The Greasy Pole of Pride Text: Psalm 73:4-12
Introduction: The Crisis of the Naked Eye
Every Christian, if he is honest, will at some point find himself standing where Asaph stood. You look out at the world, not with the eye of faith, but with the naked eye of the flesh, and what you see is profoundly disturbing. You see the flagrant, God-mocking sinner not just getting by, but thriving. They are healthy, wealthy, and seemingly untroubled by the vexations that plague the righteous. Meanwhile, you, striving to walk in holiness, find your days filled with trials and your mornings with chastisement. The apparent injustice of it all can feel like a spiritual vertigo, a moment where your feet almost slip, where your faith teeters on the brink of collapse.
This is the crisis of Psalm 73. Asaph, a worship leader no less, confesses that he was consumed with envy at the prosperity of the wicked. He looked at their lives, and then at his own, and the math did not add up. He was tempted to conclude that his piety was pointless, that cleansing his heart was a vain exercise. This is not some abstract theological problem; it is a raw, honest, and deeply personal struggle. It is the temptation to judge God's fairness based on the immediate, visible evidence. It is the allure of materialism, which whispers that this life is all there is, so the one with the most toys, the fattest body, and the easiest death wins.
In our passage today, Asaph gives us a detailed, almost clinical, diagnosis of the wicked man's prosperity. He is not just complaining; he is observing. He is laying out the evidence that so troubled his soul. He paints a portrait of a man who is insulated from trouble, draped in pride, dripping with violence, and whose heart overflows with arrogant delusions. This is the man our culture often holds up as a success. But Asaph, by the end of the psalm, will show us that this man is not standing on a pedestal, but on a greasy pole, positioned over the fires of hell. What looks like success to the world is, from God's perspective, the prelude to a sudden and terrifying fall.
We must learn to see as God sees. We must learn to look past the healthy bodies and bulging bank accounts to the final destiny, to the end of the story. If we do not, we will be perpetually bewildered, envious, and tempted to abandon the faith. This psalm is God's gracious corrective to our shortsightedness. It takes us into the sanctuary, where we learn to evaluate the world not by sight, but by faith in the ultimate justice of God.
The Text
For there are no pains in their death, And their body is fat.
They are not in trouble as other men, And they are not stricken along with the rest of mankind.
Therefore lofty pride is their necklace; The garment of violence covers them.
Their eye bulges from fatness; The delusions of their heart overflow.
They scoff and wickedly speak of oppression; They speak from on high.
They have set their mouth against the heavens, And their tongue goes through the earth.
Therefore his people return here, to his place, And waters of fullness are drunk by them.
They say, “How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High?”
Behold, these are the wicked; And always at ease, they have increased in wealth.
(Psalm 73:4-12 LSB)
The Picture of Prosperity (vv. 4-5)
Asaph begins his description with the bookends of life and death. From beginning to end, the wicked seem to have it easy.
"For there are no pains in their death, And their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men, And they are not stricken along with the rest of mankind." (Psalm 73:4-5)
The first observation is that they seem to die peacefully. "No pains in their death." This is a direct challenge to the simplistic idea that a hard death is always a sign of God's judgment. The wicked can, and often do, slip away quietly in their sleep, surrounded by their riches. Their bodies are "fat," a sign of health, abundance, and self-indulgence. They are not gaunt from worry or wasting away from disease. They are sleek, well-fed, and robust.
Verse 5 expands on this. They are exempt from the ordinary troubles of life. The word for "trouble" here is the common word for labor, toil, and misery. They seem to float above the daily grind that wears down ordinary men. They are not "stricken" or plagued like the rest of humanity. While the righteous man is "plagued all the day long" (v. 14), these men seem to have a special immunity. It is as though they have a VIP pass that allows them to bypass the common miseries of a fallen world. This is the first layer of the temptation: God appears to be letting His enemies have a far easier time than His own children.
The Character of Arrogance (vv. 6-7)
Asaph now moves from their external circumstances to their internal character, which is a direct result of their easy lives.
"Therefore lofty pride is their necklace; The garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulges from fatness; The delusions of their heart overflow." (Psalm 73:6-7)
Their prosperity does not lead them to gratitude toward God, but to arrogance. "Therefore," because their lives are so easy, pride becomes their chief ornament. It is a "necklace," something they wear openly and proudly for all to see. Their ease has convinced them that they are the masters of their own fate, the captains of their own souls. This pride is not just an attitude; it manifests itself in action. "The garment of violence covers them." Like a robe, their violence is a part of their public persona. They use their power and wealth to oppress and exploit others, and they do it without shame. Their prosperity provides them with the means for violence, and their pride gives them the justification.
Verse 7 gives a grotesque physical image of their inner state. "Their eye bulges from fatness." This is the picture of a man so stuffed with rich food, so bloated with self-indulgence, that it is physically manifest. But this physical description points to a spiritual reality. Their hearts are just as bloated. "The delusions of their heart overflow." The Hebrew is vivid; it suggests that the imaginations, the wicked schemes of their hearts, have broken all bounds. They have more than their hearts could wish for, and so their desires have become untethered from reality. They live in a fantasy world of their own making, where they are the center and there are no consequences.
