73:1
A composition of Asaph.
Surely God is good to Israel,
to the pure of heart.
73:2
but as for me, my feet almost stumbled,
[for nothing?] my steps [had almost] slipped.
73:3
For I was jealous of those who boast.
I saw the peace of the wicked.
73:4
For there are no pains [pangs or bonds] for their death,
and their bodies [are] fat.
73:5
They are not in the labour of humanity
and they are not stricken/plagued with mankind.
73:6
For pride is his neckless.
He covers himself with a garment of violence.
73:7
His eyes bulge out from his fat.
The imaginations of the heart pass over/transgress.
73:8
They mock and they speak,
with evil oppression from on high they speak.
73:9
They set their mouth in heaven,
and they tongue walks on earth.
73:10
Therefore, he turns his people hither
And water of fullness they drain for him.
73:11
And they say, “How does God know"?
and "Is there knowledge in the heights/most high?"
73:12
Behold, these are the wicked,
and [they] are quiet forever,
they increase in strength.
73:13
Surely in vain I purified/cleaned my heart,
and bathed my palms/hands in innocence.
73:14
And I was stricken all the day
And my reproof was for the mornings.
73:15
If I said, "I will recount it just like [this]",
behold, I [would] act faithlessly [toward] your generation/offspring.
73:16
And I planned to know this,
toil he with my eye.
73:17
Until I came unto the holy places of God.
I understand [the] afterwards of end.
73:18
Surely with smooth things you set for him,
You cause them to fall for deceptions.
73:19
How they be for a horror
Like a moment, they come to an end
They are finished from terrors.
73:20
Like a dream from waking, my Lord
With rousing their image you despise.
73:21
For my heart was embittered
And my kidneys were pierced
73:22
And I was a brute beast,
and I did not know,
and I was an animal with you.
73:23
And I was continually with you.
You grasped with my right hand.
73:24
You lead me with your advice.
And afterward you take me [to] glory?
73:25
Who do I have in heaven?
And with you I do not have a desire on earth.
73:26
My flesh and my heart finishes,
rock of my heart,
and my portion is God forever.
73:27
For behold, your departings they perish
And you annihilate all who play the harlot from you.
73:28
And I, an approach of God, to me is good,
I set with my lord, Yahweh my refuge
To recount all your works.
“I’ve wasted my life. I gave you my best years. Now I am a shrivelled husk.
If only … [you fill the blank with the road you could have taken].”
‘If only’ looks to the past, with vain regrets.
If only I’d married Julio the Latino helicopter pilot.
If only I’d been picked up by NRL scouts?
If only I hadn’t got injured at selection time.
Surely I would have got my big break.
People are frequently disappointed with how life turned out. They become angry with God. They begin to envy those who got a head start in life. Those who early learned to do everything without listening to God.
Our generation is not the first to have such thoughts. Today we are looking at Psalm 73. Psalms 73-83 are composed by Asaph. The Psalms of Asaph open and predominate Book Three of the Psalter.
Asaph was a “seer”. A seer is someone who sees God-given visions. The Apostle Matthew, when he quotes a song of Asaph, calls him a “prophet” (Matt 13:35; Psalm 78:2).
Asaph was the head of a Levite family at the same time as King David. David had appointed him and his sons to play music and sing at the holy places. Asaph was the chief singer and musician before the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem. David had brought the Ark up to Jerusalem and set up a tent for it. And Asaph’s job was to praise Yahweh in front of it.
Under King Hezekiah, Asaph’s sons reconsecrated the temple and served as singers and musicians. Hezekiah commanded them to “sing praises to the LORD with the words of David and of Asaph the seer”. That is, sing the songs of David our great Messiah, and your great great great great great grandfather, Asaph the Levite.
And what we’ve got in front of us in Psalm 73 is the second of Asaph’s Psalms in the Psalter. Asaph wrote 12 Psalms in our Psalter. The other one is Psalm 50. It is reasonable to infer that the twelve Psalms of Asaph in the Psalter are those referred to by Hezekiah. I take it that these Psalms were written by Asaph himself, around 1000 BC. And the genius of the Psalms: a song written for one context has application down the generation for God’s people.
