Psalms 73

With Psalm 73, a new book of Psalms, Book 3, with Psalms 73-89 as its contents, begins. In the second book of Psalms (Psalms 42-72) we see that the faithful remnant of Israel has been rejected by their brethren after the flesh under the leadership of the antichrist. The remnant has fled abroad (Mt 24:14-20), where they are also persecuted by the nations. In this great distress, they wrestle with the question of how the ungodly Israelites can experience prosperity. That wrestling drives them out to God and His sanctuary (Psa 73:17). There they come to repentance (Joel 2:12-17).

The second book of Psalms is about the need of the believing remnant during the great tribulation, because of the persecution by the antichrist and his followers. This persecution takes place from within. This causes great distress to the remnant. In response to their cry for help, the LORD sends His discipling rod Assyria (Isa 10:5) or the king of the North (Dan 11:40).

In this third book of Psalms we find the effects of this (Psa 73:18-19; 74:1-8; 78:62-64; 80:12-13; 83:2-4; 89:40-46). Because of the distress, now caused by Assyria from without, we find in this third book the prayers and spiritual exercise of the remnant.

The third book of Psalms corresponds to the third book of the Torah (the five books of Moses), which is the book of Leviticus. In this ‘Leviticus book’ of Psalms we find the remnant seeking refuge in the sanctuary, for Leviticus is pre-eminently the book of the sanctuary. The main subject of the book of Leviticus is fellowship with the LORD, and therefore being holy before the LORD (1Pet 1:16). We find several references to the LORD’s holiness in this third book of Psalms.

Asaph is the author of Psalms 50 and 73-83. Psalm 50 is about the condition for revealing God’s glory to His people. Psalms 73-83 are about the revelation of God’s glory. We find in them the meaning of the sanctuary for us. Psalms 84-89, which are partly of the Korahites, are about what God’s glory works out of in the hearts of those who form the faithful remnant. We find therein the meaning of the sanctuary for God. Several psalms of this third book of Psalms contain a reference to the sanctuary.

Psalm 73, as the first psalm of the third book, shows the general characteristics of this third book of Psalms. The characteristic of this third book is the entering into the sanctuary (Psa 73:17). There the psalmist finds the solution to the problem he has in Psalm 73, namely, the prosperity of the wicked and the adversity of the righteous.

The prosperity here is the prosperity of the unbelieving part of the people led by the antichrist (verses 1-12). In the sanctuary, the believing remnant sees the end of the wicked. By the Assyrian – and this is especially the distress in the third book of Psalms – Israel is discipled and the unbelieving part of the people will be destroyed in an instant (verses 18-20).

This third book deals primarily with the history of Israel as a people, and includes teaching for the believing remnant. We too can learn from this teaching (1Cor 10:6,11). We find only one psalm of David in it (Psalm 86). Psalms 73-83 are of Asaph, Psalms 84-85 and 87-88 are of the sons of Korah, and Psalm 89 is of Ethan.

In the time of David we read of 38,000 Levites assisting the priests in the service in the temple (1Chr 23:3,28), 4,000 of whom provide the music (1Chr 23:5). Of these 4,000, 288 men are set apart to be singers (1Chr 25:7), divided into twenty-four groups. These are placed under the direction of some conductors. One of them is Asaph, who makes himself heard with cymbals (1Chr 16:5).

Asaph is also a prophet (1Chr 25:1-2), who wrote songs together with David (2Chr 29:30). The prophetic characteristics of these psalms we will see at their explanation. Even after the exile, Asaph’s descendants continued to be singers who also praised the LORD with cymbals in the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 3:10; Neh 11:22).

This is “a psalm of Asaph” (verse 1a). It is the first psalm in a row of eleven psalms he wrote (Psalms 73-83). See further for “of Asaph” at Psalm 50:1, where his name is mentioned for the first time in the heading of a psalm.

The second part of verse 1 is the theme of the psalm. The rest of the psalm is the elaboration of it. In this psalm Asaph describes his wrestling with the question of how God can allow the wicked to live in prosperity, while the God-fearing have to contend with adversity. In this first verse he immediately relates the conclusion to which he has come after his wrestling. With a powerful “surely”, or “verily”, or “yes”, he expresses the certainty that God is “good to Israel”.

