This psalm (with the ten succeeding psalms, together with Psalms 50 - twelve in all) is ascribed to Asaph, unless the reading in the margin, “for Asaph” be correct. The most natural sense of the expression in the title, however, is that they are psalms of Asaph; that is, that they were composed by h... [ Continue Reading ]
TRULY GOD IS GOOD TO ISRAEL - That is, to his people; to the righteous; to those who serve him. That is, God is the “real” friend of the righteous. He has not forgotten them. He does not abandon them. He is not indifferent to them. He is not the friend of wicked people; and the administration of his... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT AS FOR ME - literally, “And I.” The meaning is, “And I, who so confidently now trust in God, and believe that he is good, was formerly in a far different state of mind; I was so hesitating, so troubled, and so doubtful, that I had almost entirely lost confidence in him as a wise and just moral g... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I WAS ENVIOUS AT THE FOOLISH - The word “foolish” here refers to sinners. It may either refer to them as foolish, or as proud, insolent, vain - for so the word is elsewhere used. See Psalms 14:1. WHEN I SAW THE PROSPERITY OF THE WICKED - More literally, “the peace of the wicked.” The reference... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THERE ARE NO BANDS IN THEIR DEATH - The word rendered “bands” here means properly “cords tightly drawn,” Isaiah 58:6; then, pains, pangs, torments - “as if” one were twisted or tortured with pain, as a cord is closely twisted. The word occurs only in Isaiah 58:6, and in this place. The fact whic... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY ARE NOT IN TROUBLE AS OTHER MEN - Margin, “In the trouble of other men.” Literally, “In the labor of man they are not;” that is, they are exempt from the common burdens and troubles of humanity, or those which pertain to man as man. There seems to be some special interposition in their favor to... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE PRIDE COMPASSETH THEM ABOUT AS A CHAIN - Therefore they are proud, haughty, imperious. They put on the ornaments and trappings of pride; their clothing and their adorning all are indicative of a proud heart. They seem to imagine that they are better than others, and that they are treated i... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR EYES STAND OUT WITH FATNESS - As the fruit of their high living. They are not weakened and emaciated by toil and want, as other men often are. Compare the notes at Psalms 17:10. THEY HAVE MORE THAN HEART COULD WISH - Margin, “they pass the thoughts of the heart.” Literally, “the imaginations o... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY ARE CORRUPT - literally, “they mock.” The word rendered “they are corrupt” never has this signification. It is the very word - מוק _mûq_ - from which our word mock is derived, and means the same thing. The idea is that they deride religion, or mock at all that pertains to God, and to the retri... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SET THEIR MOUTH AGAINST THE HEAVENS - Compare Revelation 13:6. Literally, “They set their mouth in heaven,” or in the heavens. The idea is, they speak as if they were “in” the heavens; as if they were clothed with all authority; as if they were superior beings, and had a right to command the un... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE HIS PEOPLE - Those that truly love God; the pious in the earth. RETURN HITHER - Return to this subject. In their musings - their meditations on divine things - they come back to this inquiry. The subject occupies their minds, and they recur to it as a subject which perplexes them; as a th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SAY - His people say. The connection demands this interpretation. The meaning is, that his people, as they return again and again to this subject Psalms 73:10, are constrained to put this question. They are compelled by these facts to start such painful inquiries about God; and distressing... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, THESE ARE THE UNGODLY, WHO PROSPER IN THE WORLD - This is also to be understood as the language of the good man perplexed and embarrassed by the fact that the wicked are prosperous and happy. The meaning is, “Lo, these are wicked people - people of undoubted depravity; they are people who li... [ Continue Reading ]
