The 73rd Psalm is attributed to a man named Asaph. He was the chief leader of music in the house of God. His name is mentioned in connection with music in 1 Chronicles 16:4-5 and in 2 Chronicles 5:12. Twelve inspired psalms from the pen of Asaph are included in the Scriptures. Psalm 73 is one of them.
As we begin reading Psalm 73, we sense that Asaph was thinking seriously about life and its obligations. His thoughts were rooted in the great truth that God is good to all His people. In verse 1, he says, “Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.” Here is a man who was radiant and happy—happy with the certainty that God is good to His people, and that life is filled to the brim with good things for those who have clean hearts. But Asaph at times was deeply troubled! The problem was that God also seemed to be good to those who are not pure in heart! It seemed like good things were happening also to bad people, and so the psalmist’s question was, “Why do the wicked seem to get along so well?”
Job wondered why the righteous suffer. Asaph wondered why the unrighteous do not suffer. We ourselves sometimes wonder why bad things happened to good people, and at the same time we have trouble understanding why good things seem to happen to bad people. James 1 helps us deal with the first question; good people have severe trials. Psalm 73 helps us deal with the second question; wicked people often seem to enjoy life to the full.
All of us have struggles with understanding God’s ways. If God is a God of power, and if He can do all things (as Christians say He can)—then, some argue, He cannot be a God of love, or He would do something to correct the injustices in the world about us. Asaph had much to learn about God’s justice, and what he learned should be of help to us also. The 73rd Psalm can easily be divided into three parts. The Psalmist looked around (verses 2-12); he looked within (verses 13-16); and he looked up (verses 17-28).
1. The Psalmist Looked Around With Distress (73:2-12)
As Asaph looked around and reflected on life, he became deeply disturbed. How could a just God allow unrighteous people to prosper, while upright people often struggled with trials and frustrations? Asaph admitted (in verse 2) that his fretting about God’s way of dealing with the wicked came very close to wrecking his faith. He says (verses 2-3), “My feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped, for I was envious at the foolish.” Asaph almost stumbled, and almost fell away from the path of truth and godliness.
Asaph was remarkably honest. He stated how he felt deep down inside. What really upset him (and almost caused him to lose his faith), was the fact that he saw people breaking God’s laws, and yet they still seemed to succeed in life. Asaph sometimes felt that maybe striving to do right and to live an upright life, really did not seem to benefit him.
Asaph had trials and discouragements every day (verse 14). The foolish and wicked enjoyed greater prosperity than he did. Those who ignored God seemed to be getting along just fine.
The disobedient and wicked people around him were wealthy (verse 3). He says, “I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” They were living in luxury and their wealth seemed to increase.
The wicked were healthy (verse 4). The psalmist says, “Their strength is firm.” Their bodies were sound and sleek and strong and healthy.
The wicked were untroubled (verse 5). Asaph says, “They are not in trouble as other men.” Their eyes sparkled because everything was going well for them.
The disobedient were violent and filled with pride (verse 6). The psalmist says that pride was like a chain around their neck, and violence covered them like a garment.
The wicked were disrespectful in speech (verse 8). They scoffed and boasted and threatened. Asaph says that they spoke wickedly and with lofty words.
The ungodly were blasphemous (verse 11). “They say, How doth God know?” How does He know what is going on?
The very same people who seemed to prosper (in verses 3-5) often were given over to pride and boasting and violence (verses 6, 8, 11). The ungodly seemed to be comfortable and successful. Their children were well fed; they enjoyed good health; their riches seemed to multiply—while the godly sometimes suffered sickness and sometimes hardly had enough to pay their doctor bills.
2. The Psalmist Looked Within With Disappointment (73:13-16)
As Asaph pondered the dilemma in his mind, he decided to examine himself, and see where he stood. In verse 13, Asaph says that he cleansed his heart—but it seems like he did it in vain, for in verse 14, he says, “All the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.”
When Asaph compared his own life with that of the ungodly, he saw people who were prospering in this world. They seemed to “have it made.” They didn’t seem to have many troubles. Asaph’s first reaction was that perhaps he had made a big mistake by trusting God and by trying to keep his life clean.
