PSALM 73
A PSALM OF ENVY
REVISED MAY 09, 2006
This morning I want to speak about one of my favorite psalms.
It is a psalm written by a man who, for a time, was envious of the wicked,
whose life was temporarily out of focus; who wrestled with his envy, and got his life back in focus. It demonstrates what can happen to a godly person when he loses his perspective, when he focuses on the things others have, rather than focusing on his Lord and his wonderful life in Christ.
In this psalm the psalmist explains how he moved from complaining through communication to conviction and commitment. The psalmist explains how his life was totally out of focus; how he was focusing on the prosperity of the wicked; and when he focused on the prosperity of the wicked, he lost perspective on the real values of life.
The greatest values of life are the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Christians totally lose perspective when they focus on the visible things wicked people have. Unfortunately some Christians even envy other Christians. How foolish. The quickest way to become unhappy is to envy other people, to become covetous. Some people can be happy with their job and their pay, until they focus on the job and salary other people have, and become envious.
Some spouses can be happy with their spouses, until they begin to envy some other person who seems to enjoy marriage more than they.
Some folk can be happy doing the work of the Lord, until someone else gets some praise they think they deserve, and they get envious.
I would prefer to read the whole psalm and then come back and discuss it
verse by verse. However, because the time is short, I shall not do that.
Rather, I shall discuss the psalm a few verses at a time.
(Psa 73:1 NIV) A psalm of Asaph. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
(Psa 73:2 NIV) But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.
(Psa 73:3 NIV) For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
(Psa 73:4 NIV) They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.
(Psa 73:5 NIV) They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills.
(Psa 73:1 NIV) A psalm of Asaph. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
The psalmist begins with his conviction, with how he felt and what he believed once he got things in focus. But the psalmist didn’t always feel that way and think that way. And in the next few verses he will tell us why. He will tell us how he got his life out of focus and then got it back into focus.
Does your life sometimes get out of focus? If it does, I suggest that you read Psalm 73 and Psalm 37 over and over again on a regular basis.
(Psa 73:2 NIV) But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.
(Psa 73:3 NIV) For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
(Psa 73:4 NIV) They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.
(Psa 73:5 NIV) They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills.
The psalmist is saying that wicked people do not have troubles, that they have all that they could wish; and when they die, they die a very peaceful death.Do you believe him? It is in the Bible. Do you believe him? You ought not to.
The psalmist is not speaking wise words. He will later say that he was acting like a foolish animal, like a beast. He is focused on the prosperity of the wicked, and in his envy he fails to see the troubles they have, and the curse they are to themselves and to their families.
The psalmist is not speaking theological truth. He is telling us how he felt when he had his eyes focused on the prosperity of the wicked; and when he did not see the troubles some of them have, or he did not see the miserable deaths some of them die.
He was speaking out of envy. He was speaking with his feelings out of focus and with his thinking out of focus. And when our feelings and our thinking are out of focus, we think and say some very foolish things. We have lost sight of some important spiritual realities. We have lost our proper perspective.
(Psa 73:6 NIV) Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence.
(Psa 73:7 NIV) From their callous hearts comes iniquity ; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.
(Psa 73:8 NIV) They scoff, and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression.
(Psa 73:9 NIV) Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.
(Psa 73:10 NIV) Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.
(Psa 73:11 NIV) They say, "How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?"
(Psa 73:12 NIV) This is what the wicked are like-- always carefree, they increase in wealth.
When I was a teenager, living in Toronto, one of the richest men in Toronto was a radio newscaster. He was a blaspheming atheist who boasted of his riches and mocked God. One day he announced over the radio: “If there is a God in heaven, let Him strike me dead now. I will give him five seconds.”
And then he started to count. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
I could imagine some Christians at that point saying: Zap him, God. Zap him.
Don’t let him get away with that blasphemy. After he had counted to five and nothing happened, he said: “See, there is no God.”
Is that what his counting proved? No, his counting proved that God is more patient than he was.
People like him were the exception when I was a teenager. But now people like him seem to be very common. They have a name for them. They call them shock-jocks.
Beginning with verse 13, the psalmist compares his experience with what he has said are the experiences of the wicked.
To sum up what he says, he believes that the wicked get away with murder, and he gets murdered by God for doing good.
(Psa 73:13 NIV) Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.
(Psa 73:14 NIV) All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning.
(Psa 73:15 NIV) If I had said, "I will speak thus," I would have betrayed your children.
(Psa 73:16 NIV) When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me
(Psa 73:17 NIV) till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.
(Psa 73:18 NIV) Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.
(Psa 73:19 NIV) How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!
The psalmist says that living a righteous life is totally frustrating. He tries to be good, and it does not get him anywhere.
My father used to say to me: “Son, you are a good boy. And you don’t get paid for being good. You are good for nothing”. That is how the psalmist felt.
(Psa 73:14 NIV) All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning.
