INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 73 A PSALM OF ASAPH. 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 2 Chronicles 29:30, though it may be rendered, "a psalm for Asaph", or "unto Asaph" a; and might have David for its author, as s... [ Continue Reading ]
TRULY GOD IS GOOD TO ISRAEL,.... To Israel, literally understood; in choosing them to be his people above all people on earth; in bringing them into a good land; in favouring them with many external privileges, civil and religious; in giving them his word, statutes, and ordinances, as he did not to... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT AS FOR ME,.... Who am one of the Israel of God whose heart has been renewed and purified by the grace of God, and to whom he has been kind and good in a thousand instances; yet, ungrateful creature that I am, MY FEET WERE ALMOST GONE; out of the good ways of God, the ways of truth and holiness... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I WAS ENVIOUS AT THE FOOLISH,.... The atheists, as in Psalms 14:1, who deny the creation, as Arama; the wicked, as after explained, as all wicked men are, how wise soever they may be in things natural and civil, yet in religious things, in things of a spiritual nature, they have no understandin... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THERE ARE NO BANDS IN THEIR DEATH,.... Nothing that binds and straitens them, afflicts and distresses them; they have no pain of mind nor of body, but die at once, suddenly, in a moment, wholly at ease and quiet, without any bitterness of soul; see Job 21:13, or "there are no bands until their d... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY ARE NOT IN TROUBLE, AS OTHER MEN,.... Either of body or of mind, as the saints are, who through many tribulations enter the kingdom; or are not in "labour" h, do not labour for food and raiment, or get their bread by the sweat of their brow, as poor men do; nor are weary, so Arama: "neither are... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE PRIDE COMPASSETH THEM ABOUT AS A CHAIN,.] Which was the sin of the devils, and of our first parents, and of Sodom, and is the sin of antichrist and which, of all sins, is most hateful to God; this arises from, at least is increased by, outward prosperity. Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked; pri... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 7 THEIR EYES STAND OUT WITH FATNESS,.... Or their face, the eyes being put for the whole face; so the Targum, "their face is changed, because of fatness;'' see Job 15:27, otherwise through fatness the eyes are almost enclosed: or "it goes forth out of the fatness of their eyes" i; that is, ei... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY ARE CORRUPT,.... In themselves, in their principles, and in their practices, being shapen and conceived in sin, and born of the flesh; and are corrupters, or "corrupt" themselves, and their ways, and also others by their corrupt speech, evil communications, and bad examples: or "they consume aw... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SET THEIR MOUTH AGAINST THE HEAVENS,.... Against God in heaven, see Daniel 4:26, against his being, saying, there is no God; against his perfections, thinking him to be such an one as themselves; against his purposes and decrees, replying against him, and charging him with insincerity, cruelty,... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE HIS PEOPLE RETURN HITHER,.... Either the true people of God, and so the Targum, the people of the Lord, and whom the psalmist owned for his people; for the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, read "my people"; who seeing the prosperity of the wicked, and feeli... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SAY, HOW DOTH GOD KNOW?.... Owning there is a God, but questioning his knowledge; for the words are not an inquiry about the way and manner of his knowing things; which is not by the senses, as hearing and seeing; eyes and ears are improperly ascribed to him; nor in a discursive way, by rea... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, THESE ARE THE UNGODLY,.... Who say and do as before declared; such as these must be without the knowledge of God, the fear, love, and worship of him: who prosper in the world; in worldly and temporal things, in their bodies and outward estates, but not in their souls and spiritual things: "i... [ Continue Reading ]