Often Psalms hunt in pairs. For example, Psalms One and Two need to be considered together. They introduce the whole Psalter. They offer us twin blessings. Psalm 1 tells us that the blessed man is the one who meditates on torah, the law of Yahweh, day and night. Psalm 2 tells us that the blessed one is he or she who takes refuge in Yahweh’s Messiah, who kisses the son and hides in God’s chosen King and Christ. The Book of Psalms tells us how to lived the blessed life in God’s world. The blessed life, the life of peace, prosperity, and flourishing, is attained, by meditating on God’s torah, his instruction, and taking refuge in his Messiah.
Each of the Five Books of the Psalter have a discernible them. The theme of Book One Psalms 1 to 41, is that, despite appearances, Yahweh has established his Christ in Zion, forever. Though the Christ suffers, salvation will come from Zion, and all the nations must come and worship God and his Christ.
The themes of Book Two and Three of the Psalter are similar. God’s people in exile in Babylon still have hope in God and his Messiah. God’s suffering people in exile still look forward to God establishing his kingdom for all nations forever. God’s past faithfulness gives hope that he will keep his promise to forgive, protect, and return God’s people to their land. God is still the sovereign and just king. He rules over the world from Zion, and his Christ is still the hope of God’s exiled people, despite appearances to the contrary.
And as we come to Book Three of the Psalter, we notice that Psalm 73 and 74 are another Psalm pair. Psalm 73 testifies that Asaph had a personal crisis of faith. He saw the wicked prosper and became bitter and twisted for a time. But he eventually saw the solution to that problem. The solution is that God’s judges and punishes the wicked, but will save his people forever. Psalm 74 is a terrible lament for the destruction of the temple. Asaph cries out in horror as he foresees the temple burned to the ground, and pleads with God to take action.
So Psalms 73 and 74 set the tone of Book Three. The tone is sadness, suffering, and lament. Psalm 73 is a lament about the success of the wicked and a personal crisis of faith. And Psalm 74 is a lament about then national crisis of faith, the destruction of the temple.
Asaph comes close to chucking in his faith. He stands on the precipice looking down at the abyss of turning from God. Part of him wants to give in to the way of the wicked. But Asaph was drawn back from the edge. God stopped him from falling away. And at the beginning of Psalm 73, Asaph gives us his hard-won resolution. Like watching a movie you’ve seen twenty times, we know how this Psalm ends from the beginning. It is a Psalm with a happy ending.
Not every Psalm in Book Three has a happy ending. But we at the beginning of Book Three we are given this happy ending. And as we continue to see all of the terrible things that have befallen God’s people, Israel, Judah, Jerusalem, the Messiah, and the Temple, we have this confession of God’s goodness at the beginning to remember. No matter what tragedies with see in Book Three of the Psalter, this remains true. Psalm 73 verse 1:
Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
God is good. Despite the apparent injustice of our world, despite the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, and the exile of God’s people, the sovereign God remains good (v. 1). God’s goodness is firstly to Israel, appropriately reduced to “the pure in heart”, the faithful remnant.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. The wicked and unfaithful in heart will experience God’s goodness as his just wrath. But God is good to his faithful people.
As you look around at our world, at the TV news. As you look at your own life, and the struggles and difficulties God has sent you, we all need to remember, “God is good”. God is doing good things through this difficulty or that suffering.
God works all things for good, for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, for those God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that Jesus might be the firstborn of many brothers. And those he predestined he called, those he called he justified, and those he justified he glorified.
God is good. Three little letters. God is good. But this conviction for Asaph was hard won. And hard won truths stick and stay.
In kindness to us, Asaph reveals this costly and precious insight at the beginning of this song (v. 1).
Asaph wants us to freely receive the benefits arising out of his agony. The crisis of faith Asaph went through is described in verses 2 to 3:
But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. 3 For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
In his walk with God, Asaph had almost fallen away. He was caught up in terrible envy and jealousy of the wicked (vv. 2-3). He saw the shalom, the peace, prosperity, and flourishing of the wicked. What God had promised the righteous in Psalm 1—flourishing and peace—the wicked enjoy. The wicked enjoy present, this-worldly peace and success. And this tempted Asaph to forsake his faith in God’s goodness. If you can’t beat em, join em. The wicked are succeeding. I’m treading water, just surviving. Why am I being a good boy, playing by the rules, fearing God, and not wanting to cut corners. Why shouldn’t I join the wicked? Why should I hold myself back?
