Psalms 73:10-20

10 That is why God's people turn to wickedness and swallow their words.
11 Then wicked people ask, "What does God know?" "Does the Most High know anything?"
12 Look how wicked they are! They never have a worry. They grow more and more wealthy.
13 I've received no reward for keeping my life pure and washing my hands of any blame.
14 I'm plagued [with problems] all day long, and every morning my punishment [begins again].
15 If I had said, "I will continue to talk like that," I would have betrayed God's people.
16 But when I tried to understand this, it was too difficult for me.
17 Only when I came into God's holy place did I [finally] understand what would happen to them.
18 You put them in slippery places and make them fall into ruin.
19 They are suddenly destroyed. They are completely swept away by terror!
20 As [someone] gets rid of a dream when he wakes up, so you, O Lord, get rid of the thought of them when you wake up.

Psalms 73:10-20 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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