Psalms 73:2-26

2 But my feet had almost slipped. I had almost tripped and fallen.

3 I saw that proud and sinful people were doing well. And I began to long for what they had.

4 They don't have any troubles. Their bodies are healthy and strong.

5 They don't have the problems others have. They don't suffer as other people do.

6 Their pride is like a necklace. They put on meanness as if it were their clothes.

7 Many sins come out of their hard and stubborn hearts. There is no limit to their proud and evil thoughts.

8 They laugh at others and speak words of hatred. They are proud. They warn others about the harm they can do to them.

9 They brag as if they owned heaven itself. They talk as if they controlled the earth.

10 So people listen to them. They lap up their words like water.

11 They say, "How can God know what we're doing? Does the Most High God really know that much?"

12 Here is what sinful people are like. They don't have a care in the world. They keep getting richer and richer.

13 It seems as if I have kept my heart pure without any reason. It didn't do me any good to wash my hands to show that I wasn't guilty of doing anything wrong.

14 Day after day I've been in pain. God has punished me every morning.

15 What if I had said, "I will speak as evil people do"? Then I wouldn't have been faithful to God's children.

16 I tried to understand it all. But it was more than I could handle.

17 It troubled me until I entered God's temple. Then I understood what will happen to bad people in the end.

18 God, I'm sure you will make them slip and fall. You will throw them down and destroy them.

19 It will happen very suddenly. A terrible death will take them away completely.

20 A dream goes away when a person wakes up. Lord, it will be like that when you rise up. It will be as if those people were only a dream.

21 At one time my heart was sad and my spirit was bitter.

22 I didn't have any sense. I didn't know anything. I acted like a wild animal toward you.

23 But I am always with you. You hold me by my right hand.

24 You give me wise advice to guide me. And when I die, you will take me away into the glory of heaven.

25 I don't have anyone in heaven but you. I don't want anything on earth besides you.

26 My body and my heart may grow weak. God, you give strength to my heart. You are everything I will ever need.

Psalms 73:2-26 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.