Psalms 73:13-23

13 All in vain have I 1kept my heart clean and 2washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been 3stricken and 4rebuked 5every morning.
15 If I had said, "I will speak thus," I would have betrayed 6the generation of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me 7a wearisome task,
17 until I went into 8the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their 9end.
18 Truly you set them in 10slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed 11in a moment, swept away utterly by 12terrors!
20 Like 13a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when 14you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was 15brutish and ignorant; I was like 16a beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you 17hold my right hand.

Psalms 73:13-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 73

\\<>\\. It seems by the title that Asaph was the penman of this psalm, as it is certain that he was a composer of psalms and hymns; see 2Ch 29:30, though it may be rendered, "a psalm for Asaph", or "unto Asaph" {a}; and might have David for its author, as some think, who, having penned it, sent it to Asaph, to be made use of by him in public service; see 1Ch 16:7, and so the Targum paraphrases it, ``a song by the hands of Asaph;'' the occasion of it was a temptation the psalmist fell into, through the prosperity of the wicked, and the afflictions of the righteous, to think there was nothing in religion, that it was a vain and useless thing; under which he continued until he went into the house of God, and was taught better; when he acknowledged his stupidity and folly, and penned this psalm, to prevent others falling into the same snare, and to set forth the goodness of God to his people, with which it begins.

Cross References 17

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.