73 Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
3 For I was envious of the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For there are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm.
5 They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
7 Their eyes stand out with fatness; they have more than heart could wish.
8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression; they speak loftily.
9 They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
10 Therefore His people return hither, and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
11 And they say, “How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning.
15 If I say, “I will speak thus,” behold, I should offend against the generation of Thy children.
16 When I thought to understand this, it was too painful for me,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then understood I their end:
18 surely Thou didst set them in slippery places. Thou didst cast them down into destruction!
19 How they are brought into desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors!
20 As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise their image.
21 Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.
22 So foolish was I and ignorant; I was as a beast before Thee.
23 Nevertheless I am continually with Thee; Thou hast held me by my right hand.
24 Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.
26 My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.
27 For lo, they that are far from Thee shall perish; Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from Thee.
28 But it is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all Thy works.
Psalm 73 Summary
Surely God Is Good to Israel
Verses 1–3 – Opening Faith and Doubt
The psalmist starts by affirming God’s goodness to “Israel, to the pure in heart,” yet immediately admits his own near-stumble. Seeing arrogant people thrive shakes his confidence, and envy creeps in as he watches their apparent ease.
Verses 4–12 – Prosperity of the Wicked
Those who dismiss God seem healthy, trouble-free, well-fed, and unburdened by ordinary hardships. Their speech is boastful, their actions oppressive, and their mockery extends to heaven itself. Crowds drink in their arrogance and declare, “How does God know?”
Verses 13–17 – Turning Point in the Sanctuary
Feeling that purity has earned him nothing but hardship, the psalmist wrestles with despair—until he enters God’s sanctuary. In that holy place, perspective changes: the end of the wicked becomes clear, revealing the danger beneath their glittering success.
Verses 18–20 – Fate of the Wicked Unveiled
God places the ungodly on slippery ground. Riches and security vanish “like a dream when one awakens.” The Lord will rouse Himself and expose their nothingness in an instant.
Verses 21–22 – Confession of Foolishness
Shaken by this revelation, the psalmist admits his heart had been embittered and his thinking irrational—“I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before You.”
Verses 23–26 – Renewed Confidence in God
Now he rests in God’s nearness: “Yet I am always with You; You hold my right hand.” Earthly loss cannot rob him of the greatest treasure: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Verses 27–28 – Final Contrast and Testimony
Those far from God will perish, but closeness to God is the psalmist’s good. He vows to “declare all Your works,” turning personal struggle into public witness.
Psalm 73 serves as an intimate exploration of faith during moments of doubt. The Psalmist, Asaph, grapples with envy and confusion as he witnesses the prosperity of the wicked. His journey, from questioning God's justice to reaffirming his faith, provides a deep and moving testament to God's unwavering love and guidance.
73:1-14 The psalmist was strongly tempted to envy the prosperity of the wicked; a common temptation, which has tried the graces of many saints. But he lays down the great principle by which he resolved to abide. It is the goodness of God. This is a truth which cannot be shaken. Good thoughts of God will fortify against Satan's temptations. The faith even of strong believers may be sorely shaken, and ready to fail. There are storms that will try the firmest anchors. Foolish and wicked people have sometimes a great share of outward prosperity. They seem to have the least share of the troubles of this life; and they seem to have the greatest share of its comforts. They live without the fear of God, yet they prosper, and get on in the world. Wicked men often spend their lives without much sickness, and end them without great pain; while many godly persons scarcely know what health is, and die with great sufferings. Often the wicked are not frightened, either by the remembrance of their sins, or the prospect of their misery, but they die without terror. We cannot judge men's state beyond death, by what passes at their death. He looked abroad, and saw many of God's people greatly at a loss. Because the wicked are so very daring, therefore his people return hither; they know not what to say to it, and the rather, because they drink deep of the bitter cup of affliction. He spoke feelingly when he spoke of his own troubles; there is no disputing against sense, except by faith. From all this arose a strong temptation to cast off religion. But let us learn that the true course of sanctification consists in cleansing a man from all pollution both of soul and body. The heart is cleansed by the blood of Christ laid hold upon by faith; and by the begun works of the Lord's Spirit, manifested in the hearty resolution, purpose, and study of holiness, and a blameless course of life and actions, the hands are cleansed. It is not in vain to serve God and keep his ordinances.
For I was envious at the foolish - The word "foolish" here refers to sinners. It may either refer to them as foolish, or as proud, insolent, vain - for so the word is elsewhere used. See
Psalm 14:1.
When I saw the prosperity of the wicked - More literally, "the peace of the wicked." The reference is not so much to their prosperity in general as to their peace; their conscious safety; their freedom from trouble; and especially their calmness, and their freedom from suffering, in death. From all this he was led for the moment to doubt whether there was any advantage in religion; whether God was just; and whether he befriended the righteous anymore than he did the wicked.
3-9. The prosperous wicked are insolently proud (compare Ps 5:5). They die, as well as live, free from perplexities: pride adorns them, and violence is their clothing; indeed they are inflated with unexpected success. With all this—
I grudged and murmured at it, and had a secret desire to partake of their delicates.
