Psalm 73, Page 1
SPIRITUAL DIVORCE
Psalm 73
Translation
A psalm of Asaph
1.Surely Elohim is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2.But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
3.For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4.They have no struggles;
their bodies[1] are healthy and strong.
5.They are free from the burdens common to man;
they are not plagued by human ills.
6.Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
7.From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.
8.They scoff, and speak with malice;
in their arrogance they threaten oppression.
9.Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.
10.Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance.
11.They say, “How can El know?
Does Elyon have knowledge?”
12.This is what the wicked are like --
always carefree, they increase in wealth.
13.Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure;
in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.
14.All day long I have been plagued;
I have been punished every morning.
15.If I had said, “ I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed this generation of your children.
16.When I tried to understand all this;
it was oppressive to me
17.till I entered the sanctuary of El
then I understood their final destiny.
18.Surely You place them on slippery ground;
You cast them down to ruin.
19.How suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away by terrors!
20.As a dream when one awakes,
so when You arise, O Adonai
You will despise them as fantasies.
21.When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
22.I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before You.
23.Yet I am always with You;
You hold me by my right hand.
24.You guide me with Your counsel,
and afterward You will take me into glory.
25.Whom have I in heaven but You?
And being with You, I desire nothing on earth.
26.My flesh and my heart may fail,
but Elohim is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
27.Those who are far from You will perish;
You destroy all who are unfaithful to You.
28.But as for me, it is good to be near Elohim.
I have made Adonai Yahweh my refuge;
I will tell of all Your deeds.
Structure / Literary Features
Few psalms have elicited such diverse opinions as Psalm 73 with regard to its form. Gunkel placed this psalm in a group termed Weisheitsgedichten (wisdom poems),[2]and many commentators have followed this lead in classifying Psalm 73 as a wisdom or didactic poem.
Psalm 73 does not comfortably fit into the category of wisdom psalms.[3] There are basically two other choices proposed: a thanksgiving psalm[4] or a song of trust.[5] A firm conclusion cannot be made as to the form of Psalm 73. It has elements of all three classifications.
The basic structure of the psalm can be seen:
God is good! ( 1)
He slipped (2-3)They are on slippery ground (18-20)
Behold Behold
The prosperity He faith is futile (13-16)The apparent prosperity
of the wicked (4-12) Until he saw God (17)of the wicked (21-27)
God is good! (28)[6]
Summary:
When burdened with doubts by envying the prosperity of the wicked, we can find intimacy with God which brings wisdom to understand the end of the wicked and the wrongness of our envious thoughts.
Profile:
I.Our Envy of the Wicked: We can be nearly overwhelmed with doubts when we envied the prosperity of the wicked (1-14).
A.God is good (1).
B.Our faith can surely be threatened by jealousy of the prosperity of the wicked (2-3).
C.The psalmist describes the prosperity of the wicked (4-12).
1.They do not have troubles like other men (4-5).
2.They are arrogant and violent in their domination of others (6-9).
3.They influence people to doubt God’s knowledge about the prosperity of the wicked (10-11).
4.They enjoy a carefree life and increasing wealth (12).
D.Our purity is in vain since we endureddifficulty and chastening in our life (13-14).
II.Our Communion with God: When we exult in our relationship with God we find wisdom to understand the end of the wicked as well as the wrongness of our envious thoughts (15-28).
A.We can despair of finding an answer (15, 16).
B.We can gain wisdom on the wicked and our own doubts while seeking God in the sanctuary (17-22).
1.Our doubts are satisfied in the sanctuary (17a).
2.Our confrontation with God results in knowing the destruction of the wicked (17b-20).
3.Our envy is brutish ignorance (21-22).
C.We exult in our intimate relationship with God who provides his strength and sustenance (23-26).
1.God is continually with us and caring for us (23).
2.God will wisely guide us and commune with us even beyond death (24).
3.God is our only desire in heaven or earth (25).
4.God is our strength and portion even when we are overwhelmed (26).
D.We learn by contrasting the destruction of the wicked with the goodness of communion with God (27-28).
1.God will destroy the unfaithful (27).
2.We proclaim the joy and security of communion with God (28).
Introduction:
Although most of us don’t admit it, all of us at some time have considered turning away from God. That’s why Psalm 73 is so powerful. A psalm of Asaph, it relates to us because it summarizes the confession of a man who lost his faith.
Sheldon Vanauken, in his book A Severe Mercy, felt this way. As his wife was dying of cancer, he reaches a point where he considers just forgetting all about God. Perhaps the old hymn line, “Prone to wander Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love” is so real in our lives because it presents a universal truth about our spiritual experience.[7]
In Psalm 73, it’s significant to note the author’s background. Asaph was a leader in Israel who was familiar with sacred things. His own brothers had elected him to be the chief singer in the temple (1 Chron. 15:17). David had appointed him to be the chief minister in the temple (1Chron 16:4,5). And yet, this servant of God delivers a touching confession: I almost walked away from God!!
