Wisdom Through Resilience

Introduction

That’s Unfair-a common refrain I hear each and every day I teach my students. And I always respond - Life’s not fair - so how are you going to deal with that fact? 

A deeper thought comes to me-where does this overwhelming desire for fairness come from? What does fairness look like? Why do humans so deeply desire for life to be fair?

The short answer to this question is: God is a God of fairness - He is a God of justice and justice when properly conducted is based on fairness. Everything comes with its own consequences. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. How is that fair? Jesus paid the penalty for our sin so we can have his eternal righteousness which is life. But is that truly fair? Mercy and grace are not really fair.

• Mercy: is not getting what we deserve
• Grace: is getting what we do not deserve

So with the psalmist many of us might say “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.” Psalm 73 is a recounting of the writer's reflection of a personal battle with doubt in God’s goodness and fairness. 

Psalms are viceral rantings of real human beings that help us to work through our own struggles with life. Like the psalmist we too have misunderstandings about God’s blessing and cursing dynamic that leave us betrayed and helpless. We can ask him. Why are we cursed for doing what was right and the wicked prosper? 

Godly wisdom encourages confronting one’s disbelief by courageously looking beyond the landscape of life to see the justice that will come to the wicked. 

Group #1: Disgust at the prosperity of the wicked (vv. 1-14)

Group one is composed of four strophes:

1. a fundamental truth;
2. prosperity of the wicked;
3. hubris of the wicked;
4. presumption of the wicked.

At first glance, this psalm has a tone of lament, but upon further review, the psalmist establishes a pattern of internal debate that illuminates learned wisdom thus putting the psalm squarely in the realm of a wisdom psalm. The psalmist’s observations are universal validating a person’s who struggles with suffering that comes living obediently to God, and his opening statement beseech the reader to maintain a focus on God through his following discourse. 

Verse 1: Fundamental Truth

Truly God is good to Israel
to those who are pure in heart

Against this fundamental truth, the psalmist wrestles with his own doubts and frustrations concerning social injustices. Matthew Henry comments on this verse, “He lays down, in the first place, that great principle which he is resolved to abide by and not to quit while he was parleying with this temptation.” The psalmist asserts the fundamental truth that God is good. The word truly signifies that in all ways God is good; preemptively the psalmist is establishing a framework in which to compare his thoughts. No matter what his opinion, perception, or other societal influences, he must examine all things through the lens of God’s goodness. 

For clarity, the psalmist asserts to whom God is good, he is good to Israel. Israel frames the goodness of God squarely in the context of the covenant community. Furthermore, the psalmist qualifies Israel in saying pure in heart. Spurgeon remarks, “These are the true Israel, not ceremonially clean but really so.” Jesus says that only those that do the will of his Father will enter heaven. 

Vv. 2-5: The Prosperity of the Wicked

He abruptly concedes the failings of his faith and the precariousness of his spiritual situation. Bears his soul and does not shield his own self-doubt and pity. The injustices of society did not line up with his understanding of God’s kingdom dynamics that he understood to be: if I obey: God will bless me, and if I disobey:  God will punish me.

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled
My steps had nearly slipped

In verse two, the psalmist confesses his failings. Spurgeon asserts that this line begins a narrative regarding a hard-fought spiritual battle. Feet and steps symbolize the psalmist’s faith; feet speak to the static position at the point his faith is tested and steps refer to the progressive falling away from obedience into sin. The parallel verbs stumbled and slipped, painting the picture of the psalmist losing his footing on God’s path of righteousness. 
As Martin Buber points out, “the state of the heart determines whether a man lives in the truth, in which God’s goodness is experienced, or in the semblance of truth, where the fact that it “goes ill” with him is confused with the illusion that God is not good to him.” 