For I was envious at the foolish,.... The atheists, as in
Psalm 14:1, who deny the creation, as Arama; the wicked, as after explained, as all wicked men are, how wise soever they may be in things natural and civil, yet in religious things, in things of a spiritual nature, they have no understanding; they are proud boasters, glory in themselves, and in their outward attainments, as the word (d) here used signifies; the external happiness of these, their riches, health, and ease, were envied by the psalmist; see
Psalm 37:1,
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked, or "the peace of the wicked" (e); with an evil eye. This was the occasion of his slip and fall, this was the temptation he was left unto for a while.
(d) "in arrogantes", Gejerus; "stolide gloriosos", Michaelis; "at vain glorious fools", Ainsworth. (e) "pacem", Pagninus, Musculus, Piscator.
For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
3.
I was envious] Cp.
Psalm 37:1; and the repeated warnings of the Book of
Proverbs 3:31;
Proverbs 23:17;
Proverbs 24:1;
Proverbs 24:19.
the foolish] Rather as R.V., the arrogant, a word denoting boastful blustering presumption. Cp.
Psalm 5:5;
Psalm 75:4.
the prosperity] Lit.
the peace. Cp.
Job 21:9, “their houses are in peace without fear.”
3–9. The cause: the unbroken prosperity of the godless. Cp. Job’s indignant complaint,
Psalm 21:7 ff.
Verse 3. -
For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked (comp.
Psalm 37:1). To envy the wicked because they prosper is to make more account of the good things of this life than of God's favour - to prefer physical good to moral. It is also to doubt that God governs the universe by the strict rule of justice. The word translated "foolish" means rather, "vain arrogant boasters." Such the wicked commonly become when they prosper (comp.
Psalm 5:5). Psalm 73:3
Now follows the occasion of the conflict of temptation: the good fortune of those who are estranged from God. In accordance with the gloominess of the theme, the style is also gloomy, and piles up the full-toned suffixes amo and emo (vid.,
Psalm 78:66;
Psalm 80:7;
Psalm 83:12,
Psalm 83:14); both are after the example set by David. קנּא with Beth of the object ion which the zeal or warmth of feeling is kindled (
Psalm 37:1;
Proverbs 3:31) here refers to the warmth of envious ill-feeling. Concerning הולל vid.,
Psalm 5:6.
Psalm 73:3 tells under what circumsntaces the envy was excited; cf. so far as the syntax is concerned,
Psalm 49:6;
Psalm 76:11. In
Psalm 73:4 חרצצבּות (from חרצב equals חצּב from חצב, cognate עצב, whence עצב, pain, Arabic ‛aṣâbe, a snare, cf. חבל, ὠδίς, and חבל σχοινίον), in the same sense as the Latin tormenta (from torquere), is intended of pains that produce convulsive contractions. But in order to give the meaning "they have no pangs (to suffer) till their death," להם (למו) could not be omitted (that is, assuming also that ל, which is sometimes used for עד, vid.,
Psalm 59:14, could in such an exclusive sense signify the terminus ad quem). Also "there are no pangs for their death, i.e., that bring death to them," ought to be expressed by להם למּות. The clause as it stands affirms that their dying has no pangs, i.e., it is a painless death; but not merely does this assertion not harmonize with
Psalm 73:18., but it is also introduced too early here, since the poet cannot surely begin the description of the good fortune of the ungodly with the painlessness of their death, and then for the first time come to speak of their healthy condition. We may therefore read, with Ewald, Hitzig, Bttcher, and Olshausen:
כי אין חרצבות למו
תּם ובריא אולם
i.e., they have (suffer) no pangs, vigorous (תּם like תּם, Job 21:23, תמים, Proverbs 1:12) and well-nourished is their belly; by which means the difficult למותם is got rid of, and the gloomy picture is enriched by another form ending with mo. אוּל, here in a derisive sense, signifies the body, like the Arabic allun, âlun (from âl, coaluit, cohaesit, to condense inwardly, to gain consistency).
(Note: Hitzig calls to mind οὖλος, "corporeal;" but this word is Ionic and equivalent to ὅλος, solidus, the ground-word of which is the Sanscrit sarvas, whole, complete.)
The observation of Psalm 73:4 is pursued further in Psalm 73:5 : whilst one would have thought that the godly formed an exception to the common wretchedness of mankind, it is just the wicked who are exempt from all trouble and calamity. It is also here to be written אינמו, as in Psalm 59:14, not אינימו. Therefore is haughtiness their neck-chain, and brutishness their mantle. ענק is a denominative from ענק equals αὐχήν: to hang round the neck; the neck is the seat of pride (αὐχεῖν): haughtiness hangs around their neck (like ענק, a neck-ornament). Accordingly in Psalm 73:6 המס is the subject, although the interpunction construes it differently, viz., "they wrap round as a garment the injustice belonging to them," in order, that is, to avoid the construction of יעטף (vid., Psalm 65:14) with למו; but active verbs can take a dative of the object (e.g., אהב ל ,, רפא ל) in the sense: to be or to grant to any one that which the primary notion of the verb asserts. It may therefore be rendered: they put on the garment of violence (שׁית חמס like בּגדי נקם, Isaiah 59:17), or even by avoiding every enallage numeri: violence covers them as a garment; so that שׁית is an apposition which is put forth in advance.
