OEd. Tyr.,’ ad fin.; Eurip; ‘Andromach.,’ 50.100; Aristot; ‘ Eth. Nic.,’ 1.10).
Psa 73:18
Surely thou didst set them up in slippery places. The wicked have at no time any sure hold on their prosperity. They are a “set in slippery places”places from which they may easily slip and fall. Thou castedst them down to destruction. The fall often comes, even in this life. The flourishing cities of the plain are destroyed by fire from heaven; Pharaoh’s land is ruined by the plagues, and his host destroyed in the Red Sea; Sennacherib’s army perishes in a night; Jezebel is devoured by dogs; Athaliah is slain with the sword; Antiochus Epiphanes perishes in a distant expedition; Herod Agrippa is eaton of worms; persecutors, like Nero, Galerius, Julian, come to untimely ends. A signal retribution visits the wicked in hundreds and thousands of instances. When it does not, the question remainsIs death the end? This point is not formally brought forward, but it underlies the whole argument; and, unless retribution after death be regarded as certain, a single exception to the general rule of retribution in this life would upset the solution which the psalmist finds satisfactory.
Psa 73:19
How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! There is something very striking in the suddenness with which the prosperity of a wicked man often collapses. Saul, Jezebel, Athaliah, Epiphanes, Herod Agrippa, are cases in point, likewise Nero, Galerius, Julian. The first and second Napoleonic empires may also be cited. They are utterly consumed with terrors; literally, they perish; they come to an end through terrors (comp. Job 18:11; Job 24:17; Job 27:20).
Psa 73:20
As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. As men despise their dreams when they awake from them, so, when God “stirs up himself and awakes to judgment” (Psa 35:23), he will despise such mere semblances of humanity (Psa 39:6) as the wicked are.
Psa 73:21
Thus my heart was grieved; literally, for my heart was grieved, or “was soured.” The “for” refers to a suppressed phrase of self-condemnation, “But at the time I did not see all thisthe solution did not present itself to me.” I was too full of grief and bitterness to consider the matter calmly and dispassionately. And I was pricked in my reins; i.e. “a pang of passionate discontent had pierced my inmost being” (Cheyne).
Psa 73:22
So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. I had no more intelligence than the brute beasts; I was wholly unable to reason aright (comp. Psa 32:9; Psa 92:7; Pro 30:2).
Psa 73:23
Nevertheless I am continually with thee; i.e. “nevertheless, I have not fallen away, but have kept always my hold upon thee;” and, on thy part, thou hast holden me by my right hand; i.e. thou hast upheld me and prevented me from slipping (comp. Psa 18:35; Psa 89:21; Psa 119:117).
Psa 73:24
Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. The psalmist expresses full confidence in God’s continual guidance through all life’s dangers and difficulties, notwithstanding his own shortcomings and” foolishness.” He then looks beyond this life, and exclaims, And afterward (thou wilt) receive me to glory. Even Professor Cheyne sees m this the story of Enoch spiritualized.” “Walking with God,” he says, “is followed by a reception with glory, or into glory; and he compares the passage with Psa 49:16, which he has previously explained as showing that “the poet has that religious intuition which forms the kernel of the hope of immortality.”
Psa 73:25
Whom have I in heaven but thee? Who is there in all the host of heaven on whom I can place any reliance, excepting thee? None of thy “holy ones,” neither angel nor archangel, can afford me any support or sustenance, preserve or guide or save me, but THOU only (comp. Job 5:1). And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. Much less can earth supply me with a substitute for God. On him my heart’s affections are centred (comp. Psa 63:1, “My soul thirsteth top thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is”).
Psa 73:26
My flesh and my heart faileth. The meaning is, “Though my flesh and my heart fail utterly, though my whole corporeal and animal nature fade away and come to nothing, yet something in the nature of a heartthe true ‘I,’ consciousness, will remain, and will be upheld by God.” God is the Strength of my heart, and my Portion forever. “A strong assertion of personal immortality” (Cook). “This is the mysticism of faith; we are on the verge of St. Paul’s conception of the , the organ of life in God” (Cheyne).
Psa 73:27
For lo, they that are far from thee shall perish. As God is the source of all life, to be “far from him” is to perishto have this life depart from us, even if existence of any kind remains. The psalmist is vague with respect to the ultimate fate of the wicked, confident only of the continued existence, in a condition which he declares to be “good,” of the righteous. Thou hast destroyed all them that go a-whoring from thee. The strong phrase here used is rare in the Psalms, occurring only in this place and in Psa 106:39. It commonly refers to idolatrous practices, but is used sometimes of other kinds of declension and alienation from God (see Le Psa 20:6; Num 14:33).
Psa 73:28
But it is good for me to draw near to God; or, “but as for me, nearness to God is my good” (Kay). Compare the well known hymn
“Nearer, my God, to thee,
Nearer to thee;
Even though it be a cross
That raiseth me;
Still all my song shall be,
Nearer, my God, to thee,
Nearer to thee.”
I have put my trust in the Lord God; literally, in the Lord Jehovah (Adonai Jehovah)an unusual combination. That I may declare all thy works. With the intention of ever hereafter declaring and magnifying all thy works.
HOMILETICS
Psa 73:24
Divine guidance.
“Thou shalt guide,” etc. Asaph looked out on the world of human life, and beheld a sight which troubled and perplexed him, as it has troubled and perplexed many a pious heart since. He saw the wealthy sinner clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously; godless, yet prosperous; adding field to field; spending in selfish luxury what he gained by fraud and extortion; and at last dying in peaceful old age, and laid in a splendid sepulchre. And he saw the devout, honest, patient worshipper of God, toiling hard to keep the wolf from his door, glad of the crumbs from the rich man’s table to eke out his children’s scanty meal; dying prematurely, worn out with care and hardship, and hurried into a nameless grave. As Asaph saw this, and much more like this, he could not help asking,” Why is this? Why does not the hand of Omnipotence with a touch arrest the crooked balance, crown virtue and piety with prosperity, and overwhelm vice and injustice with misery and shame?” Then he “went into the sanctuary of God.” He joined, though with troubled spirit, in praising God; “for his mercy endureth forever.” He poured out his soul in silent prayer, while the priest ministered at the golden altar. Then the Holy Spirit shed a light into his mind that lighted up the whole prospect of human life. He saw that he had left the main element out of his reckoningforgotten to ask,” What will be the end?“ He discerned the dangers of prosperity and the benefits of adversity; how pride, covetousness, lust, selfishness, injustice, thrive in luxurious self-indulgence, like rank weeds in a rich soil; and how the Lord chastens those he loves (Hebrew 12:10). Then understood he their end. He confessed his error. And with new humility and fresh faith he here entrusts himself and all his concerns to God’s fatherly guidance and sovereign will “Thou shalt guide,” etc. These words express a deep sense of need of Divine guidance; willingness to be guided; assurance that God will guide.
I. THE NEED OF DIVINE GUIDANCE. Man begins life as the most helpless of creatures. If not fed, clothed, cared for by others, he would perish almost as soon as born. Without the company and training of his elders, if he could grow up at all, he would lack language, if not reason. As he grows up, and reaps the fruit of all this guidance and counsel, he begins to be impatient of control, to imagine himself self-sufficient. He will be guided by his own counsel. This conceit becomes in many cases so unbridled, that the thought of dependence even upon God becomes intolerable. “Our lips, say they, are our own: who is Lord over us?” The truth is that what we really need, when we have outgrown our first lessens, is not less guidance, but of a higher sort. The stronger, richer, wiser, any one is, the more mischief he may do, and the more misery he may incur, if he takes a wrong course. You, young man, in the pride of your untamed energy; you, man of the world, in the ripeness of your gathered experience,have not less, but more need of guidance than when you sat on the bench at school, or lay in your nurse’s arms.
1. We need guidance because of our ignorance of the future. The only things we can certainly foresee are the motions of the heavenly bodies and the action of natural forces. The moment we get into the world of life we are in the region of uncertainty. True, we foresee a great deal. Business would be impossible, life would be impossible, without a great deal of foresight. But over all hangs a haze of uncertainty. Your plans are laid, perhaps, with wise forecast. But will the ship come in? Will the rise or fall on which you reckon take place? Will the demand for the goods you are making continue, or suddenly cease? Will the harvest be good or bad? You can no more tell than whether you will be able to attend to your business this day week, or be lying delirious with fever.
2. We need guidance because of the fallibility of our judgment. Were there no cloud on our knowledge, yet if the balance of judgment hang awry, we may easily involve ourselves and others in irreparable misfortune. This was what so humbled the psalmist. He perceived that his judgment of human affairs had been completely at fault. He had adopted a wholly false standard, and, if left to choose for himself and for others, he would have chosen disastrously wrong. God’s thoughts, he saw, are not our thoughts, any more than God’s ways are our ways. “What, then, is the guidance?” he asks. “With thy counsel.” “Counsel” has a double meaning: “advice,” and “plan, or purpose.” He may mean, “Lead me by thy Word and thy Spirit, teaching me how to judge, making my duty plain;” or, “Choose my path and lot according to thine own wise purpose.” But the first sense really includes the second; for if God shows us our way, it must be the way he chooses for us. Calvin says, “Although sometimes things turn out well when we are rash and foolish (for God mends our mistakes, and turns our wrong beginnings to happy endings), yet his more common and fuller blessing lies in giving wisdom to his people; and nothing is to be more earnestly prayed for than that we may be ruled by the Spirit of wisdom and counsel.”
II. Therefore these words are A PRAYER FOR DIVINE GUIDANCE. As much as to say, “l need guidance; my future is hidden; my judgment is fallible. To thee the future is as the present; the darkness as the light. All events, all seasons, all minds and wills of men, are in thy hand. Choose thou my way. Lead me in thy path, and teach me. Make my path plain; but, even if it be obscure, let me rest in thisthat it is thy counsel, not my own.” It is one thing to believe the fact of Divine guidance; another to be willing to follow it. One thing, also, to trust God to lead us in the path we have chosen; another to say, “Not my will, but thine.” And yet it ought to be easy! What is the whole Bible but one continued proof that God’s way is the right way, and the ways men choose for themselves, wrong? “All we like sheep,” etc.; “He that spared not,” etc. (Isa 53:6; Rom 8:32).
III. ASSURANCE THAT GOD WILL GUIDE. Therefore what we need that God should do, because he can and we cannot; and what we are willing he should do, and ask]aim to do for us,that we may expect him to do. These words are more than the cry of need; more than the surrender of self-will; are the triumphant utterance of faith. “Thou wilt guide to glory.” Here is a sunbeam of clear hope and inspired promise breaking through all the clouds of doubt, fear, and ignorance. One such test is enough to prove that it is a huge mistake to suppose the hope of immortality hidden from the ancient saints. (Indeed, even apart from inspiration, the Hebrews could not be ignorant of what was well known to the Egyptians, ages before Moses.) Here the balance rights itself. Why do the ungodly prosper? Because they are “men of the world, whose portion is in this life” (Psa 17:14). Why does God not give his children their portion here? That he may prepare them for their portion hereafter (2Co 4:16-18; Joh 14:2-4, Joh 14:6). Here is the difference between the foresight of faith and the foresight of worldly calculation. To earthly foresight it is the near future that is plain; the further it recedes, the thicker the mists gather. To the eye of faith it is the near future which we can contentedly leave uncertain, because the distant, the eternal future, is revealed. “We know not what shall be on the morrow;” but we know what shall be when the heavens and earth that are now shall have passed away. “We know” (2Co 5:1).
Psa 73:26
Strength in weakness.
“My flesh forever.” Asaph’s psalms bear no less the stamp of Divine inspiration than David’s; yet their character is widely different. The Holy Spirit employs different instruments for different ends. Reading David’s psalms and David’s life, one is ready to say we have an epitome of all human experience. Yet Asaph shows us depths of experience into which probably David never penetrated. This psalm opens abruptly: “surely”or, as in the margin, “yet,” nevertheless”God is good to Israel!” This points back to that severe mental conflict in which Asaph had barely escaped overthrow (Psa 73:2, Psa 73:3). A struggle with doubt, in which many can sympathize. In Psa 73:16, etc; he shows how his eyes were opened to the folly and injustice of his hard thoughts of God. From this deep abasement (Psa 73:22) he springs at a bound to the loftiest height of faith. And in this twenty-sixth verse, he crushes together, as it were, the two extremes of his experience. At once a cry of defeat and a shout of victory.
I. THE CRY OF DEFEAT, A CONFESSION OF WEAKNESS, DESPAIR, FAILURE. “My flesh,” etc. “Heart,” in the Scriptures, stands for the whole mental and spiritual nature; “flesh” (often “flesh and blood”), for our nature as mortal, often as sinful. Here, as in Psa 84:2. An utter breakdown of energy, bodily, and mental. Hope and courage seem spent. The past looks an abyss in which happiness has been engulfed; the present, a crushing burden; the future, a dark blank. If I were to call this a picture of human life, I should seem to many darkly, ungratefully exaggerating. Our views of life depend on our experience. Young, happy, strong, hopeful,you find nothing like this. Past has few resets, present few drawbacks, future no clouds. Thank God for sunshine! But remember on what a brittle thread life hangs. Health may fail, friends die, most trusted investments prove a snare, calculations mistaken. (Like houses on brink of Lake of Zag.) The lesson of our own weakness one of great lessons of life. God has various wayssome gentle, some severeof teaching it; but we need it. Those who do not learn it, not the happiest (Psa 84:6-9). Extreme casepeople ruined by their own prosperity. But take milder examplesthose who have never learned humbling lesson of weakness; not ripest, richest Christians, most able to sympathize. Even our blessed Lord needed this lesson, not. only for perfection of obedience, but sympathy (Hebrew Psa 5:7, Psa 5:8; Psa 2:1-12 :18). If you have never been forced to say, “My flesh and my heart fail,” you have much to learn. Especially the full comfort and triumph of the other half of the verse.
II. THE SHOUT OF VICTORY. The utterance of triumphant faith. “God,” etc.
1. This implies what the New Testament calls reconciliation to God. Theologians speak of God being reconciled to us. The Scriptures, of our being reconciledGod reconciling us to himself (Rom 15:10, see Revised Version, Rom 15:11; 2Co 5:18). God cannot be “the Strength” of a heart unreconciledat enmity. I believe there are persons who have heard the gospel preached all their lives, yet never really taken in that the gospel is just this message. They know something is wanting to make them true Christians. But “unreconciled!at enmity!” Not so bad as that! If they could see that it is even so, this would be first step to “taking hold of God’s strength.” An uneasy conscience is a great cause of weakness; a dead or sleeping conscience, worse. Peace is strength; righteousness, love, joy, are strength.
2. A mind at rest in God; satisfied as to the wisdom, justice, goodness, of all his dealings; not because we can thoroughly understand them, but can trust God. Asaph had severe trials (verse 14:). But worst, hardest, difficulty of reconciling what he saw in the world with goodness and righteousness of God. Such doubt as may arise in the most devout mind; the more devout, the more painful. Insoluble to reason (verse 16). “Light and peace come not by thinking, but by faith” (Perowne). In God’s house, perhaps in public worship, perhaps in silent meditation and prayer, these two great truths dawned on him:
(1) that God’s plan is not to interfere violently to stop sin, but to make sin its own punisher and penalty;
(2) the meaning and measure of life lie, not in the compass of this short life, but beyond. Some interpreters so possessed with belief that Hebrews were ignorant of immortality, that they explain this of temporal calamities. Prosperous wickedness often has a shameful and terrible end. But the very difficulty (verses 3-12) is that this is often not the case. Asaph would not have learned this in the house of prayer, but in courts of law, haunts of business, etc. Besides, this view is untenable. Impossible that Hebrews, to say nothing of inspired prophets, could be ignorant of what Egyptians and other heathen nations knew. (Sheol is never “the grave;” it is “Hades.”)
3. Accordingly, here is an infinite portion, a boundless hope. “My Portion forever.” Guidance here, glory hereafter (verse 24). In this sunshine, the darkness and chill of doubt vanish. Not that the believer overlooks the difficulties, but looks beyond. Perhaps sees more forcibly than the unbeliever; but only shadows across the path; no longer barriers, stumbling blocks. “God” both “Strength” and “Portion.” Not my views, my faith, but God himself. He does not say, “strength of my flesh,” though that, too, is true (Gal 2:20, “in the flesh”). Let that fail, decay, perish! Before Asaph spoke or wrote as a prophet, he had to learn as a believer. The same Spirit is willing to be our Teacher.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Psa 73:1-28
The grievous conflict of the flesh and the Spirit, and the glorious conquest of the Spirit at the last.
I. THE BEGINNING OF THE PSALM. In this he ingeniously pointeth at those rocks against which he was like to have split his soul.
II. THE MIDDLE OF THE PSALM. In this he candidly confesseth his ignorance and folly to have been the chiefest foundation of his fault.
III. THE END OF THE PSALM. In this he gratefully kisseth that hand which led him out of the labyrinth.
Such is the clear and accurate summing up of the contents of this psalm by an old Puritan divine. Should any of us, unhappily, find our own portraiture in the conduct told of at the beginning, may it not be long ere the middle and the end of the psalm portray us equally well!S.C.
Psa 73:1-28
Asaph’s trial and deliverance.
Asaph was greatly tempted, as this psalm plainly shows. It does not matter whether he speaks of himself or, as is likely, of some other servant of God. Consider
I. HIS TEMPTATION.
1. It was a very terrible one. (See Psa 73:2, “My feet were almost gone,” etc.) How honest the Bible is! It tells the whole truth about men, and good men, too. It shows them tempted, and all but overcome.
2. It arose from his seeing“ the prosperity of the wicked.“ A sight, to Old Testament saints, very hard to bear. For they had not our knowledge of the life eternal. Psa 73:24 is no disproof of this statement. For had it meant, as we so commonly take it to mean, the being received to the future “glory” of God’s redeemed in heaven, how was it that so large a portion of the Jews in our Lord’s time did not believe in any future life at all, and that our Lord had to turn to the (to us) apparently irrelevant declaration, “I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac,” etc; when, if the common interpretation be right, there was this and other plain Scriptures like it to appeal to? Hence, and for yet other reasons, we hold that the Old Testament saints had not the knowledge of the future life and the recompenses that should be accorded them. Therefore to them the sight of what seemed to be injusticesuch as the prosperity of the wicked and the adversity of the goodwas especially painful; for they knew of no remedy.
3. And it wrought him much harm. He became envious and bitter, Psa 73:4-14 are one long protest and complaint against God; and sullen”as a beast before thee;” and miserable”it was too painful for me.” And it all but overthrew him (Psa 73:2). Such was Asaph’s trial.
II. OURS IS THE SAME TODAY. We see just what Asaph did; and we are tempted to say, as many do say, “The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom, nor, indeed, wisdom at all;” and so they will have nothing to do with it. But our excuse is far less than that of Asaph, since clearer light and fuller knowledge are ours. Nevertheless, the facts of life do lead to unbelief, if we look only at them. Men feel that right ought to prevail. When we were children, we were told that it would. But very often, so far as we can see, it does not. We look at nature, and it appears utterly immoral, because cruel, relentless, unforgiving, murderous to the weak, favouring only the strong. We read history, and bow often it records only the triumph of the wicked and the abasement of the good! Society, also, is ordered on anything but a morally righteous basis. And do we not everywhere see the innocent suffering for the guilty, involved in their sin, and bearing their doom? It is not merely the suffering, though so great, that gives rise to unbelief in God, but the seeming injustice of its allotment. And hence, today, the drear cynicism and unbelief of the Book of Ecclesiastes tells the thought of not a few. But note
III. SOME SURE SAFEGUARDS AGAINST THIS TEMPTATION. See how Asaph found deliverance, and came at length to the conclusion which he avows in the opening verse of this psalm.
1. He held his tonguedid not talk about his doubts, but kept them to himself, so far as men were concerned (verse 15).
2. He laid them all before God. (Verse 17.) He “went into the sanctuary.” He prayed, but did not argue. And the result was that he came to see facts in their true light; that the ungodly man’s wealth meant but so many “slippery places.” Death for him was “destructions” and its certain prospect caused him to be “utterly consumed with terrors;” and even at his best he was “despised” of the Lord (verses 19, 20). Thus Asaph’s envy was turned into pity, as well it might be.
3. He realized the love of God. He gained this by honest confession of the sin of which God had convicted him (verses 21, 22). Also by calling to mind the love which God had shown him (verse 23); the care exercised over him; and the sure prospect of blessedness set before him. Thus there came a great rush of love in his heart toward God (verse 25); and the settled persuasion both of the misery of being far from God (verse 27), and of the blessedness of drawing near to him (verse 28). Thus the mist and darkness cleared away, as, on the mount of communion with God, they ever will.S.C.
Psa 73:2
Narrow escapes.
“The victorious general, in the hour of triumph, has not unfrequently reason to remember how nearly, through oversight or miscalculation, he had lost the day. A little more pressure on this wing or that, a trifling prolongation of the struggle, a few minutes’ further delay in the arrival of reinforcements, and his proud banner had been dragged in the dust. The pilot, steering his barque safely into port, sometimes knows how, through lack of seamanship, he nearly made shipwreck. And the successful merchant remembers crises in his history when he found himself on the brink of ruinwhen the last straw only was wanting to precipitate the catastrophe.” And like narrow escapes occur in the spiritual life.
I. NOTE SOME OF THEM.
1. The doubt and darkness of unbelief caused by brooding over the mysteries of providence (cf. Jer 48:11).
2. Terrible temptation. See Joseph in prison, Moses in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, the martyrs. “The righteous scarcely are saved.”
3. When brought very low, as the prodigal son was, by our own sin. Then the crisis is when we have to decide whether we will turn back to God or go on in our sin. The prodigal went back to his father; Ephraim was joined to his idols, and, like Amon, “sinned more and more.” How many are in heaven now who once were all but lost! David, Manasseh, Peter, the penitent thief, Mary Magdalene, and many more.
II. WHAT SUCH INSTANCES TEACH US.
1. Never to despair of any one. God can save them.
2. Never to presume for ourselves. “Let him that thinketh he standeth,” etc.
3. Great thankfulness, if we are kept.
4. Deep sympathy with those who fall.
5. Ever to abide in Christ.S.C.
Psa 73:5, Psa 73:6
Much ease, much peril.
That is the teaching of these verses, and of innumerable Scriptures besides (see Psa 55:19; Jer 48:11). Thus
I. GOD IS EVER TEACHING US THIS TRUTH.
1. In his Word. See also Hebrew 12, and the biographies of God’s people in all ages. The history of the Church as given in Scripture abundantly reveals God’s merciful law of change.