Proverb 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” 

For I was envious of the arrogant
I saw the prosperity of the wicked

The psalmist confesses that seeing the wicked prosper is his temptation. Not only are the wicked prospering but they are extremely boastful about it. The psalmist’s envy of wicked people brings into question his understanding of being in covenant with God. Longman points out that a faulty understanding may occur if one reads the proverbs as an if-then dynamic. The scenario that plays out in Psalm 73 bears witness to what Longman says is, “a mechanical application of the connection in Proverbs between wise behavior and material reward.” Such a mindset might be the affliction of the psalmist as he wrestles with this dissonance. 

For they have no pain
their bodies are sound and sleek

Calvin leans on the translation of For there are no bands in their death as insinuating the fact that, “As diseases lay prostrate our strength, they are so many messengers of death, warning us of the frailty and short duration of our life... compared to bands, with which God binds us to his yoke, lest our strength and vigor should incite us to licentiousness and rebellion.” 

The psalmist elucidates this concept by using a cattle metaphor. Sound and sleek are adjectives normally used to describe animals. The wicked have no blemish and none of the usual ills that befall the common man. 
In a Near Eastern climate such as Israel, a climate fraught with drought, famine, and pestilence, being perpetually healthy would be a rarity. In order for the wicked to be so, their lifestyle would be counter to everyone else and possibly be the cause for others' sufferings.

They are not in trouble as others are
they are not plagued like other people

The psalmist summarises the prosperity of the wicked in verse 5 by asserting they are not in trouble; this trouble could be financial, physical, or relational but whatever the trouble might be they certainly do not have it. He qualifies trouble with the word plagued. The word plague invokes images of God sending plagues among the Egyptians in order to show that he is God over all of creation. The psalmist unequivocally says the wicked live perfect lives free from the burdens of the common, obedient Israelite. 

Vv. 6-9: The Hubris of the Wicked

Through the successes of their deeds, the wicked deny the sovereignty of God and refuse to obey him. In their eyes, Yahweh is categorically powerless to stop their ways. Their hearts have become seared with an iron and their minds shrouded in their own pride and self-reliance. Their separation from God  has blinded them to the knowledge of the proverbs, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall,” and “surely he scorns the scornful but gives grace to the humble.”

Therefore pride is their necklace
violence covers them like a garment

The metaphor of a necklace conveys the open and ostentatiousness of the wicked’s prideful ways. In the B colon, pride begets violence as they disregard any sense of connection with the people they are oppressing. These wicked people are desensitised to the violence their pride causes in such a way it could be said that they wear their violence like common garments. Also, the verbal phrase covers them like a garment insinuates that when they are looked upon by others their wicked deeds are all that anyone can see. They have returned to the Noahic days when God said, “that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” 

Their eyes swell out with fatness
their hearts overflow with follies

In the verse, the psalmist magnifies the opulence and arrogance of the wicked by comparing their external and internal appearances to swine. Spurgeon proposes that the fatness references the facial structure of an obese person, which typically causes the eyes to protrude or be swollen shut. The wicked are so proud that their hearts continually devise ways to be wicked, and their eyes are bulging in search of more things to consume as the proverb poignantly states, “Perversity is in his heart, he devises evil continually, he sows discord. 

They scoff and speak with malice
loftily they threaten oppression

So far, the psalmist has described their demeanor, their inner and outward appearance, and now he describes their form of communication. Jesus states, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things,” denoting that wicked people will inevitably speak evil against their fellow man and against God. They cannot help speaking evil because their heart is evil. Calvin posits that the phrasing of this verse implies the wicked have cast off all restraint and abandoned the concept of shame and forcefully boast about the iniquity in which they are about to partake. The wicked no longer view what they do as wicked, instead they see it as their privilege and duty to oppress others. 

They set their mouths against heaven
and their tongues range over the earth

In verse 9, the wicked reach the height of their hubris. The psalmist records the wicked openly standing against the rule of God. Just as soldiers would set themselves against the charge of an enemy, so does the mouths of the wicked set themselves against the law of God. In the B colon, a literal translation of the Hebrew reads, “struts through the earth.” The psalmist seems to indicate that once the wicked have cast away the rule of God, their braggadocious speech saunters through the whole earth with impunity. 

