Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 73:2
But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
2. But the Psalmist had almost lost his faith in God’s goodness. He had as it were all but swerved from the right path (Psa 44:18); all but lost his footing in the slippery places of life’s journey (Psa 17:5).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But as for me – literally, And I. The meaning is, And I, who so confidently now trust in God, and believe that he is good, was formerly in a far different state of mind; I was so hesitating, so troubled, and so doubtful, that I had almost entirely lost confidence in him as a wise and just moral governor.
My feet were almost gone – I was just ready to fall. Of course, this refers to his state of mind. In regard to his faith or confidence in God, he was like a man standing in a slippery place, and scarcely able to remain upright.
My steps had well nigh slipped – The expression rendered well nigh means like nothing, or as nothing; that is, in reference to firmness it was as if there was nothing left. There was nothing which would keep him from slipping. The word rendered slipped means poured out. That is, in his going he was like water poured out, instead of being like something solid and firm. The idea is, that his faith seemed to be all gone. He was like a falling man; a man who had no strength to walk.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 73:2
But am for me, my feet were almost gone: my steps had well nigh slipped.
Spiritual crises
The problems of human life and destiny pressed sore upon the mind of the good and thoughtful Asaph, the writer of this psalm. The story of his struggle and victory is here recorded.
I. The perilous crisis in a good mans life. My feet were, etc. The sword is dropping from his nerveless hand, the shield from his grasp. His strength is ebbing fast. Now–
1. Such crises may arise from circumstances over which we have no control: and–
2. In the holiest lives.
II. The antecedent history of this crisis is disclosed (Psa 73:3-4; Psa 73:13, etc.).
1. Asaph had come to doubt of the Divine Sovereignty. How doth God know? If God were Sovereign, how could He let such wickedness be? He forgot the future retribution.
2. And the Divine Fatherhood.
3. And had endeavoured to extricate himself by the aid of human reason alone (Psa 73:16).
4. This crisis was not an innocent one. Its root was unbelief.
III. The method of deliverance is revealed. Until I went into the sanctuary (Psa 73:17). On which note–
1. The sanctuary is the best place for trembling faith. Because
(1) There are special promises attached to its services (1Ki 9:8; 2Ch 7:15-16).
(2) There we enter the domain of faith.
(3) And are brought face to face with eternal realities. The future life comes into view.
2. The sanctuary is not necessarily any material edifice. Probably in this case it was. But every spot hallowed by heavenly intercourse is a sanctuary. Jacobs stony temple; Peters housetop, etc. And even within the sanctuary it is the attitude of the mind, not the position of the body, which brings relief.
IV. A recipe of prevention is recorded. We have–
1. A confession of folly (Psa 73:22).
2. An expression of confidence (Psa 73:23).
3. An affirmation of trust (Psa 73:24).
4. A testimony of gratitude (Psa 73:28; Psa 73:25). Therefore, learn–
(1) A querulous spirit is a source of spiritual danger.
(2) The record of past experience is the safeguard of to-day.
(3) God is our refuge and strength, and a very present help in trouble. (Homiletic Quarterly.)
Narrow escapes
The victorious general in the hour of triumph has not unfrequently reason be 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 guiding his barque safely into port sometimes knows how through lack of seamanship he nearly made shipwreck. The successful merchant remembers crises in his history when he found himself on the brink of ruin, when the last straw only was wanting to precipitate the catastrophe. And like narrow escapes occur in the spiritual life.
I. The occasions of our peril.
1. Our soul is sometimes in imminent danger from unbelief. Many of Gods people find their faith severely tried, and hardly endure the trial. We have perhaps been exercised on the Divine existence, or we doubted the Divine Word. Sometimes these doubts have been pressed upon us from the outside by the disciples and literature of scepticism, at other times suggested by our own experience; and our soul fluttered in the fowlers net.
2. At other seasons our special danger has arisen from worldliness. The most spiritual of Gods people may perchance remember when their heart was all but absorbed by the secular–the inner man forgotten in the outer, the eternal in the temporary, the love of the Father in the love of the world. Little by little we yielded to the authority of worldly maxims, to the tyranny of worldly interests, to the indulgences of worldly society and pleasure. Prayer became infrequent and unreal; the house of God was neglected; the Scriptures lost their relish; the family altar was dropping stone by stone into the dust.
3. Again, our peril has been actual immorality. How nearly betrayed by passion, appetite, covetousness, pride: the partition thin between us and the fallen.