2. By analogy. God suffers nothing to be without change. Even the rocks and hills, the solid globe, are all subject to change. The seasons alternate. Storm and tempest make pure the air which, as in the Swiss valleys, would otherwise become stagnant. The great sea is “troubled, that it can never be quiet.” In plant life, “except a corn of wheat fall into,” etc. The processes of change are varied and ever acting in the entire vegetable world. And so in animal life. Not to experience change would be death. And it is so with the mind. No change there is idiocy. It must be stirred by the incoming of fresh truth, and the readjustment of old. In social life
“The old order changeth, giving place to new,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.”
In ecclesiastical life. What was the Reformation but the tempest that rushed through the valleys of the Church life of that day, where the air had become so stagnant and corrupt that men could not live? And it is so in political and in moral life. Much peace is much peril. “Because men have no changes they fear not God.” We cannot glide into the kingdom of God, nor, as the well known hymn mistakenly teaches that we may
“Sit and sing ourselves away
To everlasting bliss.”
Not so do we enter there, but “through much tribulation.” So our Lord, and all experience, plainly declare.
II. BUT WHY IS ALL THIS? Because in our nature there are rooted evils, which can only be got rid of by the action of this law of change. Such as:
1. Self-will. See the stream come brawling noisily along, as it descends through the valley down from the hill. But, lying right in its way, lo! there is a huge rook. Down comes the stream full tilt towards it, as if it would say, “Just you get out of my way.” But that is exactly what the rock does not do; and so the angry stream dashes against it. And oh, what rage and riot, what fret and fume, there at once arises! But if you wait a moment, and watch, you will see that the stream seems to be thinking what it had better do; for lo! it glides softly, smoothly, quietly round the rook, which still stands stubbornly and relentlessly just where it stood before. The stream seems to have learnt a lessonit has become all at once so gentle and submissive. Now, that is one of the ten thousand natural parables with which the world is full. The stream of our self-will, determined to go its own way, rushes on its course; but the rock of God’s law of change, sending adversity and trial, stands in its way, and will not move, and self-will is broken against it, as God intended it should be. Only so can this evil be cured.
2. Pride. Trouble and sorrow humble men, and bring down the haughty spirit.
3. Unbelief. The materialism and atheism of the day are shattered by this law. In the day of distress, the soul cannot keep from calling upon God.
4. Selfishness. Ease fosters this as it fosters so much more that is evil; but trial often teaches men to think of others as well as of themselves.
5. And so with indolence and the love of the world. To be “in trouble as other men are” has a salutary power to rouse men from the one and to loose them from the other. And what opportunity does this law of change give for bearing testimony to the sustaining power of God’s grace! Trouble endured with patient God-given courage is a mighty argument for God, the force of which all feel.
III. WHAT SHOULD BE OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS THIS LAW?
1. Faint not; fret not; fear not.
2. Humble yourself beneath the mighty hand of God, so that you may secure the blessing your trouble is destined to bring.S.C.
Psa 73:10
The doings of ungodly prosperity.
One of three of these doings seems to have been in the psalmist’s mind, but we cannot certainly say which. The words warrant either interpretation. Let us take, first, that one suggested by them as they stand in the Authorized Version, and as commonly read.
I. THE PEOPLE OF GOD ARE LED ASTRAY. For by “his people” many understand the people of God to be meant, and that they, allured and ensnared by the glitter of earthly prosperity, turn from the ways of God to follow after these ungodly ones. “They are led away by the evil example, just as the psalmist confesses he himself was;” and they turn after them. (Cf. “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.”) How often this happens’ But what is meant by the “waters of a full cup,” etc.? Either the cup of unholy pleasure, which they drain to the dregs; or else it is, as in Psa 80:5, and as actual experience attests, that when God’s people go astray, as here represented, it will be a full cup of sorrow and tears that they will have to drink, as indeed they do. The most miserable of men are backsliders from God. It cannot but be so. This is what our translators meant to imply by their rendering. But another meaning that the words warrant is
II. A CROWD FOLLOW THEM, THAT IS, THE UNGODLY. The people spoken of are the crowd of hangers on to the prosperousthose who will try to find favour with the rich and great of this world. The Prayer book Version thus sets it forth: “Therefore the people fall unto them, and thereout suck they no small advantage.” These hangers on are the people who attach themselves to the world’s rich ones, and “who gather like sheep to the water trough,” in hopes of what they may get. But whether they get anything or no, the ungodly whom they follow do; they “suck no small advantage.” They are yet more worshipped and fawned upon, and have ready to hand innumerable and willing tools to serve their purpose and to bring more “grist to their mill.” And the result is that they get more proud and arrogant than ever (see Psa 80:11). But, child of God, whoe’er thou art, say to thy soul, “My soul, come not thou into their secret.”
III. THE PEOPLE OF GOD HAVE TO SUFFER BITTER PERSECUTION. So the Chaldee, the Septuagint, and the Vulgate seem to understand the words. The wicked turn upon God’s people, who are, in consequence, “fed with the bread of tears, and have given to them tears to drink without measure” (Psa 80:5). It is the predestined lot of the people of God; but our Saviour tells us that it is a blessed portion. The last and chiefest of the Beatitudes (Mat 5:1-48) declares, “Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you,” etc. And it is so; for it shows, by your endurance of persecution, that you have found out the preciousness of the love of God, and know assuredly that, for the sake of it, you may be well content to die. That is knowledge which is, here and now, life eternal. May God keep us from exemplifying the first of these interpretations, and from forming part of that miserable crowd told of in the second! but if we are found amongst the third, then Christ will call us his blessed ones.S.C.
Psa 73:25
Supreme delight in God.
“It is notWhat have I, butWhom? Things, however many, rich, glorious, beautiful, cannot satisfy the soul, neither in heaven any more than on earth.” Not in things, but in persons, the personal soul must find its portion. And not in many, but in One; to whom the soul can look, to whom at all times it can come, and to whom, as here, it can lift up its cry, “Thou art the Strength of my heart, and my Portion forever.” But
I. SUCH DELIGHT IN GOD HAS BEEN HELD TO BE IMPOSSIBLE. For example:
1. Calvin, a learned, devout, and in the main a true expositor of Scripture, but sadly wanting in those more gentle and tender instincts which are absolutely essential to its full and accurate understanding, has, in commenting on our text, actually said, “If we give the smallest portion of our affections to the creatures, we in so far defraud God of the honour which belongs to him.” Now, that is utterly untrue and in dire contradiction to the Word which says, “If we love not our brother, whom we have seen, how can we love God whom we have not seen?”
2. And there are many devout souls haunted with the fear that, in loving those around them with the intense affection which they know they bear towards them, they are somehow defrauding God of what is due only to him. And yet more, when they compare the love which they have for God with the love which they cherish for those dear to them on earth, the latter love seems so much warmer and deeper than the former that, when they come to a text like this, they hesitate, and confess to themselves that such words are not for themfor them they would not be true. And they are sore troubled about this, and scarce know what to do. They would like to be able to say them, but they feel they cannot. Now, of course, there are many people in whom it would be hypocrisy, gross and palpable, were they to speak as does the psalmist here. They are cold, hard, worldly, and so earth-bound that they never think about loving God. The utmost you can get from them is a vague confession that they “suppose they ought to.” But we are thinking of really devout, godly souls, who nevertheless sorrowfully confess that the words of our text, and the many others like them, are far beyond what they can say. Such people believe, apparently, that, though our blessed Lord has commanded them to love the Lord their God with all their heart, they do not, and they doubt if any one ever has done so, or can. They do not seem to see how serious is the charge they thus bring against the Lordthat he has commanded what it is impossible to obey. Earthly parents do not deal with their children so, but they seem to think our heavenly Father does.
II. BUT IT IS POSSIBLE FOR US, NEVERTHELESS.
1. Here, at any rate, stands one declaration of it. The psalmist, if he did not express, as we are certain he did, his own deep and sincere feeling, must have been the victim of delusion, or else a wretched hypocrite. But who thinks that?
2. And he is not alone in such utterance. The psalms are full of them, and we have already referred to the first and great commandment. The New Testament also speaks of “perfect love”just that sentiment which our text tells of.
3. And there have been and are thousands of souls in which such love dwells, to whom God is their “exceeding Joy,” whose supreme delight is in God.
4. And what seems to does not really contradict this. For consider the elements of our love to God. They arecomplete distrust of self; confidence in God only for the supply of our souls’ deepest needs, such as pardon, peace, purity, eternal life; holy reverence and awe and gratitude. But all these are far other than what we cherish to our fellow men; so that they do not clash one with the other. On the contrary, the lower love may help the higher, and the higher cannot exist if the lower do not.
III. BUT IF SUCH SUPREME DELIGHT IN GOD BE POSSIBLE, IT IS ALSO INFINITELY DESIRABLE. All life, even the most mean and poor, becomes transformed, transfigured, glorified, by means of it. The soul becomes independent of all earthly favour, and heeds not this world’s frown, nor all “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” Unspeakably blest, and blessing is the characteristic of the soul in whom this love of God dwells. See Paul’s “sorrowful, but always rejoicing,” etc.
IV. IT IS ATTAINED THROUGH OBEDIENCE AND TRUST. “He that keepeth my commandments, he it is that loveth me,” said our Lord. Such obedience is not only the fruit, but the root, of the love which grows out of it. We obey, and we come to love him whom we obey. Serving is the secretnot alone the sign, but the source alsoof loving. Our love for our children is in proportion to the sacrifices we make for them. It is so everywhere and forever.S.C.
Psa 73:26
The failing flesh and the strengthening God.
Here is a vivid and blessed contrast. Consider
I. THE FAILING OF HEART AND FLESH here told of.
1. Some understand this as the result of his foolish conflict with God; and here, as all who contend with God are, he was worsted and brought low.
2. Others, as telling of his passionate desire after God, how he was “sick of love,” broken down with his longing for God.
3. Others, as telling of his heavy load of trouble. “He had a God’s rod instead of a good piece of bread for his breakfast every morning; and the table was covered with sackcloth, and furnished with the same bitter herbs both at dinner and supper.”
4. Anyway, it is a fact that heart and flesh do fail, both of the evil and of the good. The best herbs wither as well as the worst weeds. There is no discharge in this war.
5. What a rebuke it is to those whose treasures are all of the world!
II. THE STRENGTHENING GOD. How does he accomplish his gracious work?
1. By his Spirit in our hearts.
2. By his Word of promise for the future. The Spirit and the Word are his “rod and staff,” which comfort us.S.C.
Psa 73:28
Drawing near to God, a good thing.
The psalmist is very emphatic about it. His words imply that he is quite sure of it. Let us ask, thenWhy is it so good to draw near to God? Many are the answers.
I. IT IS SO BY WAY OF CONTRAST WITH WHAT HE HAD BEEN DOINGwearying himself to understand the hidden ways of God, the labyrinth of his providence. No good had come of that, but only evil. Gotthold, in his ‘Emblems,’ tells us of the freaks of his child. The father was one day sitting in his study, and when he lifted his eyes from his book, he saw, standing upon the window ledge, his little son. He was terribly frightened, for the child stood there in utmost peril of falling to the ground and being dashed to pieces. The little lad had been anxious to know what his father was doing so many hours in the day in his study, and he had at last, by a ladder, managed, with boyish daring, to climb up, till there he stood outside the window, gazing at his father with all his eyes. “So,” said the father, as he took the child into his chamber, and rebuked him for his folly”so have I often tried to climb into the council chamber of God, to see why and wherefore he did this and that; and thus have I exposed myself to peril of falling to my own destruction.”
II. BECAUSE OF WHAT IT IMPLIES.
1. That he was at peace with God. A soul unreconciled cannot draw near.
2. That he knew the way. He had learned the blessed but difficult art of drawing near; for drawing near is of the heart, not of the lips merely; and Satan will always try, and too often he succeeds, to hinder that.
3. He had found how good it was by his own experience.
III. BECAUSE THE LIGHT IS SO MUCH BETTER in the region near God. What a fog and mist he was in until he “went into the sanctuary of God,” and drew near to him! We see things truly there as we cannot elsewhere.
IV. THE TEMPESTS OF THE SOUL DIE DOWN THERE. It is the region of blessed calm.
V. THE AIR IS SO INVIGORATING. God is “the Health of my countenance,” “the Strength of my heart.”
VI. IS NOT GOD OUR GOD, OUR OWN GOD, OUR SOUL‘S HOME? Where, then, can we be better than at home?S.C.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 73:1-28
The solution of a great problem.
The question here isWhy should good men suffer, and bad men prosper, when the Law had said that God was a righteous Judge, meting out to men in this world the due recompense of their deeds? The course of things should perfectly reflect the righteousness of God. The psalmist struggles for a solution of this problem. The first verse contains the conclusion he had arrived at.
I. HIS DANGER. Expressed in the second, thirteenth, and twenty-second verses.
1. The example and sophistries of the wicked had nearly wrought his own downfall. His feet had been tempted by their prosperity to forsake the ways of righteousness, and he had almost fallen into their infidelity.
2. His faith in righteousness had been nearly lost. (Psa 73:13.) In vain had he cleansed his inward and outward lifeat least, he was tempted to think so for a time.
3. Others had been induced to follow the example of the wicked. (Psa 73:10.) “Therefore turn his people after them, and at the full stream (of their prosperity) would slake their thirst” (Perowne).
II. THE CAUSE OF HIS DANGER. (Psa 73:4-9.)
1. The wicked and atheistic seemed prosperous and happy. They had no trouble, no sorrows that hasten their death (“bands”). They are proud and violent, oppressive and defiant of the heavens. All these are hasty and superficial estimates of the experience of the wicked.
2. He himself was troubled and chastened continually. (Psa 73:14.) He who had been at such pains to cleanse his heart and hands. This was mystery that bewildered him.
3. But he restrains the utterance of his doubts to others. (Psa 73:15.) He forebore to shake the faith of others, and cause them to stumble.
III. REASSURANCE BY THE RECOVERY OF HIS FAITH. (Psa 73:17-28.)
1. He found the solution in the light of God‘s presence. (Psa 73:17.) The sanctuary was the symbol of God’s presence. Hitherto he had studied the matter only in the light of human experience; now in the light of God’s righteous character.
2. Their prosperity would come to a sudden end. (Psa 73:18-20.)
3. Communion with God is the realization of our highest destiny, not any unknown good. (Psa 73:23-28.)S.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 73.
The Prophet, prevailing in a temptation, sheweth the occasion thereof, the prosperity of the wicked, the wound given thereby, diffidence; the victory over it, knowledge of god’s purpose, in destroying of the wicked, and sustaining the righteous.
A Psalm of Asaph.
Title. mizmor leasaph. The Psalmist here considers that great question, Why wicked men are permitted to prosper, and good men to be miserable and afflicted; and, to put the case home, he describes these wicked men as profligate to the last degree; highly impious towards God, and injurious to men; and yet suffered to live in ease and affluence, and at last to enjoy a death without any great pain. There are no bands in their death, Psa 73:4. They have no pains when they die, says Le Clerc. This had almost tempted him, he says, to doubt the providence of God; but then he was soon cured of the temptation, when he reflected on the miracles that God had wrought for his people, which left no room to question a providence. See on Psa 73:15. Still he was under some perplexity while he looked no further than the visible appearances of things; till he entered the sanctuary of God; then understood he the end of these men: their future wretched state in another world. See on Psa 73:17. In consequence of which he expresses his firm hope and trust in God: Assured of a future state of rewards and punishments, his heart was so perfectly and entirely at rest, that he seems, to wonder how he could be so weak as to fall into doubts and perplexities about this matter. See Psa 73:21-22, and Peters on Job.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
THE PSALTER
THIRD BOOK
Psalms 73-89
_______________
Psalms 73
A Psalm of Asaph
1Truly God is good to Israel,
Even to such as are of a clean heart.
2But as for me, my feet were almost gone;
My steps had well nigh slipped.
3For I was envious at the foolish,
When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4For there are no bands in their death:
But their strength is firm.
5They are not in trouble as other men;
Neither are they plagued like other men.
6Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain;
Violence covereth them as a garment.
7Their eyes stand out with fatness:
They have more than heart could wish.
8They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression:
They speak loftily.
9They set their mouth against the heavens,
And their tongue walketh through the earth.
10Therefore his people return hither:
And waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
11And they say, How doth God know?
And is there knowledge in the Most High?
12Behold, these are the ungodly,
Who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
13Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain,
And washed my hands in innocency.
14For all the day long have I been plagued,
And chastened every morning.
15If I say, I will speak thus;
Behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
16When I thought to know this,
It was too painful for me;
17Until I went into the sanctuary of God;
Then understood I their end.
18Surely thou didst set them in slippery places:
Thou castedst them down into destruction.
19How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment!
They are utterly consumed with terrors.
20As a dream when one awaketh;
So, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
21Thus my heart was grieved,
And I was pricked in my reins.
22So foolish was I, and ignorant:
I was as a beast before thee.
23Nevertheless I am continually with thee:
Thou hast holden me by my right hand.
24Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel.
And afterward receive me to glory.
25Whom have I in heaven but thee?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.
26My flesh and my heart faileth:
But God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
27For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish:
Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.
28But it is good for me to draw near to God:
I have put my trust in the Lord God,
That I may declare all thy works.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.The firm acknowledgment that God is nothing but good to those who are truly His people (Psa 73:1), was to the Psalmist the fruit of a victory gained by his faith over personal temptations (Psa 73:2). These temptations had arisen from vexation at the temporal prosperity of the ungodly (Psa 73:3-5), and at their presumptuous conduct (Psa 73:6-9). Many were hereby influenced to attach themselves to that class of men, because they could not reconcile the prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the righteous with the doctrine of Gods providence (Psa 73:10-14). The Psalmist escaped the danger of becoming recreant himself, and a seducer of others, which might have resulted from such doubts, not by means of his own reflections upon the difficult problem of the course of human affairs, but by the observance of the duties of religion, by which he was led to the contemplation of the final lot of the ungodly (Psa 73:15-17). This afforded him a view of their sudden and complete destruction by the judgments of God (Psa 73:18-20), and of the utter absurdity of his former indignation (Psa 73:21-22). Now he becomes strengthened by communion with God, who leads him in safety and to glory (Psa 73:23-24), who is his only true and lasting good (Psa 73:25-26), and shall remain his saving refuge and the object of his endless praise.
The same problems are discussed here which are presented in Psalms 37, 49, and in the Book of Job; but the solution given here is the most profound. (Comp. Hupfeld in the Deutsche Zeitschrift fr christl. Wissen und Leben, 1850, No. 235). [The relative position assigned to the Book of Job by Dr. Moll and most of the commentators upon this Psalm is hardly just. It must be remembered that that record of trial and doubt and victory constitutes the Book of Old Testament revelation which was to deal particularly with this special department of the mysteries of Providence. And it therefore presents the question in its inexhaustible variety of aspects, sounding the depths, not of transient doubts and perplexities, but of a crushing personal realization of the utmost consequences of a conflict waged by a righteous man against the unrestrained power and devices of Satan. Now the view of the Book which finds a relative inferiority in its solution, proceeds from considering the discourses, which occupy much the largest space, as being intended to express all its teachings. The chief place is necessarily given to the record of the struggle, and when the solution is given there results what Psalms 37 pictures, a fulness of outward prosperity. But it was not this for which Job chiefly longed. And when he received the vindication of his righteousness, even though accompanied by the rebuke for his presuming attempt to sit in judgment upon the ways of God, he could feel that in the favor of God was his life, as its withdrawal had seemed to him worse than death. The real distinction would seem to be not that the solution in this Psalm is the more profound, but that while in the Book of Job the expression of the feeling of confidence and triumph is kept out of view, it is here joyously given forth. This is the distinguishing excellence of this Psalm, for which it must ever retain its place in the heart of the doubting and comforted believer.J. F. M.]
From these facts we cannot infer with certainty a composition at a late period, especially as the mode in which the subject is presented is throughout peculiar. It is also just as unsafe to infer from the recurrence in Psa 74:3 of the rare word, meaning ruins, employed in Psa 73:18, that these two Psalms were of contemporaneous origin. The same remark applies to the inference of a later origin drawn from the occurrence of Archaic and Aramaic word-forms. It bears much more heavily against such a conclusion that the ancient translators failed to understand many expressions throughout the Psalm, and in some instances gave such absurd interpretations that the correct exposition only begins with Kimchi. This would be inexplicable, if the Psalm were not composed before the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, 175 B. C. (Hitzig). There was, it is true, at that time a relapse of whole bodies of the Jewish nation to heathenism (1Ma 1:11 f.), on one occasion under the cooperation of a high-priest (2Ma 4:9 ff.). But leaving out of consideration all such apostasies as that which the prophet Hosea, among others, denounces and characterizes as whoredom [see Psa 73:27], it is evident that Psa 73:1 introduces a contrast, not between Israel and heathen nations, but between two classes in Israel itself. [Alexander: There is not the slightest ground for doubting the correctness of the title, which ascribes the composition of the Psalm to Asaph, the cotemporary of David and his chief musician, and himself, moreover, an inspired Psalmist. This last fact, which is a matter of recorded history, together with the fact that when only one name is mentioned in the title of a Psalm, it is uniformly that of the writer, may suffice to set aside the supposition that Asaph is only named as the performer.J. F. M.]. On Asaph see the Introd. 2. Paul Gerhards hymn: Sei Wohlgemuth, O Christenseel, is an imitation of this Psalm.
Psa 73:1. Only good is God [E. V.: Truly God is good, etc.].The rendering: kind (De W.) is too restricted for , even if modified into a substantive: kindness (Hitzig), although this is more suitable than the notion expressed by the simple adjective (Sept., Calvin). The explanation: the true happiness and good (Stier), is in so far correct as it raises the conception above its usual restriction to the sphere of the purely ethical, which is also admirably accomplished in Luthers freer translation: nevertheless Israel has God as his consolation. It introduces, however, into the neuter a definiteness which is too concrete. The essential thought is not affected if is taken adversatively=yet, nevertheless (most of the ancient translators and Tholuck); or affirmatively=yea, surely (Kster, De Wette, Hupfeld, Delitzsch); or restrictively=only, nothing but (most of the modern expositors). But the application of the only to Israel (Aben Ezra) is wrong. [An allegation has been based by many upon such passages as Psa 73:1 and Hab 1:13 (where see Delitzsch) that the Old Testament writers were in the habit of describing Israel, as a nation, as righteous, and the heathen as sinners. For the disproof of this charge see in the Appendix to Hengstenbergs Coram, on the Psalms, the treatise on the Doctrine of Sin, as appearing in the Psalms.J.F.M.]