Vv. 10-14 The Presumption of the Wicked

The psalmist continues to build his case for why his faith is failing. He details the presumption of the wicked and the failings of his wisdom viewed in his statement, “all in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.” The opening refrain is the coup-de-grace of the psalmist’s faith in a good and just God. He has seen enough of the wicked getting what they want when they want without interference from God.

Therefore the people turn and praise them
and find no fault in them

Line one is translated in a variety of ways due to the complexity of the Hebrew. Translators are uncertain of the original meaning but the text seems to suggest this refers to the falling away of those who are not of the true covenant. The A colon introduces the people, this phrase could mean people in general, however, Calvin believers the psalmist is referring to the false followers of Yahweh. These people not only turn from God but praise the wicked who are persecuting God’s people. The NIV renders this line as, “and drink up waters in abundance.” More aptly put, the people who were faking their obedience are drinking the “Kool-aid” of the wicked.

And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

In verse 11, they deny the omniscience of God believing they live without consequences. The evidence supporting their opinion is God has yet to make good on his promises of judgment found in Deuteronomy 28:15-64. The wicked do everything contrary to this teaching and they receive no consequences. Their rationale says: God is not concerned with our deeds or he is powerless to stop us. 

Such are the wicked
always at ease, they increase in riches

The psalmist’s despondency resonates in verse 12. The adverb always signals his absolute surrender to a false societal condition that the wicked will always live free from suffering. The NKJV poignantly renders this word “behold!” Spurgeon renders the reading to mean, “Look! See! Consider! Here is the standing enigma.” The psalmist has reasoned and found himself the fool for attempting to live obediently toward God. 

All in vain I have kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence

This verse is reminiscent of speeches given by the author of Ecclesiastes. The psalmist’s life is vanity; his obedience to God is worth absolutely nothing. Kidner comments that these types of thoughts are “pathetically self-centered..but the very formulation of the thought has shocked the writer into a better frame of mind.” Similar mindsets are fairly common because people often come to God for “fire insurance” or blessings in the here-and-now. 
Contemporary theologians call this “slot-machine-Jesus” but this is not what God ever intended. 

If salvation was all about blessings that would indicate it was conditional salvation. A person will accept God’s invitation to salvation on the condition of being blessed and that is not the case. 

For all day long I have been plagued
and am punished every morning

The writer continues to convince himself that his faith is worthless. He replays his daily struggles juxtaposed against the previously stated blessings of the wicked. He views his life as an exact opposite of the wicked, he gets what they deserve. The wicked are not plagued with issues yet his life is a daily struggle; they are not punished for their wickedness and oppression and he is; consequently, he forgets that God’s mercies are renewed every morning.

Epiphany and Resolution to Remain Faithful (vv. 15-28)

The psalmist takes the reader through the progression of his temptation to the brink of walking away from God. The psalmist comes to his senses and begins to reacquaint himself with God’s reality that is set in the eternal. He traveled from doubt to clarity, dissonance to harmony. His path of enlightenment was as Kidner puts it, “not mental but moral; a turning from self-interest and self-pity...to remembering basic responsibilities and loyalties.”

Vv. 15-17: The Psalmist’s Epiphany 

If I had said, “I will talk on in this way,”
I would have been untrue to the circle of your children

Line one of the strophe is phrased as an “if-then” statement that expresses the dilemma of the psalmist. The thought of betrayal of his fellow covenant keepers through his blasphemous words is too much to consider thus sparking him to reconsider the truth of the matter. Interestingly, he uses a phrase in Hebrew that can be better translated as “the sons of God.”  Piece by piece the psalmist is reorienting his mind toward God. McCann posits that “what brings the psalmist through his crisis “identity as a member of God’s people.” Wicked people only seem to be united but there is no honour among thieves.

