(A Psalm of Asaph.) Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are of a pure heart.
Asaph opens with a settled conviction about God's goodness, before he says a word about himself. But he adds a limit at once — that goodness belongs to Israel, and then only to the "pure in heart."
The psalm's first line and its last line answer each other.
The writer opens this beautiful Psalm with a simple but blessed statement about God. He closes with a happy conclusion about himself. "Truly God is good" is the statement of the first verse; "it is good for me to draw near to God" is the conclusion of the last verse. Accept the statement and we must agree with the conclusion.
The verse says something narrower than "God is kind to everyone."
The statement, however, is not a general declaration of God's goodness toward all His creatures — true as that would be. It is the assertion that "God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart." The great object of the Psalm is to prove God's absolute goodness to His people. That goodness holds through the trying circumstances they may have to pass through, the sorrows they may face, and the sufferings they may have to endure.
The second half of the verse decides who belongs. Descent from Israel is not the qualification; the heart is.
The Spirit looks at Israel as a people, but recognises only those "of a pure heart" as Israel. "A Jew is one inwardly." It is now clear that "not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel"; still Israel's importance stands. "God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart." Yet he had almost slipped, and his feet had almost gone. He envied the foolish when he saw the prosperity of the wicked.
The verse names two things about God at once: mercy that stays faithful, and holiness He looks for in His people.
This Psalm has a very definite character of its own, besides its general application in principle to the circumstances of individual faith. That character shows in the opening verse, which contains the proper subject of the Psalm. The verse celebrates the name of Jehovah as the God of faithful mercy to Israel. He is the God of judgment too, who asks for truth and holiness in the hearts of His people — and in the mystery of His own grace He provides them. He is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart (verse 1).
Verse 1 states the truth. Verse 2 shows the writer almost losing his footing.
"Truly God is good to Israel," the psalmist affirms. Then he adds that, in keeping with the holiness of God's nature, this is "to the pure in heart." That is the truth, but it is not always easy to grasp and hold. He had not found it so: his feet had almost gone, his steps slipped. The wicked boasted of their prosperity, and it moved him to envy them. The ways of God grew dark to him, while their lot seemed bright.
One writer reads the verse forward, to the day when nothing in sight will contradict it.
When God is truly "good to Israel," their own law limits it to those of a "clean heart," or pure in heart (Psalm 73:1). Only then will He receive them to (or with) glory (verse 24)… His people are at last under the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34), and will be all righteous (Isaiah 60:21).
Commentators differ. Some read the psalm as Israel's future story; others as any believer's experience under pressure.
- Good — stated. The psalm opens with a verdict, not a question: God is good. Everything after verse 1 is the story of how the writer came to believe his own opening line.
- Good — to whom. Not a broad remark about God's kindness to all creatures. It is a claim about His goodness to His people while they suffer.
- Good — and holy. The clause "pure in heart" keeps the goodness consistent with God's character; He looks for the clean heart, and by grace He gives it.
- Good — contested. Asaph states the truth, then almost loses it. Envy at the prosperity of the wicked made his steps slip.
- Good — proved. What begins as "God is good" ends as "it is good for me to draw near to God." Accept the first and you cannot escape the second.
But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped;
Psalm 73 opens with a settled truth about God's goodness. Then the writer confesses how close he came to losing his footing on it — the sight of the world nearly took him off the path.
Verse 1 states the truth. Verse 2 is where the psalm's action begins — an experience God's people have known again and again.
The action of the Psalm begins with the second verse. It seems to describe, as a prophecy, the inner conflict of soul that the faithful remnant of Israel will know. In some measure this has always been the experience of such people when a nation turns away from God. Then the long-delayed hope of God's afflicted people seems more than ever to be mocked by the untroubled prosperity of the ungodly.
The truth in verse 1 comes with a condition attached. Verse 2 shows how hard that truth is to hold.
"Truly God is good to Israel," the psalmist affirms. Then he adds that, in keeping with the holiness of God's nature, this is "to the pure in heart." That is the truth, but it is not always easy to grasp and hold. He had not found it so: his feet had nearly gone, his steps slipped.
"Almost stumbled" does not describe a public collapse. Nothing in his behaviour gave him away; we only know about it because he tells us.
The Psalmist tells us that as he passed through an evil world, there came a day when his feet were almost gone, and his steps had nearly slipped. It is written, "the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life." That was as true for the godly Psalmist in his day as it is for the Christian today. A narrow path needs only a single false step on either side to miss the way. The Psalmist's path was not marred by any obvious failure that would have disgraced him in the eyes of the world. No angry or impatient words had passed his lips to betray the state of his heart, and yet he had nearly slipped. If we did not have his own confession, no one would have known this from his conduct and speech.
The same writer names what was really slipping, and how it happened.
Despite how things looked, he confesses that he had nearly lost confidence in God. His feet had almost slipped from the rock. He also lets us know how his confidence in God came to be so severely shaken. The secret comes out. He was occupied with evil while out of touch with God. So he had a limited and distorted view of the evil. He saw the prosperity of the wicked, and he saw the adversity of the godly. As a result he envied the portion of the wicked, he undervalued the portion of the godly, and he nearly lost confidence in God.
Another writer presses past the envy to the motive underneath it.
Though the evidence was perfectly clear that God is good to Israel, Asaph himself was in a quandary. Why? Because he saw the prosperity of the wicked. Though he believed in the goodness of God, he was envious of those who could boast of wealth and prominence. Many have followed his lead in this natural tendency. What is the motive behind this envy? It is plain, obvious selfishness!
