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Psalm 73, a psalm of Asaph.
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Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
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But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped, for I was envious
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of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
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For they have no pangs until death, their bodies are fat and sleek, they are not in trouble
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They are not stricken like the rest of mankind, therefore pride is their necklace, violence
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covers them as a garment, their eyes swell out through fatness, their hearts overflow
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with follies, they scoff and speak with mellus, loftily they threaten no pressure, they
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set their mouths against the heavens and their tongue struts through the earth, therefore
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his people turn back to them and find no fault in them.
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And they say, how can God know?
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Is there knowledge in the most high?
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Behold these are the wicked, always at ease, they increase in riches.
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All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
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For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.
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If I had said, I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
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But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a weary some task.
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Until I went into the sanctuary of God.
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When I discern their end, truly, you set them in slippery places, you make them falter
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ruin, how they are destroyed in a moment swept away utterly by terrors, like a dream
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when one wakes, oh Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
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When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant, I
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was like a beast toward you.
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Nevertheless, I am continually with you.
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You hold my right hand.
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You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.
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Whom have I in heaven but you?
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And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
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My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
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For behold, those who are far from you shall perish.
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You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you, but for me it is good to be near God.
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I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
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This psalm written by ASAF expresses dismay at the prospering of the wicked.
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How can those who pursue such cruelty and shameless evil enjoy such richness of life?
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It is only when ASAF lifts his eyes to God that he sees the total picture.
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In the final destruction of the wicked is considered, their present prosperity takes on
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It is seen to be brief, fleeting.
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The evil are prospering today, then snuffed out after a few seconds of this short life's
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Yet we are still stuck in the present, watching day after day as the wicked flourish, how do
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we survive emotionally?
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This psalm gives us the beautiful solution, whom have I in heaven but you?
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And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
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My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
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How would you put this in your own words?
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Consider what ASAF is saying.
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With God, you are invincible.
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Nothing can touch you.
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Your greatest enjoyment, God, can never be taken away from you.
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In heaven, God is all you want and need.
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On earth, God is all you want and need.
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In death or in life, in sickness or in health, even as your body wastes away toward the grave,
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God is all you want and need.
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Your true happiness is beyond the reach of any evil this life can bring.