But when I thought how to understand this
it seemed to me a wearisome task

The psalmist unabashedly confesses that he is unable to reconcile the two truths he was contemplating. He could doggedly determine that he has to remain loyal to God and the covenant family but seeing the disconnect between what God’s word promises and what he was seeing in society was too much. He was at the end of his mental strength and capacity. At times, human beings must come to the end of their ability in order to look toward Almighty God.

until I went into the sanctuary of God
then I perceived their end

Verse 17 introduces the abrupt shift from the psalmist’s downward spiral of self-pity. Living among the wicked in society was, like Lot living in Sodom, vexing the writer’s soul. Brueggeman comments about the psalmist separating himself from the wicked, “that sharply refocuses life and causes the psalmist to return to the sober reality of his identity within his Torah community.” As the proverbial saying goes, the psalmist could not see the forest from the trees. Living among the wicked had blinded him to their future reality, which is eternal separation from God. Walking back into the light of God opened his eyes to see their end for his perception was his reality until God revealed differently.

Vv. 18-20: Reversal of Fortunes

Truly you set them in slippery places
you make them fall to ruin

Verse 18 expresses a role reversal of verse two. Instead of the psalmist stumbling and slipping now the wicked are slipping and falling into utter ruin. McCann points out, “the reversal involves not a change in outward circumstances but a change of understanding.” Entering into the presence of a pure and holy God helps to evaporate the darkness from a person’s eyes so they may see reality through his long term vision.

How they are destroyed in a moment
swept away utterly by terrors

Beforehand, the psalmist was declaring that the wicked lived long and prospered. He perceived that they were not plagued with issues, notwithstanding, he has changed his tune; God has enlightened him to the fact that their end is abrupt and absolute. Spurgeon asserts, “this is an exclamation of godly wonder at the suddenness and completeness of the sinner’s overthrow.” Although God does not flaunt the end of the wicked, his redress for their actions is swift and sure.

They are like a dream when one awakes
on awaking, you despise their phantoms

Dreams make a great metaphor for the suddenness of wicked’s downfall. Every human being that has ever lived has dreamed of something, and just as a person hits the snooze button and forgets what they were dreaming, likewise God will also forget the wicked. God won’t even consider their separation from him because they are inconsequential to eternity. They chose the position of separation, and out of his love God will allow them their choice.

Vv. 21-25: Contrition and Clarity

When my soul was embittered
when I was pricked in heart

In verse 21, the psalmist expresses that his entire being was affected resulting in conviction regarding his faulty perception. God does not shame those he loves instead, he convicts them in order that they may see his truth. The words soul and heart denote the psalmist whose entire being was convicted to see his folly. When the Holy Spirit convicts, he convicts the entire person so that there is no mistaking the source of the conviction.

I was stupid and ignorant
I was like a brute beast toward you

Verse 22 is reminiscent of Job’s contrition after God rebukes him and are the words of a man who truly knows his condition in relation to a holy God. Stupid and ignorant qualify what a brute beast is like. Animals are neither stupid nor ignorant all the time. Animals will go between the two extremes in any given situation. The psalmist is expressing his contriteness at being such a fool for even considering surrendering his faith or temporary pleasures. 

Nevertheless I am continually with you
you hold my right hand

The psalmist recognizes his positional status in relation to God. The emphatic nevertheless creates a strong contrast of being a stupid, ignorant, and brute beast in the former verse to holding hands with God in this one. The significance of this verse is God never abandons his people but sin and temptation clouds people’s reality to the fact. People may feel cut off from God but he is just as near in their temptation as he is at any other time.

You guide me with your counsel
and afterward you will receive me with honor

The psalmist confidently asserts that God guides him through this period of temptation and despair. God’s wisdom won over the speaker and brought him back into fellowship with God. The timeframe of afterward spoken here is eternal life in heaven with God. In this life, God guides his faithful to live obediently to his commandments.