What happened to Asaph still happens. One writer turns it straight on the reader.
Still, we often do exactly what Asaph did. We look around, and seeing the prosperity of the wicked we envy them. As a result our feet are almost gone, our steps have nearly slipped. In this we disobey the instructions of Psalm 37. We fret because of evildoers, we envy those who do wrong, and we end by fretting in a way that leads us to do evil. Asaph could find no clue in this world to explain God's dealings, and neither can we. We shall have to do what Asaph did.
Later in the psalm the picture turns inside out. Seen from the sanctuary — the place of God's presence — the slipping belongs to the other side.
It looked as if the Psalmist had been in the slippery places, for had not his steps nearly slipped? The wicked, on the other hand, seemed to stand firm on a rock, for did they not prosper and increase in riches? In fact the godly soul was on the rock, though shaking; and the wicked were in slippery places, though prospering. Away from the sanctuary, the prosperity of the wicked cast the godly man down. From the sanctuary, he sees that in the end they will be cast down.
- Look — the slide starts with the eyes. He saw the wicked prosper and the godly suffer, and judged God by what he could see.
- Slip — the fall is inward before it is anything else. No harsh word, no public failure; only a confession we would never have guessed from his conduct.
- Root — under the envy lies selfishness, and under the perplexity lies a heart busy with evil and out of touch with God.
- Reversal — the shaking man was on the rock; the prospering man was on the slippery ground. Only the sanctuary shows which is which.
- Return — this world holds no clue to explain God's dealings. In the sanctuary the psalmist sees how it ends for the wicked; we must do what Asaph did.
For I was envious at the arrogant, seeing the prosperity of the wicked.
Asaph opens this psalm by admitting that his feet had nearly slipped. Verse 3 names the reason: he looked at people who live without God and saw them doing well. The sight bred envy, and envy shook a man who trusted God's goodness.
The people Asaph envies are not just rich. Another translation brings out both their pride and their ease. Set beside the verses that follow, it shows what he was staring at:
For I was envious at the arrogant (fools), seeing the peace of wicked (men). For there are no pangs in their death, and their strength is firm... Therefore has pride enchained them, a garment of violence covers them.
One writer names exactly what caught him:
What was the snare? He describes it. It was the prosperity of the wicked, and their unabashed arrogance. Things it seems were flourishing with them, having more than heart could wish (3-9). All of that had a terrible effect on others. It drew people aside into a seemingly easier path — people who should have resisted the temptation.
Asaph believed in God's goodness and envied wealth at the same time. Commentators press the question of motive:
Though he was a believer in the goodness of God, he was envious of those who could boast of wealth and prominence. This is a very real test for everyone. What is the motive behind this envy? It is plain, obvious selfishness! How much better to weigh this matter from God's viewpoint rather than our own.
The same trap is described in Psalm 37, where fretting and envy are twins:
Alas, it is this envy that lies at the bottom of the fretting. We are under trial, and the worker of iniquity seems to be having such an easy time. We cannot bear it! We are like a child in a nursery who pouts and frets because the other child has an apple a size larger than the one given to it — and the owner of the big apple was the naughty child of the nursery! Oh, what mischief envy can work in the heart of a saint! And what misery too it can produce, and what sin!
Grief at evil is right. Envy shows something else has crept in alongside it:
We see the ungodly having their way, so that God seems to have forgotten, and the heart is envious. But too often it shows that our heart still wants its portion here — at least a portion here as well as one to come. Sorrow at the power of evil in the world is right. But in our minds it mixes with a liking for our own way and our own judgment in setting that evil aside. When our own will mixes into the sense of evil's success, we grow irritated or discouraged. Then we give up persevering in good.
The prosperity itself is not the strange part. Our reaction is:
It is no great surprise that in a world without God the ungodly prosper. The surprise is that godly people are so often upset when they see it. There was some excuse for Asaph, for he lived in a day when heavenly things were not clearly revealed... We live in a day when heavenly things are clearly revealed. As Christians we have been plainly told that "through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."
Asaph read his own daily discipline as evidence against him. The New Testament reverses the reading:
There is also the solemn reminder: if we go without the discipline that all sons share, then we are illegitimate children and not sons... Asaph did not understand this, and so he says, "I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked... They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind." But of himself he says, "All the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning."
God's dealing with a person is a sign of relationship, not rejection:
The fact that God dealt with those people shows that they were His saints. God doesn't deal with the world in that way. That is the great thing in Psalm 73.
Verse 3 raises a problem the world cannot solve. The psalm itself shows where Asaph found the answer.
Asaph stepped away from the world and its confusing circumstances so that he might get in touch with God. Looking around, he nearly stumbled. It looked as if God were favouring the ungodly and punishing the righteous. But in the sanctuary he caught a glimpse of things that lie far outside this world, and his perplexities ended.
- Look — Asaph's slip begins with a sideways glance at people marked by arrogance as much as by ease. Their pride was on open display, and he envied them anyway.
- Envy — the motive underneath is plain selfishness: the heart wants a portion here as well as one to come.
- Distortion — when our own will mixes in with the sight of evil succeeding, we grow irritated or discouraged and stop persevering in good.
- Correction — the untroubled life is not the favoured one. God's discipline marks out sons, and He does not deal with the world that way.
- Sanctuary — the riddle has no answer inside this world. Asaph stepped out of his circumstances into God's presence, and there his perplexity ended.