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Two psalms have already dealt with the question at some length, viz., Psalms 37, 49 (See <span class= "ital">Introduction </span>to those psalms.) The problem is stated here more fully, the poet trying to account not only for one, but for both sides of the paradox, the troubles that beset the righteous as well as the good fortune that befalls the ungodly. The solution, however, on the first side falls short of that reached in Psalms 49. The author contents himself with the thought that the wicked stand in slippery places, and may at any moment come to ruin. On the other hand, he is beginning to feel the way towards a higher truth than was discerned before, the truth that while the success of evil is apparent and momentary, that of good is real and final; he even catches a glimpse of the still higher truth revealed in the pages of Job, that communion with God is itself a bliss above happiness, and that the consciousness of possessing this gives a joy with which the pleasures of mere temporary prosperity are not to be compared. The versification is almost regular.<p><span class= "ital">Title.—See Title </span>to Psalms 1.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-1.htm">Psalm 73:1</a></div><div class="verse">A Psalm of Asaph. Truly God <i>is</i> good to Israel, <i>even</i> to such as are of a clean heart.</div>(1) <span class= "bld">Truly.</span>—See Note, <a href="/psalms/62-2.htm" title="He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.">Psalm 62:2</a>. This particle often, like the Latin <span class= "ital">at, </span>introduces a rejoinder to some supposed statement.<p>Dryden’s lines express the feeling of this opening—<p>“Yet sure the gods are good! I would fain think so,<p>If they would give me leave!<p>But virtue in distress, and vice in triumph,<p>Make atheists of mankind.”<p>The question arises whether the second clause of the verse limits, or only repeats, the first. No doubt in theory God was understood to be good to Israel generally, but the very subject of the psalm seems to require a limitation here. The poet sees that a moral correspondence with their profession is necessary, even in the chosen people—the truth which St. Paul stated with such insistance, “For they are not all Israel which are of Israel.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-2.htm">Psalm 73:2</a></div><div class="verse">But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Slipped.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">were poured out. </span>This metaphor for weakness and instability is obvious. Comp.<p>“Dissolvuntur enim turn demum membra <span class= "ital">fluuntque.”</span><p>LUCRETIUS, iv. 920.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-3.htm">Psalm 73:3</a></div><div class="verse">For I was envious at the foolish, <i>when</i> I saw the prosperity of the wicked.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Foolish.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">arrogant.</span><p><span class= "bld">When I saw.</span>—Perhaps the conjunction is wrongly supplied, and the word “saw” here is synonymous with “envied” in the first clause. (Comp. Latin <span class= "ital">invideo.</span>)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-4.htm">Psalm 73:4</a></div><div class="verse">For <i>there are</i> no bands in their death: but their strength <i>is</i> firm.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">For there are</span> <span class= "bld">no bands in their death.</span>—This is quite unintelligible, and does not fairly render the Hebrew, which gives, <span class= "ital">For there are no bands to their death. </span>And by analogy of the derivation of <span class= "ital">tormenta </span>from <span class= "ital">tor queo, </span>we might give the Hebrew word <span class= "ital">bands </span>the sense <span class= "ital">of pangs, </span>rendering, “they have a painless death,” if such a statement about the wicked were not quite out of keeping with the psalm. The ancient versions give us no help. Some emendation of the text is absolutely necessary. In the only other place it occurs (<a href="/isaiah/58-6.htm" title="Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?">Isaiah 58:6</a>) the word means specially the <span class= "ital">bands of a yoke; </span>hence a most ingenious conjecture, which, by only a change of one letter, gives <span class= "ital">there are no bands to their yoke, i.e., </span>they are “chartered libertines,” men of <span class= "ital">libido effrenata et indomita, </span>a description admirably in keeping with that of the animal grossness in the next clause, <span class= "ital">“fat </span>is their belly.” (Comp. the image of an animal restive from over-feeding, <a href="/deuteronomy/32-15.htm" title="But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: you are waxen fat, you are grown thick, you are covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.">Deuteronomy 32:15</a>; Burgess, <span class= "ital">Notes on the Hebrew Psalms.</span>)<p><span class= "bld">Strength.</span>—The word is curious, but explained by Arabic cognates to mean <span class= "ital">belly, </span>possibly from its <span class= "ital">roundness </span>(“a fair round belly with good capon lined”); from root meaning <span class= "ital">roll.