In the ladder of faith, Psalm 73 falls into two parts: the rungs Asaph steps down, away from God (vv. 1-14), and the rungs he returns (vv. 15-28). And at that point, Asaph reaches the highest level of faith available to God’s people.
Expositional Commentary
I.When we view life by what we see the wicked seem to prosper (1-14).
The prosperity of the wicked and the affliction of the godly are contradictory to the moral teaching of Scripture. Asaph, in the first half of this psalm, takes his view of life from what he sees rather than from God’s perspective. What he sees is the prosperity of the wicked. This does more to Asaph than perplex him, it causes him to envy the wicked. He adopts an envious response to the wicked and considers trashing his faith.
A.God is good to those who are pure (1).
This opening affirmation of God’s faithful goodness toward His people is not a causal statement of orthodoxy but rather the sure conviction of a man who has descended into the depths of torturous doubt before being established with confident joy in his relationship with God. While both the restrictive “only”[8] and the adversative “nevertheless”[9] senses of the Hebrew term Ë;a are supported by some commentators, the asseverative sense “surely”[10] is the best suited to the emphasis Asaph desired to bring to this statement of affirmation. Wurthwein’s contention that verse one is a liturgical formula[11] and thus not a new perception, does not nullify an emphatic sense of “surely”. Certainly the process described in this psalm indicates that Asaph’s initial statement, while possibly liturgical, takes on dynamic significance when seen as a conclusion to the despair in the following verses.
The first line of this synthetically parallel statement stresses that God is indeed good to Israel.[12] The use of “good” (b/f) in connection with Israel provides a reminder at the outset of God’s grace and covenant.[13] The awareness of God’s promised blessings and cursings of Deuteronomy 28-30 which were contingent upon obedience to God perhaps led Asaph to begin pondering the paradox of the prosperity of the wicked. Here Asaph affirms that God is faithful to His people. Though there is a national sense in the use of Israel, the second part of the verse indicates a distinction between the righteous and the wicked within the national entity of Israel. Such a dichotomy emphasizing a faithful remnant within the nation is also seen in discussions related to the covenant in Psalms 50:16 and 78:10.[14] The term “the pure in heart” (bb…âl yrbl) does not indicate cultic purity[15] but rather a sincere commitment to God. The frequent use of “in heart” (bb…âl)[16] in Psalm 73, as noted by Martin Buber, emphasizes that “the state of the heart determines whether a man lives in the truth in which God’s goodness is experienced or in the semblance of truth where the fact that it ‘goes ill’ with him is confuse with the illusion that God is not good to him.”[17] While the author considers himself among the pure in heart in this conclusive statement, verse two makes it clear that Asaph has come perilously near a denial of the value of his relation to God because of the injustice of the prosperity of the wicked and his own personal difficulty.
B.An envious response to the wicked can threaten our faith (2-3).
The emphatic position of “but as for me” (yna}w) along with the adversative waw points to Asaph’s deep sense of alienation from the enjoyment of God’s goodness in the midst of his crisis of doubt. The psalmist uses the idiomatic expression[18] of his feet stumbling and footholds giving way to express his extremely close encounter[19] with departing from his faith in God. The verb “slipped” (hfn®)[20] normally means “to stretch out, incline or bend” and in this context is understood to signify a stumbling motion. Asaph utilizes synonymous parallelism in the second part of the verse to emphasize the spiritual peril he faced. While the verb “lost my foothold (;pc)[21] means “to pour out,” it is best understood to indicate instability associated with his foothold (yrva) giving way. Thus this verse compares the psalmist’s experience with a walk along a treacherous pathway. Leupold, succinctly summarizing this verse, states that when solid truth grows doubtful, man has nothing but slippery ground under his feet.[22]
The basic statement of the cause for such a spiritual crisis is a refreshingly frank confession of his envy of the boastful that was based on what Asaph saw externally.[23] Asaph’s envy was not righteous indignation but rather a wrongful covetousness toward the prosperous wicked which was perhaps instigated and certainly bolstered by the psalmist’s suspicion of the value of God’s covenant loyalty.[24] As he surveyed the circumstances of the wicked (µ<yu¢vr), they seemed to enjoy flourishing abundance or “prosperity” (µ<ol¡v).[25] While Dahood contends that Asaph has pagan Canaanites[26] in view with these statements, the use of “wicked” (uvr) in Psalm 50:16 with reference to those claiming allegiance to the covenant indicates that Asaph did not use “wicked” (uvr) in a technical sense. Thus Asaph could have has either pagan antagonists or ungodly Jews in mind. The statements in verses 4-12 seem to support that these people were characterized by viewing God as irrelevant and unable to act in the world, and perhaps materialistic and irreverent Jews were his primary focus. The second part of the verse is an asyndetic temporal circumstantial clause which points to habitual observation of the prosperity of the wicked.[27] What Asaph observed was in apparent contrast with the teaching of Deuteronomy 28-30 and his focus on circumstances and his covetous attitude toward materialistic benefits of the wicked sent him into a spiritual tailspin. The verses of the following section provide an amplification of the prosperity enjoyed by the wicked.
