Bird's-eye view
This section of Psalm 73 marks the nadir of Asaph's spiritual crisis. Having observed the prosperity and insolence of the wicked, he is now driven to the brink of despair, questioning the very value of his own faithfulness. The logic of his complaint is raw and painfully honest: if the wicked flourish while he, a faithful man, suffers, then his piety has been a complete waste of time. It has all been "in vain." This is the bitter fruit of envy, a spiritual vertigo that almost causes him to slip and fall completely. What pulls him back from the edge is not a sudden intellectual solution, but a pastoral and covenantal consideration. He realizes that to voice these despairing thoughts would be to betray the people of God, "the generation of Your children." His commitment to the corporate body of believers forces him to pause. This pause, this refusal to speak his despair aloud, is the turning point. It drives him to seek understanding, a process that is wearisome and painful until he finally enters the sanctuary of God, where true perspective is restored.
In short, these verses capture the anatomy of a profound crisis of faith. They show us a righteous man wrestling with the apparent injustice of the world, a man whose personal experience contradicts the promises of God. His journey from near-apostasy to renewed understanding is a powerful testimony to the importance of corporate faithfulness and the necessity of bringing our deepest struggles into the presence of God, into the sanctuary, where the end of all things is revealed.
Outline
- 1. The Crisis of Faith (Ps 73:13-16)
- a. The Bitter Conclusion of Envy (Ps 73:13)
- b. The Experience of Constant Affliction (Ps 73:14)
- c. The Covenantal Restraint (Ps 73:15)
- d. The Painful Path to Understanding (Ps 73:16)
Context In Psalms
Psalm 73 is the first psalm in Book Three of the Psalter (Psalms 73-89). This book is often characterized by a darker, more corporate tone, dealing with themes of national lament, the destruction of the temple, and God's apparent abandonment of His covenant people. Asaph, the author of this psalm and others in this section, was a Levite and one of King David's chief musicians. He is writing not just as a private individual, but as a representative voice for the faithful in Israel. This psalm sets the stage for the laments that follow by tackling the foundational spiritual problem that undergirds them: How can a good and sovereign God allow His people to suffer while the wicked prosper? The psalm begins with a declaration of faith ("Truly God is good to Israel"), but immediately pivots to Asaph's personal struggle with that truth ("But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled"). The verses we are examining (13-16) represent the very bottom of this spiritual slide, the point of maximum tension before the resolution begins in verse 17 with his entry into the sanctuary.
Key Issues
- The Problem of Theodicy (The Justice of God)
- The Sin of Envy
- The Value of Personal Piety
- Corporate Solidarity and Covenant Faithfulness
- The Limits of Human Reason Apart from Divine Revelation
The Slippery Slope of Envy
Asaph has been looking at the world through the wrong lens. He has been comparing his lot with the lot of the wicked, and this is always a fool's errand. Envy is a sin that eats away at the bones (Prov. 14:30), and here we see it eating away at the very foundations of Asaph's faith. He looks at the wicked, who are "always at ease," who "increase in riches," and then he looks at himself, a man who has diligently pursued righteousness, and sees only affliction. His conclusion is logical, from a purely horizontal perspective. If this world is all there is, and if prosperity is the measure of God's favor, then his life of obedience has been a colossal failure.
This is the lie that envy always tells. It whispers that God is holding out on you, that your obedience is not paying off, and that the godless have found a better way. It is a profoundly self-centered sin, because it makes my personal comfort and success the standard by which I judge God's goodness. Asaph's honesty is commendable; he does not hide his ugly thoughts. But the thoughts themselves are toxic. He is standing on a spiritual banana peel, and his feet are already in the air. The only thing that keeps him from a complete wipeout is the thought of what his fall would do to others.
