Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 73:22
So foolish [was] I, and ignorant: I was [as] a beast before thee.
So foolish was I, and ignorant – Such low and imperfect views did I take of the subject. The margin is, I knew not. So the Hebrew: And I am brutish, and know not; that is, I did not understand the case; I had no correct views in regard to it.
I was as a beast before thee – Margin, as in Hebrew, with thee. That is, in thy very presence; or, I was guilty of such foolishness in the very presence of my Maker. If it had been when I was alone, or when no one saw me, the folly would not have been so aggravated, and so much to be regretted, but it was when the very eye of God was upon me. Compare Isa 1:7; Jer 7:30; Jer 18:10; Psa 51:4. When he says that he was as a beast, he means that he was stupid and senseless; he had no proper understanding of the case; he did not take any just views of it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 73:22-25
So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before Thee.
Flesh and spirit a riddle
What secrets of inward experience we have in our text. Consider–
I. The confessions concerning the flesh. David was a great saint, yet he tells God–So foolish was I. . . beast before Thee.
1. Foolish. It was sinful folly, not to be excused by frailty, but perverse and wilful. And is not this true of us?
2. Ignorant. Surely after all his experience he ought to have known better than to be envious of the wicked. And how often we have to make the like confession. If we could but see ourselves we should see our knowledge to be nothing and our ignorance to he all. Then–
3. As a beast before Thee. The Hebrew is, I was a very beast before Thee. It means, so worldly-minded, so empty of all holy desire, so short-sighted, so full of animal passions. But turn to–
II. The expressions of the spirit.
1. He is conscious of Divine regard. Nevertheless I am, etc. Upon His mind, before His eye, in His hand.
2. Of Divine help. Thou hast holden me.
3. Of Divine guidance. Thou shalt guide, etc.
4. Of Divine reception. Receive me to glory.
III. To the conclusion of the whole. Whom have I in heaven but Thee, etc. I have known men lose their property, and what is dearer than property, but they have not said, Whom have I in heaven, etc. The confessions of our text will be heard in the adoring gratitude of the redeemed in glory. That Christ should have saved them–the foolish, the ignorant, and who had been as a beast before Him. But this He will do for all who believe. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A pilgrims progress
I. The pilgrims character and condition before he was turned to the Lord. So foolish . . . beast before Thee. What a hearty and thorough confession this is! Probably it was not so made at first. Men never accurately measure the depth of the pit they lay in until they are out of it. Note the terms he uses in this confession. See the cattle browsing on the grass. It is no shame to them to be beasts; but it is a shame for a man to be as a beast, for he was made in Gods image. The beast never had a soul; and I have quenched the life of mine–put out its light. I was like a beast in having a body and life and appetites, and stopping short with these, as if these were all! They knew not a God to live for; and I lived without God. Being a man, I became as a beast.
II. His present nearness and peace. Nevertheless I am continually with Thee. What a difference–I was as a beast; but I am with Thee. Transformations unknown in nature are accomplished in grace. The man has become new. How has it been brought about? There has been reconciliation; the saved are made nigh through the blood of Christ. And this nearness continues.
III. The cause and manner of this great deliverance. Thou hast holden me by my right hand. It is Gods doing, not his own. The picture represents a father leading his strayed child home.
IV. The course through life which the penitent now expects to keep. thou shalt guide me, etc.
V. The issue of all in eternity. Look to the last three points, that we may mark their order and their relations.
1. Salvation accomplished by almighty grace: Thou hast holden me.
2. New obedience now, according to the Word of God: Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel.
3. Hope of glory afterward: Thou shalt receive me. In the middle is the actual holiness–the new obedience of the saved man, and on either side of a strong one on whom it may lean. On the one side is salvation already accomplished; on the other is the hope of glory yet to come. (W. Arnot.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
As a beast. Heb. beasts, which may signify a great beast; a most stupid and sottish creature, like one not only void of grace, but of reason too; for reason itself, especially assisted by the Holy Scriptures, did sufficiently discover that, all things considered, I had no sufficient cause to envy the prosperity of wicked men. I minded only present things, as the brutes do. and did not consider things to come, as reasonable creatures do, and ought to do.
