Psalms 73
RileyPsalms 73:1-28
GOD’S WAYS Psalms 73 IN presenting this chapter it is well for us to recall the fact that the Book of the Psalms is divided into five parts; in other words, it is a Pentateuch. Book I, covering chapters 1 to 41; Book II, chapters 42 to 72; Book III, chapters 73 to 89; Book IV, chapters 90 to 106; Book V. chapters 107 to 150. It has been supposed also by some that the Pentateuch of the Psalms presents the spiritual side of the Mosaic Pentateuch. The first Book reveals man a sinner in need of salvation; the second Book presents the way of redemption; the third Book suggests holiness; the fourth Book, militant service; and the fifth Book, the shift from Law to Grace.We should note also in this study the circumstance that we deal with a new author. Many people imagine that David wrote all the Psalms; not at all so; the Psalms claim a number of authors. One of the greatest of them all was penned by Moses, the ninetieth Psalm; and the greater portion of this Book, the third, chapters seventy-three to eighty-three, is attributed to Asaph, as is also the fiftieth Psalm.There is to be found also in this Psalm, in the original language, one of the stones of stumbling over which modernism has tripped again and again, namely, the almost constant use of the word Elohim in reference to God. The references here are Elohistic rather than Jahvistic; a fact which would not bear the claim of a composite authorship, for those portions that introduce different names for God, but would only suggest the more limited range of words on the part of its author. We shall not attempt at this time to treat the entire third Book, or the chapters 73 to 89, containing Asaph’s great contributions to the incomparable psaltery.For the present, we call your attention to the 73rd, or the opening Psalm in this section.
Different writers naturally effect different divisions of the Psalm and draw different suggestions from it. Beyond all question, Asaph passed through the identical experience that many keen observers have had.
He looked on the “prosperity of the wicked” and compared the same with the sufferings of certain righteous ones that he knew, and the comparison wrought havoc with his faith, and he came to doubt the goodness of God, and almost to wonder whether there was a God! But further investigation proved the error of any such conclusion; and when he sees the more complete truth he feels called upon to give his fellows the benefit of his discovery; and, with the enthusiasm of one who has come into the light, he breaks upon us with the declaration, “Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart”. And then he rehearses the black night through which he has walked, saying, “But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped”. And he tells us why! He had founded it all onTHE OF THE He says,“I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked, “For there are no bands in their death; but their strength is firm. “They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. “Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. “Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. “They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. “They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. “Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. “And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? “Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches”. In studying these verses one is impressed with several suggestions:The prosperity of the wicked is offensively evident. “Pride compasseth them about” as a golden chain adorns their bodies; and “violence covereth them” as did their body garments. “Their eyes stand out with fatness”, indicative of feasting. “They have more than heart could wish”; suggestion of needless surplus! “They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression”, and even loftily, as if there were no judgment for them.We all know the kind herein described. We, like the Psalmist, have “seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree”. It is doubtful if there is any feature of life that has produced more infidelity, or so effectively disturbed society, and excited those baser elements of jealousy, hatred, envy, contempt, than this parading of prosperity on the part of the wicked. At this present moment England is in a bad way, so far as employment is concerned; and her statesmen of genius are seriously engaged in trying to discover a solution of the labor problem.Beyond all question the man described in the text has complicated that problem to the point of greatest difficulty. Newell Dwight Hillis, in one of his books, tells the story of an expensive strike in England’s history. The miners of a certain coal field had suffered a severe cut in wages.
They had met and, after due counsel, had decided to accept it, though it would take some of their children out of school and require them to live without meat at the dinner meal. They appointed their committee to appear in the conference of the day following, and announce the consent to the cut; but when the hour of the conference arrived the owner of the mines appeared in a liveried carriage, footman in place, prancing horses decorated with gold-plated harness; and at the sight of his elegance and needless expenditure, the committee thought of the starving wives and uneducated children, and reversed the decision, and reported that they “would not furnish footmen and gold-plated harness for his horses as against three meals a day for our wives and school for our children; we will not surrender.” The ensuing strike cost England $25,000, 000; and, to this day the chief difficulty in that land is the essential difference between the riches of the rich and the poverty of the poor; and the fact that the former have too long paraded their opulence in the faces of the latter. When one sees this as clearly as I saw it in Antrim County, Ireland, this past year where Lord Antrim owns almost all the country and where hundreds of men were lined up, as we passed, to receive their daily dole, that they might live at all, he can understand why Asaph, studying a kindred sight, was made a skeptic.Asaph noted further that this man seemed to face the future without fear. “There are no band in their death; little trouble in this life. He seemed to be freed from the plagues of other men. Sometimes it is so. It was so with Dives! He went his way in opulence. He looked askance at the Lazarus who lay at the gate, and instead of pitying his sores, prided himself that he did not have them.
