Psalm 73 is a Psalm of Asaph wherein he wrestles with a question that all of us as believers struggle with from time to time. Why do the wicked prosper? Life very often just does not seem fair! Often the wicked seem to have it so much easier than the righteous. Here are some excerpts from the first 16 verses of Psalm 73:
Asaph starts off by telling us that he was near to stumbling as he looked upon the prosperity of the wicked and was envious, he says, of the boastful. Pride serves as their necklace and violence covers them as a garment. They have more than their hearts could wish...they scoff and speak loftily. They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongue walks through the earth. They increase in riches and are always at ease. But as for Asaph...he says surely he has cleansed his heart in vain...he is plagued all day long and chastened every morning. (God lets him get away with nothing) Asaph's wages for doing good were affliction! Rightly, Asaph was afraid to speak his thoughts...keeping them to himself they would hurt only him but speaking them aloud would hurt and grief so many others....Asaph does not want to grieve, offend or be the cause of discontentment among his brethren...he knew that his speech had consequences, but he wants an answer!
Asaph goes on to say this in verse 16:
When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
Asaph did not understand until he went into the sanctuary of God...until he got the eternal perspective on things. Setting his mind on things above changed his viewpoint entirely. It was then that he saw their end. It was then that he saw how the wicked were brought to desolation in a moment and were utterly consumed in terror. That in reality they were set in a very slippery place...they were rejectors of God and hung over the precipice of hell every moment of their unbelief. As Jonathan Edwards wrote...they were sinners in the hands of an angry God. Asaph's envy was now replaced with a holy horror not only of their impending doom but of the way God dealt with them here on earth. This was not the way Asaph wanted God to deal with him!
Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.
Now Asaph gets it! His original sorrow was not that the wicked prospered, but that God had arranged it so they would. This is what had upset the psalmist...why would God favor them so....it just did not seem fair! Here he finally sees that God had not placed them in these positions to bless them. "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places....their positions were dangerous...God placed his enemies in these spots...not his children. He chose a more difficult path for his beloved here on earth to keep them close to Him. One where they would be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Their blessings...which was His presence with them always....would come as they depended on Him in the storms and trials of this life. As for the wicked who had been raised so high in this life...how great would be their fall. How dark would hell be in comparison. The joy they had in this life would make the horror of the next more awful....the contrast marked. Their fall will be great...without warning, without escape, without hope. They were like men living in a dream world that disappears upon awakening..coveting the wrong things, they have been fools living for riches that will vanish in a moment.
Asaph now understands and his heart is grieved by his own sin of acting so foolishly as to envy the wicked...even to desire to be like them! He tells his God that he was like a beast before Him. He had judged happiness the way men did..by outward appearances...by things attained in this life...how foolish! His faith had not been his sight. Asaph confesses his sin and clings to His God saying, "Nevertheless, I am continually with You." His "old man" might have gotten the best of him but his God upheld him always...his God kept his feet from slipping. He then goes on to affirm that God shall guide him...no more does he want his own way...he will be content with whatever his God has for him. O, would I have this attitude, always!! Afterward Asaph knows he would be received up to his Father in glory. The Lord's guidance would safely deliver him some day directly into the presence of His Father. Asaph could survive the present knowing that THIS was his future!