Psa 73:4. We read, with Ewald and all the recent expositors except Stier, Hengstenberg and Hupfeld, , and therefore attach the former word to the first part of the verse, and the latter to the second. For this slight change of affords a sense which is suitable throughout; while the received reading would mean: they have no torments in dying (Sept., Kimchi), which does not agree with Psa 73:18 f. Again, difficulties that can scarcely be set aside are involved in any of the following translations: they have no torments with regard to death, that is, no fear of death (Targum, Symmachus, the older Rabbins); or: they have no sufferings causing death, diseases, and the like infirmities (Kimchi, Calvin, Hengstenberg); or: they have no torments until their death (Isaaki, Stier, Hupfeld).The explanation paunch for the word , has come through the medium of the Arabic. The word is also taken by some (Kimchi, Calvin, Hengst., Hupfeld) in its usual signification, power, strength. By the older translators (Symmachus, Isaaki) it is confounded with , to which is to be traced the erroneous translation: strong as a palace (Luther). [The authors translation would be: For they have no torments: their paunch (body) is vigorous and well-fed (stout).J. F. M.]
Psa 73:6. It is not abundant fulness (Geier, J. H. Michaelis, Hengst.) that is described; still less is it the daily habit of life (Kimchi), but an ostentatious and vain-glorious exhibition. [The opinion of Hengstenberg has been here misstated. He agrees very nearly with Dr. Moll himself. He says: The reason which led the Psalmist to speak of pride as a neck ornament of the wicked, for the purpose of expressing the thought that they are wholly beset with it, was in all probability the fact that it was their manner of carrying their neck that chiefly exhibited their pride. He refers to Ps. 3:16; Job 15:26.J. F. M.]
Psa 73:7. Many since Schnurrer read instead of , basing this upon the Septuagint, the Syriac Version, and Zec 5:6; Hos 10:10. The meaning then would be: their pride comes forth or proceeds from their fat. Their fat then represents either: their affluence (Schnurrer, Doederlein), or better, as in Psa 17:10 : their gross, insensible heart, their soul smeared, as it were, with grease (Hitzig, Bttcher, Olshausen, Hupfeld, Delitzsch). Comp. Mat 15:18 f. The following half of the verse does not mean that they are transgressors, i.e. impious in their thoughts (Geier and others). Nor does it mean that their success surpasses all their expectations (Isaaki, Kimchi, Calvin), or exceeds all human precedent (Rabbins cited in Calvin). But the meaning is, that the imaginations of their hearts, the illusions of their unbounded self-esteem (Delitzsch), have revealed themselves. Yet it does not imply that this is done through the medium of the eyes (Clericus), or the mouth, in allusion to the succeeding verse (Delitzsch), but without any more precise indication and without any restriction, by passing from inward feeling to outward expression. [The explanation of the clause here given seems the mo9t natural. Alexander prefers this, as also do Perowne and Wordsworth. Fausset prefers the translation: they pass over (exceed) the imaginations of their hearts, thus agreeing with E. V.J. F. M.]
[The first clause of Psa 73:8 is rendered in the English Version: they are corrupt. This rendering of occurs in all the ancient versions except those of Symmachus () and Jerome (irriserunt), which are undoubtedly correct, and with which most of the modern translators agree.
The old rendering has assumed a verb, cognate with , and taken intransitively: to melt, run down, be corrupt. Geier, however, gives it the causative sense, to cause to melt, i.e., others by their oppression. Fausset adduces in favor of this the occurrence of oppression in the next clause, and thinks that there may be a parallelism. But in the first place, if a parallelism is desired it is afforded in the speaking, which in fact is the subject of the whole verse. Then, as to the true meaning of the word, the cognate languages seem to settle the question, as the corresponding words in Arabic, Syriac, and Chaldee (in the two latter, with a causative form like the Hebrew) have the meaning: to deride, to mock. The true rendering then seems to be: they will scoff.J. F. M.]
Psa 73:9. The subject of this verse is probably not blasphemies against heaven, i.e., against God (Targum, Isaaki, Geier, Delitzsch, who refers to Judges 16) and evil speaking on earth and through the country (Aben Ezra, Geier, J. H. Michaelis). Rather the description of their speaking down from on high (Psa 73:8), as though they had ascended into heaven (Isa 14:13), which is manifested in arrogant self-assumption, is here continued. The tongue thus appears as the unruly evil, meddling with everything, Jam 3:8, (Luther, Calvin).
Psa 73:10. therefore refers to these two causes, the prosperity and the conduct of the wicked, whose example draws over to their party those who may be called in more senses than one, His people, and causes them to apostatize from God. The received reading would give the rendering: he causes to turn, and (Jerome, the Rabbins, and almost all the expositors) would mean: he turns. So (all the Codices) would mean: His people, and (Sept., J. D. Michaelis, Dathe): My people. But these variations affect the sense but slightly, and are to be explained partly from the natural confounding of and , and partly from the attempt to avoid, or to explain as intermediary, the unexpected introduction and immediate disappearance of a singular subject instead of the usual plural. To refer the suffix to God (Calvin, Rosenmueller, Stier, Maurer) is not justified by the context. Still this attempt at an explanation may suggest to us that the rendering: (his, or): their rabble (Luther and others) is too restricted and does not agree with Psa 73:13, and that it is rather the faithless Israelites who are spoken of; that, therefore, both parties, the seducers and the seduced, the wicked and their hangers-on (Psa 10:4; Psa 14:1; Psa 36:2; Psa 49:14; Isa 46:12) had constituted one and the same people, before they had banded together to form this multitude.
The meaning of the second clause of the verse, however, does not mean that they run to them in large numbers, comparing them to the running of water (Luther) or that they are absorbed by them in large numbers (Sachs). Nor must we translate: full water (i.e., an overflow, as a figure of sensual prosperity) is found for them (the ancient translators, Geier, and others). For does not come from to find, but from to drain, Psa 75:9; Isa 51:19 Eze 23:34. But it does not refer to a cup of tears or a cup of sorrow, Psa 80:6 (Kimchi), which has made the pious unfaithful, but to the eagerness with which they either grasp at success and its enjoyments (Hengst., Hupfeld), or catch at the maxims of the ungodly, (Job 15:16) thoughts and words of discontent (Ewald, Delitzsch, Hltzig). [The translation of the author, therefore, is: Therefore his people turn hither, and water in abundance is drained by them. With this Perowne substantially agrees. Alexander prefers to retain the causative reading, and takes the cup to mean draughts of bitterness. He renders: Therefore he brings back his people hither, and waters of fulness are wrung out to (or drained by) them. This he explains thus: God still suffers or requires His people to survey the painful spectacle, and drain the bitter draught presented by the undisturbed prosperity of the wicked. But in all the explanations based on the causative reading the words must be strained in order to get a natural and appropriate sense.J. F. M.]
Psa 73:11-14. The question in Psa 73:11 is ironical, and includes its own denial, Job 22:13. They first deny Gods actual knowledge, and then His attribute of omniscience (Delitzsch). In the bitter: behold! (Stier) they draw attention to the apparently manifest proofs of the truth of the denial. We are not, however, especially since the article is absent, to translate: behold! they are the ungodly (Luther) This would rather suit the supposition that in Psa 73:12 the poets reflections begin. is then to be taken as equivalent to tales (Geier) as in Job 18:21. Comp. Job 8:19; Isa 56:11; and to be understood as describing either their moral character (Hupfeld) or their condition before presented (Hengstenberg). Many arguments may be adduced in support of this assumption, but none convincing. It is doubtful whether in Psa 73:12 b the security refers to the pleasant (Hupfeld) and undisturbed (Hitzig) situation of the man who apparently is always prosperous (the versions and the Rabbins), or to his sense of it as being free from care (Ewald, Delitzsch).With Psa 73:13 compare Pro 20:9; Pro 26:6; with Psa 73:14, Job 7:18.
[The correct interpretation and mutual relations of Psa 73:12-14, have been the subject of various conflicting opinions. There appears to be no necessity for assuming that they are utterances of some third party, a suffering righteous man. This view seems to have been suggested by the difficulties presented by the apparently forced connection of the section with the verses preceding and following. Either of the other and more common solutions would meet the difficulties better. The view which regards these verses as the former words of the Psalmist himself, is maintained by Hengstenberg, Hupfeld, and most of the English commentators. This opinion seems to have in its favor Psa 73:15, if I said: I should speak thus, etc. and the exclamation in Psa 73:12, which would naturally introduce such a discourse. But the best interpretation, in my view, is that to which Dr. Moll gives his sanction, as also do Ewald and Delitzsch, and to which Perowne inclines. It puts these words into the mouth of one who had apostatized, selected as a representative of those who speak in Psa 73:11. The words employed in Psa 73:15, where the Psalmists reflections accordingly begin, are thus best accounted for. He would naturally contrast his position not with that of the avowed and veteran sinners, but with those who had experienced temptations like his, and had succumbed to them. As he listens to their words in which they point to the growing prosperity of the wicked, and recall their own profitless innocence in former days, which gained for them nothing but wounds and stripes, he seas the results of the very temptation that had entered deeply into his own soul. But what if he were to speak thus!
The following translation of Psa 73:10-15 will thus form a consistent whole:
Therefore His people turn hither.
And waters of abundance are drunk deep by them.
And they say: How has God known it?
And is there knowledge in the Most High?
See! these are the wicked !
And, at their ease forever, they have increased their wealth.
(One of them speaks).
Only in vain did I purify my heart.
And wash my hands in innocence.
And I was being smitten every day.
And my chastisement (came) every morning
(The Psalmist).
If I had said: I will utter such words,
Behold! I would have trangressed against the family of thy childrenJ. F. M.]
The transition to the first person is to be explained by the fact that individual feelings and personal experiences are now to be presented. To place these words in the mouth of the Psalmist would not agree with our explanation of Psa 73:15. If we were, however, to consider them as his earlier utterances, and translate Psa 73:15 : If I said, I will count up, how often, behold! I betrayed the family of thy children, the Psalmist would then admit the commission of deeds which go far beyond what he had confessed in Psa 73:2. He rather declares what would happen if he were to make the language of those who had been misled his own. elsewhere usually equivalent to as, is here taken most simply as our adverb so, (most of the versions and translators, comp. Gesenius, Thesaurus). And we are not obliged to change the reading into (Dathe); or in order to obtain the sense: sicut illi (Syriac version, Targum), to assume that (Bttcher) or (Olshausen) has possibly fallen out, and supply it (Aben Ezra, Isaaki); or to point (Geier, Rosenmueller); or disregarding the accents to annex the which follows and read , sicut illa, severba (Saadias, de Dieu, Dderlein, Ewald).
The generation of thy children (Psa 73:15) is here the whole body of those in whom the relation of sonship, which God has constituted between Himself and Israel, had been spiritually realized,the true family (Psa 14:5) the Israel of God (Psa 73:1) the name of a distinct class, as in Deu 14:1; Hos 2:1 (Delitzsch).
Psa 73:17. The sacred things of God are not Gods righteous plans and leadings, nor the secrets of His government of the world (Gesenius, De Wette, Olshausen, Maurer, Ewald, Hitzig); nor Gods righteous deeds, Psa 77:14, but the holy places, where He dwells and makes Himself known, Ps. 68:36. But these are not heaven, as the end and reward of earthly tribulation (Kimchi, Bttcher) but the Temple. It is not, however, viewed as the place of the oracle (Calvin), or as the place where illumination and instruction are received through the medium of Gods Word, (Luther), by means of the teaching of priests and prophets (Aben Ezra), or by means of its typical regulations and service, (Stier, following the older expositors), or as a place of devotion (Delitzsch) where the heart enters into the presence of God (Hengst.) It. is probably viewed as the seat of the Judge and Ruler of the world (Psa 3:5; Psalms 11; Psa 14:7; Psa 20:3; Psa 20:7, etc.), consequently as the central point (penetralia) of Gods government (Hupfeld); from which that government can be best surveyed, and where the only authentic information concerning its problems is to be obtained. It has been supposed that by marking their end, the Poet expresses his intention to keep looking for the eventual temporal ruin of the ungodly, and that, this will in the meantime be his consolation until he shall penetrate into the Divine mysteries, while he will, for the present, continue his severe mental toil. So Kster, Olshausen, and Baur (on De Wette). But this does not agree with Psa 73:4; Psa 73:12 f. He is speaking of a spiritual attentive contemplation of Gods judgment (Calvin) in connection with his entering into His holy place. Through this, light has already fallen upon the problem, which is insoluble by the unaided labor of human thought.
Psa 73:18. The construction of with means really: Thou gavest them their position on slippery places, without needing to supply an accusative (J. H. Michaelis, Hengstenberg). [Hengstenberg hardly says that an accusative is to be supplied. He says the object is to be taken from the verb. As I understand him, he means precisely the same as Moll, that is, that means: to appoint a position, so that the object is included in the verb.J. F. M.] To understand the slippery places of the blessings (Rabb.) which have ruined them, is certainly too restricted and special. Yet the mere allusion to the perils which God has placed in their path (Hupfeld) allows the reference to the special circumstances of those who have been ruined by prosperity and success in every pursuit, to fall unduly into the back-ground. This would be avoided if we could translate with Hitzig: Thou, by artifice, only settest snares for them. Instead of to ruins, we can translate according to another derivation: into illusions (Dderlein, Rosenmueller, Ewald), or: by surprise, (Hitzig).
Psa 73:20. The parallelism shows that does not mean: in the city, that is, openly, on the scene where his deeds were committed (Hengst., with most of the ancient translators and expositors), but that it is equivalent to (Kimchi, Calvin and the modern expositors), that is, in the waking, not that of the dead, whose shade is terrified away (Bttcher); but that of God when He arises to judgment, Psa 78:65.
Verse 22. is not to be taken as a plural of majesty, but as the name of the Nilehorse (Job 40:15), Egyptian p-ehe-mou equivalent to water-ox. [The Egyptian compound here cited was probably assimilated to an existing Hebrew word on its introduction into the latter language, as was the usual custom. Now, why was not the singular used, which bears a closer resemblance to the Egyptian? Probably because there was a descriptive word already in use, a beast of beasts, Behemoth, and this just suited the hippopotamus, on account of its great size and strength. But these are not to us, nor were they to the Hebrews, the most prominent characteristic of the beast nature (witness ), and a large development of other striking qualities, would entitle to the same distinction. It would surely be much more natural for the Psalmist, in view of his folly and degradation, to say that he was a very beast before God, than to say that he was a Behemoth. On the ideas which lie at the basis of the pluralis majestatis see Green, Heb. Gr., 201, 2, and Hengstenbergs Beitrge, II. 257 ff.J. F. M.]
Psa 73:24. Afterwards Into glory. is not here, as in Zec 2:12, a preposition, but an adverb, as in Jdg 19:5; Hos 3:5. denotes here not the soul (Hasse), as in Psa 16:9, according to poetical usage. And it is scarcely an adjective: glorious (see Hoffman). It would be better to take it in an adverbial and general sense: with honor (Luther, Delitzsch). But it is best to consider it as the accusative of the end striven after (Hupfeld), namely, the glory of God (Psa 8:6), into which the Psalmist hopes to be taken up, Gen 5:24; Psa 49:16. This thought is weakened by the translation: Thou wilt lead me, or, bear me along, to the goal of honor (Ewald, Hitzig). It is quite misrepresented by the rendering: Thou bearest me after honor, that is, in its train (Hengst.). The rendering: at last Thou like glory wilt receive me (Klostermann), is artificial. It is, to be sure, only since Grotius, that we find in some expositors the limitation of these words to the earthly life. Yet the germ (Wurzel) of the belief in unending personal communion with God is here not so fully developed as most suppose it to be.
Psa 73:26 is by Hitzig understood to express the ardent longing (Psa 84:3; Job 19:27) after God (Psa 42:2The Vulgate, after the Septuagint, has at the end the addition: In the gates of the daughter of Zion.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The confession that God stands towards His covenant people, that is, towards its true members, in the relation of the One who is exclusively good, is, the fruit of a true and living faith in Him, ripened in the heat of temptation. For when the temporal prosperity of so many is seen to be disproportioned to their moral conduct, there is not only excited in the mind of the observer disquietude, vexation and anger, but a complete clashing of the feelings is also the result. On the one hand there is suggested a contradiction between such facts observed and the promises of God, Deuteronomy 28.; and on the other hand, the opposition makes itself felt, between the requirements of God and the corresponding sinful inclinations arising from the consideration of such facts.
2. With the growing prosperity of the wicked not only do their carnal security and their presumption increase with it, but their impiety reaches such a height that they act as though they themselves were God. And the pious man, when he sees them as if exempted from the usual lot of mortals (Job 14:1 ff.), easily falls, through his anger at such a condition of things, into a false heat, in which envy as well as impatience is aroused. It becomes difficult for him to remain unshaken in his belief in the Divine government, and hold fast to the truth impressed upon him from his youth. He begins to doubt and thus begins to waver. Yet before he falls he is saved by resorting to Gods holy place. This separates him from the faithless herd who have lent their ear to seduction, and strengthens him while he holds communion with God, which raises his view above the world and all that it exhibits, and sets him at rest as to those problems of the course of its affairs, which his unaided reflection could not avail to solve.
3. Viewed in relation to the end, the prosperity of the ungodly is clearly shown to be only an appearance, and the fabric of a vision, vanishing before, the terrible reality, when God arises to judgment. It is made manifest also that it is absurd and unreasonable in the highest degree, for us to allow ourselves to be irritated and deceived by such a show of prosperity. We thus learn, too, that everything depends upon our recognizing God as our true and everlasting good, upon our seeking, holding fast to, and proclaiming Him as such. For he whose life is bound up in the Person of the Eternal can never perish, but must only rise from one height to another until he becomes a partaker of the glory of God.
[Hengstenberg: The recompense on this side the grave should, according to the design of God, remain as an object of faith. Here also God conceals Himself, in order that He may be found by those who seek Him. That this is so seldom done, even by the well-disposed, that even they are so much inclined to look upon the righteousness of God as inoperative in this life, is a melancholy proof of the degeneracy of the Church and of the lamentable prevalence of infidelity.J.F. M.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The apparent prosperity of the ungodly and the real good of the pious.The most difficult enigma which life presents: 1. Wherein it consists; 2. Why it is so difficult; 3. How it is solved.True piety is not a matter of enjoyment of temporal prosperity, but of the acquisition of the eternal good.That we may win our way victoriously through the trials of our faith, through the sorrows of life and through the allurements of the world, we have need to resort assiduously and devoutly to Gods holy place.Gods dealings with us correspond to His promises, but we must know how to wait for them, and for this we have need of patience and faith.If we would not fall into folly and sin in our contemplation of the course of human affairs, we must attach importance not to temporal prosperity but to eternal good, not to the progress of earthly life but to its end, not to the judgments of men but to the decision of God.Even the pious man may totter and slide, but he is secure against falling as long as he holds fast to Gods house, to His hand and to His salvation.Prosperity and adversity have opposite effects upon the pious and the ungodly.Doubt of Gods Providence, in its folly and in its peril.The power and the impotence of the ungodly.The confessions of the pious over their temptations, doubts and trials.The wicked as a people contrasted with the children of God as a family.Earthly prosperity is no more an infallible sign of Gods favor than temporal suffering is a proof of the Divine wrath.Gods nearness the hope, help and safety of the righteous.The temporal and eternal reward.We must not only trust in Gods government, we must yield ourselves also to His guidance; then we will ever have occasion to praise Him.
Augustine: The reward which God bestows is Himself. O blessedness! O unspeakable bliss! God is my portion. And how long? Forever.Starke: He who has God, has the highest wisdom, everlasting consolation, the true rest and the most blessed delight and joy of the heart.Murmuring, which corrupts the heart, must be banished from it, else we can have no consolation in God.In our contemplation of the wonderful ways of God, He calls out to us: blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.Affliction often passes by the palaces of the rich, because they are not worthy of so great a blessing; instead of improving it, they would misuse it; whereas it visits the poor and becomes their salvation.When a man allows himself to become haughty and insolent by his prosperity, then there results from so great a blessing a real misfortune.The most sinful things are commonly the first to receive applause among men; what wonder is it then, if men seek to excuse them, yea, even to make them pass for virtues?How rarely can men accommodate themselves to great blessings! How often they become a spring whence issues a whole flood of crimes against God, their neighbors and themselves!The powerful, who are withal ungodly, often fancy that the world was made for them alone. So long as they themselves are in abundance therein, they care not though others starve and die.Wealthy transgressors have applause and a great following in the world, and serve often to lead men astray.He who denies the Omniscience and Providence of God has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.The conclusion: God takes no care for him who has much affliction in the world! Entirely false; for all who would live godly must suffer persecution.He who begins to talk like the world, will soon become accustomed to act like the world.He who wishes to be better off than the upright and pious are, finds fault with the order of things instituted by God and loses the benefits of Christs kingdom of suffering.Worldly prosperity is slippery ice, on which one easily falls.If men do not learn from Gods word to consider the end of the ungodly, it is not to be wondered at that they themselves bring grievous torments into their own hearts.A much smaller number of mankind would be brought to lament their folly, and ignorance of it, and their madness, along with their disbelief in it, if God were not able and willing to show compassion.The child of God does not know the righteous though concealed design of God in all and each of His dispensations; yet he does know in the general His blessed counsel, and is fully assured of His Fatherly purpose to bring everything to a happy issue.Everything must be injurious and offensive to us, unless we have God also.To cling to God gives everlasting peace; to cleave to the world brings endless sorrow: therefore choose the former.
Osiander: The old Adam murmurs sometimes against Gods work and plan; but we must still it by assiduous meditation upon Gods word.Menzel: Good fortune imparts confidence, but it also produces presumption.Renschel: The children of God have also flesh and blood, and the flesh and the spirit contend against each other; but he who clings fast to God has the victory in the Spirit.Frisch: It fares not with men according to human ideas, but according to the word of God.Arndt: God allows the ungodly to go free like the wild beast; but the hunter will pursue them some time.Guenther: The worldly prosperity of the wicked is only dangerous ground with pits and falls.Tholuck: We all confess it to be the most indubitable article of our faith that God governs the world, but how different would our assurance of this be in time, of trouble if we believed it implicitlyWhen our faith becomes sight then all the dreams of the ungodly are found to be empty bubbles.Richter (Hausbibel): By reflecting upon the glorious deeds, ways and purposes of God, the faithful find consolation and enlightenment in all trials and perplexities.Vaihinger: He who envies the prosperity of the ungodly, has not yet gained a clear view of God.Umbreit: Distance from God and nearness to Him determine the woe or the weal of men, their ruin or their final triumph.Schaubach (1 Sunday after Trinity): We know from Gods word, that the world passes away and the first thereof: therefore let not the lust of the world allure us. Diedrich: We owe it to the teaching of God Himself if we can trust His providence. This faith is the fruit of all learning and conflict in Gods kingdom.Taube: The victory of faith, which struggles through severe doubts with regard to Gods government of the world, to a blessed and simple trust in God.Nitzsch: The deepest-laid foundation of Christian contentment: 1. Wherein it consists; 2. How it is laid deeper and deeper in us; 3. By what kind of behaviour we testify our possession of it.