I want a bit of success, too.
Asaph was tempted to depart from God and give up his faith. At the end of the Psalm, in verse 27, Asaph says:
Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
God will destroy those who unfaithfully depart from him. They are not just far from God, but they leave God. The word for ‘unfaithful’ in verse 27, is to act like a prostitute, and commit spiritual adultery against God. That’s what Asaph was tempted to do. He was speaking from experience. He was tempted by the allure of present prosperity.
Are you sometimes tempted to kick it all in? It’s too hard to follow God and his ways. The wicked seem to get away with murder. Remember, no temptation has seized you except what is common to mankind. And God will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. When you are tempted, he will send you a way out, so that you can stand up under it.
Asaph stood up under this temptation, and was brought out of it. Asaph was eventually and graciously brought back from it to a better mind. That’s why he wants to let God’s people know about his experience, so they too can learn and guard themselves.
But Asaph also lets us into his thinking during his jealous and envious phase. He states his observations of the wicked in verses 4-12. Later, Asaph calls this his ‘wild-animal’ phase: I was like a brute beast before you (vv. 21-22). His anger stopped him from thinking rationally, as anger does. So these observations in verses 4 to 12won’t tell the whole story. They are skewed and missing something. Yet there must be some connection to truth in these observations, If there wasn’t at least a grain of truth, we would not feel Asaph’s dilemma. Asaph’s summary of the life of the wicked is verse 12:
This is what the wicked are like—always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.
No problems, just prosperity. That’s the life of the wicked. Where can I sign up? Can I join your pyramid scheme, multi-level marketing business, your motivational speaking tour and wealth creation workshops? “That ain’t working, that’s the way you do it. Them guys aint dumb. Get your money for nuthin’ and your chicks for free.”
Asaph has watched the wicked live carefree and prosperous lives. They are fat (vv. 4, 7). Their eyes bulge out from their fat faces. They wear their bank balances around their waist and in the folds around their necks. They are immune to the common troubles of humanity (v. 5). They sail through life without problems.
And they treat other people like rubbish. They sin against their neighbours and mock them. They are violent and oppress others (vv. 6, 8). Their prosperity makes them proud and arrogant (v. 6). They consider themselves untouchable. And it is all working. God hasn’t destroyed them in their way. They keep doing it and prospering. But they also speak against God. Verse 9:
“Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.”
They think heaven is empty, so they take vacant possession. We can storm heaven, and be gods ourselves. We’ll take both heaven and earth, thank you very much. And taught by their success, they say that God doesn’t know. Verse 11, they say, “How would God know? Does the Most High know anything?” God’s not there, and if he is, he doesn’t care. So we have a free hand.
And so the wicked become ‘influencers’. God’s people turn to them, attracted by their success. Verse 10, “Therefore their people turn to them”. They are winning in the competition of life and gaining followers and subscribers.
These observations led Asaph to lament. He is distressed, upset, angry, bitter, depressed. Verses 13 and 14:
Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. 14 All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.
Like the older brother of the prodigal, he says, “I’ve been a good boy, never disobeyed God’s orders, and I don’t get anything, not even a young goat”. I’ve pursued righteousness and walked the way God said. And all I get is suffering and pain and bitterness (vv. 13-14). I’m the naïve idiot.
I believed God! Now I’ve missed out. These others ignore God and oppress their neighbours, take and steal, and now they’ve won!
Do you ever think like this? Are you ever bitter in your envy of the wicked? Living with these thoughts was emotionally painful for Asaph. They were sucking the life out of him, pressing him down. Verse 16:
When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply.
Here is his crisis of faith. He didn’t speak publicly about his dilemma. Verse 15:
If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children.
His didn’t want to discourage God’s people. So he was silent. He waited. I wish many modern church leaders might emulate this. I wish they might wait when they have doubts. Many people once Christian come out and publicly voice their disagreements with God and his word. They love to say how now they know better, and the ABC, SMH, and SBS love it. They patronise us, “Yes, yes, I once thought like you”. “But now I know better”. They cut up the Bible so that it agrees with themselves. They keep the veneer of Christianity, but have gutted its essence.