VERILY I HAVE CLEANSED MY HEART IN VAIN - That is, There is no advantage in all my efforts to become pure and holy. It does not assist me in obtaining the favor of God; and it would be just as well to live a sinful life - to indulge in the pleasures of sense - to make the world my portion. Nothing i... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ALL THE DAY LONG - Continually. All my life. HAVE I BEEN PLAGUED - Smitten; afflicted; troubled. My life has been a life of trial. I have not known prosperity. AND CHASTENED EVERY MORNING - Margin, as in Hebrew, “My chastisement was.” That is, my sufferings - my trials - have been repeated wit... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I SAY, I WILL SPEAK THUS - If I should resolve to give expression to my feelings. If I should utter all that is passing in my mind and my heart. It is implied here that he had “not” given utterance to these thoughts, but had confined them to his own bosom. He knew how they might be regarded by ot... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN I THOUGHT TO KNOW THIS - When I endeavored to comprehend this, or to explain it to myself. The idea is that he “thought” on the subject, or “meditated” on it with a view to be able to understand it. He did not express his opinions and feelings to others, but he dwelt on them in his own mind; no... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTIL I WENT INTO THE SANCTUARY OF GOD - The word “sanctuary” we now apply to a place of public worship; and, thus understood, the passage here would mean that he learned the truth on the subject only by the statements and disclosures made there in regard to the divine plans and dealings, and the re... [ Continue Reading ]
SURELY THOU DIDST SET THEM IN SLIPPERY PLACES - Not in a solid and permanent position; not where their foothold would be secure, but as on smooth and slippery rocks, where they would be liable any moment to fall into the foaming billows. However prosperous their condition may seem to be now, yet it... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW ARE THEY BROUGHT INTO DESOLATION, AS IN A MOMENT! - How suddenly and unexpectedly does destruction come upon them! Nothing can be argued from their apparent prosperity, for there is no ground of security in “that,” no basis for an argument that it will continue. The end must be seen in order to... [ Continue Reading ]
AS A DREAM WHEN ONE AWAKETH - Their prosperity is like the visions of a dream; the reality is seen when one awakes. A man in a dream may imagine that he is a king; that he dwells in a palace; that he is surrounded by flatterers and courtiers; that he walks in pleasant groves, listens to the sounds o... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS MY HEART WAS GRIEVED - literally, and more expressively, “was soured.” The meaning is, that his heart was grieved, pained, dissatisfied. His mind was embittered, and he was rendered unhappy, by the views which he cherished about God, as doubting the wisdom and justice of his dealings with peopl... [ Continue Reading ]
SO FOOLISH WAS I, AND IGNORANT - Such low and imperfect views did I take of the subject. The margin is, “I knew not.” So the Hebrew: “And I am brutish, and know not;” that is, I did not understand the case; I had no correct views in regard to it. I WAS AS A BEAST BEFORE THEE - Margin, as in Hebrew,... [ Continue Reading ]
NEVERTHELESS, I AM CONTINUALLY WITH THEE - I am kept by thee in the land of the living; I am permitted to abide in thy presence; I am allowed to hope in thy mercy. Notwithstanding my low and unworthy views, notwithstanding my doubts about the justice of the divine administration, notwithstanding my... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT GUIDE ME WITH THY COUNSEL - With thy advice; with thy teaching. This implies two things: (a) his belief that God “would” do this, notwithstanding his folly; and (b) his purpose that God “should” be his guide now. He would no longer murmur or complain, but would entrust all to God, and... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOM HAVE I IN HEAVEN BUT THEE? - literally, “Who is to me in the heavens?” That is, There is no one there that in my love for him can be compared with thee; no one who can do for me what thou canst do; no one who can meet and satisfy the needs of my soul as thou canst; no one who can be to me what... [ Continue Reading ]
MY FLESH AND MY HEART FAILETH - Flesh and heart here seem to refer to the whole man, body and soul; and the idea is, that his powers of body and mind failed; were spent; were exhausted. This seems to have been said in an “ideal” sense, or by anticipation. He does not mean to say that his strength th... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR, LO, THEY THAT ARE FAR FROM THEE SHALL PERISH - All that are estranged from thee; all who are not thy friends. They will certainly be destroyed. For them there can be no hope. This is the fact which solved the difficulty of the psalmist in regard to the divine dealings with people, Psalms 73:3.... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT IT IS GOOD FOR ME TO DRAW NEAR TO GOD - That is, It is pleasant; it is profitable; it is the chief good. For myself, happiness is to be found in that alone; there I find what my nature pants for and desires. Others find, or attempt to find, happiness in other things; my happiness is found in God... [ Continue Reading ]