[Matth. Henry: Job, when he was entering into temptation, fixed for his principle the omniscience of God, Psa 24:1.Jeremiahs principle is the justice of God, Psa 12:1.Habakkuks principle is the holiness of God, Hab 1:15.The Psalmists here is the goodness of God; these are truths which cannot be shaken, and which we must resolve to live and die by. Though we may not be able to reconcile all the disposals of Providence with them, we must believe that they are reconcilable. Good thoughts of God will justify us against many of Satans temptations.Many a precious soul that will live forever had once a very narrow turn for its life, almost, and well-nigh ruined, but a step between it and fatal apostasy, and yet snatched as a brand from the burning, that shall forever magnify the riches of Divine grace, in the nations of those that are saved.If we make Gods glory in us the end we aim at, He will make our glory with Him the end we shall be forever happy in.Bp. Horne: Lord Jesus, who hast so graciously promised to be our portion in the next world, prevent us from choosing any other in this.Scott: We do not gain a complete victory over the enemy unless his buffetings prove the occasion of our deeper humiliation before God.Barnes: I am continually with thee. Well may we marvel when we reflect in our thoughts about God, that He has not risen against us in His anger, and banished us from His presence forever.J. F. M.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 623
THE GOODNESS OF GOD TO ISRAEL
Psa 73:1. Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
THE aversion which men usually feel to a vindication of Gods absolute sovereignty, proceeds from an idea, that the exercise of it would be repugnant to his other perfections of goodness and mercy. But there is no just foundation for this conceit: nor is there any reason why we should doubt the sovereignty of God, any more than any other of his attributes. That God does dispense his favours according to his own will is an undeniable truth: how else can we account for his taking one nation from the midst of another nation, and forming them for his peculiar people, and giving them his righteous laws, and expelling seven nations from the land of Canaan in order to give it to his chosen people for their inheritance? But however freely he exercises his own prerogative in this respect, he will take care that his final appointment of mens states shall accord with perfect equity: he even calls the day in which that decision shall pass, The day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. The truth is, that though God has no respect to mens moral characters in the first communications of his mercy, he invariably transforms the objects of that mercy in such a manner, as to make it suitable and proper that he should confer upon them the ultimate and everlasting tokens of his love. The Israel of old, and those to whom that name at this time belongs, were, and are, a chosen people: but all the true Israel are renewed in the spirit of their minds; they are such as are of a clean heart; and therefore they are such as may reasonably hope to experience the transcendent goodness of their God.
The words before us will naturally lead us to consider,
I.
The character of Israel
All are not Israel, who are of Israel [Note: Rom 9:6.]. The true Israel are widely different from those who are only Israelites after the flesh. They cannot however be known from others by their outward appearance. Others may be as modest in their apparel, and as humble in their looks, as they; and yet have no part with them in their more distinctive characters. They cannot be distinguished from others by their language. There certainly is a mode of speaking which religious people will adopt: they will be sincere, modest, inoffensive; and will accustom themselves to such speech as, being seasoned with salt, is calculated to administer grace to the hearers. But hypocrites may vie with them in this particular also. Nor can they be altogether known from others by their actions: for though their actions will doubtless be holy, and just, and good, and extremely different from those of the ungodly world, yet Pharisees and formalists may cleanse the outside of the cup and platter, and be as punctual and correct in all external duties as any persons whatever.
The true Israelite is known by no external badge, but by the circumcision of the heart only [Note: Rom 2:28-29.]. He is of a clean heart: he is clean,
1.
From idolatrous regards
[The very best of ungodly men has some idol in his heart which usurps the throne of God. Pleasure, riches, and honour are the common objects of mens regards: but some, who seem indifferent to these things, are no less in subjection to a carnal love of ease, wherein their happiness principally consists. But the true Christian has taken the Lord for his God; and has determined, through grace, that no rival shall ever be harboured in his bosom. He makes his adorable Saviour the one object of all his trust, his love, and his obedience [Note: Psa 73:25.].]
2.
From allowed lusts
[None but those who have embraced the promises of the Gospel have been able to cleanse themselves from all fleshly and spiritual filthiness: but all who are really Christs, have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. We say not, that Christians have no lusts remaining in them; (for a man that is crucified may still continue to live a considerable time; and the lusts that are crucified may still live and act:) but their lusts shall never regain the liberty which they once had: the death of their corruption is irreversibly decreed; and their strength is gradually weakening; and in due time they shall utterly expire. In all other persons, sin of some kind has dominion; but over the Christian it shall not; because he is not under the law, but under grace.]
3.
From sinister and selfish motives
[All, even the most refined hypocrites, are under the influence of self-seeking and self-complacency. But the true Christian endeavours to consult the glory of his God. He is as jealous of his motives, as of his actions. He knows that self is but too apt to mix with what we do; and therefore he labours to counteract its influence, and to do his most common actions to the glory of his God. To please God, to serve God, to honour God, these are the ends which he proposes to himself; nor is he ever satisfied with any one action which has not these objects as their true and ultimate scope. He that is an Israelite indeed, is an Israelite without guile [Note: Joh 1:47.].]
Let us now proceed to contemplate,
II.
The character of Israels God
God is good to all, and his tender mercy is over all his works: but he is more especially good to Israel: for,
1.
He is reconciled to them
[They once were under his displeasure, even as others: but he has given them repentance unto life; he has accepted them in and through his beloved Son; he has blotted out all their transgressions as a morning cloud; and he has given them a name better than of sons and of daughters. These are peculiar mercies not vouchsafed to others, whatever be their profession, or whatever their character.]
2.
He admits them to most familiar communion with himself
[Others may have prayed in some peculiar extremity, and may have obtained deliverance from their distress; but they will not always call upon God: prayer is not their delight; nor have they any freedom of access to God in it. But the true Israel are a people nigh unto God. It is their delight to draw nigh to God at all times, to make known to him their requests on all occasions, and to walk continually in the light of his countenance. He, on the other hand, like a tender parent, condescends to hear and answer their petitions, and reveals himself to them as he does not unto the world. Thus, while others perform prayer as a mere service which they would think it criminal to neglect, they account it their highest privilege to say, Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ.]
3.
He makes all things to work together for their good
[Many dark and afflictive dispensations do they meet with; but not one more than shall issue in their good. Under the pressure of their trials they may be ready to say, All these things are against me: but they shall at last see reason to confess, that it is good for them that they have been afflicted. God has expressly promised, that all things should work together for their good; and he sooner or later fulfils the promise, to every one that loves him, and that trusts in him. The persecutions of men and the temptations of Satan shall ultimately conduce to this end: The wrath of men and devils shall praise him; and the remainder of it, which would counteract his designs, he will restrain.]
4.
He has prepared for them a glorious and everlasting inheritance
[To others he generally gives a greater measure of earthly wealth: but for these he has prepared a city; being not ashamed to be called their God. The very hope and prospect of that far outweighs all earthly possessions; What then must the actual enjoyment of it be! With what emphasis do those in heaven say, Truly God is good to Israel! Well does David exclaim, O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee [Note: Psa 31:19.]! But we must wait till we come to heaven, before we can form any adequate idea of this glorious subject.]
Address
1.
Those who are ignorant of God
[You are ready to think of God only as a harsh Master, and a severe Judge: but if you knew him aright, you would cry out, with the prophet, How great is his goodness! how great is his beauty! The fact is, that while your heart is so corrupt, you cannot form any correct judgment concerning God: your eyes are jaundiced, and you behold all his perfections, yea, and his dispensations too, under false colours: the light shines; but your darkness doth not comprehend it. If you would know him as he is, pray that he would create in you a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within you. Then shall you be disposed to admire the justice and holiness which you now hate, and, instead of denying his distinguishing grace, you will seek to obtain an interest in it [Note: See Psa 106:4-5.].]
2.
Those who are tempted to think hardly of God
[This had been the state of the Psalmists mind, just before he penned this psalm: and it was on finding his error, that he abruptly exclaimed, Truly God is good, notwithstanding all I have been tempted to think to the contrary. The same temptations are common with us: and when we see the ungodly triumphing and the righteous afflicted, we are ready to say, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. But go into the sanctuary, as David did, and then you will learn the different ends of the righteous and the wicked. Take eternity into your estimate, and the delusion will vanish; and you will see, that no state in which an ungodly man can possibly be, is any more to be compared with yours, than the twinkling of a taper is with the light and splendour of the meridian sun.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
CONTENTS
The Prophet is engaged, in this Psalm, in a subject which hath called forth the astonishment of pious minds in all ages of the church; namely, the seeming prosperity of the wicked, and the afflicted state of the godly. The Prophet describes (somewhat at large) the trial, and then tells us where alone he found the explanation of it, in the sanctuary of God.
A Psalm of Asaph.
Psa 73:1
Nothing can be more beautiful, as well as just, than the certain truth this verse contains: the Prophet lays it down for a maxim, at once fixed and incontrovertible, that whatsoever shall arise, or seem to arise, in the circumstances of the world, the great Judge of all the earth doth right; and is, in a special and distinguishing manner, good to Israel. They are clean in heart, being washed in the blood of Christ, regenerated by the Holy Ghost, and have those blessed promises which God the Father promised in the covenant of redemption; Eze 36:25-28 . We find the Prophet reasoning on the same subject as Asaph; Jer 12:1 , etc.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Until I Went Into the Sanctuary
Psa 73:15-16
The difficulty of the writer of the Psalm is a very old difficulty, and yet it seems to us to be perpetually new. Think what it was that troubled him. What was his difficulty? ‘I was envious when I saw the ungodly in such prosperity. They come in no misfortune like other men, neither are they plagued like other folk.’ At what period of the world’s history, in what spot of the universe, are the echoes of that question not still heard? The inequality of things. Up starts the question before us, the problem of suffering, the mystery of evil, the strange impossibility of reconciling the two sides of life here is the difficulty which perplexed him. I venture to think that there is no thoughtful person but, if he ever thinks at all about human life, this strange, tangled medley will sometimes say, and say it almost in despair, ‘I thought to understand this; but it was too hard for me’.
And what is the solution? Is there any solution? The solution is this: ‘It was too hard for me until I went into the sanctuary of God’. What does he mean? How did it help him, and how may it help us?
I. In the sanctuary there came to him the thought of God. The whole place was full of it. How did that help him in the perplexities that troubled him? Think for a moment what the real difficulty was. It was not a difficulty of his mind; it was a difficulty of his conscience. It was not an intellectual difficulty; it was a moral difficulty. ‘Until I went into the sanctuary.’ Of course, in the simplest sense, he meant he went into the place where they were accustomed to go to lay down the burdens of their lives, that which made churchgoing to those old Jews such a beautiful reality, so different from much of the formal conventional ehurchgoing today. He went into the sanctuary. It was the natural place to go to. But, I think, it meant something more than that. It was not merely the place, but that to which the whole place witnessed. It was the thought of God, the consciousness of God, and the consciousness of God meant the consciousness of purpose. Could it be otherwise? To believe in God is surely of necessity to believe in His purpose. To say the opening words of the Creed, ‘I believe in God,’ is to believe that there is no tangle, no puzzle, no labyrinth. It is only that we have not yet discovered the clue, God has not yet placed it in our hands. We can afford to wait if there is something to wait for.
II. In the sanctuary he discovered himself. I suppose there is no thoughtful person but has often and often echoed that question, What am I? What is that thing I call myself? What does it denote, and what does it involve? What am I? My body is that myself? At first sight there seems to be so much to be said for it because my body is so intertwined with my soul, that if I am tired I cannot pray; if I am in pain I can hardly think. At first sight my body seems to be myself. But somebody says, ‘No, your self is the changeless part of you, and your body changes’. The body of today is a very different thing from the body of twenty years ago. My mind, then is that myself? And again the answer comes, ‘No. Your thoughts, your feelings, your opinions, they are not what they were ten years ago.’ But your self remains unchanged. In the sanctuary of God I discovered myself. Why? Because the whole of the sanctuary, and the worship of the sanctuary, and every detail of the worship is based upon the assumption that I am more than body and more than mind, that I am a deathless spirit, and that I cannot live by bread alone.
III. ‘Until I went into the sanctuary.’ Because, in the sanctuary, he discovered something else. He discovered the influence of worship. There is a strange reflex influence in all acts of devotion. When the Lord Jesus prayed, He was transfigured; so when a man prays, he is bringing a strange influence, morally and spiritually, upon his being, and he rises up from the act of prayer as the Lord rose from His prayer, a stronger, calmer, braver man. And so it is also with the influence of worship. In days like these, when life is so anxious, more especially to men; when business is so exacting; when a right judgment is so important; when a prompt, almost instantaneous, decision is so frequently demanded, it is pathetically sad that some of the very men who want the power most should cut themselves off from the calming influences of the House of God, where for aught they know they might be able to say as Asaph said: ‘It was too hard for me, life was too anxious, business was too exacting, disappointments were too overwhelming, until I went into the sanctuary of God’.
IV. And lastly. ‘Until I went into the sanctuary; then understood I.’ Because, in the sanctuary, he discovered another truth. In the sanctuary of God he found the truth of the consecration of himself to God. The whole place spoke of consecration separated for the worship of God; every holy vessel set apart; the priest consecrated to God’s service. The whole place was full of the consecration of things and of life to God. Is there a more tremendously important truth than that for us to try and write upon our hearts?
God the Sole Delight of the Elect
Psa 73:24
This Psalm gives the embodiment of the deepest, innermost, and most primary life of the soul; where thought is not, but the life is reduced to the ultimate facts of spiritual consciousness, the certain premises of spiritual thought, the knowledge of self and the knowledge of God.
I. The soul that aspires to contemplate the ways of Providence is met by a difficulty at the outset. God’s ways are not as our ways, His gifts to men are not proportioned, as we should have proportioned them, to their deserts, and this difficulty, which is stated at the beginning of the Psalm, is not solved, in a final and universal way, in any part of it; it is solved only to the satisfaction of the Psalmist himself, with just the hint at the intellectual solution that God’s judgment in the world to come will remedy what now seems to be defects.
II. When the question of God’s just government has once been satisfactorily explained, the soul cares no more for the details of the explanation; she only desires to prostrate herself before Him and confess her weakness and His surpassing glory. In communion with Him, even such unequal communion as she feels to be the best she deserves, she is strengthened and ennobled, and rests and is comforted.
III. ‘Nevertheless I am always by Thee; for Thou hast holden me by my right hand.’ In this sublime selfishness, if we are to call it so, he is content to stay; he forgets all others. He can do without the glory until God’s own time shall come for giving it; the guidance of God’s counsel may last as long as He shall please, so that only it be not taken away. And now we shall see in what sense his religion is selfish, and in what sense not. It is selfish so far, and so far only, as all love may be said to be selfish. It seeks its own delight, but a delight that is not found in self, or in its own prize or possessions, but only in loving and being loved by Another.
IV. I am afraid that this ardent all-absorbing personal love for their Lord is not, as a matter of fact, the prevailing feeling and the keenest desire of Christians in their thoughts of the other world. What is it that people of our time most fondly think of, and exult in most, when they think that God has given them a right to expect admission into heaven? Is it not generally, not union with God, but reunion with their earthly friends, or with God’s servants whom they have revered that have gone before them? And sometimes people’s thoughts of heaven take a yet lower form lower, more selfish in the evil sense; they look forward to a blessedness that consists not in realized love for another, but in mere personal enjoyment and possession; and fancy heaven only a more perfect earth, with all earth’s enjoyments that are not plainly sinful or casual.
Now until we are able to have nothing and desire nothing but God, we are not fit for heaven. If we would have the happiness that we seek, we must receive it in God’s form, and seek it in His way, by disinterested love for Him and our brethren, not schemes for our own personal exaltation even in things spiritual. What we have to do is to go out of ourselves, not out into the world, but into God; to leave a self-centred selfish desire for happiness, and seek His will and His kingdom; only by that the truest happiness will be found.
W. H. Simcox, The Cessation of Prophecy, p. 178.
Psa 73
After the defeat of Montcontour, as they were carrying Coligny off the field, nearly suffocated by the blood of three wounds pouring into his closed visor, an old friend, who was being carried wounded beside him, repeated the first verse of this Psalm
Si est ce que Dieu est trs doux
‘Truly God is good to Israel.’ The historian adds: ‘That great captain confessed afterwards that this short word refreshed him, and put him in the way of good thoughts and firm resolutions for the future’. If the whole Psalm is read, it will be seen to be singularly suited to such an emergency; and so well were the Psalms then known, that the first verse called up the whole.
John Ker.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XV
PSALM AFTER DAVID PRIOR TO THE BABYLONIAN EXILE
The superscriptions ascribed to Asaph twelve palms (Psa 50 ; 73-83) Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David. Their sons also directed the various bands of musicians (1Ch 25 ). It seems that the family of Asaph for many generations continued to preside over the service of song (Cf. Ezr 3:10 ).
The theme of Psa 50 is “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” or the language of Samuel to Saul when he had committed the awful sin in respect to the Amalekites. This teaching is paralleled in many Old Testament scriptures, for instance, Psa 51:16-17 . For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
The problem of Psa 73 is the problem of why the wicked prosper (Psa 73:1-14 ), and its solution is found in the attitude of God toward the wicked (Psa 73:15-28 ). [For a fine exposition of the other psalms of this section see Kirkpatrick or Maclaren on the Psalms.]
The psalms attributed to the sons of Korah are Psa 42 ; Psa 44 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 ; Psa 49 ; Psa 84 ; Psa 85 ; Psa 87 . The evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem is internal. There are three stanzas, each closing with a refrain. The similarity of structure and thought indicates that they were formerly one psalm. A parallel to these two psalms we find in the escape of Christian from the Castle of Giant Despair in Pilgrim’s Progress .
Only two psalms were ascribed to Solomon, viz: Psa 72 and 127. However, the author believes that there is good reason to attribute Psa 72 to David. If he wrote it, then only one was written by Solomon.
The theme of Psa 72 is the reign of the righteous king, and the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold, is as follows: (1) righteous (Psa 72:1-4 ) ; (2) perpetual (Psa 72:5-7 ); (3) universal (Psa 72:8-11 ); (4) benign (Psa 72:12-14 ); (5) prosperous (Psa 72:15-17 ).
Psa 127 was written when Solomon built the Temple. It is the central psalm of the psalms of the Ascents, which refer to the Temple. It seems fitting that this psalm should occupy the central position in the group, because of the occasion which inspired it and its relation to the other psalms of the group. A brief interpretation of it is as follows: The house here means household. It is a brief lyric, setting forth the lessons of faith and trust. This together with Psa 128 is justly called “A Song of Home.” Once in speaking to Baylor Female College I used this psalm, illustrating the function of a school as a parent sending forth her children into the world as mighty arrows. Again I used this psalm in one of my addresses in our own Seminary in which I made the household to refer to the Seminary sending forth the preachers as her children.
The psalms assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah are Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 . The historical setting is found in the history of the reign of Hezekiel. Their application to Judah at this time is found in the historical connection, in which we have God’s great deliverances from the foreign powers, especially the deliverance from Sennacherib. We find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and in Psa 74 ; Psa 79 .
The radical critics ascribe Psa 74 ; Psa 79 to the Maccabean period, and their argument is based upon the use of the word “synagogues,” in Psa 74:8 . The answer to their contention is found in the marginal rendering which gives “places of assembly” instead of “synagogues.” The word “synagogue” is a Greek word translated from the Hebrew, which has several meanings, and in this place means the “place of assembly” where God met his people.
The silence of the exile period is shown in Psa 137 , in which they respond that they cannot sing a song of Zion in a strange land. Their brightening of hope is seen in Psa 102 . In this we have the brightening of their hope on the eve of their return. In Psa 85:10 we have a great text:
Mercy and truth are met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
The truth here is God’s law demanding justice; mercy is God’s grace meeting justice. This was gloriously fulfilled in Christ on the cross. He met the demands of the law and offers mercy and grace to all who accept them on the terms of repentance and faith.
Three characteristics of Psa 119 are, first, it is an alphabetical psalm; second, it is the longest chapter in the Bible, and third, it is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 . Psalms 146-150 were used for worship in the second temple. The expressions of innocence in the psalms do not refer to original sin, but to a course of conduct in contrast with wicked lives. The psalmists do not claim absolute, but relative sinlessness.
The imprecations in the psalms are real prayers, and are directed against real men who were enemies of David and the Jewish nation, but they are not expressions of personal resentment. They are vigorous expressions of righteous indignation against incorrigible enemies of God and his people and are to be interpreted in the light of progressive revelation. The New Testament contains many exultant expressions of the overthrow of the wicked. (Cf. 1Co 16:22 ; 2Ti 4:14 ; Gal 5:12 ; Rev 16:5-6 ; Rev 18:20 .) These imprecations do not teach that we, even in the worst circumstances, should bear personal malice, nor take vengeance on the enemies of righteousness, but that we should live so close to God that we may acquiesce in the destruction of the wicked and leave the matter of vengeance in the hands of a just God, to whom vengeance belongs (Rom 12:19-21 ).
The clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con, are found in these passages, as follows: Psa 16:10-11 ; Psa 17:15 ; Psa 23:6 ; Psa 49:15 ; Psa 73:23-26 . The passages that are construed to the contrary are found in Psa 6:5 ; Psa 30:9 ; Psa 39:13 ; Psa 88:10-12 ; Psa 115:17 . The student will compare these passages and note carefully their teachings. The first group speaks of the triumph over Sheol (the resurrection) ; about awaking in the likeness of God; about dwelling in the house of the Lord forever; about redemption from the power of Sheol; and God’s guiding counsel and final reception into glory, all of which is very clear and unmistakable teaching as to the future life.
The second group speaks of DO remembrance in death; about no profit to the one when he goes down to the pit; of going hence and being no more; about the dead not being able to praise God and about the grave as being the land of forgetfulness ; and about the dead not praising Jehovah, all of which are spoken from the standpoint of the grave and temporal death.
There is positively no contradiction nor discrepancy in the teaching of these scriptures. One group takes the spirit of man as the viewpoint and teaches the continuity of life, the immortality of the soul; the other group takes the physical being of man as the viewpoint and teaches the dissolution of the body and its absolute unconsciousness in the grave.
QUESTIONS
1. How many and what psalms were ascribed to Asaph?
2. Who presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David?
3. What is the theme of Psa 50 , and where do we find the same teaching in the Old Testament?
4. What is the problem of Psa 73 , and what its solution?
5. What psalms are attributed to the sons of Korah?
6. What is the evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem and what the characteristic of these two taken together?