Instead, Asaph endured the pain and perplexity with patience. He waited on God, hoping for a better perspective. Waiting on God is always an exercise of faith. They quietly endure the apparent triumph of God’s enemies the wicked.
Most Psalms that start with distress have a turning point. A few, perhaps the most shocking, have no turning point. Psalm 88 starts distressed and ends up utterly depressed. Psalm 89 has a turning point. It starts happy and ends in abject misery and desolation.
In Psalm 73, Asaph finds a resolution to his dilemma. He starts distressed, but ends up happy. The turning point came when Asaph attended to his duties. He went about doing what he was supposed to do. As a Levite, King David had given him a privileged job. His duty was to attend “the sanctuary of God” (v. 17).
In verse 17, the phrase rendered “sanctuary of God” in the original is plural, not singular. It is more literally the sanctuaries of God, or the holy places. While this might possibly refer to the courts in the House of God, there is another explanation. During Asaph’s lifetime, the tabernacle was at Gibeon. That was where Israel went to offer sacrifice at the bronze altar. That’s where Israel gathered for the yearly festivals, and the priests and Levites served. But David had transferred the Ark of the Covenant to Zion, Jerusalem. He wanted the Ark to dwell with him in Zion. After its successful transfer, David had erected a tent for it and asked Asaph to sing and make music there.
God’s throne was in Zion, but God’s tent was in Gibeon. So there were more than one holy place. And it was in attending to these holy places that Asaph came to a better mind. Verses 17-20:
Till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. 19 How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! 20 They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.
Sometimes in a crisis of faith, we need to just do what we’re supposed to do. What is my duty? I will do that. Asaph did his duty, and along the way, found resolution. Asaph committed himself to acting according to his convictions. So should we. In the midst of crises of faith, we need to keep doing good, looking to God to give us better insights.
At the holy places, Asaph remembered God’s coming judgement. God is going to punish the wicked. Notice verse 27:
Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
The wicked may prosper for a time in this life and grow wealthy. But a horrible destiny awaits them. God sets the wicked in “slippery places” (v. 18). When they least expect it, they are going to slide to their destruction and be swept away (v. 19). This world’s prosperity is only temporary.
You can’t take it with you. As far as God is concerned, they are merely a bad dream.
Asaph‘s anger made him lose sight of the big picture. The true perspective is that God sovereignly rules. He is the true king and he will judge the wicked at his appointed time.
When Asaph remembers this, he is able to appreciate what he has now. Asaph forgets about the wicked and thinks about God, and what he has with him. Verses 23-26:
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Asaph doesn’t just have stuff for a short time, he has God himself. God is not Asaph’s vengeful judge, but his covenant protector. God is Asaph’s rock in heaven, and refuge, his place of security and defence. God is Asaph’s portion, that is, his inheritance. Asaph’s inheritance is not on a slippery slope which will be swept away. His inheritance is kept secure with God, in the safety deposit box in the bank of heaven. On earth, moth and rust corrupt and thieves break in and steal. In the heavenly fortress, it is secure, guarded by God. For his wealth and inheritance is the immortal God himself. And this frees him to see his worldly inheritance as rubbish. Verse 25:
Earth has nothing that I desire besides you.
Though God is now away in heaven, he is continually with and near Asaph. It’s a paradox.
We are away from God, yet he lives with us by his Spirit (vv. 23, 28). Verse 23: Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. Verse 28: But as for me, it is good to be near God.
His jealousy of the wicked is past. His faith in the “Lord GOD” (v. 28) is renewed. Thereafter, he is freed from his bitterness to speak of all God’s works (v. 28), including his personal experience now that it is resolved.
All this is true of every believer in Jesus Christ. Our inheritance is safe and secure with God in Christ in heaven. Colossians 3:1-4:
3 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
We like Asaph have our inheritance safe in heaven. And so we are freed from the envy of the wicked to enjoy God and praise him. Verse 28:
But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.
Like Asaph, let’s remember the spiritual blessings that we have. And let’s tell of what God has done for us in Christ.
Let’s pray.