Verse by Verse Commentary
13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure And washed my hands in innocence;
This is the psalmist's despairing conclusion, the logical endpoint of his envy. The word vain is key; it means for nothing, to no purpose, a complete waste. He has engaged in the hard work of sanctification, striving to keep his heart, his inner man, pure. He has also maintained outward righteousness, washing his hands in innocence, a metaphor for living a blameless life. He has done both the internal and the external work of piety. And what has it gotten him? Nothing. He sees the wicked prosper without any of this effort, and so he concludes that all his moral and spiritual striving has been an exercise in futility. This is a dangerous place to be, when a man begins to believe that righteousness does not pay.
14 For I have been stricken all day long And reproved every morning.
Here is the evidence for his bitter conclusion in verse 13. Not only has his piety failed to bring him prosperity, it seems to have brought him the opposite. His life is one of constant suffering. He is stricken, plagued, afflicted, and it is not an occasional trial. It is an "all day long" affair. His chastening, his reproof from the Lord, is a daily event, arriving fresh with the sunrise "every morning." From his perspective, the wicked get wealth and ease, and he gets plagues and correction. The scales of justice seem completely broken. He feels like he is being punished for the very thing he ought to be rewarded for. This is the cry of a man who feels that God's economy is entirely upside down.
15 If I had said, “I will recount thus,” Behold, I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.
This verse is the pivot. It is the guardrail on the cliff's edge. Asaph has been thinking these terrible thoughts, but he has not yet spoken them aloud. He considers what would happen if he were to go public with his crisis, if he were to "recount thus" and teach this despairing theology to others. The thought stops him cold. He realizes that to do so would be an act of betrayal. He would be unfaithful to the generation of Your children, the covenant people of God. He has a responsibility to the flock. This is a profound insight. Our faith is not a solo enterprise. We are part of a people, a generation, and our words and actions have consequences for our brothers and sisters. Asaph's love for the people of God puts a gag on his unbelief. He may be wrestling mightily in his own soul, but he will not cause the little ones to stumble. This covenantal check on his individualism is what saves him.
16 When I gave thought to know this, It was trouble in my sight
Having decided not to speak rashly, he now turns to think, to ponder, to try and understand this great conundrum. He puts his mind to the problem, trying to reconcile the goodness of God with the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous. But human reason alone is not up to the task. The result of his intellectual effort is simply more pain. It was trouble in his sight, a wearisome toil, a heavy burden. Trying to figure out God's ways from the ground up is an exhausting and fruitless task. It is like trying to assemble a thousand-piece puzzle without the picture on the box. This intellectual agony is what finally drives him to abandon his own reasoning and go to the one place where God has promised to reveal the big picture: the sanctuary.
Application
Every Christian who has walked with the Lord for any length of time has stood where Asaph stood. We have all looked at the world and seen scoundrels get ahead while decent people suffer. We have all felt the sting of personal affliction and wondered if our obedience was worth it. This psalm gives us a roadmap for navigating that crisis.
First, it teaches us the poison of comparison. The moment we start measuring God's goodness by how our life stacks up against our neighbor's, we are on the path to bitterness and envy. Our standard is not the wicked man's prosperity, but the cross of Christ. There, the only truly innocent man was stricken for our sake, so that we, the guilty, might be brought to God. Any suffering we endure is infinitesimally small compared to what He endured for us, and what our sins deserved.
Second, it teaches us the importance of the church. Asaph was saved from apostasy by his loyalty to the people of God. When you are tempted to despair, do not isolate yourself. Stay tethered to the "generation of God's children." Do not speak your doubts in a way that would shipwreck the faith of a weaker brother. This does not mean we cannot be honest about our struggles, but it means our honesty should be brought into the fellowship of the saints, who can bear our burdens with us, rather than broadcast to the world.
Finally, it teaches us where to find the answer. The answer is not found in our own heads or in our own observations. The answer is found in the sanctuary, in the presence of God, in the worship of God's people. It is there, in the light of God's Word and His ultimate purpose, that we see the end of the wicked and the glorious inheritance of the righteous. Our afflictions are light and momentary, preparing for us an eternal weight of glory. The prosperity of the wicked is a greasy slide into destruction. This is the perspective we gain when we stop looking around and start looking up.