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-6.htm">Psalm 73:6</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them <i>as</i> a garment.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Therefore.</span>—Better,<p>“Therefore pride is their necklace,<p>And violence their mantle.”<p>The first metaphor might have been suggested either by the fact that the rich lavished large sums on jewellery, especially necklaces (see Note, <a href="/songs/1-10.htm" title="Your cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, your neck with chains of gold.">Song of Solomon 1:10</a>), or possibly from the usual description of the proud as “stiffnecked.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-7.htm">Psalm 73:7</a></div><div class="verse">Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">Stand out with fatness.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">go out from fat. </span>Which, if referring to the appearance, is exactly the opposite to what we should expect. <span class= "ital">Sunken in fat </span>would express the idea of gross sensuality. The <span class= "ital">eyes </span>and <span class= "ital">heart </span>are evidently used as in <a href="/jeremiah/22-17.htm" title="But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.">Jeremiah 22:17</a>, the <span class= "ital">eyes </span>as giving the outward index of what the <span class= "ital">heart </span>wishes; and if we take the <span class= "ital">eyes </span>here to mean not the organs of sight, but, by metonymy, the <span class= "ital">looks </span>(comp. <a href="/songs/4-9.htm" title="You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.">Song of Solomon 4:9</a>), “they look out of fatness,” the expression is intelligible enough. Or we might perhaps take the <span class= "ital">eyes </span>to stand for the countenance. (See Gesenius, <span class= "ital">sub voc.</span>)<span class= "ital">, their countenance stands out because of fatness. </span>Or, by taking this clause in direct parallelism with the following, we might understand that restless looking about for fresh excitement which comes of satiety. The following lines illustrate the whole verse:<p>“Triumphant plenty, with a cheerful grace,<p>Basks in their eyes, and sparkles in their face;<p>How sleek they look, how goodly is their mien,<p>When big they strut behind a double chin.”<p>—DRYDEN.<p><span class= "bld">They have more.</span>—See margin. Or the verb may be intransitive: <span class= "ital">the imaginations of their hearts overflow.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-8.htm">Psalm 73:8</a></div><div class="verse">They are corrupt, and speak wickedly <i>concerning</i> oppression: they speak loftily.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">They are corrupt . . .</span>—This, which is the Rabbinical rendering, is now universally abandoned in favour of another derivation of the verb. The Masoretic arrangement of the clauses may be also improved on:<p><span class= "ital">“</span>They scoff and speak of wickedness,<p>Of violence from their eminence they speak,”<p>where the first clause means, <span class= "ital">they speak mockingly of wickedness, </span>or <span class= "ital">make a jest of sin.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-9.htm">Psalm 73:9</a></div><div class="verse">They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">They set.</span>—The last clause is repeated here under a figure more defined:<p>“They have set their mouth in [not <span class= "ital">against] </span>the heavens,<p>While their tongue walketh through the earth.”<p>an image very expressive of a towering pride, <span class= "ital">vaunting </span>itself to the skies, and trumpeting its own praises through the world.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-10.htm">Psalm 73:10</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full <i>cup</i> are wrung out to them.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Therefore.</span>—The Prayer Book version has undoubtedly caught the meaning here. It plainly describes the popularity gained (the surest way) by the self-applause described in the preceding verse. This version depends on the Hebrew margin, <span class= "ital">Therefore do the people turn hither </span>(<span class= "ital">i.e., to </span>them), <span class= "ital">and full waters </span>(<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>a cup full of adulation and flattery) <span class= "ital">are sucked out by them.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-11.htm">Psalm 73:11</a></div><div class="verse">And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?</div>(11-14) The mutual relation of these verses has been the subject of many conflicting opinions. The following is the arrangement that seems preferable—<p>“And people say, How shall God know?<p>And does the Most High take notice of it?<p>Lo! there are wicked men, And yet, always at ease, they amass riches.<p>It is in vain then that I have kept my heart pure.<p>And washed my hands in innocence;<p>For I have been plagued every day,<p>And my punishments (come) every morning.”<p>—this reflection being put into the mouth of the public who are onlookers at the career of these timeservers. But the poet immediately goes on to disclaim it for himself.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-15.htm">Psalm 73:15</a></div><div class="verse">If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend <i>against</i> the generation of thy children.