7. What parallel to these two psalms do we find in modern literature?
8. What psalms were ascribed to Solomon?
9. What is the theme of Psa 72 ?
10. What is the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold?
11. When was Psa 127 written and what the application as a part of the Pilgrim group?
12. Give a brief interpretation of it and the uses made of it by the author on two different occasions.
13. What psalms are assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah, and what their historical setting?
14. What is their application to Judah at this time?
15. Where may we find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem?
16. To what period do radical critics ascribe Psalms 74-79; what is their argument, and what is your answer?
17. Which psalm shows the silence of the exile period and why?
18. Which one shows their brightening of hope?
19. Explain Psa 85:10 .
20. Give three characteristics of Psa 119 .
21. What use was made of Psalms 146-150?
22. Explain the expression of innocence in the psalms in harmony with their teaching of sin.
23. Explain the imprecations in the psalms and show their harmony with New Testament teachings.
24. Cite the clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Psa 73:1 A Psalm of Asaph. Truly God [is] good to Israel, [even] to such as are of a clean heart.
A Psalm of Asaph ] Who was not only an excellent musician, but a prophet also, an orator, and a poet; not unlike (for his style) to Horace, or Persius. This, and the ten next psalms, that bear this name in the front, consist of complaints for the most part, and sad matters.
Ver. 1. Truly God is good to Israel ] Or, yet God is, &c. Thus the psalmist beginneth abruptly after a sore conflict; throwing off the devil and his fiery darts, wherewith his heart for a while had been wounded. It is best to break off temptations of corrupt and carnal reasonings, and to silence doubts and disputes, lest we be foiled. He shoots (saith Greenham) with Satan in his own bow who thinks by disputing and reasoning to put him off.
To such as are of a clean heart
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The first is “A psalm of Asaph.” The opening utterance as usual gives the key-note. It is God good to “Israel,” but only “to such as are pure in heart,” – gracious to His people as a whole, and so known by those that honoured Him as a God of judgment. But the trial produced by the prosperity of the wicked, while judgment is not yet executed, is vividly expressed, and the secret only known in His presence which gave the clue and turned all for good. Why the Revised Version repeats the error of the Authorised in ver. 24 is hard to understand, if one knew not the force of habit. The mistranslation is probably due to christian prejudice overriding the correct Israelitish hope. Yet it overthrows our real privilege. For those put to sleep by Jesus will God bring with Him. Hence when Christ, our life, shall be manifested, then shall we also with Him be manifested in glory. Whereas it is after the glory that God will receive Israel. Compare Zec 2:8 .
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 73:1-9
1Surely God is good to Israel,
To those who are pure in heart!
2But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling,
My steps had almost slipped.
3For I was envious of the arrogant
As I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4For there are no pains in their death,
And their body is fat.
5They are not in trouble as other men,
Nor are they plagued like mankind.
6Therefore pride is their necklace;
The garment of violence covers them.
7Their eye bulges from fatness;
The imaginations of their heart run riot.
8They mock and wickedly speak of oppression;
They speak from on high.
9They have set their mouth against the heavens,
And their tongue parades through the earth.
Psa 73:1 Surely God is good to Israel Good (BDB 373 II, #9) means kind to (cf. Psa 86:5; Psa 145:9; Lam 3:25). This is the conclusion of the Psalm and the basic assumption of the OT but not every person in Israel is of faith (cf. Romans 9-11). The same can be said of the church (cf. Matthew 7; Matthew 13). The unusual phrase of Psa 73:15 may reflect a true, faithful Israel.
Notice the added connotations of God’s goodness.
1. He is good to all (cf. Psa 145:9)
2. His goodness is primarily bestowed on those who call upon Him (cf. Psa 86:5)
3. He is good, Himself (cf. Ezr 3:11; Psa 100:5; Psa 106:1; Psa 107:1; Psa 118:1; Psa 118:29; Psa 136:1; Jer 33:11; Nah 1:7)
Israel’s blessing is based on
1. God’s eternal redemptive purpose in the seed of Abraham (see Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan )
2. the faith relationship and covenant obedience of His followers
3. short term physical blessings do not compare (cf. Rom 8:18-25) with long term, personal relationship (cf. Rom 8:26-39)! Be sure to take the long look! Immediate circumstances can be deceiving!
to Israel The NRSV and REB, as well as the Catholic version NAB, change to Israel, (BDB 975) to for God’s upright one, (BDB 449 plus BDB 42 II, #6).
pure in heart This reflects one’s attitudes and motives (cf. Psa 24:4-5; Psa 51:10; Mat 5:8).
Psa 73:2
NASBclose
NKJV, NRSV,
JPSOAalmost
TEVnearly
NJBon the point of
This reflects the Hebrew adverb BDB 589. It clearly states the seriousness of the psalmist’s faith crisis! He was on the very verge of losing his confidence, trust, assurance, and peace with God. Faith crises are potentially
1. a devastating loss of hope
2. a source of strength and growth
We all know people who have experienced one or the other!
stumbling. . .slipped This is a biblical metaphor of lifestyle. The straight, stable path was righteousness (cf. Psa 40:2), but the crooked, slippery path was wickedness (cf. Psa 73:18; Pro 3:23). The two options in life are what is called the two ways (i.e., Psalms 1 and Deu 30:15-20).
The term translated slipped is literally poured out (BDB 1049, KB 1629, Qal passive perfect). Only here does it have the connotation (demanded by the parallel poetic line, stumbling) of slipping on a wet surface.
Psa 73:3 clarifies the problem area (i.e., envy, jealousy).
Psa 73:3 I was envious of the arrogant. . .the prosperity of the wicked This world is unfair. If this world is all there is, God is unfair!
The pure in heart of Psa 73:1 are being tested by the unfairness of life. The underlying assumption is that God allows that which should be judged! See SPECIAL TOPIC: GOD TESTS HIS PEOPLE .
Psa 73:4-9 These verses describe the lifestyle of the people mentioned in Psa 73:3 (i.e., the arrogant and prosperous, wicked people of the covenant community).
1. no pain in their death
2. well fed, Psa 73:4 b, 7a
3. no outward trouble
4. show off the pride, Psa 73:6 a, 8b
5. act in violence without judgment
6. evil thinking and slandering
7. flaunt their evil deeds, even before God, Psa 73:11
From OT theology (i.e., Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 27-30) prosperity was a blessing from God for faith and obedience (cf. Psa 73:10), but these people made a mockery of those texts!
Psa 73:4 there are no pains in their death This means (1) they had an honorable funeral or (2) their death was quick and painless.
pains This Hebrew word (BDB 359) is used only twice in the OT, in very different senses.
1. fetters or bonds – Isa 58:6 (singular)
2. pains – Psa 73:4 (plural)
The NET bible suggests:
It is used metaphorically of pain and suffering that restricts one’s enjoyment of life (p. 941).
The Tyndale Commentary by Derek Kidner (p. 289, footnote #2) agrees with the RSV, which changes in their death, , into two words, , which results in no pains for them, sound and sleek in their body. This is followed by NRSV and REB.
their body is fat They did not seemingly experience disease or the normal problems of life (i.e., a healthy body; the Hebrew term [BDB 17 I]) is found only here.
Psa 73:5
NASB, NKJVThey are not in trouble as other men
NJBexempt from the cares which are the human lot
JPSOAThey have no part in the travail of men
The wicked seem to be spared the normal problems of life. This, at first, seems to be an act of God. This is the theological problem connected to the two ways (cf. Job; Psalms 73).
plagued This term (BDB 619, KB 668, Pual imperfect) is often used of divine punishment (cf. Gen 12:17; 2Ki 15:5; 2Ch 26:20; Isa 26:5; Job 1:11; Job 2:5). It seemed God’s own words (i.e., Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 27-30; Psalms 1) about the wicked had failed. In Psa 73:14 the same word is used for the mental anguish of the psalmist, caused by his own doubts.
Psa 73:6 Because of their life experiences (Psa 73:4-5) the arrogant, wealthy, healthy, covenant violators live openly, even flauntingly, their godless lives (Psa 73:6-9).
Psa 73:7
NASBtheir eye bulges from fatness
TEVtheir hearts pour out evil
NJBfrom their fat oozes out malice
LXXTheir injustice will go forth as though from fat
PESHITTATheir iniquity comes through like grease
JPSOAFat shuts out their eyes
The idea of iniquity is the translation from the LXX, Syriac, Peshitta, and Vulgate. The UBS Text Project (p. 314) gives their eyes a C rating (i.e., considerable doubt).
iniquity is
their eyes is
Eyes fits the context and parallelism of Psa 73:7 best.
Psa 73:8 mock This apparently Aramaic term (BDB 558, KB 559) occurs only here in the OT.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Title. A Psalm. Hebrew. mizmor. See App-65.
of Asaph. The second of Asaph’s twelve Psalms, Psalm 50 being the first. See App-63.
Truly, &c. = Nothing but good is God to Israel. Occurs three times in this Psalm : here, rendered “Truly”; Psa 73:13, “Verily”; Psa 73:18, “Surely”. The uniform rendering would be “Only” or, “After all”.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
good. The conclusion is stated before the distraction of mind caused by occupation of heart with others is described.
Israel. This links on Book III with Book II.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 73:1-28
Psa 73:1-28 begins with an affirmation of a basic foundational truth concerning God.
Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart ( Psa 73:1 ).
It is important that we have basic foundational truths that are undergirding us. Because we, all of us, are going to face experiences of life that we will not understand. Hard, painful experiences. Experiences that will challenge God’s goodness and God’s love. If God is good, then why did God allow this tragedy to happen to me? If God loves me, then why would He allow me to have to experience this heartache? I do not understand all of the things that happen to me in life. And I have made it a practice, whenever I am faced with a situation that I cannot understand, I fall back on what I do understand. There are certain foundational truths upon which I fall back when I am faced with circumstances that I cannot understand in my life. And what I do understand is that God is good, that God loves me, and that all things are working together for good to those who love God. And thus, by faith I accept my adverse circumstances. Though I don’t understand them, I accept them, knowing that it is God that has brought these circumstances. It is God who is in the control of my life. For I have committed my life to Him. And I know that God is working in these circumstances. Though they may seem bitter and adverse, yet God is working a good and perfect plan in my life. And I just live with it. I just accept, “Oh Lord, I’ll just leave this with You, that You will bring out of this Your good purpose and Your good plan for me.” If I did not have the basic foundations underneath, then when the troubles come, when I get into these kind of circumstances, I would be totally wiped out.
And you do see people that they seem to be really going great in their walk with the Lord, and then adversity arises, and they just can’t seem to handle the adversity. The reason is that they have not really had a solid foundation in scriptural truth. These people who are being encouraged to believe God for healing in all circumstances, that give no place for any sickness, when sickness does come, or when death does come, they are not able to handle it, because they don’t have a proper foundation in God’s Word and in the truth. And thus, when the superstructure is shaken, they have got nothing to fall back on.
Jesus said, “A foolish man built his house upon the sand. A wise man built his house upon the rock. And the rain came and the floods rose, the house that was built upon the sand perished, but the house that was built upon the rock stood.” Luke’s gospel tells us that, “The wise man dug deep and built his house upon the rock.” And it is important that we lay a good foundation for our relationship with God, and that good foundation has to be based upon proper concepts of God that are brought to us through the Word of God.
So, God is good. I know that. I must remember that. Because that truth will be challenged by the experiences of my life. But underneath, I know that God is good. So the psalmist begins with that basic foundation. I know that God is good,
But as for me [different story], my feet were almost gone; my steps had well-nigh slipped ( Psa 73:2 ).
I’d almost had it. I was almost nigh wiped out. I was slipping. I was going under.
For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked ( Psa 73:3 ).
We are told in the law not to covet. In the New Testament we are told that envy is one of the works of the flesh. It is easy if I get my eyes off of God and onto people to become envious at the prosperity of the wicked.
It would be exciting to have your own personal jet. It would be exciting to have a yacht all equipped and ready to go any time you went down to the dock. They would salute you and bring out your chair, you know, and you would say, “I want to go to Catalina this weekend, or let’s go to Baja, or something.” And just to have the whole thing where you had that kind of power and possessions. To have a beautiful estate with manicured grounds. And you see these kind of things. And when we have a hard time paying our rent, we think, “It’s not fair that those people can spend two million dollars for a stupid painting, and I can’t buy a Big Mac.” And we begin to be envious of the prosperity of the wicked. “Here I am, Lord. I love You. I go to church faithfully. I pray. I pay my vows. I am obedient. And yet, I have this hardship. Yet, I seem to always be in trouble. Financial problems. My kids are sick. And here are these people; they don’t even think about You. They blaspheme Your name. They are ungodly. They are unrighteous. And yet, they are blessed. They are prosperous. They have more than their heart could wish.” And you start looking around at the iniquities within the world, and it is difficult to handle. It would seem that if God is good, He would bless good people and smite the wicked.
“I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” And then he begins to express the things that he was observing. Yet, it must be recognized and admitted that the things that he is saying about the wicked are not always true. But Satan has a way of putting and planting a thought in our minds and then building on it. And as he begins to build this thought in our minds, he begins to exaggerate the thing. So we begin to make rash statements of generalization that aren’t really true. But I don’t want you to tell me they’re not true. I don’t want you to tell me I am generalizing, because I am upset and I want to just blow the thing, you know, blow it up bigger than it really is. And we do have a tendency when we are upset to blow the situation to a greater degree than is actually true. But that’s just one of the games that Satan plays in our minds.
There are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued as other men ( Psa 73:4-5 ).
Now, this is not true. Wicked people have weakness; they become sick. They become infirmed just like everybody else. Look at Howard Hughes. Now, I don’t mean to infer that he is wicked, but he didn’t have any real testimony that I ever heard of real faith in trusting God. There were bands in his death. There were years of drugs addiction. He did have troubles; he was plagued. And yet, you pick out isolated cases and then you exaggerate that.
Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; and violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than their heart could wish. And yet these men are corrupt, they speak wickedly: they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens [they speak against God], and their tongue walketh through the earth. Therefore his people return hither: waters of a full cup are wrung out to them ( Psa 73:6-10 ).
They’ve got all they could ever wish, but yet people are always bringing them gifts and catering to them.
And they say, How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? ( Psa 73:11 )
In other words, they deny the existence of God.
Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; and they increase with riches ( Psa 73:12 ).
Now the psalmist, upon looking at this and upon building this case in his mind, was led to false conclusions. And that, of course, is always the purpose that Satan has in building up in your mind situations like this. The purpose is to lead you to false conclusions. The false conclusion that the psalmist was led to is,
Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain ( Psa 73:13 ),
Or, it doesn’t pay to try to live the right kind of a life. It doesn’t pay to be good. It doesn’t pay to seek to be righteous. The wicked are the ones that get all the breaks. The wicked are the ones that have it made. It doesn’t really pay to try to live right.
I have washed my hands in innocency. For all day long I am plagued, I am chastened every morning ( Psa 73:13-14 ).
I’ve got problems surrounding me all the time.
Now if I say, I speak thus; then I would offend against the generation of thy children. And when I sought to know this, it was too painful for me ( Psa 73:15-16 );
Life does have painful experiences. And there are some things that are so painful we don’t like to think about them. In fact, there are some things that are so painful we’ve got to somehow put them out of our minds. “When I sought to know this, when I sought to understand the things in my life, it was just too painful. I couldn’t do it.”
It is wrong to think that you are going to understand everything that happens in your life. Why it happened. We always seek and search for the rationale. Why God allowed a Christian lady to be raped and murdered in her own home. And so we try to rationalize. You can’t. There is no way we can understand that. We know that God is good. Why God would allow that, we don’t know. We can’t understand that. There is no sense of trying to pretend that we do. There are many experiences that we will face in life that we do not understand. The ways of God, or the whys of God.
And so often a person comes up and says to me, “Chuck, I don’t know why God… ” And I say, “Don’t go any further. I don’t either.” I don’t know the whys of God. I am not God. I can’t tell you why God allows certain things. When I was first in the ministry I was under a heavy, heavy burden, because I felt I had to have an answer for everybody, because I was young. I had people ask me questions, and I had to have an answer, even if I didn’t know one. I had to figure one out, frame one. Under all kinds of pressure to give answers. I was trying to answer why God was doing various things. Thank God now that I am older people don’t expect me to know everything anymore. So I have a lot of questions that people ask me and I just flatly answer, “I don’t know.” And it has been so comfortable since I have matured to the place where I can answer honestly and say, “I don’t know.” I don’t know all of the answers. Far from it. I do not know the whys of God. It’s very hard, because I do represent God to people as a minister of Jesus Christ; I seek to represent Him. And people say, “But why did God allow this to happen to my little girl? Why did God allow this to happen to my wife?” I don’t know. Painful. I seek to understand it. It is too painful for me.
And so the psalmist, his foot was slipping. He was almost gone. As his mind was dealing with these things, it just about wiped him out.
Until I went into the sanctuary of God; and then I saw their end ( Psa 73:17 ).
Going into the sanctuary of God gave to him a broadened perspective, and that is always the chief value of coming into the house of God. The chief value of gathering together with the Word of God is that we come into the consciousness of the eternal and our perspective is broadened. Because my problem in trying to deal with the issues of my life is that I am always looking at them in the narrow perspective of today, tomorrow and next week. The present discomfort that I feel. The present sorrow that I experience. The present hardship that I am going through. And I am always interested in immediate relief from this present situation. From the pain or the grief or the hurt. Whereas, when God is dealing in my life, He is dealing with the eternal in view. God is looking down into eternity, and He is looking at the eternal values. And it is better for me to go through life maimed and enter eternity with Him than to go through life whole and to go to hell. And because God is dealing with eternity in view, sometimes He has to take away from me that which I count dear, that which I hold precious, in order that He might work in my life His eternal purpose and plan. But I am always looking at just the fact that I have lost it. I don’t want to lose it, you know. I wanted that. “Oh God, why did You take it away?” And God could see what it was doing in detracting me from my walk and fellowship with Him, and thus, He removed it. Because He was interested in my eternal well being.
And when I come into the sanctuary of God, coming into the consciousness of the eternal, then I see things in a clearer perspective. Where I see them now in the eternal. As Paul said, “We look not at the things which are seen; they are temporal. We look at the things which are not seen, because they are eternal. And the present sufferings then are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is going to be revealed in us. Even Jesus, who for the joy, the eternal joy that was set before Him endured the cross, even though He despised the shame.” And sometimes I am given a cross that I despise. I don’t want to carry it. Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. I don’t want to go through this experience. I don’t want to suffer this loss. And yet, God lays it upon me, because He is looking down to the glory that shall be revealed. He is looking down the line to the eternal benefit and welfare that He has in mind for me in His eternal kingdom.
And so the psalmist almost tripped up, until he went into the sanctuary of God and then he got the broader view.
Surely you did set them in slippery places: you cast them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors ( Psa 73:18-19 ).
This is a portion of the text that Jonathan Edwards used in his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Perhaps one of the most powerful sermons that has ever been preached on the American continent, by old Jonathan Edwards, a puritan. He was nearsighted, and he had written the sermon out and he had to read it just right up close, because he was nearsighted. But that sermon was so powerful, before he was finished, sinners were crawling down the isles, crying out in agony, begging God for mercy. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He took this, “Surely though has set them in slippery places,” and he likened to sinners as walking on an icy plank over the pit of hell with nothing to hold on to. At any moment your foot is going to slip and you will be plunged on into destruction. God is under no obligation to keep you alive. God is under no obligation to hold you up.
So the psalmist saw the end of the life of wickedness. It’s not so good. It’s not so pleasant. Oh, how foolish to envy them. Look what their destiny is. How foolish to be jealous of them. Look what is in store. “They are consumed with terrors.”
As a dream when one awakes; so, O Lord, when you awake, you will despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved ( Psa 73:20-21 ),
I was grieved with my own stupidity, with my own folly. Imagine about to be tripped up over something like that.
O my how foolish I was, and ignorant: I was like a beast before you ( Psa 73:22 ).
That is, without reasoning capacities, without logic. I was just like an animal with no reasoning capacities.
For nevertheless [here I was envious of them, but they are devoid of you,] I am with you continually: you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and at the end you’re going to receive me into glory ( Psa 73:23-24 ).
Oh, what a wonderful life I really have. God is with me, holding me by the right hand, guiding me with His counsel. And when I get to the end of the road, He is going to receive me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but thee? There is none on earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart fails: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. But it’s good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in Jehovah God, that I may declare all thy works ( Psa 73:25-28 ).
The psalmist almost slipped, but he discovered that the wicked was the one who was really in slippery places. Not him. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
You may have noticed that the 73rd Psalm and the 37th Psalm are on the same subject; it will help you to recall this fact if you remember that the figures are the same, only reversed.
Psa 73:1. Truly God is good to Israel,
Settle that matter in your hearts, whatever doubts may distress or disturb your mind, fix this point as certain: Truly God is good to Israel,
Psa 73:1-2. Even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
He was a good man, one of the leaders in Israel, yet he had to make this confession, My feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
Psa 73:3-4. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
Many of them have so stifled conscience that it does not trouble them even in that last dread hour, and they pass into eternity with blinded eyes, self-deluded to the last.
Psa 73:5. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
They are not the children of God, and that is why they escape the rod of God. The rod is not for strangers, but for the children of the family. Yet the psalmist began to envy these people because, said he, they are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
Psa 73:6. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain;
They wear it gladly, and think it to be an ornament.
Psa 73:6-9. Violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens,
As though they would blow them down, as the wind blows the clouds that are full of rain.
Psa 73:9. And their tongue walketh through the earth.
Like the ravening lion of the pit, seeking characters that they may destroy or devour. There is no end to the mischief that such people can do. If they are not in trouble themselves, they make much trouble for other people; and while they set themselves on so high a pinnacle, they are mean enough to slander the characters of the good.
Psa 73:10. Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
They have to drink of the bitter cup again and again; it seems to them to be always full; and the wicked have their full cup, filled, as it seems, with the juice from the very finest fruit.
Psa 73:11. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
They admit that there is a God, but they ask, What does he know, and how does he know?
Psa 73:12-14. Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
It was one of his greatest sorrows that, the more holy he was, the more troubled he seemed to be; and the more closely he endeavored to follow his God, the more it seemed as if God only frowned upon him. Yet the psalmists was no exceptional case, of which there is only one in all history; there have been many such, and there are many such to this day.
Psa 73:15. If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
You know that some people have made up a kind of proverb like this, If you think it, you may as well speak it; but it is not so. Bad thoughts should never be spoken. If a man has a bottle of whisky in his house, or in his pocket, that is bad enough; but if the cork is never taken out, it will do no very great hurt to anybody. So, if a man has evil thoughts, but does not utter them, the mischief will not be so great as if he were to make them known to others.
Psa 73:16. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;
He could not bear the thought of offending Gods children; but, at the same time, the problem itself, concerning the righteous and the wicked, until he could solve it, was too painful for him.
Psa 73:17. Until I went into the sanctuary of God;
When he went into Gods holy place, when he began to understand Gods purposes and plans, and looked beyond the present life into the dreadful future of the ungodly, he could say:
Psa 73:17. Then understood I their end.