To this he does add that this applies “to those” in Israel “who are pure in heart”. The Hebrew word “pure” means “empty”, “clean”, “absence of defilement” (cf. Psa 19:9; Pro 14:4). This is the true Israel living separated from evil. Pure or clean of heart is one in whom the inner is in harmony with the outer. Firstly, the heart is pure or clean because God has created a new and clean heart. Secondly, it is the presence of the purity or cleanliness of a steadfast spirit in the believer not to defile himself – that is his responsibility (Psa 51:10).

Nowadays we speak of a ‘true’, ‘not hypocritical’ faith when the faith is not an outward ‘religion’, but an inward ‘relationship’ with the living God. The life of faith then comes from the dedication of the heart, from (the first) love. What is done comes from love to the LORD. They are Israelites like Nathanael, of whom the Lord Jesus with His perfect knowledge of the human heart says: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” (Jn 1:47). This is not to say that Nathanael is sinless, but that he is sincere.

God’s goodness to Israel is manifested in His mercy, His willingness to gladly forgive a repentant sinner (Psa 86:5). His goodness is also evident in the blessings He gives to them by virtue of the covenant. He gives everything they need in food and drink, in fruitful fields, in peace in their homes, and in protection from their enemies. They may serve Him and He blesses them. He dwells in their midst. He does not abandon them if they are unfaithful to Him, but rebukes them in order to bring them back to Himself (cf. 2Tim 2:13).

In the Hebrew, “but as for me” (verse 2) or “but I” (with emphasis), occurs three times (verses 2,23,28). In verse 2 it is in connection with the tribulation the psalmist is going through. In verse 23 and verse 28 it is connected with emerging purified after the trial. He is then able to withstand it (1Cor 10:13).

Asaph is going to tell about a time in his life when he wrestled with the question of how the goodness of God to the pure in heart could be reconciled with what he saw around him. In that regard, Psalm 73 is a good complement to Psalm 1. Psalm 1 speaks of the prosperity of the God-fearing and the adversity of the wicked. Psalm 73 begins with the practice in which the believer does not always see what God says in His Word. This is a test for faith.

The psalmist knows God and His government, but when he looks around, it seems as if He is not there. He does not see God’s goodness for the pure in heart of Israel, of which he is one. On the contrary, he sees goodness for the wicked (cf. Jer 12:1b), while for him, a pure in heart, there is only adversity.

That perception has caused, he honestly admits, that his “steps had almost slipped” in the path of faith (verse 2). He almost crashed in his faith. His “steps had almost slipped” because he had no solid ground under his feet any longer. He had no basis for his faith any longer. Everything he had firmly believed in was not only tottering, but was on the verge of disappearing.

In verses 3-12 he tells at length the cause of his ‘near-fall’. He confesses that at the time he “was envious of the arrogant” (verse 3). The Hebrew word for arrogant means, firstly, to be haughty and, secondly, to behave foolishly (cf. 1Sam 21:14). It refers to people who are foolish because they arrogantly set God aside. The latter is also evident from the parallel with verse 3b “the wicked”. He looked at them and saw “the prosperity of the wicked”.

It is obvious that when he writes this in Psalm 73, he has already come to repentance, for he calls the people he describes “arrogant” and “wicked”. He writes this as a retrospective, to pass on the lessons of his past to believers in the future. He has been blind to their true character in his envy of them. The wicked, he has thought, are only well off after all. They have plenty of money, lots of fun, and they live in peace. What an attractive life that is. They have power and prestige, wealth and health, while God’s true people are oppressed, persecuted and killed by them with impunity. The psalmist thought: ”Why should I stay on the side of the losers?”

The wicked – that is, in the future, the followers of the antichrist – go about their business unhindered until they die (verse 4; cf. Mal 3:15). There are “no pains in their death”, there is no fear of death at all. They dare to set up a big mouth against God (Psa 2:2-3). Nothing shows the displeasure of God with their lives, nor when they leave the world. They live in prosperity and die in peace. Nothing and nobody hinders them.

Physically, they have no problems. They are in perfect health. “Their body is fat” or “their strength is fresh”, for they wake up refreshed every morning. They are not plagued by bad dreams or insomnia (cf. Job 7:13-14). All this also makes them powerful and enables them to suppress the remnant.

Many people are in trouble, for example because of financial worries, but that does not apply to them (verse 5). Those troubles seem to pass them by. They live a very comfortable life. If suddenly something unpleasant happens in their lives, they are well insured or they buy it off. After all, money provides protection from calamity (Ecc 7:12a).