Is it really worthwhile to be a believer, and to seek to live the Christian life? Asaph was a faithful Jew; he tried to obey the laws of God; he had a pure heart and he was working on maintaining clean hands. But his godless neighbors were in better shape materially and physically than he. What should he do? Was he wrong in his theology? Was there something wrong in his life that he couldn’t see? This troubled Asaph so much, that already in verse 2, he sensed that he was “slipping” spiritually because he was envious of wicked people around him.
Asaph did not want to abandon his faith in God, for he knew the truth of Psalm 24: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:3-4). Neither did Asaph want to be a poor example to younger saints who had not yet faced some of these deeper problems. In verse 15, he says in essence, “If I falter, and give up on God, I may mislead and offend others of God’s people (especially the younger generation).”
Likely all of us at some time or another have had similar thoughts. “What’s the use of being a Christian? I read the Bible, and go to church, and try to obey the Word. And what happens? Some days everything seems to go wrong.” The purpose of Psalm 73 is to tell us how one man solved this problem so that when we get into a similar difficulty we can profit from what he learned.
3. The Psalmist Looked Up With Delight (73:17-28)
Finally, Asaph went into the temple of God and pondered his case. When he did that, he began to see things from God’s point of view. His mind shifted from thinking like a natural man to thinking like a spiritual man. The natural man considers only the things which he sees. His focus is on the visible things of earth. The spiritual person sees other truths besides those things that are visible to the human eye.
When Asaph went into God’s house for meditation and instruction and prayer, he began to see the final end of those whose hearts are far from God—and it wasn’t a very pretty picture. From God’s point of view, things look differently from the way they look from an earthly point of view.
In verse 17, Asaph says, “I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.” God showed him the horror which lies ahead for the wicked, the disobedient, and the unbelieving. God uses the words “destruction” (verse 18), “desolation” (verse 19), “consumed with terrors” (verse 19), and “despised” by the Lord (verse 20). All these things are confirmed elsewhere in the Scriptures. Proverbs 13:9, for example, says, “The lamp of the wicked shall be put out.”
Asaph now comes to the place where he has cleared up his thinking about the ungodly and disobedient, and about the fairness of God. He sees that indeed God is ruling over the affairs of men, and that the disobedient and ungodly are not in such a favored spot after all! In fact, in light of this revelation, who wants to change places with them?
The psalmist discovered that without God, people cannot have inner strength. This is why we hear of a person who seems to be doing well, and all of a sudden we learn that he has committed suicide. Outwardly, they put on an appearance of happiness, but inwardly they’re falling apart—and can no longer stand life!
Unbelievers often appear to be composed and at ease, but they are frequently gripped deep down inside by terrible fears. William Randolph Hearst was a talented and wealthy newspaper and magazine publisher. He built a huge mansion on 240,000 acres of land in California overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He searched the world for beautiful works of art and many of them are displayed in his mansion. But he had a rule that the word “death” was not to be mentioned in his presence. He was tormented by the fear of death. Friends, the important thing for all of us is not how good or how bad we have it in this life, but where we are going after this life is over. Those who are disobedient and unbelieving live in lust and pleasure. They spend time playing the stock market. They waste hours in silly entertainment, and everything seems to go well for them. But the Psalmist says (in verse 20), that their present life is only like a dream that is gone when they get awake. It seemed so real, and suddenly it is gone. That’s how quickly those appealing material things of life will vanish.
In verse 21, Asaph expresses grief over the fact that he once charged God with injustice, and even contemplated joining in with sinners. His attitude was so foolish that it was almost animal-like. He was “as a beast” before God (verse 22).
But in verse 23, Asaph begins to look at the bigger picture. The word “nevertheless” (verse 23) indicates a change in his thinking, and a note of satisfaction with the truth that he discovered. He found that God is just and fair after all, and that God had really been good to him too—even though he had some sicknesses and frustrations in life that the ungodly did not seem to have.
Note the three tenses in verses 23 and 24:
- In the present — “I am continually with thee” (verse 23a).
- In the past — “Thou hast holden me by my right hand” (verse 23b).
- In the future — “Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory” (verse 24).
Even though Asaph (in his worst moments) had almost fallen to the level of beastly stupidity (verse 22), God had not cast him away. God had held his hand in the past, and would guide him in the future. God still loved him, supported him, and would continually be with him.
