Scripture Daily

Context No. 432 of 4322 · Psalms

Context · Reflection

Psalms 73:1-16: in context

1Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. 2But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had nearly slipped. 3For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4For there are no struggles in their death, but their strength is firm. 5They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men. 6Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment. 7Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit. 8They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression. 9They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth. 10Therefore their people return to them, and they drink up waters of abundance. 11They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” 12Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches. 13Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence, 14For all day long I have been plagued, and punished every morning. 15If I had said, “I will speak thus”, behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. 16When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me—

This psalm begins with a statement of faith, surely God is good to the pure in heart, and then immediately admits how close the writer came to abandoning it. But as for me, he says, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. And he names exactly what nearly toppled him: I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. He then describes them at length, and it is a bitter portrait. The wicked seem to have no struggles; they are healthy and at ease, not plagued like other people, growing richer and richer, proud and violent and mocking, even setting their mouths against heaven and asking, how would God even know? Meanwhile the psalmist, who has kept his heart clean, feels plagued all day long, punished every morning. And so the terrible thought forms: surely I have kept my heart pure in vain. Being good, he begins to suspect, is pointless.

This is one of the most honest passages in the Bible, because it lets a faithful person admit that watching the wrong people flourish nearly destroyed his faith. It is not presented as a shameful secret or a sign that he was never really godly. It is simply true, and the psalm says it out loud. But notice one restraint he shows. If I had said, I will speak like this, he adds, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. He did not broadcast his raw, unresolved doubt to everyone, because he knew it could shake the faith of others who were watching him. He carried the crisis honestly, but carefully, and, as the next verse reveals, he carried it into the sanctuary of God, where he finally saw the end of the wicked and his footing returned.

Both things are worth keeping. The near-slip is normal, not disqualifying; even a psalm in the Bible admits that the prosperity of the wicked can bring a faithful person to the edge of giving up. But the psalmist did not let his unresolved doubt spill out to unsettle others, and he took it, in the end, to God rather than away from him. Have I felt my own feet nearly slip watching the wrong people flourish, and can I be that honest about it, while also being careful, as Asaph was, to carry the doubt toward God rather than broadcasting it in a way that would shake the people watching me?

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