Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

Psalm 73. This is a wisdom psalm, helping those who sing it to rest content even when unbelievers seem to get along without a care in the world, so that the faithful are tempted to join them. Their help comes from taking to heart where the different life paths of the faithful and the unbelievers are headed: each one is going toward either nearness to God or separation from him, a nearness or separation that will apply both now and in the afterlife. Psalm 73 is thus a companion to Psalm 49. The singer remembers that he discerned these different destinations while he was in the sanctuary of God, namely, at public worship (which points the congregation to what they should look for as they worship).

73:1-3 The Theme: I Envied the Wicked. The motto in v. 1 makes it clear that the whole psalm is a meditation on the problem that God is good to Israel (and esp. to those in Israel who are pure in heart, i.e., for those who love God wholeheartedly; cf. Deut. 6:5), while there seem to be arrogant (or "boastful," Ps. 5:5; 75:4) people who enjoy prosperity. The latter despise the covenant and are proud of their disdain for the faithful (cf. 73:11). The motto is true, but must be properly understood; a person holding a simplistic understanding of that motto would become envious, and might even conclude that the whole basis of godliness is a lie.