C.The wicked seem to prosper (4-12).
They do not have troubles like other man (4-5). The word “for” (yK not translated by the NIV) introducing verse four signifies the explicative[28] nature of the following nine verses which provide graphic evidence of circumstances that prompted Asaph’s envy. First of all, there are no “struggles in their death” (µ<toml] toBxrj). Both words are the subject of significant debate. The word “trouble”[29](toBxrj) is used only here and in Isaiah 58:6 where it means the bonds or fetters of wickedness imposed by wicked men. The Arabic root signifies binding or twisting powerfully[30] and Dahood suggests that the Ugaritic hsb (meaning “to struggle”) is related to this form with the r a secondary addition.[31] It is reasonable to understand a practical relationship between these two concepts since struggling would be a natural response to bonds though such a correlation has no clear lexical support.[32] While some have suggested “pain” as a valid translation,[33] there is no clear evidence for such an understanding.[34] The translation “struggles” is suggested on the basis of the Ugaritic evidence and its relationship to the concept of bonds or fetters.
But what types of struggles were in the psalmist’s mind? The Masoretic text reads “in their death” (µ<t%oml) which would indicate that their death was without struggle or that their end was peaceful.[35] They also enjoyed robust health in the present. The term translated “body” (µl…âWa) is only used here in the Old Testament and its meaning is debated. Supposedly derived from a root which means “to be in front of or precede,” it is often translated “belly” (their front or prominent part) or “body.”[36] Dahood suggests that the Ugaritic ul, translated “strength or might,” is related to this term.[37] However, the use of fat or “health” (NIV) (ayrb) in connection with this term would suggest a meaning of body since fatness is more normally associated with the body than with strength. This entire clause is a metonymy of effect for cause since in the ancient Middle East the first thing a wealthy man did was secure abundant food.[38] Thus the wicked man was prosperous, well-fed and the picture of health and contentment in Asaph’s eyes.
The prospect of an easy death for the wicked at a contented old age after a lifetime of health and abundance was only the beginning of Asaph’s consternation as he enviously considered the wicked. Utilizing asyndeton and the negative particle “they are not.....” (omnya),[39] Asaph emphatically asserts that in contrast to mankind in general,[40] the wicked are not faced with the “burden” (lmæ¢u) which mankind normally encounters (v. 5). While “burden” can imply a broad range of meanings from emotional distress (Ps. 73:16; Isa. 53:11) to physical difficulties associated with poverty (Prov. 31:7), the basic meaning involves toil and labor.[41] While the burdens of mankind may involve emotional consequences, it appears best to understand “burdens” as referring primarily to physical burdens which the wicked seem not to experience.
The synonymous second part of the verse points to freedom from physical suffering associated with sicknesses common to man’s experience. The contrast between mankind in general and the wicked is emphatically stated through the use of the comparative “and with” (<u not translated by the NIV)[42] in conjunction with the negative adverb “not” (al). Though leprosy is often the specific disease associated with “plagued” (unn),[43] this phrase would indicate a broader sense of disease in general as synecdoche of species. Thus the difficulties and diseases that afflict mankind seem to spare the wicked. The spiritual frustration brought by this perplexity is only heightened as Asaph considers the response of the wicked to their prosperity.
They are arrogant, vicious and dominating (6-9). The response of the wicked to their freedom from the burdens encountered by other men is hardened arrogance (v. 6).[44] In light of the condition described previously,[45] the prideful self-exaltation of the wicked is viewed as their necklace. This metaphor was based on the common practice of wearing a necklace as conspicuous evidence of wealth and power.[46] For the wicked their pride is flagrantly displayed.
Their arrogance is coupled with ruthless “violence” (sm…j) which figuratively (hypocatastasis) portrayed as a garment with which they openly clothed themselves.[47] They were comfortable with the display of their ruthlessness. There appeared to be no limit to the indulgence of their wicked desires, as Asaph continues his description in verse seven.
The first part of verse seven presents a significant exegetical difficulty which hinges upon a textual problem in which the Masoretic text “their eyes” (omynyu))))is replaced by “their iniquity” (omnou) in the Septuagint and Syriac versions. This is preferred by many commentators[48] and is supported by the fact that fatness (blj´¢) can be understood to signify callousness of heart.[49] In addition, a similar usage in Zechariah 5:6 apparently substitutes “eyes” (/yu) for “iniquity” (/ou).[50]
In spite of such weighty evidence, this writer prefers the Masoretic text. Asaph has previously noted the bodily signs of their prosperity (v. 4). Whether “comes” (NIV) (axy) v. 7 is understood as “to come out” (bulge) or “to shine”[51] (the former is preferred), the imagery of the wicked man maliciously peering out of puffy, fat cheeks[52] conveys an appropriate meaning for the context in which the second part of the verse builds upon the physical image of unhindered self-indulgence by describing the mental process supportive of such an offensive appearance. The prior context of the pride and violence of the wicked can be harmonized with this physical description since the bulging eyes of a fat man could easily convey the concept of insolence. Thus, the translation would be “their eyes bulge with fat.”