My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.
This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.
I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.
Psalm 73:4 For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.
Psalm 73:5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Psalm 73:6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.
Psalm 73:7 Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
Psalm 73:8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
Psalm 73:9 They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.
Psalm 73:10 Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.
Psalm 73:11 And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
Psalm 73:12 Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.
Psalm 73:13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
Psalm 73:14 For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.
Psalm 73:15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
As we finished our last post on the first three verses of this psalm we found that Asaph confessed his heart, speaking of his envy of the wicked.
Psalm 73:3 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Quite the confession for a man of God to openly declare. Remember, envy is directly linked to covetousness and is equal with idolatry.
Colossians 3:5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
In this passage, Asaph describes the arrogant, and it is impressive. His perception of the arrogant leaves us with a life of leisure, fatness, image and status. He must surely have spent time witnessing the life of the arrogant, seen their success, and may have joined in their methods of gaining comfort.
He details his analysis of the wicked, of their experiences and finally describes his despair, for while he focuses on the wicked, he expresses he may have chosen the wrong side.
Our passage naturally breaks down into four portions, with each set of verses developing the foundation for the next. Notice the repetition of the word “therefore” in verse 6 and 10. To have the term “therefore” introduced in the passage is to indicate that the given data is the basis, or the reason for the following thoughts.
Lets consider.
No Need of God
Psalm 73:4 For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.
Psalm 73:5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Asaph begins his description of the wicked with the comfort they experience. No pangs until death, no hunger, no trouble, no suffering. They are a cut above the rest. While others have trials, they do not.
No challenges, trials, problems or concerns. They have a cushy life! So then why bother with God? Any claim of God’s authority being observed in their life is smothered by the apparent success they have in their sin. Although I may be jumping the gun regarding our proceeding through this passage, I can’t help but think of this concept in the Proverbs.
Proverbs 1:32 For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them;
Comfort, ease, complacency all lead to a path of rejection of God. If it were not so, many in the developed nations should be flocking to praise God for the blessings they experience. But alas this is not so. Comfort puts us to sleep in relation to the God who provides. Ironically, comfort kills.
I was chatting with my daughter a few days back and she mentioned a friend that complained about the most insignificant issues in life. She off handedly told him he needs bigger problems.
My friends, we need to realize the bigger problems we have. The luxuries and comforts we have can become the first step to spiritual lethargy, luring us into a refusal to consider God in all His call in our lives.
No God – No Justice
Psalm 73:6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.
Psalm 73:7 Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
Psalm 73:8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
Psalm 73:9 They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.
Asasph saw that the wicked were excelling in life and this must have confused him, for as a believer in the God of Israel, he knew the justice and righteousness of God. Why were these wicked not experiencing a commensurate justice in their lives These wicked had no trials in life, and that just seemed unfair!
Asaph speaks of the wicked being full of pride, and always involved in violence. Even in this sinful life, they experienced fatness, and they partied hard, enjoying the excesses their lives produced.
They had no mercy or love toward their fellow Israelite, but spoke hostile words, continuing in their sin by coercing and forcing their will on others. It didn’t stop with their fellow Israelites, their national brothers. This attitude naturally continued against God, for any hatred or abuse toward God’s people is a result of the hatred resident in the heart of the wicked towards God.
1 John 4:20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
Asaph is confused throughout this psalm due to the apparent success of these wicked men, even in their continued brash behavior towards both man and God.
Many times I have experienced this confusion, this disconnect of how the world works and the lack of immediate justice that the wicked seem to live in. It is a great temptation to use the evidence we see as a reason to abandon the God we love.
In our next post, we will see that Asaph has not come to the end of his slipping. For now, let us consider the insidious temptation that Asaph is experiencing here, and if we find any evidence of his train of thought in our own thinking, understand the end result.
Envy of the wicked is a pathway of abandoning the God we serve.
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Considering the Bible 