Truly thou settest them in slippery places, thou castest them down in ruins.
The turn in this psalm comes when a man who almost lost his footing sees where the solid ground is. Asaph had envied the prospering wicked; now, from inside the sanctuary, he says God Himself put them where they stand — and that ground is slippery.
Asaph learned nothing new about the wicked. He changed where he stood to look at them.
There is a limit to the conflict of his soul. It goes on "until" he returns to the secret place he had wandered from in spirit — "Until," as he says, "I went into the sanctuary of God" (verse 17). The sanctuary speaks of the presence of God. Outside the sanctuary he looks at evil without God. Inside he views everything, and everyone, with God. What a difference this makes! Outside, he had seen everything in relation to time. Inside, he sees everything in relation to eternity... Man is always short-sighted and can take only a short view. God sees far, and He sees the end from the beginning.
The psalm does not say the wicked stumbled into danger. It says God set them in it.
"Truly You set them in slippery places." Prosperity is not as secure as men think. It is only a slippery slope that leads to destruction (v. 18). It is God who has set them on this slope. They think it is safe, but in the end they find it leads only to destruction.
Asaph did not solve the puzzle by thinking harder about it. He drew near to God, and there an easy life stopped proving anything.
If a man does not understand, he draws nearer to God so that he may. In the sanctuary of His presence God tells him the secret: he sees the end that is coming for the wicked. The "smooth places" in which God sets them are not a sign of His favor or of His indifference. They come just before a terrible fall, which strikes in a moment. Then they are finished, and terrors consume them.
Earlier Asaph admitted that his own steps had nearly slipped. The wicked looked solid. Verse 18 turns the picture around.
It looked as if the Psalmist himself was in the slippery places, for had his steps not almost slipped? The wicked, on the other hand, looked settled on a rock, for did they not prosper in the world and grow richer? In truth the godly soul was on the rock, though shaking; and the wicked were in slippery places, though prospering... Away from God, the prosperity of the wicked looked very real and lasting. In the sanctuary it was only an evil, passing dream.
"You make them fall to ruin" is not a slow decline. It lands at the moment of greatest confidence, and it lands all at once.
Verses 18-20 set out the solemn record of God's righteous judgment on the day He comes to judge. When the Lord rises to judge, the foot of human pride will find that the ground it boasted in is slippery. When they say, "peace and safety," then sudden and complete destruction comes.
Appearances mislead. Do not weigh a life — your own or anyone else's — by its present comfort.
The Holy Spirit puts the child of God on his guard. He tells him not to judge by the look of prosperity, which the wicked seem to enjoy for a time. Death is the appointed portion of all who are not Christ's. "Truly You set them in slippery places; You make them fall to ruin." (Psalm 73)
One road ends in ruin. Asaph found that his own hard road ends somewhere else.
He saw that he could judge both courses rightly only when the end of each came into view — the course of the godless rich, and the course of the plagued and downtrodden saints. A few moments before, envy at the prosperity of the wicked had almost made him fall. Now he cries out, "How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment!"... Yet in the sanctuary he lifts his eyes to God with joy. He confesses, "You shall guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." The end of the one was, brought into desolation. The end of the other, received to glory. The contrast is complete!
- Place — The verse is what a man sees inside the sanctuary. Outside, time measures everything; inside, eternity does.
- Hand — "You set them" — the ease of the wicked is not luck, favour, or God looking away. God Himself placed them there.
- Ground — Prosperity is the slippery slope, not the rock. The shaking believer stands on rock; the settled sinner slides.
- Fall — Judgment falls suddenly and completely. It strikes pride at the very point of its confidence.
- End — Judge by where a road ends, not by how it looks. One ends in desolation. The other ends with God receiving His own to glory.
How are they suddenly made desolate! they pass away, consumed with terrors.
Asaph envied people who did evil and still prospered, and it nearly broke him. Here he finally sees how their story ends — not how their life looks, but how it finishes.
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Asaph could not make sense of the wicked until he went into the sanctuary — the place of God's presence. One writer marks the point where the struggle stopped:
There is a limit to the conflict of his soul. It goes on "until" he returns to that secret place he had wandered from in spirit — "Until," as he says, "I went into the sanctuary of God" (verse 17). The sanctuary speaks of the presence of God. Outside the sanctuary he looks at evil without God. Inside, he views everything, and everyone, with God. What a difference this makes! Outside, he had measured everything by time; inside, he measures everything by eternity.
The previous verse says God set them in slippery places. So their comfortable ground is God's doing, not a sign of what He thinks of them:
The "smooth places" where God sets them are not signs of His favour or of His indifference. They come just before a terrible fall. That fall comes in a moment, and it ends them, consumed with terrors. Their prosperity deceives them. It is only the image of a dream, which vanishes when men wake up.
Asaph opened the psalm saying his own feet had nearly gone. The sanctuary showed him he had it backwards:
It looked as if the psalmist had been in the slippery places, for had not his steps almost slipped? And on the other hand the wicked seemed to stand on a rock, for did they not prosper in the world and grow rich? 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 godly man looked at the prosperity of the wicked and was cast down. From the sanctuary, he sees that in the end they will be cast down.
The verse joins speed, ruin and terror in one line, and the next verse compares the whole thing to waking from sleep. One reading of the wording runs:
They appeared to be prospering, but, says the psalmist, "you set them in slippery places: you cast them down into destruction." Their desolation comes in a moment, and "they pass away, consumed with terrors." When the Lord awakes to judgment, He will despise their image even as a man in his waking moments thinks lightly of some horrible dream.
