Bird's-eye view
Psalm 73 is a master class in dealing with the kind of spiritual vertigo that every honest believer experiences at some point. It is a psalm of Asaph, one of the chief musicians, and it is intensely personal and pastoral. The central problem is the age-old conundrum of theodicy: why do the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer? Asaph confesses that this observable reality nearly shipwrecked his faith. He saw the arrogant, godless men of his day living lives of ease, wealth, and power, and it caused him to envy them and to question the very point of his own piety. The psalm is a journey from this point of near-apostasy, through the confusion and bitterness of a faith crisis, into the sanctuary of God, where a true and eternal perspective is restored. The turning point is corporate worship. It is in the presence of God, among the people of God, that Asaph understands the ultimate destiny of the wicked. Their prosperity is a slippery illusion, a dream from which they will awaken into terror. The psalm concludes with one of the most profound statements of faith in all of Scripture: the nearness of God is the believer's ultimate good, our true and lasting portion, far surpassing any temporary comfort the world can offer.
This is not a psalm of abstract theology; it is a psalm of raw, experiential faith. It teaches us that it is not a sin to be tempted with such doubts, but it is a sin to remain there. The solution is not to reason our way out of the problem in isolation, but to worship our way through it in the communion of the saints. It is a call to lift our eyes from the horizontal plane of human affairs to the vertical reality of God's sovereign justice and goodness, which is the only anchor that can hold in the storms of envy and doubt.
Outline
- 1. The Crisis of Faith (Ps 73:1-14)
- a. The Bedrock Confession (Ps 73:1)
- b. The Slippery Slope of Doubt (Ps 73:2)
- c. The Catalyst: Envy of the Wicked (Ps 73:3-12)
- d. The Temptation to Despair (Ps 73:13-14)
- 2. The Turning Point in the Sanctuary (Ps 73:15-20)
- a. The Pastoral Restraint (Ps 73:15)
- b. The Painful Problem (Ps 73:16)
- c. The Divine Perspective (Ps 73:17-20)
- 3. The Renewed Confession (Ps 73:21-28)
- a. The Repentance for Folly (Ps 73:21-22)
- b. The Security of God's Grip (Ps 73:23-24)
- c. The Sufficiency of God's Presence (Ps 73:25-26)
- d. The Final Verdict (Ps 73:27-28)
Context In The Psalter
Psalm 73 marks the beginning of Book III of the Psalter (Psalms 73-89). This section is dominated by the psalms of Asaph and the sons of Korah and is generally characterized by a more corporate and national tone, often dealing with times of crisis and lament for the people of Israel. Psalm 73, while intensely personal, sets the stage for this section by grappling with a foundational crisis of faith that has profound implications for the covenant community. If God is not just, if His promises seem to fail, then what is the basis for the nation's hope? By beginning with this raw, honest struggle and resolving it in the glorious sufficiency of God Himself, the psalm provides the theological anchor needed for the laments that follow. It establishes that even when circumstances on the ground look bleak for God's people, God's goodness to Israel is an unshakeable reality, rooted not in the fleeting prosperity of this age, but in His own presence and eternal purpose.
Key Issues
- The Problem of Evil and Theodicy
- The Nature of True Purity
- The Sin of Envy
- The Danger of a Worldly Perspective
- The Role of Corporate Worship in Restoring Faith
- The Ultimate Destiny of the Wicked
- The Sufficiency of God as the Believer's Portion
The Slippery Goodness of God
Every Christian who has been a Christian for longer than a week has had some version of the Asaph experience. You begin with the grand, bedrock truths. God is good. The gospel is true. Jesus saves. But then you look around. You see the man at work who cheats on his taxes and his wife get the promotion. You see the godless politician flourish. You see the prosperity gospel huckster build a mansion while your faithful pastor struggles to make ends meet. And if you are honest, a question begins to form in the back of your mind. Is it worth it? Am I a fool for trying to live this way?
This psalm gives us permission to be honest about that struggle. Faith is not a blind leap in the dark; it is a wrestling match in the daylight. Asaph does not pretend he has it all figured out from the start. He shows us his scars. He shows us how close he came to falling away completely. But he also shows us the way out. The way out is not through more introspection, but through worship. The way out is not by getting better circumstances, but by getting a better view of God. This psalm is a gift to the church because it takes our most troubling questions seriously and leads us, not to a tidy intellectual answer, but to the overwhelming, soul-satisfying presence of God Himself.
