Scripture Daily

Context No. 2592 of 4322 · Psalms

Context · Reflection

Psalms 73:17-28: in context

17until I entered God’s sanctuary, and considered their latter end. 18Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction. 19How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors. 20As a dream when one wakes up, so, Lord, when you awake, you will despise their fantasies. 21For my soul was grieved. I was embittered in my heart. 22I was so senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you. 23Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have held my right hand. 24You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. 25Whom do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth whom I desire besides you. 26My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you. 28But it is good for me to come close to God. I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

Asaph had nearly lost his footing, envying the prosperity of the wicked until it made him bitter, until, he says, I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end. Looking back on his own envy, he is ashamed: I was senseless and ignorant, a brute beast before you. And then comes the turn that redeems the whole psalm: nevertheless I am continually with you; you have held my right hand.

That word nevertheless carries everything. Asaph had been bitter, beastly, envious, wrong, and God did not let go of him. You have held my right hand, he says, even through all of that. His faith is not that he never wobbled, but that God kept hold of him while he wobbled. This is the deep comfort: God's grip on us does not depend on the steadiness of our grip on him. Through the doubt, the envy, the seasons we were too foolish and sour to hold on well, he was holding us. Asaph ends not with his own strength but with God as his portion forever, and the whole recovery started with a hand that never let go.

Do I believe God keeps hold of my hand even through my envy, bitterness, and doubt, or that his grip depends on how well I am holding on?

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