Psalm LXXIII
The prophet, prevailing in a temptation, sheweth the occasion thereof, the prosperity of the wicked.—The wound given thereby, diffidence.—The victory over it, knowledge of God’s purpose, in destroying of the wicked, and sustaining the righteous.
A Psalm of Asaph.
Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no bands in their death; but their strength is firm.
They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
They set their mouth against the heavens; and their tongue walketh through the earth.
Therefore his people return hither; and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them:
And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High?
Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me,
Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.
How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment? they are utterly consumed with terrors.
As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.
So foolish was I and ignorant; I was as a beast before thee.
Nevertheless, I am continually with thee; thou hast holden me by my right hand.
Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
Whom have I heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish; thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.
But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.
This is a Psalm that instructs us against that great offence and stumbling-block concerning which all the prophets have complained; namely, that the wicked flourish in the world, enjoy prosperity, and increase in abundance, while the godly suffer cold and hunger, and are afflicted, and spit upon, and despised, and condemned; and that God seems to be against and to neglect the latter, and to regard, support and give success to the former. And this outside appearance of the false church has, moreover, a great influence with, and excites the admiration of, the world around. Whatever these hypocrites do or say, they boast with great confidence, is pious, holy and divine: on the other hand, they consider the lives of the godly to be ungodly, and their doctrine erroneous. This offence has existed, and has exercised and vexed the godly from the very beginning of the church.
“So foolish was I,” saith Asaph, (v. 22.) that is, I was accounted ungodly, a heretic, and a despiser of God. But these temptations, saith he, remain until I cast away all my own cogitations about this offence, and go into the sanctuary: that is, until I hear or read the word, and find what God saith concerning the ungodly; and until I look into the histories and behold the judgments of God, which have been since the foundation of the world. There I find what God threatens in his First Commandment: and how he has fulfilled this judgment and executed it, even from Cain; by which all the ungodly are overthrown and overwhelmed on a sudden: for they build upon slippery places and upon the sand, but the godly build upon a rock.