Psalm 73: Some Reflections

In Psalm 73, we see the internal trials and questionings of a true believer, who nevertheless has serious questions for God. Like many of the Psalms, it is raw with emotion, yet fully assured of the goodness of Yahweh. Indeed, the Psalm begins and ends with Asaph affirming the goodness of God! For context, this psalm opens the third of the five books which make up the Psalms. Five books in the Hebrew correspond to the five books of the Pentateuch, and therefore we would expect this book to correspond to the book of Leviticus. Leviticus, a book which is deeply concerned with personal holiness, and our relation to a Pure and Holy God, is reflected throughout this third book of the Psalms.

For instance, v. 1 speaks of ‘a clean heart’; v. 13 speaks of cleansing a heart; v. 17 speaks of the sanctuary of God, v. 24 the glory of God, v. 28 drawing near to God. This is a psalm deeply concerned with the goodness and holiness of God, and how it is important for us to have a proper perspective on the character of God. We as Christians are called in 1 Peter to be holy, even as our God is holy, and this is a quotation lifted directly from the book of Leviticus. God’s holiness from OT to NT is undiminished. 

This psalm can be roughly divided into three main sections, each section beginning with the Hebrew word אַךְ, or ‘ak’, which translates as ‘surely’, verily. It is an emphatic term, and the psalm has two good emphatic statements at the start and end, and one wrong one in the middle. 

VV. 1-12, Surely God is good! Yet evil persists…

VV. 13-17, Surely I have purified myself in vain… yet I went into the sanctuary

VV. 18-28, Surely the wicked will fall, and I will be guided to glory by God.

The questions discussed in this psalm are perennial, and run from Job to Solomon to the NT to the present day. Why do the wicked seem to prosper? Is there any point in seeking to be holy when the wicked prosper? What is the antidote to our anxieties? The psalm finds its central theme in verse 17, where the psalmist enters into the sanctuary of God. It is on this that all his problems and queries turn.

Section 1: 1-12

Surely God is good to Israel! So proclaims Asaph, one of the chief choir-masters of David, and the author of many of the psalms in this third book of the psalms. He affirms in no uncertain terms the goodness of God, something which we must always remind ourselves of. I find no better writer on the goodness of God than the Puritan author Stephen Charnock. His work, The existence and attributes of God (1682), is a mammoth undertaking to read, but it is a classic. He says of the goodness of God that:

‘God only is infinitely good, a boundless goodness that knows no limits, a goodness as infinite as his essence, not only good, but best; not only good, but goodness itself; the supreme inconceivable goodness.’

He goes on to say that ‘God only is immutably good’, i.e., he is unchangeably good. God ‘glitters with goodness as the sun… doth the light’. The Lord Jesus referred to Himself as the GOOD shepherd, and He was goodness incarnate in this world. The life and death and resurrection of Christ is the fullest and most sublime display of the goodness of God, yet this was unknown to Asaph, who was one of those godly saints who still peered into the glass darkly. 

The problem for Asaph was that he had made an error of intellect, which translated to a wrong walk, which translated to a wrong path. He looks (from vv. 3-12) at the wicked in the world and he begins to secretly envy their earthly success. Surely we as Christians ought to be the last people to envy those who are foolish! We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings through Christ, and yet I would be the first to admit that I fall into the same trap as Asaph. Godliness with contentment is great gain, and yet we find it so hard to accept that while many Christians seem to struggle, the wicked prosper.

Not only do the wicked prosper in life, but Asaph laments that even when they come to die, they seem to suffer very little, and have such an easy time. One thinks of Nazi war criminals, responsible for the deaths of millions, who either faced swift justice with a smirk on their face, or escaped, and never faced justice at all. Asaph, from vv. 4-12, has nine stanzas where he outlines how the wicked seem to succeed unfairly. They are often well-fed, while the righteous starve (think of Luke 16, Lazarus and the rich man!) Their eyes bulge with their fatness, they wear pride as proudly as they would wear a fancy necklace, and they commit violence as habitually as they would put on clothes in the morning. They are bold enough to set their mouths against the heavens, and they ask arrogantly ‘How does God know? Does the Most High know everything?’

When I read this description, I cannot help but think of Romans 1 and Romans 3.

Our present world is exactly what it was in Asaph’s time; those who are rich, and famous, are often immoral rogues, and they seem to have little shame. It is this realisation that causes Asaph to exclaim in v. 13 that maybe his efforts to live a righteous life for God were in vain, because he was worse off for doing so than those who despised God! While Asaph was plagued every day with worries, the ungodly sauntered about without a care. 

I have sometimes felt this kind of discouragement and maybe you have too. Paul assures us in 2 Cor. 4:17 that our light and momentary affliction is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, but at times the ‘light affliction’ can feel awfully burdensome. We are called to seek the kingdom of God first and His righteousness, but our eyes stray from the goal, becoming fixed on the world. 

What is the biblical remedy for such concerns? How can we restore a proper perspective, and arrest the process of despair? It is no good looking in ourselves for the solution, as modern self-help gurus would tell us—we must look to someone grander.

Verse 17 stands as the pinnacle and the pivot of this psalm. The tone changes after this verse, the mood uplifts, and Asaph comes to appreciate the goodness of God with a renewed vigour. He tells us how everything changed when he went into the sanctuary of God. No man could enter physically save the high priest, yet his heart could gaze into the innermost sanctum, and behold God in all His majesty. 

Our Lord, when speaking to those broken and bent over double with care, implored them to come unto HIM. Christianity offers us, not a set of technical propositions, or handy self-help tips—it offers us a person, who calls for us to look to Him. In Hebrews 12, as we are called to run the race, we are not called to look at our obstacles, we are called to look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. 

The Psalm closes with a sublime admission of faith, for while Asaph acknowledges that he had erred against God, he realises that God is guiding him by his hand towards glory. So may we all, as we go through life with various difficulties, make time to enter the sanctuary of God, and restore our perspective on things above.