Nor are they tormented by their conscience. With other people, the conscience speaks when they have done something evil. If they do not confess it, their conscience torments them. This does not affect the wicked, because they have seared their conscience, and it no longer speaks.

It is no wonder, “therefore”, that “pride is their necklace” (verse 6). They see their way of life as an ornament. Everything is all arrogance. Those who are haughty are hard, ruthless. The “violence” they use is part of them; it “covers them” like a “garment”. Their boastful behavior and their violent acting show how pleased they are with themselves. Any compassion for anyone else is absent.

Their eyes are almost shut because of their puffy face, swollen by fat (verse 7). Through the small slits you can still see something of their eyes. Therein you can read their gluttony. You can see it in their fat bodies. “The imaginations of [their] heart run riot”, they have imagined a great deal about their lazy, miserable life, but what they experience is beyond their wildest expectations (cf. Jer 5:28). Here we see the contrast between the prideful, depraved heart of the wicked and the pure heart of the believer (verse 1).

They don’t have a good word to say to their neighbors (verse 8). They mock all those poor people who in an honest way try to make something of their lives. About such people they “wickedly speak of oppression”. They can easily exploit them to live an even more luxurious life and become even fatter. Puffed up, conceited, they look down on them from on high.

The wicked “speak from on high”, which indicates that they imagine themselves to be God. Therefore, of course, heaven is also the target (verse 9). That’s where God dwells. They do not tolerate Him above them or beside them. They set their mouths against Him (cf. Rev 13:6).

Wherever they are on earth, their tongue parades. They see the earth as their unlimited possession. They make this clear by using abusive language for their neighbors and with slanderous language toward God. They claim total freedom of speech, in which everyone and everything is targeted (Psa 12:5).

Their lives without any involvement of God put the people of God on the wrong track (verse 10). The people drink in the evil lifestyle to the full. Their refreshment is not the water of God’s Word, but what the wicked do and teach. They want such a life. Then you take out of life what is in it, however disgusting it may be. You squeeze out of life what is in it for you.

It leads them to say: “How does God know?” (verse 11). God doesn’t respond to anything. Then He must simply not know what is happening on earth. He may be called “the Most High”, but it is highly doubtful that He has any knowledge of what the wicked are up to.

Just look at those wicked people (verse 12). They live life totally according to their own will, without regard to God. Yet they are “always at ease, they have increased [in] wealth”. Asaph here comes to a kind of conclusion of the life of the wicked. This is what it looks like: rest in the world and increasing their wealth. What more could you want?

In light of the prosperity of the wicked, Asaph sees all his efforts to live pleasing to God as futile. God is good to those who are pure in heart, he said at the beginning (verse 1b). Well, he has kept his heart pure (verse 13), but he hasn’t noticed anything of that goodness.

In his despair, he expresses with a powerful “surely” that it made no sense at all to purify his heart because he wanted to live in fellowship with God. It seems much better to do what one’s heart dictates and enjoy life. Washing his hands in innocence doesn't make any sense either (cf. Psa 26:6). After all, there is no benefit with God in not participating in evil practices.

Just look at his life. It’s all doom and gloom all day long (verse 14). It starts in the morning when he wakes up. Every morning there is God’s chastening. He can’t see that as His loving care for him, to keep him close to Himself and to keep him from going astray. He really can’t rejoice that he “encounters various trials” (Jam 1:2). In verse 16 he tells of his difficulty in understanding the ways of God. He cannot reconcile his suffering and the prosperity of the wicked.

It has sometimes occurred to him to speak like the wicked and pretend God is not there (verse 15). You can then escape torment and enjoy life, he thought. But this thought was going too far for him. To him, doubt is a gateway to apostasy. That is why he turned directly to God to tell Him that he did not want to be unfaithful to His children. If he started speaking like the wicked, it would be apostasy from the covenant that God had made with His people, His children.

“Your children” here is an indication of God’s covenant people (cf. Deu 14:1-2). In a Western society, the identity of a person is primarily individual. In the Bible, as in an Eastern society, the person is seen in a communal context. There is a strong interaction between a person and the group to which he belongs. The influence of a person on the group is great, which is also true the other way around.

He has shied away from becoming a stumbling block to his fellow believers by defecting to the enemy camp. It proves his love for them. We see here a special characteristic of the new life the believer possesses. The new life loves God and it loves the children of God. He who says he loves God, when there is no love for the children of God, is a liar (1Jn 4:20).

