Book Three The End of the Wicked Contrasted with That of the Righteous. A Psalm of Asaph.Truly God is good to Israel, To those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, My steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death, Their body is fat and pampered. They are not in trouble as other men, Nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; Violence covers them like a garment [like a long, luxurious robe]. Their eye bulges from fatness [they have more than the heart desires]; The imaginations of their mind run riot [with foolishness]. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression; They speak loftily [with malice]. They set their mouth against the heavens, And their tongue swaggers through the earth. Therefore his people return to this place, And waters of abundance [offered by the irreverent] are [blindly] drunk by them. They say, “How does God know?Is there knowledge [of us] with the Most High?” Behold, these are the ungodly, Who always prosper and are at ease [in the world]; they have increased in wealth. Surely then in vain I have cleansed my heart and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long have I been stricken, And punished every morning. If I had said, “I will say this,” [and expressed my feelings], I would have betrayed the generation of Your children. When I considered how to understand this, It was too great an effort for me and too painful Until I came into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood [for I considered] their end. Surely You set the wicked-minded and immoral on slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. How they are destroyed in a moment! They are completely swept away by sudden terrors! Like a dream [which seems real] until one awakens, O Lord, when stirred, [You observe the wicked], You will despise their image. When my heart was embittered andI was pierced within [as with the fang of an adder], Then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You. Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, And afterward receive me to honor and glory. Whom have I in heaven [but You]? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the rock and strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful and have abandoned You. But as for me, it is good for me to draw near to God; I have made the Lord God my refuge and placed my trust in Him, That I may tell of all Your works.

Psalm 73

A close friend of mine is a contractor. Several years ago while he was inspecting a job site, a sixty-pound roll of tar paper slipped out of the hands of a roofer and came crashing down on Harry’s head. It threw him to the concrete driveway and within moments he was unconscious. Emergency brain surgery relieved the pressure building on his brain. For a week, he lingered between life and death in a coma. I arrived for a visit on the day he was moved out of intensive care into a regular room.

He was sitting up in bed working on his personal computer. I asked, “Harry, what are you doing?”

“Oh,” he replied, “the doctor has told me to keep my mind active and I have just come up with the greatest idea of my life. It’s going to bless the entire Christian world and it will make me rich.”

“How?” I asked.

“Well,” he responded, “I am designing a six-story ocean liner for a worldwide Christian Olympics. Christian athletes will come from all over the world. The first three floors of the ship will be for parking the cars driving on from the pier, the fourth will be track and field, the fifth floor aquatics, and the top floor gymnastics.”

He was serious.

Only when I left the room did I discover that his type of injury could produce delusional thinking. He himself did not know fantasy from reality, and the doctor told us it was important to help him relearn the difference. Today, Harry has a sound mind.

Hard blows can make us delusional. Having a sound mind- the mind of Christ-is necessary when our emotions want to jump into the drivers seat and displace a mind whose thought processes are rooted in the eternal reality that Jesus is Lord.

Asaph, the writer, begins by contrasting his solid-rock belief with the hard knocks in his own experience.

Has that happened to you? You’ve tried to do the right thing and now you feel worse off than others who could care less about pleasing the Lord? Like Asaph, do you envy the arrogant when you see the prosperity of the wicked?

George Wood

Asaph reminds us to be aware of delusional thinking as he illustrates the feelings we have when hard blows drive our faith in the Lord into a coma.

In verses 4-7 of Psalm 73, Asaph says, “They’ve got it made.” We might expect punishment to follow disobedience, but it doesn’t always happen immediately that way. Those who are not living for the Lord usually have no pangs of remorse. They appear, instead, to be happy-go-lucky without any struggles. They appear to be in great shape and bypass the wrecks others seem to not miss.

Verse seven of this psalm says that lying behind the sleek body and smiling face is the meanest of soul, pride, a willingness to do whatever it takes to get their way, and a readiness to justify their behavior without conscience or remorse. They may talk a lot but Asaph’s problem people never speak the language of love. Instead their mouths vomit out malice, ego, and scoffing. Their self-centeredness is masked with great displays of spirituality and because of their skill at this, they are well liked. The incorrectly believe that they can also fool God and they say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?(verse 11).

The twelfth through the fourteenth verses basically say, “What’s the use? Why go on living for God? What’s the good of personal sacrifice? If you do what’s right, you suffer while at the same time others do wrong and prosper. Delusional thinking that will ultimately lead us to despair.

Psalm 73 lists four steps that Asaph tool to emerge from his delusional coma. We can also emerge by taking these same four steps.

Verse 15 says that first we should not spread our unbelief. Asaph chose to not take his doubts to those who weren’t strong enough to handle them nor did he go to those he envied.

Second we are to begin to worship the Lord. The depth of oppression was felt by Asaph until he entered into the sanctuary of the Lord. When we choose to absent ourselves from personal or corporate worship, it only deepens our coma delusion that God has lost control.

Third, we need to take notice of the long term. Asaph expresses in the beginning the feeling his feet had almost slipped and that he had nearly lost his foothold, but time in God’s presence let him see who really walked on slippery ground.

Fourth, it’s important to gain a new perspective on self. Asaph teaches us that negative emotions will harm us. Let us choose to not blame God or others, but instead, to accept the responsibility for our own attitudes.

When we come to know that we rest secure in what we have- the presence of the Lord in our lives- it no longer matters what others may do or not do.

Psalm 73 closes with giving us a firm grip on reality: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And being with you, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever..But as for me, it is good to be near God.”(verses 25, 26, 28).

Dr. John Thompson