The psalm sets two endings side by side. Asaph was one of the troubled and disciplined, and his end was the better one:
A few moments earlier he had nearly fallen himself, consumed with envy at the prosperity of the wicked. Now he exclaims, "How they are destroyed in a moment!" Asaph himself was one of the godly, stricken all day long and "rebuked every morning." Yet in the sanctuary he lifts his eyes to God with joy and confesses, "You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will receive me to glory." The end of the one was destruction. The end of the other, received to glory. The contrast is complete!
The moment in this verse arrives at death, and God's long patience before it settles nothing:
Their prosperity was only temporary and brief. They may think that death is the end, but the New Testament tells us, "it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment" (Heb. 9:27). God may be patient about settling His accounts, yet He will settle them with unerring accuracy. Prosperity is not as secure as men think. It is only a slippery slope leading to destruction (v. 18). God is the one who has set them on that slope. They think it is safe, but in the end it leads only to destruction. When death comes, they are brought to desolation in a moment, utterly consumed with terrors.
- Place: Read this verse from one place only — the sanctuary. Outside it, time measures everything; inside, eternity does.
- Prosperity: The smooth ground under the wicked is not God's approval, and not His indifference. It is the slope before the fall.
- Moment: What looked permanent ends in a moment, in terror — like a dream that fades the instant a man wakes.
- Reversal: The one who thought he was slipping stood on the rock. The ones who looked secure stood on slippery ground.
- End: Two roads, two endings — brought to desolation, or received to glory. The end, not the appearance, tells the true story.
As a dream, when one awaketh, wilt thou, Lord, on arising despise their image.
The psalmist had watched the godless prosper until his own footing almost went. Then he entered God's sanctuary. From there he says what such a life will look like when God acts. Two pictures carry the verse: a sleeper waking from a dream, and God Himself waking up. Both ask the same question: what is really solid?
In the sanctuary the psalmist sees that both positions were the opposite of what they looked like.
It looked as if the psalmist had been in the slippery places, for had his steps not almost slipped? And on the other hand the wicked appeared to be firmly established on a rock, for did they not prosper in the world 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, looking at the prosperity of the wicked, the godly man was cast down. Looking at the wicked from the sanctuary, he sees that in the end they will be cast down. Away from God the prosperity of the wicked appeared very real and lasting; in the sanctuary it was only an evil and passing dream.
Why compare a whole life to a dream? Because of how a dream behaves once the sleeper wakes.
"Like a dream when one awakes." Inside he had seen all that lasts and is eternal. Outside, everything was a dream, a horrible nightmare. A dream seems very real while it lasts, but once you wake, not one in a hundred stays in the mind for a moment. The Psalms look at God as asleep, and the cry is, "Awake, why do you sleep, O Jehovah?" That is, He is not publicly stepping into the earth.
God's sleep is His public silence. His waking is the moment He steps in, and the present order of things goes with it.
The earth seems to run its course without Him, and the dream goes on. But one of these days He will awake. When He awakes it will be to the judgment which He has commanded. Then the dream will pass away, and what has substance and is eternal will take its place... Self-will, corruption, and violence hold sway; kingdoms rise and fall, good is trampled down and evil is triumphant; but this will not go on forever. This is only the dream, and men are completely under its power.
The ESV has God despising these lives "as phantoms"; older translations read "despise their image." One writer explains that contempt from ordinary experience.
When the Lord awakes to judgment, He will despise their image, just as a man in his waking moments thinks lightly of some horrible dream.
Commentators differ on when this waking happens. Boyd ties it to God's judgment of the world. Grant ties it to the moment a person dies.
"Their prosperity deceives them, but it is only the image of a dream, and it vanishes when men wake. That is all it proves to be, when the Lord arises and shows it to be their folly and shame." That is, the ungodly wake suddenly when death comes. They find that the Lord has in effect awoken after long patience, to show Himself as despising the image of their dreams.
The verse is one half of a comparison. The psalmist could only finish it once he saw where each road ends.
A few moments before, he had been close to falling himself because he was consumed with envy at the prosperity of the wicked; now he exclaims, "How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment!"... Yet in the sanctuary he lifts his eyes to God with joy and confesses, "You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory." The end of the one was to be brought into desolation. The end of the other, to be received to glory. The contrast is complete!
Boyd draws the practical lesson: nearness to God breaks the dream's hold.
If we draw near to God, we come under the influence of eternal things, and are set free from the influence of this horrible nightmare... If we see what is set up in Christ — and we will learn it if we draw near — we will not be deceived by the apparent prosperity of a world in rebellion against the authority of God.
- Sleep. The Psalms picture God as asleep — not absent, but not stepping in publicly. So evil seems to run its own course.
- Dream. While that silence lasts, the success of the wicked feels solid and permanent, as a dream feels real to the sleeper.
- Waking. When God awakes He acts in judgment, and the dream passes; what has substance and is eternal takes its place.
- Contempt. God treats that whole life the way a waking man treats a nightmare — as nothing worth a thought.
- Sanctuary. The reversal only shows up in God's presence. The shaking believer stood on rock, the settled wicked on a slope. One end is desolation, the other glory. Draw near, and the dream loses its grip.