And understanding their end, his difficulty ceased, his puzzling problem was solved.
Psa 73:18. Surety thou didst set them in slippery places:
As if they stood upon a ridge of ice, from which they must slip down; who wishes to be lifted up upon an Alp of prosperity, from which he may be dashed down at any moment? If you knew that there was a man standing on the top of the cross of St. Pauls at this moment, I do not suppose that any of you would envy him; certainly I should not. Let him have a patent for standing there, and let nobody else ever attempt it. And an ungodly man, in the elevated places of prosperity, is in such a perilous position that we need not envy him.
Psa 73:18. Thou castedst them down into destruction.
Down they go! If not in this life, yet in the next, and who will envy them then?
Psa 73:19-20. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
When a man wakes up, the image that was before his mind, in his dream, is gone; and when God wakes up to judgment, these wicked men, who were but as images in a night dream, shall pass away.
Psa 73:21. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.
In the tenderest and most vital parts of his being, he felt an inward and terrible pain.
Psa 73:22. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.
Judging as the beast judges, that can only see the little grass around itself, and fattens itself, knowing nothing of the shambles, and of the butchers knife that is being sharpened to kill it there. So, says the psalmist, I was like that, I forgot about the future, I did not judge as an immortal being should judge concerning the infinite and the eternal, but I judged things as a beast might judge by the narrow compass of its little grazing ground.
Psa 73:23. Nevertheless
This phrase is most delightful, coming in connection with his previous confession: I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless
Psa 73:23. I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.
That is your portion also, Christian. However few your pounds, however short your supplies, you are continually with God, and he holds you by your right hand. Will you envy the ungodly after that?
Psa 73:24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
There is where your chief possession lies, locked up in that which is marked Afterward. Not today, possibly not tomorrow, but afterward is your inheritance: afterward thou wilt receive me to glory.
Psa 73:25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
Here is the Christians heavenly and earthly portion and treasure. He has his God, both here and hereafter; and this is better than all that can fall to the lot of the worldling.
Psa 73:26-27. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.
That is, setting their hearts on unlovely things, and forgetting to love God.
Psa 73:28. But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.
The Psalm ends jubilantly, as it began, though part of it had been in a minor key.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Psa 73:1-2
BOOK III
Psalms 73-89
INTRODUCTION FOR BOOK III
Psalms 73-89 are entitled Book III. These Psalms are classified as “The Asaph Group,” composed of Psalms 73-83, the only other Asaph Psalm being Psalms 50 in Book II. “All of this group are Elohimic. Most of the remaining Psalms in Book IV are ascribed to the Sons of Korah. “Some of these are Elohimic and some are Jehovist. Three Psalms in this Book are ascribed, one each, to David, Heman and Ethan.
“The Psalms of Asaph are of different dates, but are similar in character and have many features in common … They are national and historical … They have a definite doctrine of God, who is presented as “The Shepherd of Israel” (Psa 80:1), and the people are the sheep of his pasture (Psa 74:1; Psa 77:20; Psa 79:13) … History is used for instruction, admonition and encouragement.”
Dr. DeHoff summarized this entire book as follows: Psalms 73 handles the problem of the wicked’s prosperity; Psalms 74 discusses the national disaster in Jerusalem’s destruction; Psalms 75 speaks of the final judgment; Psalms 76 gives thanks for a great victory; Psalms 77-78 are historical extolling God’s marvelous works; Psalms 79-80 give us a glance of a great disaster; Psalms 81-82 deplore the sinfulness of God’s people; Psalms 83 is a prayer for protection; Psalms 84 stresses the blessedness of those `in God’s house.’ (with an application to Christ’s church); Psalms 85-86 contain prayers of thanksgiving to God and pleas for mercy and forgiveness; Psalms 88 is the prayer of a shut-in suffering from a long illness; and Psalms 89 is a magnificent presentation of the Throne of David which will endure forever.
This is the shortest of the Five Books of Psalms.
“Each of the major Psalm-types is represented in Book IV, except Penitential.
We shall also observe that there are many quotations in the New Testament from this portion of the Psalms. This is especially true of Psalms 89 which is referred to in Act 13:22, (Psa 73:20); 2Th 1:10 (Psa 73:7); Rev 1:5 (Psalms 73:27,37). Other quotations are Malachi 13:35 (Psa 78:2), Joh 6:31 (Psa 78:24), and Joh 10:34 (Psa 82:6).
Psalms 73
THE PROBLEM OF THE PROSPERITY OF THE WICKED
Where is the Christian who has not struggled with this same problem? Righteous people seem pressed down on every hand, often struggling for the very necessities of life, whereas openly arrogant and wicked unbelievers flaunt their godless lives, sometimes wallowing in wealth and luxuries. This psalm addresses that very problem.
Of course, there is one practical reason for the seeming disparity between what appears to be God’s treatment of the righteous and the wicked, and that is the truth emphasized by Jesus who stated that, “The sons of this world are for their own generation wiser than the sons of the light” (Luk 16:8). There surely seems to be a naivete among God’s people that often hinders their worldly success. This is not the only Old Testament Scripture that deals with this problem. Psalms 37 and Psalms 49, as well as the Book of Job likewise confront this problem, dealing with it extensively. We have already commented extensively on this problem in Psalms 37 and Psalms 49.
For word on Asaph, see under Psalms. Asaph (or possibly his sons) authored Psalms 73-83.
In this psalm, the conclusion is announced at the beginning.
Psa 73:1-2
“Surely God is good to Israel.
Even to such as are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet were almost gone;
My steps had well nigh slipped.”
“Surely God is good” (Psa 73:1). God is not partial to the wicked. However the opposite of this may appear at times to be true, it is never the correct view. God’s goodness toward the righteous is by no means limited to the present time but extends throughout eternity. Whatever advantage wickedness may appear to have in the present life is of no consequence whatever when considered in the light of the eternal rewards and punishments to be meted out on the Day of Judgment.
“But as for me” (Psa 73:2). Here the Psalmist looks back upon the temptations which almost overcame him and recognizes how fatal it would have been for him to succumb thereunto.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 73:1. Both parts of this verse should be considered. In proportion to their cleanness of heart God was ready to bless Israel.
Psa 73:2. This refers to some time in the life of David when the trials were almost too much for his endurance; he almost “gave in.”
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The marginal reading, “Only good is God to Israel,” indicates the real value of the song. Israel has no other good, and needs no other. Yet it is not always easy to realize this, and the psalmist tells how he nearly stumbled in view of the prosperity of the wicked, and how he was restored. The first half describes the perplexing vision of the prosperity of the wicked. The whole psalm was written in the light of the conviction expressed in the last half, but it describes first the things which startled and perplexed the soul. The wicked prosper in life, and death itself seems to have no terror for them. They are satisfied, and more than satisfied, and because of these things men deny the knowledge of God, and turn their feet into the way of wickedness, affirming the uselessness of right-doing to procure benefits.
The psalmist now tells the story of how he was delivered. He attempted to unravel the mystery and find out why men succeeded and were satisfied without God. It was too painful, that is, too difficult, for him. He could not solve the riddle. At least he found the true viewpoint. He went into the sanctuary of God. Then everything changed. He ceased to look at the present only. He saw the end of the wicked. A more spacious outlook, taking in the whole issue of things, corrected all the false seeming of the near vision. Yet the sanctuary was also the place where the nearest things were seen most accurately, seen, that is, in relation to the large things. Again he remembered and recognized his own wrong in misjudging God, but was able to affirm God’s presence and care; and out of the consciousness the song of praise was born. To see the issue of the near is to understand the real meaning of the near, and this is ever to bring to the heart of the trusting a thanksgiving and a song.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Deceptive Prosperity
Psa 73:1-15
The opening psalms of this third Book of Psalms are by Asaph; see 2Ch 29:30. The r.v. margin substitutes only for surely in Psa 73:1. There is none good but God and God is only good. His every act pure goodness is; His path unsullied light. Israel, as here intended, is not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. See Joh 1:47 and Rom 2:28-29.
We have in these verses a good mans temptation. In every age Gods people have asked whether God can possibly know all that is taking place on the earth, and if He does know, why He allows evil to prosper. The dark spirit who is ever at our elbow whispers that we should have done as well, and better, if we had not been quite so scrupulous in our business dealings; and we are held back from giving expression to our thoughts only by the fear that we might cause Gods weaker children to stumble. This reticence is, of course, wholly commendable. A Christian man confessed the other day that the irreligion of his children was due to his critical and captious speech. By all means keep these dark and faithless thoughts locked in your own breast; you have no right to scatter thistle-down.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 73:13
Notice
I. How forgetfulness of God leads us to chafe under the painful dispensations of human life. It is an honest confession which we find in the third verse: “I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” It is the actual stress of life, contact with all its hard and trying realities, that tests our faith. Can we bear to “see” the prosperity of the wicked while we are ourselves in adversity? (1) Notice how envy grows into self-righteousness. The words, “Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain,” etc., suggest one who is pretty well satisfied with himself if he has nothing to reproach himself with, who is content to be free from blame, with very little thought of a higher life to which God is calling him, a life of patience and faith, a life of entire dependence upon God. (2) Mark, again, the flippant self-satisfaction, the deep distrust of God, which breathes in vers. 10-14. The suggestion is, “We good men ought not to be treated thus; we are not being dealt with righteously.” Asaph is startled when he has put his thought into words, and says, “If I say, I will speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation of Thy children.” God does not judge men in the hasty way in which we judge them. His counsel takes in other ends than merely to make the righteous happy and the unrighteous unhappy. He has a purpose in His forbearance with the guilty: He endures with much longsuffering and does them good continually that He may bring them to Himself. He has a purpose in the painful discipline He often appoints the godly: to make them purer, holier, stronger men.
II. Some considerations which may help us to trust that God is good in ordaining for us the painful dispensations of human life, (1) Perhaps we could not have borne prosperity. When Asaph went into the sanctuary of God and saw the end of the wicked, he learned that they had been “set in slippery places,” that the pride which compassed them about as a chain, that their having more than heart could wish, had but sealed them up against the day of desolation and the terrors that should utterly consume them. And then there opens upon him an awful vision of what prosperity might have done for him. Trembling as at an awful peril he has just escaped, he gives himself to God’s guidance: “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” (2) We cannot accept as final the answer which was given to Asaph; the Gospel reveals to us a sublimer truth. The end of the wicked, he saw, was their destruction; their restoration is the end for which we are taught to hope and labour. Think how hopeless would be their restoration if all the suffering of life were apportioned to them, and the righteous were never troubled. It is the grace of God that restores the ungodly, not His punishments. (3) Enter again the sanctuary, and look on Christ. Who will not choose to be with Christ in humiliation and distress? God has better things to give His children than prosperity. It is better to be brave than rich; patience is better than comfort. (4) Nor can we understand the meaning of life at all while we are thinking only of ourselves. God would have us take our part in the restoring of the wicked to Himself. The lessons that we learn in our endurance give us a power over men that nothing else can give.
A. Mackennal, Christ’s Healing Touch, p. 72.
Reference: Psa 73:15, Psa 73:16.-W. Baird, Hallowing of our Common Life, p. 54.
Psa 73:16-17
The rectifying influence of the sanctuary.
There has been some little difference of opinion among expositors as to the precise reference of the word here translated “sanctuary.” Literally it means “the holies” of God, and so it may be taken either as the holy things or the holy places of God. In the mouth of one belonging to the old dispensation the primary reference of the term must be to the Temple, which was the earthly residence of God and the place where He communed with His people. Thus understood, the main drift and teaching of the Psalm as a whole is that in approaching God through the recognised channels of access unto Him, and in appropriating Him to himself, Asaph found the antidote which neutralised the poison of the insidious temptation by which he had been almost destroyed.
I. Consider the rectifying influence of the sanctuary as it bears upon the standards of judgment commonly in use among men. During the week the consciences of the best of us have been more or less affected by things immediately around us, so that we are in danger of making serious mistakes in our life’s voyage; but in the sanctuary Christ comes to us and gives us our “true bearings,” as they are in the standard of His word. (1) Take the case of wealth. Christ shows that it is not the great thing to be sought, but at the best only a means which may be made conducive to the furtherance of that end. To be rich toward God-that is the true aim of life. (2) Look at the Saviour’s standard of greatness. To those who are filled with the love of greatness the Lord preaches the greatness of love, and to those who are enamoured of the service which authority commands He reveals the influence which service ultimately secures. (3) Take the matter of success, and see how Christ in the sanctuary rectifies the views of men regarding that. Success in His view is the drinking of the cup which He drank of and the being baptized with the baptism wherewith He was baptized; and one may attain that while yet, in a worldly point of view, he may be so poor as to have nowhere to lay his head.
II. Look at the rectifying influence of the sanctuary on the perspective of life. As we draw near to God in Christ we learn to give its relative value to each province of our lives and to keep each in its own place. The Sabbath is a weekly day of review, and as we meet Christ in the sanctuary everything in our conduct is contemplated in its relation to Him.
III. Note, finally, the rectifying influence of the sanctuary on the estimate which we form of the relative importance of things present and things to come. In the toil and trouble of daily life we are too apt to forget the issues which hang upon our existence here; but in the sanctuary, when we get near to Christ, we have heaven also brought nigh to us, and as we catch a glimpse of its glories our afflictions dwindle into insignificance, while we are fired by the joy that is set before us to make more strenuous efforts to overcome the evil that is in us and to endure the hardships that may come upon us.
W. M. Taylor, Contrary Winds, and Other Sermons, p. 325.
Reference: Psa 73:16, Psa 73:17.-Bishop Alexander, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 341.
Psa 73:17
I. What “the sanctuary” was into which David thus opportunely went, it is not very easy to decide. Perhaps the expression “sanctuary” meant the whole precincts of the tabernacle or Temple. Or, more likely still, it relates not to place at all, but to a certain frame of mind, or inner access of heart to God, of which the sanctuary was the emblem and type.
II. The thoughts which the word “sanctuary” would bring to the mind of a Jew were (1) the idea of separation-being alone with God, unworldly, a thing dedicated; (2) stillness-removal from the rush and the noise of life, and the conflict of opinions, and the strife of tongues; (3) holiness-a reflection of God being on every side; (4) refuge-a place of safety, where no avenger’s step could ever tread, and no hurt could ever come; (5) the communion of saints-where God’s people are; (6) consultation-where God’s mind is revealed to those who seek it, either by intervention of priestly office, or by direct influence, specially communicated to those who are worshipping in spirit and in truth.
III. To every believer Christ is the sanctuary of God; in Christ the whole Deity enshrines itself; and he does not know yet what it is to go into the sanctuary who does not know what it is to run into Jesus, into the wounded side of that cleft Rock, and there shut in, into peace and holiness, to feel in sanctuary.
IV. We need the sanctuary (1) because we want calmness. The judicial functions of the mind want retreat. (2) It is in times of holy retirement that God is pleased to manifest Himself to His people, as He does not to the world.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 7th series, p. 104.
Reference: Psa 73:17, Psa 73:18.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii., No. 486. Psa 73:22.-Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 210.
Psa 73:22-24
I. Consider the character and condition of this man at first, and before he was turned to the Lord: “So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before Thee.” He acted the fool because he did not know the truth, and he missed the truth because he acted the fool.
II. After describing his former alienation, the penitent next proclaims his present nearness and peace: “Nevertheless I am continually with Thee.” “I was as a beast, but I am with Thee.” Species do not interchange, but the transformations which are unknown in the sphere of nature are accomplished in the region of grace. The man has become new. His soul had been in abeyance; he had been as a beast in relation to God. But his original nature had been restored; the image of his Maker had been impressed upon his being. Loving, living communion has recommenced between the offspring, man, and his Father God.
III. Consider the cause and manner of this great deliverance: “Thou hast holden me by my right hand.” (1) He ascribes his deliverance to God: “Thou hast holden me.” (2) Above, there is an everlasting arm outstretched; below, a willing people gladly grasp it. The picture represents a father leading his strayed child home. The child is not dragged; he is led.
IV. The course through life which the penitent now expects to keep: “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel.” In this man’s esteem salvation implies holiness. (1) Deliverance from condemnation carries with it turning from sin. (2) The rule of life for the reconciled is the word of God: “Thy counsel.” (3) Reconciled and renewed though he be, and walking in the light, he cannot yet be left to himself: “Thou shalt guide me.” He needs and gets the present, permanent, personal care of the Father at every stage, every step, of his pilgrimage.
V. The issue of all in eternity: “And afterward receive me to glory.” It is not, I shall make my way in, but “Thou shalt receive me.” It does not imply any preternatural knowledge of heaven, but a spiritual communion with the Friend of sinners, who is already there. Unless the kingdom of God be within you here, you shall not be within the kingdom of God yonder.
W. Arnot, The Anchor of the Soul, and Other Sermons, p. 212.
References: Psa 73:22-25.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii., No. 467. Psa 73:23.-Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 211. Psa 73:24.-H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, 1st series, p. 356; J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 73; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 277, and vol. iv., p. 65; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons in Country Churches, 2nd series, p. 179; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 388. Psa 73:24-26, H. F. Burder, Sermons, p. 449. Psa 73:25.-E. Garbett, Experiences of the Inner Life, p. 169; A. Scott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 319; Bishop Woodford, Occasional Sermons, vol. ii, p. 247.
Psa 73:25-26
I. God is the Christian’s inheritance as the light of his intellect.
II. God is the Christian’s inheritance as the refuge of his conscience.
III. God is the Christian’s inheritance as the rest of his soul. He gives the soul (1) security; (2) happiness; (3) support in the hour of death.
W. M. Punshon, Pulpit Orations, 2nd series, No. 4.
Psa 73:26
I. Life and immortality, we are told, were brought to light by the Gospel. But the immortality of the soul was not first taught and believed when our Lord confuted Sadducean unbelief, or when He consoled His faint-hearted disciples on the eve of His Passion. The doctrine of immortality runs through the Bible. It underlies the history of the creation and the fall of man. It is involved in the statement that man was created originally in the image of God.
II. The authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, Divine and infallible, is the true and sufficient basis of this doctrine in the Christian soul.
III. In contemporary literature the word “immortality” is clung to with a desperate tenacity which proves how, in spite of their theories, men shrink from resigning themselves to the naked idea of absolute annihilation. Some believe in the immortality of matter, others in that of force, others in that of thought, and others in that of moral effort.
IV. The only immortality which can aspire permanently to interest and influence mankind must assert that the life of the soul in perpetuity is an objective fact, altogether independent of our mental conceptions, nay even of our moral activities. A real immortality is an objective fact; it is also the immortality of a personal life.
V. The words of the text are in all ages the exulting voice of the conviction, of the instinct, of the sense, of immortality in the servants of God. He upholds them in being, and His eternity is to be the measure of their own endless life.
H. P. Liddon, University Sermons, 1st series, p. 107.
Psa 73:28
The experience of ordinary life gives proof that “nearness” is not a geographical fact. You may live positively close to a man, and yet for every real purpose of neighbourhood-for any sympathy which may be formed, or any benefit which may accrue-you may still be as wide asunder as the poles; while oceans may separate heart from heart which nevertheless live in one another’s life, and reflect each the every hue which passes over the other’s breast. So certain is it that distance and nearness are moral things, founded upon moral principles, and leading up to moral consequences.
I. What then is nearness to God? (1) It is to be in Christ. The Apostles never separate nearness to God from an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. God sees nothing near to Himself till He first sees it in His dear Son. (2) The nearness to God thus formed in Christ goes on to further results. There comes a felt presence always growing out of that sense of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian is a man always walking in the shade of a mighty, invisible Being that is with him everywhere. (3) Nearness generates resemblance. To be near God in His being is to be near Him in His image.
II. How is this nearness to God to be attained? (1) You must place yourselves under the attractive influences of Divine grace. The drawing principle, which is to bring God and you near, resides not in you, but in God. (2) Your own will must accompany the Divine compulsion. (3) You must be diligent in using the means of grace, those blessed opportunities when God and souls draw near.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 8th series, p. 157.
I. This is a text worth the notice of everybody. Who is there that does not wish for good? All of us are seeking after what we consider to be good for us. Only too many of us make a mistake as to what is really good for us. Some people fancy that the great good of this life is money; so they long for it, work for it, slave for it, and perhaps get it, only to find, after all, that it is not such a satisfying good as they thought. Others think that pleasure is the one thing desirable; so they pursue pleasure by every means in their power, often sacrificing their health and property for it, and then find that it is not worth the trouble they have spent upon it.
II. The text tells us of something which really is good: “It is good to draw near to God.” There are several ways of drawing near to God, but there is one way which will occur to your minds before others. That way is prayer. God asks His children to come to Him in prayer, to pour out their thoughts and wants to Him, not because He is ignorant of them, but because He desires to attach us all to Him as His loving, faithful children. He wants prayer from us, but He wants something more: He wants our confidence, our faith, our trust. Therefore, while He always listens to our prayer, He does not always answer it at once, nor always in the way which we may desire. The best way is to draw near to God in prayer, and then leave Him to do what He knows to be best for us.
III. An old writer very quaintly compares this text to a whetstone. A whetstone is used for sharpening knives and other cutting instruments. Prayer sharpens our desires after good, and brings us often to the throne of God’s grace.
G. Litting, Thirty Children’s Sermons, p. 147.
References: Psa 73:28.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 288, vol. xv., No. 879, and vol. xxvii., No. 1629; J. W. Lance, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 200; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. xx., p. 284. J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 271.
Psalm 73
First, there is in this Psalm a description of the prosperity of the wicked, and of that hauteur and pride which they in their prosperity manifested, then of the afflictions of the godly, operating in the Psalmist, and he supposed in others, as a temptation. In ver. 21 we have the recovery, and the thoughts of the recovery.
I. The first-fruit of the Divine deliverance is self-loathing. “Truly Thou art good,” and I was ignorant; I ought to have known that always.
II. The second fruit is gratitude to Him who had guided him: “Thou hast holden me by my right hand.”
III. From the experience of past blessings, the experience of this great vouchsafed deliverance, he rises to hope: “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.”
IV. The next step is wondering adoration: “Whom have I in heaven but Thee?”
V. He sums up the Psalm by an act of faith: “I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all Thy works.” His faith reposed in God not only for what God would do for him, but for what God would graciously employ him for doing, and fit him to do in some good measure.
J. Duncan, The Pulpit and Communion Table, p. 236.
This Psalm is the work of a believer, and yet it is the expression of a soul who has passed through doubt and experienced all its bitterness.
