Psalms 73

Book 3. (Psalms 73:1-28; Psalms 74:1-23; Psalms 75:1-10; Psalms 76:1-12; Psalms 77:1-20; Psalms 78:1-72; Psalms 79:1-13; Psalms 80:1-19; Psalms 81:1-16; Psalms 82:1-8; Psalms 83:1-18; Psalms 84:1-12; Psalms 85:1-13; Psalms 86:1-17; Psalms 87:1-7; Psalms 88:1-18; Psalms 89:1-52.)The holiness of God in His dealings with man. The third book of the Psalms speaks, like Leviticus, of the sanctuary, and thus of God revealed in holiness. Hence, while we find in it, as before, Israel’s deliverance in the latter days, it is constantly in view of this. Naturally in connection with this we have also Israel’s history as a whole more entered upon: God is seen to have been consistent with it in all His dealings with them from the beginning. The book is much smaller and less various in its range of subjects, having only seventeen psalms; eleven of which are ascribed to Asaph, being generally similar also to the fiftieth, which is the only other, and has been already before us. These psalms form the first subdivision of the book, and like those of the second book, are Elohistic, God (Elohim) being found in them, almost to the exclusion of Jehovah. This first subdivision consists also characteristically of “Remnant” psalms, while the last is predominantly Messianic. This conformity to the natural divisions, helps to confirm the authority of the titles, which has been disputed. The Asaphic psalms give us the holiness of God in grace toward Israel; the other six, the requirements of divine holiness met in Christ. Subdivision 1. (Psalms 73:1-28; Psalms 74:1-23; Psalms 75:1-10; Psalms 76:1-12; Psalms 77:1-20; Psalms 78:1-72; Psalms 79:1-13; Psalms 80:1-19; Psalms 81:1-16; Psalms 82:1-8; Psalms 83:1-18.)Holiness in grace. The psalms of Asaph have again two sections: the first, of five psalms, gives the general principles; the second, of six psalms, their application to Israel’s history. Section 1. (Psalms 73:1-28; Psalms 74:1-23; Psalms 75:1-10; Psalms 76:1-12; Psalms 77:1-20.)The general principles. The first psalm here (Psalms 73:1-28) shows, after the usual manner, the general character of the book. It speaks of the suffering of the righteous in contrast with the often seen prosperity of the ungodly, -a thing painful to consider and hard to understand, until, in the sanctuary, in the presence of God, we find on the one hand the end of the wicked, and on the other that these sufferings are a discipline, the necessary result of the holiness of His nature with those who are ever with Him: -“for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.” Then the soul acquiesces with delight in its portion: holden by His right hand, guided by His counsel, what remains for us but Himself in heaven or earth? The second psalm (Psalms 74:1-23) shows us this chastening rod for Israel -the enemy in the very sanctuary itself. At first sight, it looks as if God had entirely cast them off; but the enemy is so evidently God’s enemy, that they realize He must finally appear against him. The adversary reproaches His name: can He give up into his hand the people He redeemed, yea, His own dwelling-place His anger against them may be manifested in this rage of the enemy, but it cannot last. He will finally turn it against the oppressor, and break the rod He is using. In the third psalm, (Psalms 75:1-10) the great day of manifestation is just at hand. All foundations may seem gone, but Messiah bears up the pillars of the earth. All is in the hands of God who puts down and sets up as He will. The horns of the wicked shall be cut off and the righteous shall be exalted. In the fourth (Psalms 76:1-12), accordingly, all the might of the creature is prostrate before God. He shines out gloriously from the mountains of prey, where the weapons of war have been destroyed. God has arisen to judgment and for the deliverance of the meek; and the wrath of man is shown to praise Him, the rest of it being restrained. While the fifth psalm (Psalms 77:1-20) gives the moral of all this, whatever the exercise of heart, to trust Him in the dark as in the light. His way is in the sea, and His footsteps oftentimes unseen; but His way all through is in the sanctuary also; and so, through storm and flame, He has, spite of all, led His people as a flock. We must now look at these psalms in detail.

Psalms 73:1-28

Consistency of divine holiness with the sufferings of the righteous. A psalm of Asaph.