The problem was still there. He had “pondered to understand this” (verse 16). He racked his brain about it, but “it was troublesome” in his sight. He failed to figure it out because he looked at the problem in the light of his own intellect. Never has human thinking been able to solve this mystery of the prosperity of the wicked and the misfortunes of the righteous. It is like the under side of an embroidery: if you look at it, you will not see any pattern, because all threads of it run crisscross through each other.

Then comes an “until” (verse 17). Suddenly everything becomes clear to him. That happened when he “came into the sanctuary of God”. There he “perceived their end”. That completely changed his view of the wicked. To determine the value of something or someone’s life, we must pay attention to its end (Deu 32:20,28-29; Heb 13:7).

To flee into the sanctuary is not to flee from reality, but into reality. There we see the upper side of the embroidery: we see that the threads are woven in such a way as to reveal a beautiful scene. The only place we learn to see life on earth in proper perspective is from above, in the sanctuary, literally ‘sanctuaries’ (plural) that is, in God’s holy presence.

This will be important in the future, when the sanctuary (singular) in Jerusalem is in the hands of the antichrist. The believing remnant can then still experience God’s presence in His sanctuaries, that is wherever they experience God’s presence, for God is not bound to a place. The remnant will meet God in spirit and truth (cf. Jn 4:23).

In the sanctuary, the remnant comes to know God’s strength and glory (Psa 63:2-3) and is determined by the lovingkindness or covenant faithfulness of the LORD. In the light of the sanctuary we learn to know the will of God and we submit our will to His. There we learn about God’s patience with evil, while it becomes clear that He will judge evil, the wicked, at His time.

With certainty, “surely”, it can then be said that He sets the wicked “in slippery places” (verse 18). They come to their end, not by natural death, but by an act of God. The way they are walking on, and which Asaph has almost begun to walk with them, is slippery. Their feet will slip with the result that they are “cast … down to destruction”.

This happens “in a moment” (verse 19). Suddenly they are no more, “they are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!” Prophetically, this will happen when these wicked followers of the antichrist will be swept away by the disciplinary rod of God, Assyria (Isa 10:5-6), causing two-thirds of the people to die (Zec 13:8).

The speed with which they are swept away is similar to what happens to a dream when one awakes (verse 20). There is still a memory of the dream, but the dream itself is abruptly over after awaking. The prosperity of the life of the wicked is a dream. The reality of the end of life presents itself.

We see the same thing when Hezekiah takes refuge in the sanctuary with the threatening letter from the king of Assyria. He spreads this letter out before the LORD. The response is that the Angel of the LORD wipes out Sennacherib’s army in one night (2Kgs 19:14,35). We will also see this when the Lord Jesus brings retribution with flaming fire on the wicked (2Thes 1:8-9).

The wicked of whom Asaph was envious are confronted with the “Lord”, Adonai. He, the sovereign Ruler, has awakened, that is, He considers the time has come to deal with them. Then, to their dismay, they will find that He does not esteem, but despises the image they have made of themselves, which people have been impressed with (cf. Dan 12:2b). Their image has been a sham.

Asaph comes to himself and repentance because of what he has seen in the sanctuary of the end of the wicked. He acknowledges that his heart was bitter against God when he saw the prosperity of the wicked (verse 21). About this he humbled himself and came to the honest acknowledgment of how he was. This is only possible if someone has been in the sanctuary. With Isaiah he says, as it were, “woe is me” (Isa 6:1-5).

God was, in his eyes, unfair that the wicked could go about their business undisturbed, while he did his best to be pleasing to God and was chastened for it. He “was pierced within”, literally he “was pierced in his kidneys”. His kidneys were pierced in him because he found such a life meaningless. The kidneys are the innermost part of the human being (cf. Job 19:27). In this innermost being, where only God can reach him, he has become numb or insensitive. That is why he confesses this to God.

Now that he looks back, he sees how senseless he was then (verse 22). He says honestly: “I was senseless and ignorant.” And toward God he compares himself to “a beast”. A beast has no sense of God. Only a human being walks erect and can raise his gaze upward. When Nebuchadnezzar did not acknowledge God, he became like a beast (Dan 4:28-33). Only when he acknowledged God the Most High did he become a full human being again (Dan 4:34). So it will be prophetically with the antichrist, the man of sin, who displays himself as being God (2Thes 2:3-4). He is called “the beast coming up out of the earth”, which is Israel (Rev 13:11).

