Commentary - Psalm 73:4-12

Bird's-eye view

Psalm 73 is a masterful account of a faith crisis and its resolution. The psalmist, Asaph, begins by affirming a central tenet of Israel's faith: God is good to the pure in heart. But his personal experience violently contradicts this proposition. He looks out at the world and sees the wicked prospering in the most audacious ways, while he, a faithful man, suffers continually. This section, verses 4 through 12, is the heart of his complaint. It is a detailed, almost journalistic, description of the godless man's success. Asaph paints a vivid picture of their health, wealth, pride, and blasphemy. They are not just successful; they are fat, arrogant, and seem to get away with everything, even mocking God Himself. This honest portrayal of the temptation to envy is what makes the psalm so powerful. Asaph's near-apostasy is not rooted in abstract theological problems, but in the raw, observable data of everyday life. The resolution, which comes later when he enters the sanctuary, is only meaningful because the problem has been stated with such brutal, unflinching honesty here.

The core issue is a crisis of perspective. Asaph is judging God's fairness based on a very limited, earth-bound timeframe. He sees the "now" of the wicked man's life and compares it to the "now" of his own, and the accounts do not seem to balance. These verses serve as the prosecution's case against God's justice, a case that seems overwhelming until the defense attorney, who is God Himself, introduces the evidence of eternity. This passage is a necessary part of the spiritual journey for every believer who has ever asked, "Why do the wicked prosper?"

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 73 is the first psalm in Book Three of the Psalter (Psalms 73-89). This section of the Psalms is generally darker in tone than the first two books, dealing extensively with the struggles of God's people, the destruction of the temple, and the question of God's faithfulness to His covenant with David. Psalm 73 sets the stage for this by tackling a foundational problem: the apparent injustice of the world. If God is king, why do His enemies flourish and His friends suffer? This psalm, attributed to Asaph, a chief musician in David's time, confronts this problem head-on. It is a wisdom psalm, grappling with theodicy, but it does so with the raw emotion of a lament. It shares thematic space with other biblical texts like Job, Jeremiah 12, and Malachi 3, which all question the apparent disconnect between righteousness and blessing. Its placement at the beginning of Book Three signals that the struggles to come in the subsequent psalms must be viewed through the ultimate lens of God's sanctuary and His final justice, which is the resolution Psalm 73 provides.

Key Issues

The Slippery Place of Envy

Asaph tells us at the beginning of this psalm that his feet had almost slipped. He was on the verge of a catastrophic spiritual fall. What brought him to this treacherous place? It was envy. He was "envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked" (v. 3). Envy is a sin that masquerades as a love for justice. We look at the wicked, fat and sassy, and we look at our own troubles, and we say, "That's not fair." But underneath that complaint is a covetousness that says, "I want what they have." We don't just want them to have less; we want to have more. We want their ease, their lack of trouble, their bulging bank accounts.

The portrait Asaph paints in these verses is a caricature, but it's an effective one. He is describing what the world looks like through the green-tinted glasses of envy. Everything is exaggerated. Their bodies are perfectly fat. They have no troubles. Their pride is a glittering necklace. Their eyes bulge from sheer excess. This is what a man sees when his heart is discontent. He doesn't see the ulcers, the family strife, the gnawing emptiness that often accompanies such lives. He sees only the shiny exterior, and he wants it. This is the slippery place. It is the sin of questioning God's goodness not because of a desire for holiness, but because of a desire for the world's trinkets. Asaph is honest enough to admit it, and that is the first step toward the sanctuary.

Verse by Verse Commentary

4 For there are no pains in their death, And their body is fat.

Asaph begins his detailed complaint by noting the sheer ease of the wicked man's life, right up to the very end. The phrase "no pains in their death" can be understood a couple of ways. It could mean they live a long, healthy life and die peacefully in their sleep, without the agony of a protracted illness. Or it could mean they have no "bands" or "fetters," no moral or spiritual struggles that bind them up with anxiety. They are untroubled by conscience. And their physical condition reflects this inner ease: their body is fat. In the ancient world, this was not a sign of poor health but of abundant wealth and leisure. They have more than enough to eat. They are not worn down by hard labor or worry. This is the first piece of evidence: the wicked are healthy and prosperous.

5 They are not in trouble as other men, And they are not stricken along with the rest of mankind.

The psalmist broadens his observation. It's not just that they are healthy; they seem to be exempt from the ordinary miseries of the human condition. The word for "trouble" here is the common word for toil and labor. They don't have to sweat for their living. They don't get the flat tires, the leaky roofs, the sick children that plague ordinary mortals. They are not "stricken," a word that often implies a divine judgment or plague. It's as though they live under a special providence of their own, shielded from the very curses that came upon mankind in the fall. From Asaph's vantage point, it looks like there are two distinct classes of humanity, and the wicked have gotten the far better deal.