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">If I say . . .</span>—Or, <span class= "ital">If, thought I, I should reason thus, I should be faithless to the generation of thy sons. </span>Or, perhaps, <span class= "ital">if it ever occurred to my mind to speak thus, </span>the Hebrew often using two finite verbs to express one thought. (See, <span class= "ital">e.g., </span><a href="/psalms/73-8.htm" title="They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.">Psalm 73:8</a>; <a href="/psalms/73-19.htm" title="How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.">Psalm 73:19</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-16.htm">Psalm 73:16</a></div><div class="verse">When I thought to know this, it <i>was</i> too painful for me;</div>(16) <span class= "bld">When I thought . . .</span><span class= "ital">—i.e., when I reflected in order to know this</span>—when I tried to think the matter out, get at the bottom of it. (For the sense of the verb, comp. <a href="/psalms/78-5.htm" title="For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:">Psalm 78:5</a>; <a href="/proverbs/16-9.htm" title="A man's heart devises his way: but the LORD directs his steps.">Proverbs 16:9</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">It was too painful.</span>—See margin.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-17.htm">Psalm 73:17</a></div><div class="verse">Until I went into the sanctuary of God; <i>then</i> understood I their end.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">Then understood I . . .</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">I considered their end. </span>The Temple service, with its blessings on righteousness, and stern warnings against wickedness, as they were read from the Book of the Law or from one of the prophets, or were chanted from some ancient song, gave the needed turn to the psalmist’s speculations. He began to think not of the present, but the future; not of the advantages of sin, but its consequences—but still consequences in <span class= "ital">this </span>world, the thought of a hereafter not having established itself sufficiently to have an ethical force.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-19.htm">Psalm 73:19</a></div><div class="verse">How are they <i>brought</i> into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">In a moment.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">in a wink. </span>(Comp. “In the twinkling of an eye.”)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-20.htm">Psalm 73:20</a></div><div class="verse">As a dream when <i>one</i> awaketh; <i>so</i>, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">As</span> <span class= "bld">a dream.</span>—Better,<p>“As a man on waking (despises) his dream,<p>So, O Lord, on rousing thyself, thou wilt<p>Despise their shadow.”<p>an image of the result of the Divine judgment on the vain and boastful tyrants, which may be illustrated by Henry V.’s rising with his royalty to self-respect:—<p>“I have long dreamt of such a kind of man,<p>So surfeit-swell’d, so old, and so profane;<p>But, being awake, I do despise my dream.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-21.htm">Psalm 73:21</a></div><div class="verse">Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">Grieved.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">grew sour; </span>or, as we say, “was soured.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-22.htm">Psalm 73:22</a></div><div class="verse">So foolish <i>was</i> I, and ignorant: I was <i>as</i> a beast before thee.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">Foolish.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">brutish.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-24.htm">Psalm 73:24</a></div><div class="verse">Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me <i>to</i> glory.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">To glory.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">With honour, </span>as LXX. and Vulg.; or <span class= "ital">achar </span>may be taken as a preposition: <span class= "ital">Lead me after honour<span class= "bld">, </span>i.e., </span>in the way to get it.<p>The thought is not of a reward after death, but of that true honour which would have been lost by adopting the views of the worldly, and is only to be gained by loyalty to God.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-25.htm">Psalm 73:25</a></div><div class="verse">Whom have I in heaven <i>but thee</i>? and <i>there is</i> none upon earth <i>that</i> I desire beside thee.</div>(25) <span class= "bld">And there . . .</span>—Or, <span class= "ital">Besides thee I have no delight on earth.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/73-28.htm">Psalm 73:28</a></div><div class="verse">But <i>it is</i> good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">Works.</span>—Not God’s doings, but <span class= "ital">works </span>prescribed to the psalmist, messages entrusted to him; no doubt here the conclusions he had come to, or the truths that had been revealed to him, in contrast with the false opinions from which he had been freed.<p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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