Psalms 73:1-9

1 God is truly good to Israel, to those whose lives are pure.
2 But my feet had almost stumbled. They had almost slipped
3 because I was envious of arrogant people when I saw the prosperity that wicked people enjoy.
4 They suffer no pain. Their bodies are healthy.
5 They have no drudgery in their lives like ordinary people. They are not plagued [with problems] like others.
6 That is why they wear arrogance like a necklace and acts of violence like clothing.
7 Their eyes peer out from their fat faces, and their imaginations run wild.
8 They ridicule. They speak maliciously. They speak arrogantly about oppression.
9 They verbally attack heaven, and they order people around on earth.

Psalms 73:1-9 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.

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