1. The question raised in the 73rd psalm is stated in the first three verses, “Truly God is good to Israel,” the psalmist affirms; and then adds that, (according to the holiness of the divine nature,) this is “to the pure in heart.” That is the truth; but it is not always easy to realize and maintain. He had not found it so: his feet had well-nigh gone, his steps slipped. The prosperity of the wicked, of which they had boasted, had moved him to envy of them; and the ways of God had darkened with him; as their lot seemed bright.
2. Indeed, to his eyes they seemed not merely no worse off than other men; much more than this, they were exceptionally peaceful and secure. Death threw no shadow over their lives. They were strong, comfortable and well-fed. The travail which besets the lives of men who are mortal because of sin, and accessible to all that that implies, did not trouble them. The strokes with which all mankind are smitten seemed not to fall upon them. Their circumstances justified apparently their boastings.
3. Yet this blessing blessed not: it only confirmed them in their evil. Pride they displayed, as if it were an ornament upon their necks, erect with self-consciousness. Their violence sought no concealment, but was like the garment upon them, manifest to all. Their insolent eyes stood out with fatness. They exceeded even their own imaginations of success. And this put them beyond bounds, making them scoff at the idea of being checked in the malicious thoughts they vented in violent words, as if above all other men: “they set their mouth in heaven,” so lofty are they; “and their tongue goeth through the earth,” as if they had possession of it all, -though this infatuation only made manifest their emptiness.
4. It was not only them whom their prosperity intoxicated. The effect of it was that people fell to them from among the professing people of God, who, encouraged by it, gave themselves up to license. For, they argued, how can God know? how can the Most High have any knowledge? Are not these confessedly the “wicked,” whom He denounces? and yet, see how they live at ease, and their wealth increases? Of what use, then, is it to have cleansed my heart, and washed my hands in innocency, to live a life under the constant stroke of God, chastised every morning?
5. Alas, men might speak thus, who never knew what it was, really to be with Him! But if I joined them in this speech, says the psalmist, what injustice would I not be doing to the generation of Thy children! He speaks of Israel according to their birthright, for God had said, “Israel is my son, even my first-born,” and the apostasy of others only leads to the realization that “they are not all Israel, that are of Israel;” therefore to the appropriation of this to a true remnant, though the Christian “Spirit of adoption” has not come. He cannot go with these apostates; and yet his soul is in conflict. For a Jew with his covenanted blessings and the legal curses upon iniquity, hard indeed would it be, to understand this flourishing of the wicked, while the godly suffer, -a state of things not always simple to the Christian, who is taught to take up his cross and follow Christ. But if he does not understand, he draws nearer to God that he may do so. In the sanctuary of His presence the secret is disclosed: he sees the end that is coming for the wicked. The “smooth places” in which God sets them are not signs either of His favor or of His indifference. They are the prelude to an awful fall, which comes as in a moment, and they are brought to an end, consumed with terrors. Their prosperity, while it deceives them, is but the image of a dream; vanishing when men awake; -is but this, when the Lord arises and shows it as their folly and shame.
6. The psalmist turns from this to deplore his own folly in his having been so moved as he had been by this short-lived triumph. He owns it as the ignorance of a beast who leaves out God. After all, he cannot, in the face of faith’s record through all generations, take the circumstances of the life here as giving cause to doubt that God is with him: circumstances which would plead against the “generation of His children” in every age. And that one thing realized, that after all God is with him, is the controlling circumstance: it may well stand in the place of all other good. Is it not this also which will account for chastening and humiliation, the fruit of the holiness of Him who has come to walk with this poor creature of His?

But support cannot be wanting either, in such a case; and so he owns: “But I am continually with Thee; Thou hast holden my right hand.” From this the whole future may be certainly predicted; for God can be fully reckoned upon. The way will be with Him, and the end too with Himself: “Thou wilt guide me with Thy counsel; and afterwards in glory* Thou wilt receive me.” The face to face vision of God has been for faith necessarily, in every generation and under every dispensation, the end -short of which complete satisfaction cannot be found. The cry in the Psalms from end to end is after God. After Him the soul longs and pants, as the hart after the water-brooks. Its question is continually: “When shall I come and appear before God?” Here this is quietly contemplated with the reassured confidence which is the end of all faith’s exercises at all times. Here is the abiding joy, the source of all that can be: “whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee! “Nature may fail, but this failing strength only reveals the might of that “strength,” which “is made perfect in weakness.” “God is the rock of my heart, the foundation upon which it builds, and my portion forever.”
7. The last two verses sum up finally the contrasted results for the righteous and the wicked: the way of independence which ends in destruction; the way of dependence, in which already the goodness of drawing near to God is tasted; and in confidence, the ready tongue declares His works.