II. The lessons of our deliverance.
1. Thankfulness. Great is our debt of gratitude to Him who renders our venial errors innocuous, who sustains us as we unwittingly step on slippery place or giddy brink; who delivers us from our inexperience, short-sightedness and frailty, not permitting our infirmity to work its natural issue of woe.
2. Humiliation. When we remember the fulness of light, the strength of motive, the richness of grace against which we sinned and brought ourselves into jeopardy, we may justly be humbled.
3. Caution. Narrow escapes gender presumption in foolish men, but the wise are admonished.
4. Sympathy. Having so narrowly escaped condemnation, we must think kindly and hopefully of those who went a little further, only a little further, and fell; having been so nearly run over, we must think tenderly of those who are carried to the hospital.
5. Consecration to God. Where a Christian is ever stumbling and slipping there is a real weakness of character, a deep defect of mind or heart or will, a central lack of balance and force. What such of us need is to come to the psalmists conclusion–complete, final devotion to God. Let us thus yield ourselves to God, and these humiliating, dangerous episodes we shall know no more. Let us dwell in the sanctuary. Every visit to the throne purges our vision, refreshes our soul, renews our strength. In communion with God we find the secret grounds of Gods ways, and become able to await calmly and hopefully the solution of all painful problems. Worship, too, fills the soul with spiritual images and forces, preserving from the insidious en-croachments of worldliness. And, faithful to our priestly privilege and purity, we shrink from contact with the unclean thing. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Faith–its peril and rescue
I. When was the faith of the psalmist endangered?
1. When he saw the prosperity of the wicked.
2. When he observed the apparent desertion of the righteous. The adversity of the saints was more mysterious than the prosperity of the wicked.
II. Why was the faith of Asaph imperilled? Faith is designed for times of darkness, distress, etc. Job declared, Though He slay me, yet, etc.
1. The psalmist has a wrong spirit. I was envious, etc. Our opinions are affected by our moods. Envy impaired the judgement and blurred the spiritual vision of Asaph.
2. The psalmist had narrow views. We are apt to express our opinions as if we understood all events and could compass all time.
III. The rescue of faith.
1. Through holy influences. I went into the sanctuary–the place nearest God.
2. Through clearer views, Then understood I their end. As we trace, on the other hand, the closing chapters in the lives of Joseph, Daniel and others, apparent discrepancies fade away.
3. Faith becomes more vigorous than before. He not only was satisfied but jubilant: Whom have I in heaven but Thee, etc.
Lessons:
1. Guard against judging by appearances, or from imperfect data.
2. Trust where it is difficult to trace infinite love.
3. Faith rests, questionings are silenced, when the soul is nearer to God. (John Love.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. My feet were almost gone] I had nearly given up my confidence. I was ready to find fault with the dispensations of providence; and thought the Judge of all the earth did not do right.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Yet I must acknowledge this with grief and shame concerning myself; notwithstanding all my knowledge of this truth, and my own experience and observation of Gods gracious dealings with me, and other good men,
my feet were almost gone; my faith in Gods promises and providence was almost overthrown by the three of this temptation; and I was almost ready to repent of my piety, Psa 73:13, and to follow the example of ungodly men.
Had well nigh slipped, Heb. were almost poured forth, like water upon the ground, which is unstable, and runs hither and thither, with great disorder and uncertainty, till it be irrecoverably lost. So was I almost transported by my own unruly passions into unworthy thoughts of God, and a sinful course of life.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. The figures express hiswavering faith, by terms denoting tottering and weakness (comparePsa 22:5; Psa 62:3).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But as for me,…. Who am one of the Israel of God whose heart has been renewed and purified by the grace of God, and to whom he has been kind and good in a thousand instances; yet, ungrateful creature that I am,
my feet were almost gone; out of the good ways of God, the ways of truth and holiness just upon the turn, ready to forsake them, and give up all religion as a vain thing:
my steps had well nigh slipped, or “poured out” c like water; the allusion is to standing on wet and slippery ground, where a man can scarcely keep upon his feet. It may be observed, that good men are liable to slips and falls, to fall into sin, snares, and temptations, and from their steadfastness in the faith, but not totally and finally; their feet may be “almost”, but not “altogether”, gone: their steps may “well nigh” slip, but not “quite”; they may fall, but not be utterly cast down; at least they rise again, and are made to stand; for God is able to keep them, and does keep them, from a total and final falling away.