I. Consider what made Asaph doubt. Asaph had seen the course of this world: he had seen the prosperity of the wicked; he had seen those who feared God suffering in desertion and in despair. His soul was troubled; and in a gloomy hour he called in question the righteousness, the wisdom, and also the action of God. The spectacle of this world is a great school for unbelief, a school which makes more impious people than all the books of atheists. If we contemplate the world, our gaze wavers, for we seek in vain there for that law of love and of righteousness which, it seems to us, God should have marked on all His works. As children, we believed we should find it there, for a science had been made for our use. History for us was a drama of which God was the living Hero: if the righteous suffered, it was a transitory trial and soon to be explained; if the wicked triumphed, it was the dazzling flash of a day. Later on our view was enlarged, and God had receded from us. Between Him and us was raised the immense, inexorable wall of fatality. (1) Fatality in nature, for its smile is deceptive; and when we have seen it shine on a grave in presence of which our heart is torn, it appears to us implacable even in its very beauty. We study it, and everywhere we find a savage law in it, the law of destruction, which pursues its silent work each day and each minute. (2) Fatality in history. Progress? Where is it in the old world? What plan is there in the history of those races who are sinking today, dragged down by an incurable barbarism, in those lucky strokes of force, in those startling immoralities, which success strengthens and sanctions? Is it consoling to tell us that the blood of the righteous is a fruitful seed? Over how many countries has it not flowed, leaving only the barrenness of the desert! (3) Fatality in life. Even here the moral law wavers and is often effaced. There is no need to be a philosopher in order to encounter the problems of life; trial, sooner or later, places them before us. For some it is the trial of poverty, for others the trial of ailment; but what excites excessively all these doubts is injustice.
II. For a moment Asaph’s conscience wavered; for a moment giddiness seized him. How is it that he did not fall into the abyss? Asaph believed in God. He could not believe in chance, for in his people’s language there is not even a word to designate chance. Asaph tried to deny God and His action in the world. “I was tempted to say it,” he exclaimed, “but I felt that in saying it I should be unbelieving, and should offend against the generation of Thy children.” I should offend against my race-that is the thought which withheld him.
III. Notice how God enlightened and strengthened Asaph. In the sanctuary of God light was waiting for him. There he learned “the end of those men.” Asaph saw the end of the designs of God. His eyes were opened, and he altered his language. Gratitude has succeeded to his murmuring; instead of the trials beneath whose weight he succumbed, he has seen, he sees always better, the favours which are eternally his inheritance. “Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory.”
E. Bersier, Sermons, vol. i., p. 165.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
III. THE LEVITICUS SECTION: BOOK THREE: Psalm 73-89
The third division of the book of Psalms corresponds in character to the third book of the Pentateuch, the book of Leviticus. That is the book of the Sanctuary, of Holiness. And this section, which is the shortest, also has the same character. Each Psalm brings the sanctuary of Israel in view, with the same prophetic-dispensational character as in the first two books. The Companion Bible gives the following division of the 17 Psalms: Psalm 73-89, The Sanctuary in Relation to Jehovah.
Psalms of Asaph Concerning the Sanctuary (73-77)
Psalm 73
The Problem of the Suffering of the Righteous
1. The perplexity (Psa 73:1-9)
2. Departure from God (Psa 73:10-14)
3. The sanctuary and the solution (Psa 73:15-28)
Eleven Psalms by Asaph open this Leviticus section. The clean heart is mentioned at once, and the assurance that truly God is good unto Israel and to those of clean heart. But here is the old question, the wicked prosper in spite of all their pride, their violence and corruption, while the righteous suffer. The prosperity of the wicked had an evil effect too upon the people, who departed from God. And Asaphs steps had well nigh slipped, as some said, Verily I cleaned my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency. Then he turns to the sanctuary and finds the solution. In the light of God and His holiness he sees their end. Desolation is coming upon them in a moment, they are utterly consumed with terrors. Then having had the vision of the sanctuary he grieves over his foolishness, like a beast which does not know God. But could there be more beautiful words than those in Psa 73:23-26! Read and enjoy them. But the experience of Asaph will be the experience of the godly remnant.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
ended
Lit. to be ended, i.e. in complete answer. 2Sa 23:1-4.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Truly: or, Yet, Psa 2:6, Psa 42:11
God: Psa 73:18-28, Psa 84:11, Isa 63:7-9, Luk 12:32
to such: Joh 1:47, Rom 2:28, Rom 2:29, Rom 4:16, Rom 9:6, Rom 9:7
of a clean heart: Heb. clean of heart, Psa 51:10, Jer 4:14, Mat 5:8, Tit 3:5, Jam 4:8
Reciprocal: Deu 23:5 – because the 1Ch 6:39 – Asaph 1Ch 15:17 – Asaph 1Ch 25:2 – Asaph Neh 12:46 – and Asaph Psa 24:4 – pure Psa 31:19 – Oh Psa 125:4 – Do good Joh 3:10 – and knowest Rom 9:4 – are Israelites Gal 6:16 – the Israel Heb 12:8 – General 2Pe 3:1 – pure
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Consistency of divine holiness with the sufferings of the righteous.
A psalm of Asaph.
1. The question raised in the 73rd psalm is stated in the first three verses, “Truly God is good to Israel,” the psalmist affirms; and then adds that, (according to the holiness of the divine nature,) this is “to the pure in heart.” That is the truth; but it is not always easy to realize and maintain. He had not found it so: his feet had well-nigh gone, his steps slipped. The prosperity of the wicked, of which they had boasted, had moved him to envy of them; and the ways of God had darkened with him; as their lot seemed bright.
2. Indeed, to his eyes they seemed not merely no worse off than other men; much more than this, they were exceptionally peaceful and secure. Death threw no shadow over their lives. They were strong, comfortable and well-fed. The travail which besets the lives of men who are mortal because of sin, and accessible to all that that implies, did not trouble them. The strokes with which all mankind are smitten seemed not to fall upon them. Their circumstances justified apparently their boastings.
3. Yet this blessing blessed not: it only confirmed them in their evil. Pride they displayed, as if it were an ornament upon their necks, erect with self-consciousness. Their violence sought no concealment, but was like the garment upon them, manifest to all. Their insolent eyes stood out with fatness.
They exceeded even their own imaginations of success. And this put them beyond bounds, making them scoff at the idea of being checked in the malicious thoughts they vented in violent words, as if above all other men: “they set their mouth in heaven,” so lofty are they; “and their tongue goeth through the earth,” as if they had possession of it all, -though this infatuation only made manifest their emptiness.
4. It was not only them whom their prosperity intoxicated. The effect of it was that people fell to them from among the professing people of God, who, encouraged by it, gave themselves up to license. For, they argued, how can God know? how can the Most High have any knowledge? Are not these confessedly the “wicked,” whom He denounces? and yet, see how they live at ease, and their wealth increases? Of what use, then, is it to have cleansed my heart, and washed my hands in innocency, to live a life under the constant stroke of God, chastised every morning?
5. Alas, men might speak thus, who never knew what it was, really to be with Him! But if I joined them in this speech, says the psalmist, what injustice would I not be doing to the generation of Thy children! He speaks of Israel according to their birthright, for God had said, “Israel is my son, even my first-born,” and the apostasy of others only leads to the realization that “they are not all Israel, that are of Israel;” therefore to the appropriation of this to a true remnant, though the Christian “Spirit of adoption” has not come.
He cannot go with these apostates; and yet his soul is in conflict. For a Jew with his covenanted blessings and the legal curses upon iniquity, hard indeed would it be, to understand this flourishing of the wicked, while the godly suffer, -a state of things not always simple to the Christian, who is taught to take up his cross and follow Christ. But if he does not understand, he draws nearer to God that he may do so. In the sanctuary of His presence the secret is disclosed: he sees the end that is coming for the wicked. The “smooth places” in which God sets them are not signs either of His favor or of His indifference. They are the prelude to an awful fall, which comes as in a moment, and they are brought to an end, consumed with terrors. Their prosperity, while it deceives them, is but the image of a dream; vanishing when men awake; -is but this, when the Lord arises and shows it as their folly and shame.
6. The psalmist turns from this to deplore his own folly in his having been so moved as he had been by this short-lived triumph. He owns it as the ignorance of a beast who leaves out God. After all, he cannot, in the face of faith’s record through all generations, take the circumstances of the life here as giving cause to doubt that God is with him: circumstances which would plead against the “generation of His children” in every age. And that one thing realized, that after all God is with him, is the controlling circumstance: it may well stand in the place of all other good. Is it not this also which will account for chastening and humiliation, the fruit of the holiness of Him who has come to walk with this poor creature of His? But support cannot be wanting either, in such a case; and so he owns: “But I am continually with Thee; Thou hast holden my right hand.” From this the whole future may be certainly predicted; for God can be fully reckoned upon. The way will be with Him, and the end too with Himself: “Thou wilt guide me with Thy counsel; and afterwards in glory* Thou wilt receive me.” The face to face vision of God has been for faith necessarily, in every generation and under every dispensation, the end -short of which complete satisfaction cannot be found. The cry in the Psalms from end to end is after God. After Him the soul longs and pants, as the hart after the water-brooks. Its question is continually: “When shall I come and appear before God?” Here this is quietly contemplated with the reassured confidence which is the end of all faith’s exercises at all times. Here is the abiding joy, the source of all that can be: “whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee! “Nature may fail, but this failing strength only reveals the might of that “strength,” which “is made perfect in weakness.” “God is the rock of my heart, the foundation upon which it builds, and my portion forever.”
{*It is to be acknowledged that the simplest translation of the text here would be” “after [the] glory Thou wilt receive me.” The difficulty is as to the meaning of this. For though the acceptance and blessing of Israel as a nation will be when the Lord appears” and not before” yet the psalm is so individual in its character that it seems hard to apply it in this way. I do not discuss the point however” but leave it to the judgment of the reader with this acknowledgment. The translation” as given above” is accepted with slight modifications by Hebraists generally, the words in question being both treated as adverbial forms. As so translated” the national hope of Israel is not lost in what has larger meaning.}
7. The last two verses sum up finally the contrasted results for the righteous and the wicked: the way of independence which ends in destruction; the way of dependence, in which already the goodness of drawing near to God is tasted; and in confidence, the ready tongue declares His works.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Psa 73:1. Truly, or nevertheless, &c. The beginning is abrupt, and sufficiently intimates that he had a great conflict within himself about the matter here spoken of, and that many doubts and objections were raised in his mind concerning it. But, at last, light and satisfaction broke forth upon him, like the sun from under a cloud, and overcame and silenced his scruples, in consequence of which he lays down this conclusion. God is good to Israel Though he may sometimes seem negligent of, and harsh and severe toward, his people; yet, if all things be considered, it is most certain, and hereafter will be made manifest, that he is really and superlatively good, that is, most kind and bountiful, and a true friend to them, and that they are most happy in possessing his favour, and have no reason to envy sinners their present and seeming felicity. Even to such as are of a clean heart To all true Israelites, who love God with their whole hearts, and serve him in spirit, in truth, and uprightness: see Joh 4:23; Rom 2:28-29. So this clause limits the former, and takes off a great part of the force of the objection, indeed the whole of that which was drawn from the calamities which befell the hypocritical and half-hearted Israelites, who were vastly the greater number of that people.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The third book of Hebrew psalms begins here. It opens with a psalm of Asaph, the noble singer and musician of the temple. 1Ch 6:39; 1Ch 25:1. Eleven other psalms bear his name. Hezekiah commanded the levites to sing in the words of David, and of Asaph the seer, the ancient name of a prophet. 2Ch 29:30. On this account his compositions are admitted, and deservedly so, into the sacred canon. The language here approximates to Psalms 4, 36, 37, 39, 49. The psalm under consideration could not he written in Babylon, for there the Jews had no sanctuary. Daniel opened his window which looked towards Jerusalem. There also the wicked Jews were not in great prosperity, with their eyes standing out with fatness: Psa 73:3; Psa 73:7.
Psa 73:6. Pride compasseth them about as a chain. Hebrews Anak, a torque of gold around their neck, from which their robes hung suspended. See on Deu 1:28. The giants are thought to have received this name from their huge torques.
Psa 73:10. Therefore his people return hither. The sense of the Hebrew is obscure; but the text seems to say that the righteous, shocked at the speeches of the wicked, return the more to God, and obtain his plenitude of blessings. This idea coincides with the conduct of Asaph.
Psa 73:27. Them that go a whoring from thee. That forsake thee, and worship false gods. Idolatry is frequently expressed in the scriptures by the term adultery, &c.
REFLECTIONS.
Asaph, seeing himself surrounded with wicked courtiers, whose lives were devoted to pleasure and irreligion, and who supported their profligate habits by corruption and oppression, was beclouded with moral darkness.
They made very daring speeches against revelation, and providence, and the perfection of the Lord. They laughed at threatenings, Isa 28:12-14; and utterly denied a providence. The like cause produces similar effects. Europe has lately been filled with blasphemies of like nature. Those men were not afflicted and chastened like other men; they were distinguished by corpulence of habit, and seemed to die in repose. This first and partial view of their case shook the faith of the psalmist. He was about to say, I have cleansed my hands from iniquity, and wept for my sins in vain: the wicked are happier than the mournful saints. The prophets foot had nearly slipped; he almost lost the shield of faith.
When almost vanquished, he invoked the aid, and sought counsel of the Lord. He sought the Lord in his sanctuary, for there he was wont to guide and comfort his saints. Here his soul was favoured with more enlarged views of providence: he saw the wicked set in slippery places, and perishing in the midst of their days by disease and war. These visitations have been remarkably realized in the late wars on the continent. The revolutionary army received its full rewards of blood in Russia, in Spain, and at Waterloo.
The psalmist became, like the oak, the more enrooted for the tempest. He sprung into the arms of God, saying, thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. Many christians are much injured by seeking a mixed happiness, in riches and relatives, which all forsake us under the severest strokes of providence. This sublime sentiment of Asaph in hoary age, when his heart and flesh failed, of making the Lord his sole and simple happiness, I have not found touched with a more delicate pencil than that of Madam Guion, when her bishop, Bossuet, threw her into prison for heresy. Making the Lord there her husband and only hope, she uttered her soul in the most hallowed and delicate touches of the lyre, which our poet, William Cowper, Esq. has successfully turned into English verse.
Sun, stay thy course, this moment stay, Suspend the overflowing tide of day; Divulge not such a love as mine, Ah, hide the mystery divine, Lest men who deem my glory shame, Should learn the secrets of my flame.
Oh night, propitious to my views, Thy sable awning wide diffuse, Conceal alike my joy and pain, Nor draw thy curtain back again; Though morning, by the tears she shows, Seems to participate my woes. Ye stars, whose faint and feeble fires, Express my languishing desires, Whose slender beams pervade the skies, As silent as my secret sighs; The emanations of a soul, That darts her fires beyond the pole.
Your rays that scarce assist the sight, That pierce, but not displace the night; That shine indeed, but nothing show Of all those various scenes below, Bring no disturbance, rather prove, Incentives of a sacred love. Thou moon, whose never-failing course Bespeaks a providential force, Go tell the tidings of my flame To him who calls the stars by name:
Whose absence kills, whose presence cheers, Who blots or brightens all my years.
While in the blue abyss of space, Thine orb performs its rapid race, Still whisper in his listening ears, The language of my sighs and tears; Tell him, I seek him far below, Lost in a wilderness of woe. Ye thought-composing silent hours, Diffusing peace oer all my powers; Friend of the pensive, who conceals In darkest shades the flame I feel, To you I trust, and safely may; The love that wastes my strength away.
In sylvan scenes, and caverns rude, I taste the sweets of solitude; Retired indeed, but not alone, I share them with a spouse unknown, Who hides me here, from envious eyes, From all intrusion and surprise. Imbowering shades, and dens profound, Where echo rolls the voice around, Mountains, whose elevated head A moist and misty veil oerspread, Disclose a solitary bride, To him I love, to none beside.
Ye rills that murmur all the way, Among the polished pebbles stray; Creep silently along the ground, Lest, drawn by that harmonious sound, Some wanderer whom I would not meet Should stumble on my loved retreat. Enamelled meads and hillocks green, And streams that water all the scene, Ye torrents, loud in distant ears, Ye fountains that receive my tears, Ah still conceal with caution due, A charge I trust to none but you.
And when my pain and grief encrease, I seem to enjoy the sweetest peace, It is because I feel so fair, The charming object of my care, That I can sport and pleasure make Of torment, suffered for his sake. Ye meads and groves, unconscious things, Ye know not whence my pleasure springs; Ye know not, and ye cannot know, The source from which my sorrows flow; The dear sole cause of all I feel,He knows, and understands them well.
Ye deserts where the wild beasts rove, Scenes sacred to my hours of love; Ye forests, in whose shades I stray, Benighted under burning day, Ah whisper not how blest am I, Nor while I live, nor when I die. Ye lambs that sport beneath the shades, And bound along the mossy glades, Be taught a salutary fear, And cease to bleat when I am near; The wolf may hear your harmless cry, Whom should ye dread so much as I? How calm amid these scenes my mind, How perfect is the peace I find, Oh hush, be still my every part, My tongue, my pulse, my beating heart, That love aspiring to its source, May suffer not a moments pause. Ye swift finned nations that abide In seas as fathomless as wide, And unsuspicious of a snare, Pursue at large your pleasures there; Poor sportive fools, how soon does man Your heedless ignorance trepan.
Away, dive deep into the brine, Where never yet sunk plummet-line; Trust me, the vast leviathan Is merciful, compared with man; Avoid his arts, forsake the beach, And never play within his reach. My soul her bondage ill endures, I pine for liberty like yours; I long for that immense profound That knows no bottom, and no bound; Lost in infinity to prove Th incomprehensible of love.
Ye birds that lessen as ye fly, And vanish in the distant sky; To whom yon airy waste belongs, Resounding with your cheerful songs; Haste to escape from human sight, Fear less the vulture and the kite. How blest and how secure am I, When quitting earth, I soar on high, When lost, like you, I disappear, And float in a sublimer sphere; When falling within human view, I am ensnared and caught like you.
Omniscient God, whose notice deigns To try the heart and search the reins; Compassionate the numerous woes, I dare not een to thee disclose; Oh save me from the cruel hands Of men, who fear not thy commands. Love all subduing and divine, Care for a creature truly thine:
Reign in a heart disposed to own No sovereign but thyself alone, Cherish a bride who cannot rove, Nor quit thee for a meaner love.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
BOOK III.PSS. LXXIII.LXXXIX.
LXXIII. The Hope of Immortality.Here the Psalter reaches its highest elevation. Job, in Job 19:25 f.*, believes that God will vindicate his innocence even after death, and is confident that he himself, in spite of death, will see God. Job, however, expresses no belief that he will live for ever. He is to see God for a moment; he does not expect that he will abide with God continually. This is just what the Psalmist does expect. This belief flows from the depths of his spiritual experience, and he utters it with intensity of conviction and in calm and measured language. He has seen the prosperity of the godless and has all but lost his faith in God. He will not, however, condemn the generation of Gods children, or admit that their piety has been in vain. God teaches him how precarious the prosperity of the wicked is, and leads him to the conviction that communion with God, the source of life, is the supreme and eternal blessing. See p. 371.
Psa 73:1-12. The pride of the wicked and their prosperity.
Psa 73:1. As the text stands, Israel means the spiritual Israel, but the Psalmist makes no such distinction. Read, to the upright.
Psa 73:4. Read, with new division of consonants, They have no pangs: sound and firm is their body.
Psa 73:7. LXX reads, Their iniquity goeth forth from their fat, i.e. from their gross, sensual nature. In Psa 73:7 b read mg.
Psa 73:8. oppression: translate, perverse words.
Psa 73:9 f. These practical atheists discuss all questions, human and Divine. This attracts many to their side. Nothing can be made of Psa 73:10 b.
Psa 73:13-22. The Psalmists temptation and his deliverance. He is tempted to think piety of no account. Temporal prosperity was its promised reward, but under the later Greek rulers, especially Antiochus, a Jew would profit far more by adopting Greek fashions than by strict observance of the Law. But the Psalmist will not be disloyal to the revelation which belonged to the Hebrews as the children of Yahweh (Deu 14:1). In the sanctuary of God, i.e. the Temple (for there is no need to think of secret religious societies like the Greek mysteries), the truth flashes upon him. As a dream when one awaketh they are gone, as a phantom which thou despisest when awake (Psa 73:20 emended). The Psalmist confesses that he has been like a beast which has no spiritual sight.
Psa 73:23-28. Now, on the contrary, he enjoys unbroken communion with God and learns that this is the supreme good. God is his guide here and will receive him into glory hereafter. Psa 73:28 c is an interpolation.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
PSALM 73
The goodness of God to Israel; though for a time, in the holy ways of God, His people may be allowed to suffer while the wicked prosper.
The ways of God with Israel are presented through the experience of a godly man who, seeing the prosperity of the wicked, is tempted to say that godliness is in vain. These ways of God, at first so passing strange to the soul, become plain when the sanctuary is entered.
(v. 1) The great theme of the psalm is stated in the first verse, Truly God is good to Israel – the true Israel – even to such as are of a clean heart. Circumstances may seem to deny this great truth, therefore the conviction is only reached through painful experience. The result of the exercise is stated before the soul conflict is described.
(vv. 2-3) Though God is good to His people, circumstances may arise which tempt the soul to question the goodness of God. The godly man is near to being stumbled in his spiritual life, for he finds that he is left to suffer while the wicked prosper (cp. Mat 11:2-6).
(vv. 4-12) The psalmist proceeds to describe the prosperity of the wicked. Apparently they are better off than the people of God. Death causes them no pangs (JND), and life has for them no plagues. Pride is counted by them as an ornament; and their violence, like a garment, is seen of all. Their eyes betoken their self-satisfaction and gratification of every wish. In heart they are corrupt; in words they speak with lofty contempt of others; in their arrogance they express their judgment on things in the heavens as well as things on earth. The mass of the people follow them, abandoning themselves to license, scornful of God, with whom, they say, there is no knowledge of the ways of men. Such are the ungodly, who prosper in the world and increase in riches.
(vv. 13-14) Contrasting the outward prosperity of the wicked with the suffering of the godly, the soul is tempted to think that it is useless to have cleansed his heart and washed his hands. What benefit is there in having a pure heart and clean hands, if one is plagued all the day and chastened every morning, while those who are wicked prosper?
(vv. 15-16) The contemplation of the prosperity of the wicked may suggest these unbelieving thoughts; but at once they are resisted by the psalmist. If, says he, I will speak thus; behold I should offend against the generation of thy children. Nevertheless, to answer these unbelieving questions was a grievous task to the godly man.
(vv. 17-20) These painful doubts, even if resisted, remain unanswered until the psalmist enters the sanctuary. There, in the presence of God, all become plain. At once the outlook of the psalmist is entirely changed. He had looked at the outward prosperity of the wicked; now he sees their end. He had been thinking of what men say and do; now he sees what God is doing in relation to the wicked. They appeared to be prospering, but, says the psalmist, thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. Their desolation comes in a moment, and they pass away, consumed with terrors (JND). When the Lord awakes to judgment, He will despise their image even as a man in his waking moments thinks lightly of some horrible dream.