6 Therefore lofty pride is their necklace; The garment of violence covers them.

What is the result of this life of uninterrupted ease? It breeds a monstrous pride. Asaph uses two powerful metaphors. First, pride is their "necklace." It is not something they hide; it is their chief ornament. They display their arrogance for all to see, like a king displaying his jewels. It is their defining characteristic. Second, "violence covers them" like a garment. Their prosperity gives them the power to oppress others, and they wear this power as casually as a man wears his robe. They are not just proud in their hearts; their pride manifests itself in active harm against their neighbors. Their ease does not make them benevolent; it makes them cruel.

7 Their eye bulges from fatness; The delusions of their heart overflow.

The physical description continues to be tied to their spiritual state. Their eye "bulges from fatness," which again is a picture of extreme indulgence and luxury. But this outward state is connected to their inward corruption. The "delusions of their heart overflow." Because their lives are so easy, because they have never known want or opposition, their imaginations run wild. They believe they are the masters of their own fate. They concoct schemes and entertain fantasies of power that are completely untethered from reality. Their prosperity has made them foolish, unable to see the world as it truly is. They are living in a bubble of their own making, and the bubble is filled with the hot air of their own self-importance.

8 They scoff and wickedly speak of oppression; They speak from on high.

From their inner corruption, we move to their speech. Their talk is a direct reflection of their proud hearts. They "scoff," meaning they mock what is good and holy. They speak "wickedly of oppression," not as something to be condemned, but as a tool to be used. They openly discuss their plans to exploit others. And they do it all from a position of perceived superiority; they "speak from on high." This is the language of men who believe they are above the law, both God's and man's. They are the elite, the insiders, and they speak down to everyone else with contempt.

9 They have set their mouth against the heavens, And their tongue goes through the earth.

Their arrogant speech knows no bounds. It is both vertical and horizontal in its rebellion. First, they "set their mouth against the heavens." This is outright blasphemy. They defy God directly. They challenge His authority, His justice, and His very existence. Second, their "tongue goes through the earth." This is a vivid image of their slander and boasting. Their words have a global reach, spreading their poison everywhere. They are the ancient equivalent of the godless media personality or the influential atheist author. They use their platform, built on their worldly success, to wage a war of words against God and His people.

10 Therefore his people return here, to his place, And waters of fullness are drunk by them.

This is a difficult verse to translate, but the sense of it seems to be that the success of these wicked men is so compelling that even God's own people are drawn to them. "His people" likely refers to Israelites who, like Asaph, are tempted by what they see. They "return here," turning aside from the path of faithfulness to investigate the claims of the wicked. The "waters of fullness" they drink could be the plausible, blasphemous arguments of the wicked, which they swallow whole. It suggests that the wicked are not just successful, they are influential. They create a culture, a worldview, that is seductive even to the elect.

11 They say, “How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High?”

Here Asaph quotes the practical atheism of the prosperous wicked. This is the conclusion their lifestyle leads them to. They look at their own success, their ability to get away with violence and oppression, and they conclude that God must be either ignorant or indifferent. "How does God know?" They imagine God is far away in heaven, too preoccupied to notice the affairs of men. "Is there knowledge with the Most High?" They question God's omniscience. It is not a philosophical argument; it is a conclusion drawn from experience. "My life is going great, and I break all of God's laws. Therefore, God must not know or care."

12 Behold, these are the wicked; And always at ease, they have increased in wealth.

Asaph concludes his portrait with a summary statement. This is the situation, plain and simple. "Behold, these are the wicked." There is no ambiguity about their moral character. And what is their lot? They are "always at ease," perpetually carefree. And the result is that "they have increased in wealth." Their prosperity is not a fleeting thing; it is a compounding reality. This is the sum of the evidence. This is the case that has brought Asaph to the brink of despair and caused his feet to almost slip. It is a powerful, persuasive, and deeply troubling picture. And it is a picture that can only be corrected by a view from the sanctuary.

Application

The temptation Asaph faced is a staple of the Christian life. We live in a world that is still, for a time, under the sway of the evil one. And so we will constantly be confronted with the reality of wicked men who prosper. They will get the promotions. Their books will top the bestseller lists. Their political parties will win the elections. And we, who are trying to live faithfully, will often face setbacks, frustrations, and sorrows. In those moments, our feet are on the same slippery slope Asaph was on.

The first lesson from this passage is the importance of honesty. Asaph did not pretend he wasn't struggling. He laid out his complaint before God in all its ugly detail. We must do the same. We must not stuff our envy and our doubts down into some pious corner of our hearts. We must bring them out into the open before God. The second lesson is to recognize envy for what it is. It is not a righteous desire for justice; it is a covetous desire for the world's goods. It is a sign that our hearts are more attached to earthly comforts than to heavenly treasures.

Finally, the entire force of this passage is to drive us to the same place Asaph eventually went: the sanctuary. The problem of the wicked's prosperity cannot be solved by looking at the world. The world's data will always be misleading. We must get a heavenly perspective. We must see things from the standpoint of eternity. When we do, we realize, as Asaph did, that the wicked are standing on a slippery place, and their end is destruction. Their fatness is just fattening them for the slaughter. Our afflictions, by contrast, are light and momentary, preparing for us an eternal weight of glory. The application is not to figure out how to get what the wicked have, but to flee to the presence of God, where we discover that to have Him is to have everything.