He felt all the physical superiority that was boasted by the Pharisee, and doubtless thanked God that he was not as this man.This phrase, “There are no bands in their death” in this translation is a bit difficult to understand. It seems that they lived without conscience and would die without fear.
And, often it is so! Some of you will remember the tragedy that took place on this street, three blocks beyond this church, when a young bandit, having succeeded in robbing the filling station on two Saturday nights, attempted it a third time, to find two policemen in hiding and ready to meet his demand for money. When he drew his pistol and put it in the face of the young man in charge, and demanded the receipts of the day, those policemen shot him down. With a sardonic smile on his face, and a wave of the hand, he said, “You win; I die!” “There are no hands in their death: but their strength is firm”.That is not so mysterious as seems. When a man comes to believe that there is no God, and consequently no future, and no possible judgment, he can face death in his unfaith, and without fear. But that no more proves that the future holds a further peaceful existence for him than the comfortable death of a drowning man demonstrates that death is not real.Doubtless Asaph had finally thought this through and so the failure of his former perplexity is made plain.But Asaph makes a further charge against the wicked.He says, He even dares to defy God. “They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. * * And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High?
Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches” (Psalms 73:9; Psalms 73:11-12).Oftentimes the very favor of God becomes the occasion of one’s infidelity. We have in America a man who has made his tens of thousands as an author.
God gave to him his being, endowed him with a healthy body, and bestowed upon him an active, efficient brain. Instead of recognizing God as the Author of these good gifts, he imagines himself an evolved monkey, and is extremely proud of the position to which he has come, and once publicly challenged God to prove His existence and power by daring to strike him dead.Since God did not descend to the challenge and stain His holy hands with the smiting, he concluded that God does not exist, and employs his literary pen in producing books that are said, by those who know his personal life, to be a perfect reflection of his own course and conduct; but instead of making confession, he charges that conduct against the ministry and the church; holding in contempt the teachings of the Bible, he jokes about Heaven and laughs at hell!Dean Farrar was a professed liberal, and has been claimed by the Universalists; but in speaking one day to the Cambridge students, he said: “Does the denial of hell abolish it? Can we be so very certain that there is no hereafter, seeing that here indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish fall upon every soul of man that doeth evil; seeing that the Scriptures, from beginning to end, blaze like the walls of Belshazzar’s palace with messages of doom; seeing that God hath declared His wrath against sin as clearly as though He had engraven it upon the sun or written it in stars upon the midnight sky? This presumptuous ease about the after life; this growing indifference to the thought of future punishment; this philosophy which is so treacherous and so timid, seems to me, and I say it deliberately, at once an aberration of the intellect and an infatuation of the will. Oh, better surely that a sinner should tremble with agony, as the last leaves of the aspen shudder in the late autumnal wind, than that he should thus falsely presume that he knows more of God than God Himself.” The Psalmist is not mistaken when he writes, “The face of the Lord is against them that do evil”.But Asaph was further disturbed byTHE PROBLEM OF He seemed to see the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. “Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency” (Psalms 73:12-13).Who has not seen it so? Practically every community holds at least one prospered criminal, and one suffering saint. Yea, more; and if one got his eyes upon the individual case, he might easily be disturbed by what he sees.But is this a just view of society or judgment of God? Is it not, rather, the exercise of envy— a hated attribute not supposed to be found with believers at all? Leave it to Caligula to slay his brother because he is more beautiful than himself.
Leave it to Mutius, the Roman, whose envious, malevolent disposition, was such that one day, when Publius passed him, and noted his sad countenance, he said, ‘Either some great evil has happened to Mutius or some great good has happened to another! Plutarch said of Dionysius, the tyrant, that he punished Philoxenius, the musician, because he could sing better than himself; while Cambyses killed his brother Smerdis because he could draw a stronger bow than himself.We have yet to meet one single Christian who was envious of the prosperity of others and yet reminded us of Christ, or who was full of complaint concerning his own misfortune, and yet impressed us with his Christianity.Asaph complained that he had been grossly misunderstood. “For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
If I say, I will speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation of Thy children”.This also is a reflection upon the Psalmist rather than upon society. Some people are always misunderstood. All across America, at this moment, there are bickerings in the household of believers and many hearts are bleeding in consequence of a certain book published a bit ago by a man whose position demanded that his utterances should be Scriptural. His book has been most unfavorably received and its teachings criticised by the best informed Bible students in all the land. The author therefore, is filled with complaints that he is misunderstood. He believes himself to be misrepresented, and his standard maligned.
But again, this spirit is a reflection upon himself, as in the case of Asaph, rather than against society or believing brethren.Asaph still further contends that the whole problem of life becomes painful for him. “When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me” (Psalms 73:16).It would have been most unfortunate for this psalm not to have been written; it so accurately describes the mental processes of so many people, and even people who profess faith in God and in His Word.Victor Hugo, in “Les Miserables”, tells us of how Jean Valjean finally got bewildered in mind, confused in intellect, and of him he says, “Sometimes in the midst of his work in the galleys he would stop and begin to think. His reason, more mature, and at the same time, perturbed more than formerly, would revolt.
All that had happened to him would appear absurd; all that surrounded him would appear impossible. He would say to himself, ‘It is a dream’. He would look at the jailer standing a few steps from him, and imagine him a phantom, when all at once the phantom would give him a blow with a stick. For him the external world had scarcely an existence. It would be almost true to say that for Jean Valjean there was no sun, no beautiful summer days, no radiant sky; no fresh April dawn, some dim window light was all that shone in his soul.”We know people who are Jean’s spiritual counterparts. They seem confused; for them the sun does not shine; the moon is darkened and the stars are smitten and life is a painful round. Life for them is one prolonged agony, and speech only an expression of pain, and breaths are but sighs.It is interesting, therefore, to watch this man work his way out into the light again; and to study the process by which he reachedTHE PROPER ‘When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; “Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. “Surely Thou didst set them in slippery places: Thou castedst them down into destruction. “How are they brought into desolation, as in a, moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. “As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise their image. “Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. “So foolish was I, and ignorant; I was as a beast before Thee. “Nevertheless I am continually with Thee: Thou hast holden me by my right hand” (Psalms 73:16-23). This part of the Scripture is full of spiritual suggestion and soul profit.It was in the sanctuary that he was shown the way. For how many millions of men has the sanctuary, the holy place, the house of God, become the place of enlightenment. I was preaching in a theatre in this city, some twenty-five years ago. It was a secular place temporarily converted into a sanctuary. A young man of Jewish belief casually dropped in because it was the noon hour; his meal was over, and the work time was not yet. Twenty years later he bore his testimony, “It was in that meeting that I saw the way out of the wretched life that I was leading, and from that time I have walked in a path of sexual purity.”It was in a church in Indiana thirty-five years ago that I lectured one night, but introduced into the lecture a spiritual appeal.
Fully one-fourth of a century later one came to me and said, “Up to that time I had been addicted to liquor; but in the sanctuary that night I saw the better way.”It was less than a year ago that a letter came to my desk. It rehearsed a life of sin and consequent failure, a sinking of heart and a decision to suicide.