Whom have I in heaven but you
And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you

The psalmist acknowledges there is nothing on earth or in heaven that compares to God. Previously, he contemplated trading his soul for material blessings, but God opened his eyes to see that material wealth, popularity, and blessings are temporary and fleeting. Jesus asserts, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” and, “No one can serve two masters...you cannot serve God and money.”

Vv. 26-28: Declaration of Faith 

My flesh and my heart may fail
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever

Continuing with his declaration of faith, the speaker contrasts the inevitable deterioration of his physical being with the everlasting strength endowed by God. Calvin notes that portion, “is a figurative expression, employed in Scripture to denote the condition or lot with which every man is contented.” The psalmist is affirming the truth that his sinful flesh will fail him, his death is certain, but God will not fail him. The apostle Paul put it so eloquently, “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.” And the apostle John states, “greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.”

Indeed, those who are far from you will perish
you put an end to those who are false to you

Unlike the blessed man in Psalm 1 who is like a tree planted by the rivers of water, those who are far from God will wither away because they receive no true nourishment. The wicked receive temporary things that do not sustain life in the hereafter, thus they eat food without nutrients. Also, God knows the true condition of a person, those that play religion, or fake-it-to-make-it will be snuffed out. Jesus states that some people will heal, preach, prophecy in his name but he does not know them so they will be cast into utter darkness. Knowing Jesus is more than going to church for the sake of going.

But for me it is good to be near God
I have made the Lord God my refuge
to tell of all your works

RESOLUTION TO THE ISSUE

Verse 1 and 28 function as an inclusio because both are bold assertions about God. The psalmist journeys from a misdirected focus upon transient pleasures back to a myopic focus on God’s eternal plan. 
Proverbs 3:5-6 states, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

Trusting in God is the same as being near God and making God a refuge. The apostle Paul’s words to the Corinthians are apt for the psalmist, “Do not be deceived, evil company corrupts good habits.” It was critical for the psalmist to extricate himself from the wicked in order to clearly see God’s truth. 

There is a trusted saying in society right now: “You are the average of the 5 people you hang around the most.” 

Christ within the Psalm

Can it be said that Jesus wrestled with doubt in God’s plan? Jesus’s brief time in the Garden of Gethsemane was not related to doubt, rather, it was Jesus understanding the pain and misery of being crucified by wicked men that made him ask God to find another way. Jesus and the psalmist both are tempted to turn from God’s revealed path but similarly, both when being the presence of God are able to see the future more clearly. As Belcher points out, “he (Jesus) was able to see beyond the appearance of the triumph of the wicked to the glory he would receive in the power of the resurrection and his place at the right hand of the father.” The author of the Book of Hebrews asserts, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus did not shy from emotion or being genuinely honest and neither does the psalmist. 

Psalm 73 teaches to own one’s insecurities in God’s sovereignty albeit, remaining resilient to the very end. Jesus was resilient because he knew God’s perfect plan. Upon entering the presence of God, the psalmist was reminded of God’s goodness to his saints and the outcome of wickedness. 

APPLICATION

• COMFORT IS THE ENEMY OF GREATNESS (OR PROGRESS)
• Complacency stunts our growth in Christ. We stop pursuing righteousness in Christ because we grow comfortable. We fall ill to the boring routine of life and step on things (Give example of Python and Cobra)
• CONSTANT REFOCUS
• Example of using Waze on the highway
• Stand Fast (and when you have done everything-just stand) 
• Eph 6:10 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
• James 4

Conclusion

Psalm 73 is an ancient poem that exposes raw emotions that force the reader to wrestle with their own uncertainties of God’s justice. 
The psalm confronts the reader with the reality of the wicked prospering in this world. 

Psalm 73 epitomizes wisdom literature by affirming the necessity of wrestling with one’s skepticism over the goodness of God in the face of injustice. The wisdom derives from working through doubts while remaining faithful to God; and in doing so, growing stronger in faith. The only losers in the scenario are the fake believers, who did not truly follow God and desired worldly power and possessions rather than eternal life.