c “effusi sunt”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius; “effusi fuissent”, Musculus, Gejerus, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
2. As for me, etc. Literally, it is, And I: which ought to be read with emphasis; for David means that those temptations, which cast an affront upon the honor of God, and overwhelm faith, not only assail the common class of men, or those who are endued only with some small measure of the fear of God, but that he himself, who ought to have profited above all others in the school of God, had experienced his own share of them. By thus setting himself forth as an example, he designed the more effectually to arouse and incite us to take great heed to ourselves. He did not, it is true, actually succumb under the temptation; but, in declaring that his feet were almost gone, and that his steps had well nigh slipped, he warns us that all are in danger of falling, unless they are upheld by the powerful hand of God.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) Slipped.Literally, were poured out. This metaphor for weakness and instability is obvious. Comp.
Dissolvuntur enim turn demum membra fluuntque.
LUCRETIUS, iv. 920.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. But as for me The psalmist at once turns aside to trace the causes and extent of his doubts as to the goodness and equality of God’s ways. Literally, And I my feet almost turned aside, or swerved. The almost, here, shows that the temptation had taken hold of him; he had halted and wavered, and but little was wanting to complete the triumph of evil. The next line carries forward the figure.
My steps had well nigh slipped The word translated “well nigh” literally means, nothing was wanting. Everything was complete to give practical effect to the temptation. Had he remained in that state he would have fallen; but he went into “the sanctuary of God,” Psa 73:17. This saved him.
Slipped Literally slipped out, or poured out, like water, and so he had been “well nigh” lost.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 73:2. My feet were almost gone By these figurative expressions the Psalmist means, that he began to stagger in his faith, and was in danger of falling into a disbelief of God’s providence. The foolish and wicked are used in the next verse as synonimous terms; because wickedness argues a manifest defect in understanding. Mudge renders the word foolish, by men of no principle.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The Psalmist here opens the subject which had so much tended to stagger his faith. It appears, the question which arose in his mind, and gave him such uneasy thoughts concerning God’s providence, was, if God loves his people, as we know he doth, whence is it that bad men prosper, and his beloved are exercised with such sharp and trying dispensations?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 73:2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
Ver. 2. But as for me, my feet were almost gone ] i.e. I was well nigh brought to believe that there was no Divine providence; as the Athenians did when their good General Nicias was worsted and slain in Sicily (Thucyd.); as Pompey did, when having the better cause, he was overcome by Caesar; as Brutus did (that last of the Romans as he was called for his courage), when beaten out of the field by Antony, he cried out W , now I see that virtue is nothing, but all things are moderated by fortune, whom he charged his children therefore to worship, as a goddess of greatest power.
My steps had well nigh slipped
Cum rapiant mala fata bonos (ignoscite fasso)
Sollicitor nullos esse putare Deos,
saith Ovid. And to the same purpose another poet,
Marmoreo Licinus tumulo iacet, et Cato parvo,
Pompeius nullo; quis putet esse Deos?
me. Note the emphasis on this (by repetition of the first Person), which is the key to the Psalm.
almost = quickly. See note on Pro 5:14.
gone = stumbled.
But: Psa 5:7, Psa 17:15, Psa 35:13, Jos 24:15, 1Sa 12:23, 1Ch 22:7, Job 21:4
feet: Psa 116:8, 1Sa 2:9, Rom 7:23, Rom 7:24
steps: Psa 17:5, Psa 38:16, Psa 94:18, Job 12:5
Reciprocal: Psa 37:31 – steps
Psa 73:2-3. But as for me Yet I must acknowledge with grief and shame, concerning myself, that notwithstanding all my knowledge of this truth, and my own experience and observation of Gods dealings with me and other good men; my feet were almost gone My faith in Gods promises and providence was almost overthrown by the force of temptation; and I was almost ready to repent of my piety, Psa 73:13, and to follow the example of ungodly men. My steps had well nigh slipped Hebrew, , shuppechu, were almost poured forth, namely, like water upon the ground, which is unstable, and runs hither and thither with great disorder and uncertainty, till it be irrecoverably lost. So was I almost transported by my unruly fancies and passions into unworthy thoughts of God, and a sinful course of life. For I was envious at the foolish I was vexed and murmured to see the wicked, notwithstanding their guilt and desert of punishment, in a very flourishing condition, and I thought it very hard that pious men should not equal, if not exceed, them in such happiness; especially when I saw no likelihood that it would end, but that they continued in their prosperity. With great propriety are the wicked, and those that live as if there were no God, called the foolish; for nothing can show greater folly.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments