Psalm 73:18

Psalms 73:18

Surely thou didst set them in slippery places
In which a man cannot stand long, and without danger; and the higher they are the more dangerous, being slippery, and such are places of honour and riches. The phrase denotes the uncertainty and instability of these things, and the danger men are in who are possessed of them of falling into destruction and misery. The Targum is,

``thou didst set them in darkness;''

to be in slippery places, and in the dark, is very uncomfortable, unsafe, and dangerous indeed; See ( Psalms 35:6 ) ( Jeremiah 23:12 ) and it may be observed, that all this honour, promotion, and riches, are of God; it is he that sets them in these places of honour and profit; and he that sets them up can pull them down, as he does; so it follows,

thou castest them down into destruction:
into temporal destruction, by removing them from their high stations into a very low, mean, and contemptible state, as were Shebna and Nebuchadnezzar, ( Isaiah 22:15 Isaiah 22:19 ) ( Daniel 4:24 Daniel 4:25 ) and into everlasting destruction, from whence there is no recovery; see ( Psalms 55:23 ) .