Before thee; in thy sight or judgment, and therefore in truth, Rom 2:2, howsoever I seemed to myself or others to have some degree of reason and discretion.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. before theeliterally,”with Thee,” in conduct respecting Thee.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
So foolish was I,…. To envy the prosperity of the wicked, which is of so short a continuance; to arraign the providence and perfections of God, and to conclude so hastily that there was nothing in religion:
and ignorant; or, “I knew not” w; what he attempted to know,
Ps 73:16, nor the end of the wicked, till he went into the sanctuary of the Lord; nor the counsel and design of God, in his methods of providence towards wicked men:
I was as a beast before thee, or “with thee” x; in the knowledge of the ways and works of God, even those of providence; see
Ps 92:5, unteachable, untractable, kicking against God and his providential dispensations; not behaving like a man, much, less like a saint; but even as the worst of brutes, as the behemoth in
Job 40:15, for the same word is here used; he concluded that God, who saw all the wickedness of his heart, the workings and reasonings of his mind, which were so vain and foolish, could esteem him no other than as a beast; so the Targum,
“as a beast I am accounted with thee:”
the words may be rendered, “I was the veriest beast before thee”; there being no note of similitude in the text; the word for “beast” being in the plural number, may be used for a superlative; Plautus y uses the word “bellua”, beast, for a stupid man.
w “nescivi”, V. L. “non cognoscebam”, Pagninus, Montanus; “nec sciebam”, Piscator; “non noveram”, Cocceius. x “apud te”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, &c. y Trinum. Act. 4. Sc. 2. v. 110.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
22. And I was foolish and ignorant. David here rebuking himself sharply, as it became him to do, in the first place declares that he was foolish; secondly, he charges himself with ignorance; and, thirdly, he affirms that he resembled the brutes. Had he only acknowledged his ignorance, it might have been asked, Whence this vice or fault of ignorance proceeded? He therefore ascribes it to his own folly; and the more emphatically to express his folly, he compares himself to the lower animals. The amount is, that the perverse envy of which he has spoken arose from ignorance and error, and that the blame of having thus erred was to be imputed wholly to himself, inasmuch as he had lost a sound judgment and understanding, and that not after an ordinary manner, but even the length of being reduced to a state of brutish stupidity. What we have previously stated is undoubtedly true, that men never form a right judgment of the works of God; for when they apply their minds to consider them, all their faculties fail, being inadequate to the task; yet David justly lays the blame of failure upon himself, because, having lost the judgment of a man, he had fallen as it were into the rank of the brute creatures. Whenever we are dissatisfied with the manner of God’s providence in governing the world, let us remember that this is to be traced to the perversity of our understanding. The Hebrew word עמך, immach, which we have translated with thee, is here to be taken by way of comparison for before thee; as if David had said, — Lord, although I have seemed in this world to be endued with superior judgment and reason, yet in respect of thy celestial wisdom, I have been as one of the lower animals. It is with the highest propriety that he has inserted this particle. To what is it owing, that men are so deceived by their own folly, as we find them to be, if it is not to this, that while they look at each other, they all inwardly flatter themselves? Among the blind, each thinks that he has one eye, in other words, that he excels the rest; or, at least, he pleases himself with the reflection, that his fellows are in no respect superior to himself in wisdom. But when persons come to God, and compare themselves with him, this prevailing error, in which all are fast asleep, can find no place.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(22) Foolish.Better, brutish.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. Foolish ignorant as a beast Strong terms, expressive of his blindness and stupidity in his deceived and doubting state.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 73:22 So foolish [was] I, and ignorant: I was [as] a beast before thee.
Ver. 22. So foolish was I and ignorant ] By this befooling and be beasting himself, he retracteth and bewaileth his former fluctuation and folly, Psa 73:2-3 . This is the proper fruit of his godly sorrow, Psa 73:12 .
I was as a beast before thee
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
foolish = brutish.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
So: Psa 69:5, Psa 92:6, Pro 30:2, Ecc 3:18
ignorant: Heb. I knew not
as a: Psa 32:9, Isa 1:3
before thee: Heb. with thee
Reciprocal: 1Ki 8:38 – the plague Job 11:12 – For vain Job 18:3 – Wherefore Job 37:19 – we Psa 49:10 – fool Psa 77:10 – This is Psa 94:8 – brutish Pro 5:12 – How Isa 19:11 – brutish Luk 15:16 – that Act 8:31 – How Eph 5:15 – not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
73:22 So foolish [was] I, and ignorant: I was [as] a {l} beast before thee.
(l) For the more that man goes about by his own reason to seek out God’s judgments, the more he declares himself a beast.