Asaph lost all self-esteem in the sanctuary, “before You”. He has experienced what Job experienced who has also wrestled with this question and has also accused God of injustice. When Job finally stands before God, he says, deeply convinced of his presumption to judge God in His ways: “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth” (Job 40:3-4; cf. Pro 30:2-3).

The condition of Asaph and of every God-fearing person stands in the greatest possible contrast – indicated by the word “nevertheless” – with that of the wicked. Asaph can confidently say to God: “Nevertheless I am continually with You” (verse 23). It is also possible and probably better to translate “nevertheless I had been with You always”. All the time he was doubting, God was with him, without him being aware of it. God had grasped his right hand. This indicates a firm grip, a grip that does not slacken. God has also taken a firm hold of our hand and will never let go of us (cf. Jn 10:28-30). Thus He walks with us on the path toward His final goal, also and especially in times of trial.

On the way to His appointed goal of blessing, He leads the faithful remnant through His counsel, so that in the darkness that may surround them, when they are caught in doubt, they follow the right path (verse 24). Thus they will enter the blessing of the realm of peace. The ultimate goal for God is to accept the faithful remnant in the realm of peace, after His glory has descended in it in the new temple, and allow them to share in the promised blessing.

Once this is clear to his mind, Asaph says, and the believer says, that he has no one but God in heaven (verse 25). And if God is all in heaven, is there anywhere on earth that besides Him the believer can find joy in? To ask the question is answering it. In fact, the point is that the God of the heavens is enough on earth. Although the psalmist is on earth, he desires nothing apart from fellowship with the God of the heavens.

His flesh and his heart may fail through all the trials of life, but not God (verse 26). No matter how he himself weakens, no matter how his earthly tent is broken down, God is the “strength”, literally “rock” of his heart. His heart builds on Him. God is also his portion forever. He will never lose Him. He is inextricably bound to Him forever. It is similar to what the prophet Habakkuk says in Habakkuk 3 (Hab 3:17-19).

Those who are not close to God, who have no need of His presence, but keep themselves far from Him, “will perish” (verse 27). Such people deliberately choose to be “unfaithful” to Him. This amounts to ‘whoredom’ [“are unfaithful” is literally “go to a whoring from”]. They break the lawful connection with Him and join themselves to idols (Jer 5:7). It is the breaking of the covenant with God that is also compared to the breaking of the covenant of marriage. Therefore, it is whoredom, in the sense of adultery (cf. Hosea 1-3). God will destroy them because of their apostasy.

Asaph’s choice is totally different (verse 28). Although everyone makes a different choice, as far as he is concerned, only one thing is “good” and that is to be “in the nearness of God”. This is the good part (Lk 10:42). He began the psalm by saying that God is good to Israel (verse 1b); now he says that being near to God is good for himself. Through his experience, a general truth – “God is good to Israel” – has become a personal truth – “the nearness of God is my good”.

Something similar we see in Job. After his trial he says: “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear”, that is, as a ‘general truth’, “but now my eye sees You”, that is, it is now a ‘personal truth’ (Job 42:5). The useful effect of tribulation, namely, that one is able to endure it (1Cor 10:13), is now a reality. The psalmist has been exercised by discipline, which brings a peaceful fruit of righteousness (Heb 12:11).

He wants to live in close fellowship with Him. His feet had almost slipped, and therefore he had “made the Lord GOD” his “refuge”. God is the “Lord”, Adonai, the sovereign Ruler, and He is “GOD” or “LORD”, Yahweh, the God of the covenant with His people.

From the very presence of that God he will tell all God’s works. Now that he has seen himself in the light of God, God can use him. Here the psalmist is like Isaiah. Only after Isaiah had come to self-judgment the LORD could ask him the question: “Whom shall I send …?” (Isa 6:5-8). In connection with the lessons Asaph learned, he will speak of what he saw in the sanctuary. God’s works cannot always be understood by people, but they are always completely reliable.

Verse 27 and verse 28 form a conclusion and summary of all Psalm 73. It paints the deep contrast between the wicked and the righteous. The difference is only seen clearly in the light of the sanctuary.

We must learn to look with the eyes of God to see the glory of His works. Things that we try to understand, but are unable to fathom, we can accept when we see God at work in the sanctuary. Then we can tell about them to those who also wrestle with what they perceive in the world around them (Rom 8:28-39).