Verse by Verse Commentary
1 Surely God is good to Israel, To those who are pure in heart!
Asaph begins where every sound theological reflection must begin: with a bedrock, foundational, axiomatic truth. Surely God is good to Israel. The word "surely" or "truly" indicates that this is a settled conviction, a doctrinal anchor. This is what he knows to be true, even when his emotions and experiences are screaming the opposite. This is the thesis statement of the entire psalm, and the rest of the psalm is the story of how he almost lost his grip on it. Notice the parallel: God is good to "Israel," and He is good "to those who are pure in heart." This is not ethnic Israel in a merely carnal sense, but the true Israel, the Israel of God. The pure in heart are those who have been cleansed from within, whose central orientation is toward God. This is not about achieving sinless perfection, but about having a heart that is fundamentally undivided in its allegiance to God. This purity is a gift of grace, and it is the prerequisite for seeing God's goodness. As Jesus would later say, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt 5:8). Asaph starts by affirming what he knows by faith, before he confesses how his sight nearly betrayed him.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, My steps had almost slipped.
Here is the jarring contrast. After the confident declaration of verse 1, we get the raw confession of personal crisis. But as for me... The objective truth of God's goodness is solid, but Asaph's subjective experience of it was anything but. He was on the edge of a cliff. The imagery is one of a man walking on a treacherous, icy path, losing his footing and about to plunge into the abyss. This is not a minor wobble; this is a near-catastrophic failure of faith. He is confessing that he almost became an apostate. His feet, his walk of faith, almost gave way entirely. This is a crucial admission. It tells us that strong saints can have profound struggles. The Bible is not a collection of stories about plastic saints who never had a doubt. It is a book about real sinners, saved by a real grace, who often have to fight tooth and nail to hold on to what they believe.
3 For I was envious of the boastful, I saw the peace of the wicked.
Now he identifies the specific gravel on the path that caused him to slip: envy. The root of his spiritual crisis was a sin of the heart. For I was envious of the boastful. He looked at the arrogant, the proud, the men who lived as though God did not exist, and he saw them prospering. The word for "peace" here, shalom, is a rich one. It doesn't just mean a lack of conflict, but a sense of wholeness, well-being, and prosperity. He saw the wicked living the good life. They were healthy, wealthy, and carefree, and it got under his skin. Envy is a particularly insidious sin. It's more than just wanting what someone else has; it's being resentful and bitter that they have it. Asaph saw their shalom and it destroyed his own. He was looking at the world through carnal eyes, judging by worldly standards, and this horizontal focus was the direct cause of his vertical instability. He was measuring God's goodness by the wrong yardstick, and as a result, his faith began to crumble.
Application
The opening of this psalm is a profound diagnostic tool for our own hearts. When our faith begins to feel shaky, when our feet start to slip, the first question we should ask is, "Where am I looking?" Asaph's problem began when he took his eyes off the settled truth of God's goodness and fixed them on the fleeting prosperity of the wicked. He began to compare his lot with theirs, and the green-eyed monster of envy began to devour his peace.
We live in an age that is custom-built to foster this very sin. Social media is a curated highlight reel of other people's apparent prosperity, and it is a machine for generating envy. We see the vacations, the promotions, the happy families, and the new cars, and if we are not careful, we can begin to feel that God is holding out on us. We can start to think, like Asaph, "What is the point of all this obedience if that is the result?"
The first step back from that ledge is to do what Asaph did at the beginning: state the truth, even if you don't feel it. "Surely God is good to Israel." We must preach to our own souls. We must remind ourselves that God's goodness is not measured by our bank accounts or our health, but by the cross of Jesus Christ. The ultimate good that God has for His people is Himself. He gave us His Son. In Him, we have forgiveness, righteousness, and eternal life. Any other blessing is just sprinkles on the sundae. If we find ourselves envying the wicked their temporary comforts, it is a sign that we have forgotten the infinite value of our eternal treasure. We must repent of our envy and ask God to restore to us the joy of our salvation, which is a joy that no earthly circumstance can touch.