Until I Went Into God's Sanctuary
1 A Psalm by Asaph. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. 2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had nearly slipped. 3 For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For there are no struggles in their death, but their strength is firm. 5 They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men. 6 Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment. 7 Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit. 8 They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression. 9 They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth. 10 Therefore their people return to them, and they drink up waters of abundance. 11 They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” 12 Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches. 13 Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence, 14 For all day long I have been plagued, and punished every morning. 15 If I had said, “I will speak thus”, behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. 16 When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me— 17 until I entered God’s sanctuary, and considered their latter end. 18 Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction. 19 How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors. 20 As a dream when one wakes up, so, Lord, when you awake, you will despise their fantasies. 21 For my soul was grieved. I was embittered in my heart. 22 I was so senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you. 23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have held my right hand. 24 You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. 25 Whom do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth whom I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27 For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you. 28 But it is good for me to come close to God. I have made the Lord Yahweh my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
A man almost loses his faith over the prosperity of the wicked, and says so in public.
1 A Psalm by Asaph. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. 2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had nearly slipped.
The third book of the Psalter opens with the confession of a man who nearly stopped believing. He states the orthodox position in verse one and then admits, in verse two, that he could not hold it.
For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
The cause is named without disguise. Not suffering — envy, which is a harder thing to confess.
What follows is an unsparing description of what he saw. There are no struggles in their death, but their strength is firm. They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men Psalms 73:4–5. They die easily, they are not overworked, and the ordinary troubles miss them. Their eyes bulge with fat Psalms 73:7 — a man so comfortable that it shows in his face.
They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth.
They talk about heaven as if from above it, and their opinions travel everywhere. And their conclusion is quoted: how does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High? Psalms 73:11.
13 Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence, 14 For all day long I have been plagued, and punished every morning.
The bottom of it. He concludes that his integrity has been a waste of effort, and the arithmetic is not obviously wrong: they are comfortable and he is punished every morning.
If I had said, “I will speak thus”, behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
What stopped him was not an answer but a responsibility. He did not say it aloud, because of who was listening — and the restraint bought him the time to get to verse seventeen.
16 When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me— 17 until I entered God’s sanctuary, and considered their latter end.
The turn, and it is a change of location. Thinking harder had failed. What worked was going somewhere, and what he saw there was not new information about the wicked but the end of the sentence he had been reading half of.
Surely you set them in slippery places Psalms 73:18. His own feet had almost slipped in verse two; the ground they are standing on is what actually gives way.
22 I was so senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you. 23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have held my right hand.
The most generous word in the psalm is nevertheless. Through all of it — the envy, the bitterness, the conclusion that his faith was pointless — he was being held, and he only discovers it afterward.
25 Whom do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth whom I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
The man who wanted what the wicked had ends by wanting nothing else at all.
settled What this mark means