But on the way to the river, which was open, being early spring, the house of God was passed, and the man said, “I thought I had best go in and see what could be said to one who had lost all hope. I entered; you preached; the Word laid hold upon my heart. I saw my folly and determined to live, and to live as God would have me live.”Oh, how much the sanctuary has meant to men! How many millions have seen the way there who would never have seen it had the sanctuary not been, or had their folly kept them from entering.The “Literary Digest” of January 19, 1929, carries an article from the pen of Ward Adair, Editor of the “Railway Men”, a monthly publication of the New York Central lines, written for the Homiletical Review, on “Shall I Leave the Church?” It is worthy of the perusal of any man, and especially of the young man. Adair says this, “Frankly, I am disappointed with many things about the church. I find her program lacking in grasp and aggressiveness, her methods bungling and unintelligent, her leadership inadequate, and her opportunities bigger than she is able to cope with.” And then he adds, “When I can find a superior organization to supplant the Christian Church of the present day, I will feel it both my duty and my privilege to leave an institution that is marred by imperfections, and give time, effort, and allegiance to the newer and better instrument for the welfare of the human family, and for the bringing of the kingdom of God on earth.” And further, “If the brilliant minds in the realm of atheism, agnosticism, indifferentism, and simple nonconformity, would unite their powers to invent a new and better agency, it would not seem altogether impossible, with the boundless increase of enlightenment which the centuries have brought, to improve vastly upon the loosely organized and poorly managed organization which twelve ignorant men brought into being nineteen centuries ago.” But he declares finally, “Such a preferable institution seems far from easy. * * It might not be unjust to say that the visible prospect of success is not one whit more in evidence than it was five hundred years ago.”Then, if the sanctuary is the best we have, let us patronize it; and if it is not what it ought to be, let us make our personal contribution and improve it.
If it is true today, as it was then, that men, who, in their meanderings, are lost seldom or never find their way, save in the sanctuary, let us do our part to get them within the sacred walls.It was then that he understood the justice of God’s judgments. It is in the sanctuary that one gets not only a clear, but a more extensive view of God’s dealings with men, for the sanctuary holds the history of at least six thousand years, and as one sees the books opened and the inspired penman pictures the past, he finds that God is in His world and that His judgments are just.
The day that Cain killed Abel it seemed as if the wicked had triumphed; but when judgment came upon Cain his cry was, “My punishment is greater than I can bear”. There was a day when it looked as though Haman, the wicked was favored beyond Mordecai, the righteous and loyal Jew; but time exchanged their positions and Mordecai came into the King’s favor and Haman hung on his own gallows. There was a time when it looked like Absalom, the rebel, the ingrate, the parasite, was the prospered man in all the land, and the popular idol of the people; but there came a day when that young beauty hung between earth and sky, dead in his dishonor; and David, God’s man, while sorrow-stricken, was saved. There was a time when Dives, the prospered wicked, came out his front gate and either turned his head that he might not see the festering form of the righteous Lazarus, or turned upon him a contemptuous stare; but there came a day when Dives, the first, was in hell, and in torment, and Lazarus, the second, was in blessed peace in Abraham’s bosom.There is a better reason for having the righteous holy come out ahead in works of fiction than the mere attempt to gratify the reader. Fiction is only popular in proportion as it reflects fact, and the observing writer knows that facts favor the justification of the righteous and the condemnation of the wicked. The man who stands before a good mirror always sees the reflection of his own face; but the man who looks into the mirror of history sees not so much the reflection of God’s face as he does the record of God’s just judgment; and where is there such history; history so clear; history so dependable as in the sanctuary?
The pulpit Bible is the best mirror of man’s history found in existence. The histories that Wells and Van Loon have contributed to the world reflect the infidelity of their own brains and are composed of fiction vs. fact; but the history that was started by Moses and completed by John, reviews the life struggle of man as perfectly as Lake Louise, on a glorious day, reflects the mountains that stand on either side.
That is one reason that the Bible has been the basis of true faith, the guide in conduct, the monitor of character, and finally the solution of life’s problems and the justification of the Divine orders.In this truth the Psalmist found both rebuke and blessing. The rebuke was felt first and the Psalmist voices it after this manner,“So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. “Nevertheless I am continually with Thee: Thou hast holden me by my right hand. “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to Glory. “Whom have I in Heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. “For, lo, they that are far from Thee shall perish: Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from Thee. “But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that L may declare all Thy works” (Psalms 73:22-28). The man who can sing after that manner is the man who need not fear. Like the morning, or the heart of the noon-day, or the darkness that follows the sundown, he can join with Horatio Bonar in saying, and even singing, O wondrous day!— God’s day, not man’s, as heretofore; Christ’s hour, not Satan’s as before; When right shall all be might, And might shall all be right; And truth, for ages sorely tried, By error mocked, reviled, defied, No longer on the losing side, Shall celebrate its victory, And wave its ancient palm on high; When good and ill unmixed flow on for ever, Each in its distant channel fixed, An everlasting river!