(vv. 21-23) The sanctuary has, moreover, other lessons for the psalmist. He has learned the truth about the wicked; now he learns other and more important truths about himself. He now sees that when his heart was in a ferment (JND), he was thinking foolishly like a mere brute that has no thought of God. Nevertheless, though he had forgotten God, he learns in the sanctuary that he had never been out of God’s thoughts. In the midst of trials he was continually before God: and when his feet were almost gone, and his steps had well-nigh slipped, he now sees that God held him fast by the hand.
(vv. 24-26) With the confidence that God has sustained him through all his trials, he looks on with confidence to the future and says, Thou wilt guide me by thy counsel, and after the glory, thou wilt receive me (JND). When the glory of the Lord will be revealed the godly man will have his portion in the kingdom. If he sees the solemn end of the wicked in spite of their present prosperity, so he sees the glorious end of the godly notwithstanding their present suffering. Thus God Himself becomes the confidence of the soul. His flesh and heart may fail, but God is the strength of his heart.
(vv. 27-28) Those who live far from God will come under judgment; those who draw near to God will surely find that God is good to Israel (v. 1).
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
73:1 [A Psalm of Asaph.] Truly {a} God [is] good to Israel, [even] to such as are of a clean heart.
(a) As it were between hope and despair he bursts forth into this affection, being assured that God would continue his favour toward such as were godly indeed, and not hypocrites.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
III. BOOK 3: CHS. 73-89
A man or men named Asaph wrote 11 of the psalms in this book (Psalms 73-83). Other writers were the sons of Korah (Psalms 84-85, 87), David (Psalms 86), Heman (Psalms 88), and Ethan (Psalms 89). Asaph, Heman, and Ethan were musicians from the tribe of Levi who were contemporaries of David. Book 3 of the Psalter has been called its "dark book." [Note: Waltke, p. 886.]
Psalms 73
In this psalm, Asaph related his inner mental struggle when he compared his life, as one committed to Yahweh, with the lives of his acquaintances who did not put God first. He confessed discouragement. On further reflection he realized the sinfulness of his carnal longings. Finally, he explained that the contrast between these two lifestyles enabled him to keep a proper view of life in perspective.
"We come now to what may be the most remarkable and satisfying of all the psalms. We treat it last among the psalms of disorientation, because in the career of faith it seems to be the last word on disorientation, even as it utters the first word of new orientation. The very process of the psalm itself shows the moves made in faith, into, through, and out of disorientation, into new orientation, which is marked by joyous trust." [Note: Brueggemann, p. 115.]
"This great psalm is the story of a bitter and despairing search, which has now been rewarded beyond all expectation." [Note: Kidner, Psalms 73-150, p. 259.]
This psalm is similar to Psalms 49. It is a wisdom psalm because of the wise insight it provides for the godly, but the vehicle of communication is a lament. [Note: See James F. Ross, "Psalms 73," in Israelite Wisdom: Theological and Literary Essays in Honor of Samuel Terrien, pp. 161-75.]
". . . I have typed this psalm as a psalm of wisdom because it deals with a common problem found in wisdom literature, the prosperity of the wicked. But based on its strong affirmations of trust (Psa 73:1; Psa 73:17-20; Psa 73:23-28), it can also be classified as a psalm of trust." [Note: Bullock, p. 173.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. The present prosperity of the wicked 73:1-14
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Asaph began this psalm by affirming God’s goodness to His people, specifically those whose hearts are pure because they seek to follow God faithfully (Psa 73:1). This verse provides the key to the psalm by highlighting attitude as most important. Purity of heart means being totally committed to God. References to the heart appear in Psa 73:1; Psa 73:7; Psa 73:13; Psa 73:21; Psa 73:26 (twice). One writer referred to this psalm as a meditation on the heart. [Note: Martin Buber, Right and Wrong, pp. 37-38.]
However, Asaph confessed that he almost stumbled in his walk as a faithful believer when he thought about the great material prosperity of the wicked. The wealth and easy living of those who do not follow God’s will strictly tempted Asaph to abandon his commitment to living by God’s Law.
"Doubt comes from a struggling mind, while unbelief comes from a stubborn will that refuses surrender to God (Psa 73:7). The unbelieving person will not believe, while the doubting person struggles to believe but cannot." [Note: Wiersbe, The . . . Wisdom . . ., p. 222.]
Another distinctive feature of this psalm is the recurrence of the phrase "but as for me" (Psa 73:2; Psa 73:28; Psa 73:22-23 in the Hebrew text).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 73:1-28
THE perennial problem of reconciling Gods moral government with observed facts is grappled with in this psalm, as in Psa 37:1-40; Psa 49:1-20. It tells how the prosperity of the godless, in apparent flat contradiction of Divine promises, had all but swept the psalmist from his faith, and how he was led, through doubt and struggle, to closer communion with God, in which he learned, not only the evanescence of the external well-being which had so perplexed him, but the eternity of the true blessedness belonging to the godly. His solution of the problem is in part that of the two psalms just mentioned, but it surpasses them in its clear recognition that the portion of the righteous, which makes their lot supremely blessed, is no mere earthly prosperity, but God Himself, and in its pointing to “glory” which comes afterwards, as one element in the solution of the problem.
The psalm falls into two divisions, in the first of which (Psa 73:1-14) the psalmist tells of his doubts, and, in the second (Psa 73:15-28), of his victory over them. The body of the psalm is divided into groups of four verses, and it has an introduction and conclusion of two verses each.
The introduction (Psa 73:1-2) asserts, with an accent of assurance, the conviction which the psalmist had all but lost, and therefore had the more truly won. The initial word “Surely” is an indication of his past struggle, when the truth that God was good to Israel had seemed so questionable. “This I have learned by doubts; this I now hold as most sure; this I proclaim, impugn it who list, and seem to contradict it what may.” The decisiveness of the psalmists conviction does not lead him to exaggeration. He does not commit himself to the thesis that outward prosperity attends Israel. That God is good to those who truly bear that name is certain; but how He shows His goodness, and who these are, the psalmist has, by his struggles, learned to conceive of in a more spiritual fashion than before. That goodness may be plainly seen in sorrows, and it is only sealed to those who are what the name of Israel imports-“pure in heart.” That such are blessed in possessing God, and that neither are any other blessed, nor is there any other blessedness, are the lessons which the singer has brought with him from the darkness, and by which the ancient faith of the wellbeing of the righteous is set on surer foundations than before.
The avowal of conquered doubts follows on this clear note of certitude. There is a tinge of shame in the emphatic “I” of Psa 73:2, and in the broken construction and the change of subject to “my feet” and “my steps.” The psalmist looks back to that dreary time, and sees more clearly than he did, while he was caught in the toils of perplexity and doubt, how narrow had been his escape from casting away his confidence. He shudders as he remembers it; but he can do so now from the vantage ground of tried and regained faith. How eloquently the order of thought in these two verses speaks of the complete triumph over doubt!
In the first quatrain of verses, the prosperity of the godless, which had been the psalmists stumbling block, is described. Two things are specified-physical health, and exemption from calamity. The former is the theme of Psa 73:4. Its first clause is doubtful. The word rendered “bands” only occurs here and in Isa 58:6. It literally means bands, but may pass into the figurative signification of pains, and is sometimes by some taken in that meaning here, and the whole clause as asserting that the wicked have painless and peaceful deaths. But such a declaration is impossible in the face of Psa 73:18-19, which assert the very opposite, and would be out of place at this point of the psalm, which is here occupied with the lives, not the deaths, of the ungodly. Hupfeld translates “They are without pains even until their deaths”; but that rendering puts an unusual sense on the preposition “to,” which is not “till.” A very plausible conjecture alters the division of words, splitting the one which means “to their death” (lmotham) into two (lamo tam), of which the former is attached to the preceding words (“there are no pains to them” =” they have no pains”), and the latter to the following clause (“sound and well nourished is,” etc.). This suggestion is adopted by Ewald and most modern commentators, and has much in its favour. If the existing text is retained, the rendering above seems best. It describes the prosperous worldling as free from troubles or diseases, which would be like chains on a captive, by which he is dragged to execution. It thus gives a parallel to the next clause, which describes their bodies (lit., belly) as stalwart. Psa 73:5 carries on the description, and paints the wickeds exemption from trouble. The first clause is literally, “In the trouble of man they are not.” The word for man here is that which connotes frailty and mortality, while in the next clause it is the generic term “Adam.” Thus the prosperous worldlings appeared to the psalmist in his times of scepticism, as possessing charmed lives, which were free from all the ills that came from frailty and mortality, and, as like superior beings, lifted above the universal lot. But what did their exemption do for them? Its effects might have taught the doubter that the prosperity at which his faith staggered was no blessing, for it only inflated its recipients with pride, and urged them on to high-handed acts. Very graphically does Psa 73:6 paint them as having the former for their necklace, and the latter for their robe. A proud man carries a stiff neck and a high head. Hence the picture in Psa 73:6 of “pride” as wreathed about their necks as a chain or necklace. High-handed violence is their garment, according to the familiar metaphor by which a mans characteristics are likened to his dress, the garb of his soul. The double meaning of “habit,” and the connection between “custom” and “costume,” suggests the same figure. As the clothing wraps the body and is visible to the world, so insolent violence, masterfulness enforced by material weapons and contemptuous of others rights, characterised these men, who had never learned gentleness in the school of suffering. Tricked out with a necklace of pride and a robe of violence, they strutted among men, and thought themselves far above the herd, and secure from the touch of trouble.
The next group of verses (Psa 73:7-10) “further describes the unfeeling insolence begotten of unbroken prosperity, and the crowd of hangers on, admirers, and imitators attendant on the successful wicked. “Out of fat their eye flashes” gives a graphic picture of the fierce glare of insolent eyes, set in well-fed faces. But graphic as it is, it scarcely fits the context so well as does a proposed amended reading, which by a very small change in the word rendered “their eye” yields the meaning “their iniquity” and takes “fat” as equivalent to a fat, that is, an obstinate, self-confident, or unfeeling heart. “From an unfeeling heart their iniquity comes forth” makes a perfect parallel with the second clause of the verse rightly rendered. “the imaginations of their heart overflow”; and both clauses paint the arrogant tempers and bearing of the worldlings. Psa 73:8 deals with the manifestation of these in speech. Well-to-do wickedness delights in making suffering goodness a butt for its coarse jeers. It does not need much wit to do that. Clumsy jests are easy, and poverty is fair game for vulgar wealths ridicule. But there is a dash of ferocity in such laughter, and such jests pass quickly into earnest, and wicked oppression. “As from on high they speak,”-fancying themselves set on a pedestal above the common masses. The LXX, followed by many moderns, attaches “oppression” to the second clause, which makes the verse more symmetrical; but the existing division of clauses yields an appropriate sense.
The description of arrogant speech is carried on in Psa 73:9, which has been variously understood, as referring in a to blasphemy against God (“they set against the heavens their mouth”), and in b to slander against men; or, as in a, continuing the thought of Psa 73:8 b, and designating their words as spoken as if from heaven itself, and in b ascribing to their words sovereign power among men. But it is better to regard “heaven” and “earth” as the ordinary designation of the whole visible frame of things, and to take the verse as describing the self-sufficiency which gives its opinions and lays down the law about everything, and on the other hand, the currency and influence which are accorded by the popular voice to the dicta of prosperous worldlings.
That thought prepares the way for the enigmatic verse which follows. There are several obscure points in it. First, the verb in the Hebrew text means turns (transitive), which the Hebrew margin corrects into returns (intransitive). With the former reading, “his people” is the object of the verb, and the implied subject is the prosperous wicked man, the change to the singular “he” from the plural “they” of the preceding clauses being not unusual in Hebrew. With the latter reading, “his people” is the subject. The next question is to whom the “people” are conceived as belonging. It is, at first sight, natural to think of the frequent Scripture expression, and to take the “his” as referring to God, and the phrase to mean the true Israel. But the meaning seems rather to be the mob of parasites and hangers on, who servilely follow the successful sinner, in hope of some crumbs from his table. “Thither” means “to himself,” and the whole describes how such a one as the man whose portrait has just been drawn is sure to attract a retinue of dependants, who say as he says, and would fain be what he is. The last clause describes the share of these parasites in their patrons prosperity. “Waters of abundance”-i.e., abundant waters-may be an emblem of the pernicious principles of the wicked, which their followers swallow greedily; but it is more probably a figure for fulness of material good, which rewards the humiliation of servile adherents to the prosperous worldling.
The next group (Psa 73:11-14) begins with an utterance of unbelief or doubt, but it is difficult to reach certainty as to the speakers. It is very natural to refer the “they” to the last-mentioned persons-namely, the people who have been led to attach themselves to the prosperous sinners, and who, by the example of these, are led to question the reality of Gods acquaintance with and moral government of human affairs. The question is, as often, in reality a denial. But “they” may have a more general sense, equivalent to our own colloquial use of it for an indefinite multitude. “They say”-that is, “the common opinion and rumour is.” So here, the meaning may be, that the sight of such flushed and flourishing wickedness diffuses widespread and deep-going doubts of Gods knowledge, and makes many infidels.
Ewald, Delitzsch, and others take all the verses of this group as spoken by the followers of the ungodly; and, unquestionably, that view avoids the difficulty of allotting the parts to different unnamed interlocutors. But it raises difficulties of another kind-as, for instance, those of supposing that these adulators should roundly call their patrons wicked, and that an apostate should profess that he has cleansed his heart. The same objections do not hold against the view that these four verses are the utterance, not of the wicked rich man or his coterie of admirers, but of the wider number whose faith has been shaken. There is nothing in the verses which would be unnatural on such lips.
Psa 73:11 would then be a question anxiously raised by faith that was beginning to reel; Psa 73:12 would be a statement of the anomalous fact which staggered it; and Psa 73:13-14 the complaint of the afflicted godly. The psalmists repudiation of a share in such incipient scepticism would begin with Psa 73:15. There is much in favour of this view of the speakers, but against it is the psalmists acknowledgment, in Psa 73:2, that his own confidence in Gods moral government had been shaken, of which there is no further trace in the psalm, unless Psa 73:13-14, express the conclusion which he had been tempted to draw, and which. as he proceeds to say, he had fought down. If these two verses are ascribed to him, Psa 73:12 is best regarded as a summary of the whole preceding part, and only Psa 73:11 as the utterance either of the prosperous sinner and his adherents (in which case it is a question which means denial), or as that of troubled faith (in which case it is a question that would fain be an affirmation, but has been forced unwillingly to regard the very pillars of the universe as trembling).
Psa 73:15-18 tell how the psalmist strove with and finally conquered his doubts, and saw enough of the great arc of the Divine dealings, to be sure that the anomaly, which had exercised his faith, was capable of complete reconciliation with the righteousness of Providence. It is instructive to note that he silenced his doubts, out of regard to “the generation of Thy children”-that is, to the true Israel, the pure in heart. He was tempted to speak as others did not fear to speak, impugning Gods justice and proclaiming the uselessness of purity; but he locked his lips, lest his words should prove him untrue to the consideration which he owed to meek and simple hearts, who knew nothing of the speculative difficulties torturing him. He does not say that his speaking would have been sin against God. It would not have been so, if, in speaking, he had longed for confirmation of his wavering faith. But whatever the motive of his words, they might have shaken some lowly believers. Therefore be resolved on silence. Like all wise and devout men, he swallowed his own smoke, and let the process of doubting go on to its end of certainty, one way or another, before he spoke. This psalm, in which he tells how he overcame them, is his first acknowledgment that he had had these temptations to cast away his confidence. Fermentation should be done in the dark. When the process is finished, and the product is clear, it is fit to be produced and drank. Certitudes are meant to be uttered; doubts are meant to be struggled with. The psalmist has set an example which many men need to ponder today. It is easy, and it is also cruel, to raise questions which the proposer is not ready to answer.
Silent brooding over his problem did not bring light, as Psa 73:16 tells us. The more he thought over it, the more insoluble did it seem to him. There are chambers which the key of thinking will not open. Unwelcome as the lesson is, we have to learn that every lock will not yield to even prolonged and strenuous investigation. The lamp of the Understanding throws its beams far, but there are depths of darkness too deep and dark for them; and they are wisest who know its limits and do not try to use it in regions where it is useless.
But faith finds a path where speculation discerns none. The psalmist “went into the sanctuary (literally sanctuaries) of God,” and there light streamed in on him, in which he saw light. Not mere entrance into the place of worship, but closer approach to the God who dwelt there, cleared away the mists. Communion with God solves many problems which thinking leaves unresolved. The eye which has gazed on God is purged for much vision besides. The disproportion between the deserts and fortunes of good and bad men assumes an altogether different aspect when contemplated in the light of present communion with Him, which brings a blessedness that makes earthly prosperity seem dross, and earthly burdens seem feathers. Such communion, in its seclusion from worldly agitations, enables a man to take calmer, saner views of life, and in its enduring blessedness reveals more clearly the transiency of the creatural good which deceives men with the figment of its permanence. The lesson which the psalmist learned in the solemn stillness of the sanctuary was the end of ungodly prosperity. That changes the aspect of the envied position of the prosperous sinner, for his very prosperity is seen to contribute to his downfall, as well as to make that downfall more tragic by contrast. His sure footing, exempt as he seemed from the troubles and ills that flesh is heir to, was really on a treacherous slope, like smooth sheets of rock on a mountainside. To stand on them is to slide down to hideous ruin.
The theme of the end of the prosperous sinners is continued in the next group (Psa 73:19-22). In Psa 73:19 the psalmist seems as if standing an amazed spectator of the crash, which tumbles into chaos the solid-seeming fabric of their insolent prosperity. An exclamation breaks from his lips as he looks. And then destruction is foretold for all such, under the solemn and magnificent image of Psa 73:20. God has seemed to sleep, letting evil run its course; but He “rouses Himself”-that is, comes forth in judicial acts-and as a dreamer remembers his dream, which seemed so real, and smiles at its imaginary terrors or joys, so He will “despise” them, as no more solid nor lasting than phantasms of the night. The end contemplated by the psalmist is not necessarily death, but any sudden overthrow, of which there are many in the experience of the godless. Life is full of such awakings of God, both in regard to individuals and nations, which, if a man duly regards, he will find the problem of the psalm less insoluble than at first it appears. But if there are lives which, being without goodness, are also without chastisement, Death comes at last to such as Gods awaking, and a very awful dissipating of earthly prosperity into a shadowy nothing.
The psalmist has no revelation here of future retribution. His vindication of Gods justice is not based on that, but simply on the transiency of worldly prosperity, and on its dangerous character. It is “a slippery place,” and it is sure to come to an end. It is obvious that there are many other considerations which have to be taken into account, in order to a complete solution of the problem of the psalm. But the psalmists solution goes far to lighten the painful perplexity of it; and if we add his succeeding thoughts as to the elements of true blessedness, we have solution enough for peaceful acquiescence, if not for entire understanding. The psalmists way of finding an answer is even more valuable than the answer which he found. They who dwell in the secret place of the Most High can look on the riddle of this painful world with equanimity, and be content to leave it half unsolved.
Psa 73:21-22 are generally taken as one sentence, and translated as by Delitzsch “if my heart should grow bitter I should be brutish” etc; or as by Hupfeld, “When my heart grew bitter then I was as a beast,” etc.; but they are better regarded as the psalmists penitent explanation of his struggle. “Unbelieving thoughts had fermented in his mind, and a pang of passionate discontent had pierced his inmost being. But the higher self blames the lower self for such folly” (Cheyne, in loc.). His recognition that his doubts had their source, not in defect in Gods providence, but in his own ignorance and hasty irritation, which took offence without cause, prepares him for the sweet, clear note of purely spiritual aspiration and fruition which follows in the next strophe.
He had all but lost his hold of God; but though his feet had almost gone astray, his hand had been grasped by God, and that strong hold had kept him from utterly falling. The pledge of continual communion with God is not our own vacillating, wayward hearts, but Gods gentle, strong clasp, which will not let us go. Thus conscious of constant fellowship, and feeling thrillingly Gods touch in his inmost spirit, the psalmist rises to a height of joyous assurance, far above doubts and perplexities caused by the unequal distribution of earths trivial good. For him, all life will be illumined by Gods counsel, which will guide him as a shepherd leads his sheep, and which he will obey as a sheep follows his shepherd. How small the delights of the prosperous men seem now! And can there be an end to that sweet alliance, such as smites earthly good? There are blessings which bear in themselves assurance of their own undyingness; and this psalmist, who had nothing to say of the future retribution falling on the sinner whose delights were confined to earth, feels that death cannot put a period to a union so blessed and spiritual as was his with God. To him, “afterwards” was irradiated with light from present blessedness; and a solemnly joyful conviction springs in his soul, which he casts into words that glance at the story of Enochs translation, from which “take” is quoted. {cf. Psa 49:16} Whether we translate “with glory” or “to glory,” there can be no question that the psalmist is looking beyond life on earth to dwelling with God in glory. We have in this utterance, the expression of the conviction, inseparable from any true, deep communion with God, that such communion can never be at the mercy of Death. The real proof of a life beyond the grave is the resurrection of Jesus; and the pledge of it is present enjoyment of fellowship with God.
Such thoughts lift the psalmist to a height from which earths troubles show small, and as they diminish, the perplexity arising from their distribution diminishes in proportion. They fade away altogether, when he feels how rich he is in possessing God. Surely the very summit of devotional rapture is reached in the immortal words which follow! Heaven without God were a waste to this man. With God, he needs not nor desires anything on earth. If the impossible should be actual, and heart as well as flesh should fail, his naked self would be clothed and rich, steadfast and secure, as long as he had God; and he is so closely knit to God, that he knows that he will not lose Him though he dies, but have Him for his very own forever. What care need he have how earths vain goods come and go? Whatever outward calamities or poverty may be his lot, there is no riddle in that Divine government which thus enriches the devout heart; and the richest ungodly man is poor, because he shuts himself out from the one all-sufficient and enduring wealth.
A final pair of verses, answering to the introductory pair, gathers up the double truth, which the psalmist has learned to grasp more firmly by occasion of his doubts. To be absent from God is to perish. Distance from Him is separation from life. Drawing near to Him is the only good; and the psalmist has deliberately chosen it as his good, let worldly prosperity come or go as it list, or, rather, as God shall choose. By the effort of his own volition he has made God his refuge, and, safe in Him, he can bear the sorrows of the godly, and look unenvying on the fleeting prosperity of sinners, while, with insight drawn from communion, he can recount with faith and praise all Gods works, and find in none of them a stumbling block, nor fail to find in any of them material for a song of thankfulness.