VERILY, I HAVE CLEANSED MY HEART IN VAIN,.... Which supposes that his heart had been unclean, as every man's is, and which appears by what is in it, and by what comes out of it; that it was now cleansed, not in an absolute and legal sense, as if it was wholly free from sin, for this no man can say;... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ALL THE DAY LONG HAVE I BEEN PLAGUED,.... "Smitten or scourged" p, as in Psalms 73:5, that is, afflicted of God; which is no ways inconsistent with his love, nor with his covenant, nor with an interest in him, as a covenant God and Father; see Psalms 89:29, AND CHASTENED EVERY MORNING; not in w... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I SAY, I WILL SPEAK THUS,.... Either as the wicked do, Psalms 73:8 or rather as he had thought in his own mind, Psalms 73:13, wherefore he kept it all to himself, and did not make known to others the reasonings of his mind, and the temptations he laboured under: BEHOLD, I SHOULD OFFEND AGAINST... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN I THOUGHT TO KNOW THIS,.... How to reconcile the prosperity of the wicked, and the afflictions of the righteous, to the perfections of God, and his wise providence in the government of the world, by the mere dint of reason, without consulting the sacred oracles, or his own and others' experienc... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTIL I WENT INTO THE SANCTUARY OF GOD,.... The tabernacle or house of God, where the Word of God was read and explained, prayer was made, and sacrifices offered up, and where fellowship was had with the saints, and communion with God himself; which for one hour or moment is preferable to all the pr... [ Continue Reading ]
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... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW ARE THEY BROUGHT INTO DESOLATION, AS IN A MOMENT?.... Very suddenly, which is often the case of wicked men, who cry Peace and safety, and sudden destruction comes upon them, 1 Thessalonians 5:3, so as in a moment were the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Pharaoh and his host, and of Korah an... [ Continue Reading ]
AS A DREAM WHEN ONE AWAKETH,.... So will be all the temporal felicity of wicked men, all an illusion, all a dream; when they lift up their eyes in hell, and awake in the resurrection, they will find themselves destitute of all their riches and honours, and it will be as if they had only dreamed of t... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS MY HEART WAS GRIEVED,.... Not with his own sins, nor with the sins of the wicked, but at their prosperity; for this is an account of himself, while under the temptation, and before he went into the sanctuary of the Lord; or when he was "leavened" r, with the old leaven of wickedness, and envy,... [ Continue Reading ]
SO FOOLISH WAS I,.... To envy the prosperity of the wicked, which is of so short a continuance; to arraign the providence and perfections of God, and to conclude so hastily that there was nothing in religion: AND IGNORANT; or, "I knew not" w; what he attempted to know, Psalms 73:16, nor the end of... [ Continue Reading ]
NEVERTHELESS, I AM CONTINUALLY WITH THEE,.... Upon the heart of God, in his hands, under his eye, under his wings of protection and care, and not suffered to depart from him finally and totally; he could not be disunited and removed from him by the above temptation; nor was he left to cast off the f... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT GUIDE ME WITH THY COUNSEL,.... Which is wise and prudent, wholesome, suitable, and seasonable, hearty, sincere, and faithful, and which is freely given, and when taken, infallibly succeeds: or "according to thy counsel" a; the determinate counsels, purposes, and will of God, which were of... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOM HAVE I IN HEAVEN BUT THEE,.... Which includes God the Father, Son, and Spirit; God the Father, as his only covenant God and Father; Christ as his only Mediator, Saviour, and Redeemer, Head, Husband, Advocate, and Intercessor; the Spirit as his only sanctifier, Comforter, earnest, and sealer; an... [ Continue Reading ]
MY FLESH AND MY HEART FAILETH,.... Either through vehement desires of communion with God deferred, see Psalms 84:2 or through afflictive dispensations of Providence, being smitten and chastened continually, Psalms 73:14, or through inward trials and exercises, by reason of indwelling sin, temptation... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR, LO, THEY THAT ARE FAR FROM THEE,.... Who are alienated from the life of God, far from the law of God, and subjection and obedience to it; and from righteousness either moral or evangelical, and from the love and fear of God, and worship of him: SHALL PERISH; not merely at death, as even righte... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT IT IS GOOD FOR ME TO DRAW NEAR TO GOD,.... In prayer, and other acts of religious worship; to attend the word and ordinances in the sanctuary, where the psalmist had lately been delivered out of a sore temptation, and so had a recent experience, which was fresh in his mind, of the advantages of... [ Continue Reading ]