The Speech of Scorn (vv. 8-9)
From their bloated hearts, their corrupt speech naturally flows. A man's words are the overflow of his heart.
"They scoff and wickedly speak of oppression; They speak from on high. They have set their mouth against the heavens, And their tongue goes through the earth." (Psalm 73:8-9)
Their talk is filled with mockery and malice. They "scoff," sneering at goodness, at piety, at the very idea of a God to whom they must give an account. They speak "wickedly of oppression," not as something to be lamented, but as a tool to be used. They plan and boast about how they will crush their enemies. And they do it with an air of superiority, speaking "from on high," as though they were gods looking down on mere mortals.
This arrogance knows no limits. It is both vertical and horizontal. "They have set their mouth against the heavens." This is high-handed blasphemy. They directly challenge God, His law, and His authority. They are not quiet atheists; they are defiant rebels who curse the throne of God. And because they have no fear of God, they have no respect for man. "Their tongue goes through the earth." They slander, threaten, and boast, leaving a trail of verbal destruction wherever they go. Their words are a weapon, and they wield it freely, believing themselves to be untouchable.
The Stumbling of the Saints and the Blasphemy of the Wicked (vv. 10-12)
The success of the wicked has a devastating effect on others, and it reinforces their own godless worldview.
"Therefore his people return here, to his place, And waters of fullness are drunk by them. They say, 'How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High?' Behold, these are the wicked; And always at ease, they have increased in wealth." (Psalm 73:10-12)
Verse 10 is a bit tricky, but the sense is that the apparent success of these wicked men causes even God's people to stumble and be drawn in. They see the prosperity and are tempted to drink from that same well, to adopt the same worldview. "Waters of fullness are drunk by them" can mean that God's people are forced to drink the bitter cup of affliction, or it can mean they are tempted to drink deeply of the wicked's successful methods. Either way, the prosperity of the wicked is a stumbling block for the faithful.
This leads directly to the blasphemous question in verse 11. The wicked, and those tempted to follow them, look at this state of affairs and conclude that God is either ignorant or indifferent. "How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High?" This is the core of their rebellion. They have redefined God into a distant, uninvolved deity who does not see and does not care about the affairs of men. If He did, He would surely intervene. Since He does not, they conclude they are free to act as they please. This is practical atheism. It is the lie that there will be no final exam.
Verse 12 is Asaph's summary of the entire problem. He lays it out in the plainest possible terms. "Behold, these are the wicked." There is no ambiguity about their moral character. "And always at ease," they are perpetually carefree. "They have increased in wealth." Their rebellion is not just unpunished; it is seemingly rewarded. This is the evidence. This is the case for the prosecution against the justice of God. And it is this very picture that nearly caused Asaph to lose his footing entirely.
The View from the Sanctuary
This entire section is a photograph taken from ground level. It is an accurate description of what the world looks like when you judge by sight. The wicked really do prosper. They are often fat, proud, and violent. They do mock God and get away with it, for a time. And this is a genuine trial for the saints. God does not dismiss Asaph's observations as false. He does not say, "You are imagining things." The facts Asaph presents are, in large part, true.
The error is not in the observation, but in the conclusion drawn from it. Asaph's mistake, which he corrects later in the psalm, was to think that this snapshot was the whole movie. He forgot about the final reel. He forgot that God is a God of justice, and His timeline is not ours. The entire problem is resolved when Asaph goes "into the sanctuary of God" and there he understands their "final destiny" (v. 17).
In the sanctuary, he is reminded that these prosperous wicked are standing on "slippery ground" (v. 18). Their destruction will be sudden, complete, and terrifying. Their entire life of ease is nothing more than a dream from which they will awaken to the horrifying reality of judgment (v. 20). God is not ignorant; He is patient. He is not indifferent; He is storing up wrath for the day of wrath (Romans 2:5).
So what is the lesson for us? We must not be naive observers of the world. We must be biblical interpreters of the world. When we see the wicked prosper, we should not envy them. We should pity them. They are like fatted calves, being prepared for the slaughter. Their prosperity is not a sign of God's blessing; it is a sign of His judgment. He is giving them enough rope to hang themselves. He is letting their cup of iniquity become full before He acts.
Our place is not to stare at their temporary success with envy, but to flee into the sanctuary of God, which for us is Christ Himself. In Christ, we see the true nature of reality. In the cross, we see the ultimate injustice, the righteous Son plagued and stricken for our sakes. And in the resurrection, we see the ultimate vindication. The story does not end on Friday. Sunday is coming. And in that final day, every account will be settled, every injustice righted, and it will be clear to all that it is the righteous, and not the wicked, who are truly blessed. For "whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you" (v. 25). That is the only prosperity that lasts.