Psalms 73:1

Truly God is good to Israel,.... To Israel, literally understood; in choosing them to be his people above all people on earth; in bringing them into a good land; in favouring them with many external

Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.

Psalms 73 THE The subject of this Psalm is the same with Psalms 77, concerning the promiscuous carriage of God’ s providence towards good and bad men Or, for Asaph, the famous musician, to whom divers of David’ s Psalms were committed, as Psalms 1, &c. But because Asaph was not only a skilfull musician, but also was divinely inspired, and the author of some Psalms, as is manifest from , and the style of this Psalm may seem to be something differing from that of David, it may be thought not improbable that Asaph was the author or penman of it. The prophet under temptation by reason of wicked men’ s prosperity, . His diffidence thereupon, . His way to overcome such temptations, i.e. the knowledge of God’ s purpose in destroying the wicked, , and that the faithful might be contented alone with God, and communion with him, . Truly; or, nevertheless. The beginning is abrupt and sufficiently intimates that he had a great conflict within himself about this matter, and that many doubts and objections were raised in his mind concerning it. But at last he breaks forth like the sun out of a cloud, and having by God’ s grace silenced and conquered his scruples, he lays down this following conclusion. God is good to Israel; though he may sometimes seem negligent of, and harsh and severe to, his people, yet, if all things be considered, it is most certain, and another day will be made manifest, that God is really and superlatively good, i.e. most kind and bountiful, and a true friend to them, and that they are most happy in him, and have no reason to envy sinners their present and seeming felicity. To such as are of a clean heart; to all true Israelites, who love God with their whole heart, and serve him in spirit, and truth, and uprightness. See ,29. So this clause limits the former, and takes off a great part of the force of the objection, even all that concerns the calamities which befell the profane or false-hearted Israelites, which were vastly the greatest number of that people.

Psalms 73:1 « A Psalm of Asaph. » Truly God [is] good to Israel, [even] to such as are of a clean heart.A Psalm of Asaph] Who was not only an excellent musician, but a prophet also, an orator, and a poet; not unlike (for his style) to Horace, or Persius. This, and the ten next psalms, that bear this name in the front, consist of complaints for the most part, and sad matters. Ver. 1. Truly God is good to Israel] Or, yet God is, &c. Thus the psalmist beginneth abruptly after a sore conflict; throwing off the devil and his fiery darts, wherewith his heart for a while had been wounded. It is best to break off temptations of corrupt and carnal reasonings, and to silence doubts and disputes, lest we be foiled. He shoots (saith Greenham) with Satan in his own bow who thinks by disputing and reasoning to put him off. To such as are of a clean heart] Such as are Israelites indeed, and not hypocrites and dissemblers. For "as for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity" (as malefactors are led forth to execution); "but peace shall be upon Israel," Psalms 125:5, "upon the Israel of God," Galatians 6:16.

(1) Truly.—See Note, Psalms 62:2. This particle often, like the Latin at, introduces a rejoinder to some supposed statement. Dryden’s lines express the feeling of this opening— “Yet sure the gods are good! I would fain think so, If they would give me leave! But virtue in distress, and vice in triumph, Make atheists of mankind.” The question arises whether the second clause of the verse limits, or only repeats, the first. No doubt in theory God was understood to be good to Israel generally, but the very subject of the psalm seems to require a limitation here. The poet sees that a moral correspondence with their profession is necessary, even in the chosen people—the truth which St. Paul stated with such insistance, “For they are not all Israel which are of Israel.”

PSALM LXXIII The psalmist speaks of God's goodness to his people, 1; shows how much he was stumbled at the prosperity of the wicked, and describes their state, 2-12; details the process of the temptation, and the pain he suffered in consequence, 13-16; shows how he was delivered, and the dismal reverse of the state of the once prosperous ungodly man, by which his own false views were corrected, 17-22; his great confidence in God, and the good consequences of it, 23-28. NOTES ON PSALM LXXIII THIS is the commencement of the THIRD BOOK of the Psalter; and the Psalm before us has for title, A Psalm of Asaph; or, as the margin has it, A Psalm for Asaph. The title in the Hebrew is מזמור לאסף mizmor leasaph; "A Psalm of Asaph:" and it is likely that this Asaph was the composer of it; that he lived under the Babylonish captivity; and that he published this Psalm to console the Israelites under bondage, who were greatly tried to find themselves in such outward distress and misery, while a people much more wicked and corrupt than they, were in great prosperity, and held them in bondage. Verse 1. Truly God is good to Israel] Captives as they were, they still had many blessings from God; and they had promises of deliverance, which must be fulfilled in due time. Such as are of a clean heart.] Those who have a clean heart must have inward happiness: and, because they resemble God, they can never be forsaken by him.

1–14. Faith tried by the sight of the prosperity of the wicked.

Truly God is good to Israel - That is, to his people; to the righteous; to those who serve him. That is, God is the “real” friend of the righteous. He has not forgotten them. He does not abandon them.

1. Truly God is good to Israel—The psalmist has now passed through his temptation, and, being reassured, can “set to his seal [set his seal to it] that God is true.” John 3:33.