For the believer, the promise is that after this life, our heavenly Father will “receive (us) to glory” (Psalm 73:24). Romans 8:17 says that believers are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” An “heir” is one who has not yet received his inheritance, but he is going to receive the inheritance some day. Paul says that those who are children born into God’s family are heirs of God. One of these days we are going to possess the inheritance which is reserved in Heaven for the people of God. The hymn writer says,
“I once was an outcast stranger on earth,
A sinner by choice and an alien by birth;
But I’ve been adopted, my name’s written down;
An heir to a mansion, a robe, and a crown.”
By Harriet E. Buell / John B. Sumner (Public Domain)
Paul continues in Romans 8, however, to remind us that between the present moment and the time of future glory, many things might happen. Suffering comes to Christians. The road might become rough and stormy and hazardous before we reach the end of the journey, but in spite of the worst that can happen to us—we can be sure that the glory of the future far surpasses any pain that this present life can ever bring. Sufferings and trials may be hard and painful here in this life, but the sum total of them all (rolled up in one great big bundle) will be nothing when compared with the glory which is still to be revealed. Romans 8:18 says, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Good things may seem to happen to bad people, but for God’s people, the best is yet to be!
In verse 25, the Psalmist responds with an expression of pure love for God. He says, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.” I don’t know much about Heaven, but Heaven is where Jesus is—and that’s enough. In verse 26, Asaph says, “God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.”
In verse 27, we are reminded again about the destiny of those who are unfaithful. Asaph speaks of those who “go a whoring from thee,” or “those who play the harlot.” This refers to those who commit spiritual adultery—those who disobey God’s Word and follow after the world. Asaph declares that they shall perish; they shall be destroyed.
Disobedient and unsaved people may have health, and wealth, and worldly success, but they don’t have God. And no matter how much material success you may have, if you don’t have God, you don’t have anything. The worldly crowd may seem to have an easier time on the road of life, but they are heading in the wrong direction. In fact, they are like people lounging around on easy chairs. They are having a great time—but they are sitting on the deck of the ill-fated Titanic!
Asaph concludes the Psalm by saying, “It is good for me to draw near to God” (verse 28). This is his final testimony. Earlier, he had focused on the wicked—and how they were faring in life. Now, he was looking at the Lord—and he found satisfaction and strength for life.
When people first become Christians, some have the feeling that life ought to be easier for them. After all, they are now the objects of the heavenly Father’s love and care. But it does not usually happen that way. Instead, they often find that things become worse. Satan is angered when he loses grip on one of his followers. Sometimes new believers (and older ones as well) feel depressed, especially when they see disobedient and ungodly people around them that are enjoying life to the full.
When good things seem to be happening to bad people—don’t envy them. Remember all the good things that God does for you, and keep in mind the terrible destiny that awaits those who mock God’s Word, make light of His commandments, and reject the way of salvation.
The 73rd Psalm speaks of the conflict in the psalmist’s mind as he faced the temptation to envy the prosperity and well-being of the wicked. It ends with a note of assurance that God delivers the righteous, and allows the wicked to perish. The disobedient are building their houses on the sand (Matthew 7:26-27).
We don’t understand why sometimes bad things happen to good people. And we don’t always understand why sometimes good things happen to bad people. But a great truth to keep in mind is this: Christians do not live by explanations; we live by promises.
George Matheson was the writer of the hymn, “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go.” Matheson was blind; he had a lapse of faith, and was dealing with doubt. But the counsel of his elders was to wait and pray before God. He took their advice, and Matheson’s faith was rekindled again. In the hymn, he says:
“O love that will not let me go
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe—
That in Thine ocean depths
—its flow may richer, fuller be.”
By Albert Lister Peace / George Matheson (Public Domain)
Our prayer is that God will teach each of us the same truth that Asaph discovered, and that those who are disciples of Jesus Christ will not be envious of the disobedient and ungodly. May the Lord help us to say, “God is the strength of my heart” (verse 26).
If you do not know Jesus Christ as Savior, trust Him. He gives eternal life. First John 5:12 says, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6). Receive Jesus into your heart, repent of your sins, and confess Him openly (Romans 10:9). Receive Christian baptism, and then make a commitment to continue on living for Jesus (John 8:31-32).