(
If you were a teenager, what would you think of a parent who woke you up each day with these words: “Wakey, wakey, time to have your morning strap, whether you need it or not? It is time for me to box your ears in.”
The psalmist felt that that was the way God had treated him, not only every morning, but all day long every day.
(Psa 73:15 NIV) If I had said, "I will speak thus," I would have betrayed your children.
(Psa 73:16 NIV) When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me
(Psa 73:17 NIV) till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.
Have you ever complained to people about how you felt mistreated as a Christian and they would not listen; or they were offended by what you said?
What happened when Job expressed his innocence to his three friends?
They were offended. They became miserable comforters by giving him pat answers. And the hardest lesson Job had to learn was how to forgive his miserable comforters who gave him pat answers.
I am reminded of the preacher who loved to be out on his boat. He called his boat “Visitation”, so that when some of his critical parishioners asked his secretary where he was, she could say he was out on Visitation. One day he was walking down near waterside, admiring all the beautiful boats. He thought to himself: The next time a pulpit committee considers me, I am going to ask for weekends off.
Now, preachers can share that kind of joke with fellow preachers. Fellow preachers understand. But most preachers would not share that joke with many parishioners. Many parishioners might be offended.
Many Christians, if they get negative thoughts about their lot in life, suppress their thoughts, knowing that their negative thoughts are foolish. Many Christians do not understand that anger and envy when suppressed often produce poison.
People need to know that there are psalms of envy in the Bible, psalms which psalmists have written when their life has lost its focus; psalms which psalmists have written when they felt that God was letting the wicked away with murder, and was ganging up on them.
Some people express their frustration in humor. Others express it in poems of envy. Both are probably good therapy.
(Psa 73:16 KJV) When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;
(Psa 73:17 KJV) Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their
end.
(Psa 73:18 KJV) Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst
them down into destruction.
(Psa 73:19 KJV) How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.
Notice the change of the psalmist’s focus. The same psalmist who talked about
how the wicked have no problems and have a peaceful death is now saying the very opposite. He has made a 180 degree turn. What happened? The psalmist tells us.
He went to the house of the Lord. Undoubtedly he heard the word of the Lord.
Then he gained a new understanding of the goodness of God, and of the blessings of knowing God.
He also gained a new understanding of the slippery slope to hell on which the wicked make their blasphemous remarks. And he sees that the wicked are utterly consumed with terrors.
How do we get our lives back into focus? By getting back to the fellowship of God’s people. By coming, as we do this morning, to the table of the Lord, which reminds us afresh of God’s love for us; of how much he was willing to suffer for us. By recognizing that the greatest gift in all the world is God’s gift of His Son and the forgiveness of our sins; and by realizing that ungodly, proud, wicked people don’t have what we have.
By allowing the Holy Spirit to fill us with Himself.
By focusing on Jesus, on the Holy Spirit, and on God’s Word.
By getting our focus off the things which the wicked have; and by remembering what we have in Christ. Then we shall pity the wicked, not envy them.
And we will say what the psalmist says in Psalm 37:
(Psa 37:1 NIV) Of David. Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong;
(Psa 37:2 NIV) for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.
(Psa 37:3 NIV) Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
(Psa 37:4 NIV) Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
(Psa 37:5 NIV) Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this:
(Psa 37:6 NIV) He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
(Psa 37:7 NIV) Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
(Psa 37:8 NIV) Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret--it leads only to evil.
(Psa 37:9 NIV) For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.
(Psa 37:10 NIV) A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.
(Psa 37:11 NIV) But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.
(Psa 37:12 NIV) The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them;
(Psa 37:13 NIV) but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.
(Psa 37:14 NIV) The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright.
(Psa 37:15 NIV) But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.
(Psa 37:16 NIV) Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked;
(Psa 37:17 NIV) for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.
(Psa 37:18 NIV) The days of the blameless are known to the LORD, and their inheritance will endure forever.
(Psa 37:19 NIV) In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.
(Psa 37:20 NIV) But the wicked will perish: The Lord’s enemies will be like the beauty of the fields, they will vanish--vanish like smoke.
(Psa 37:21 NIV) The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously;
(Psa 37:22 NIV) those the LORD blesses will inherit the land, but those he curses will be cut off.
(Psa 37:23 NIV) If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm;
(Psa 37:24 NIV) though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.
(Psa 37:25 NIV) I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
(Psa 37:26 NIV) They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed.
(Psa 37:27 NIV) Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever.
(Psa 37:28 NIV) For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off;
(Psa 37:29 NIV) the righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.
(Psa 37:30 NIV) The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks what is just.
(Psa 37:31 NIV) The law of his God is in his heart; his feet do not slip.
(Psa 37:32 NIV) The wicked lie in wait for the righteous, seeking their very lives;
(Psa 37:33 NIV) but the LORD will not leave them in their power or let them be condemned when brought to trial.
(Psa 37:34 NIV) Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.
(Psa 37:35 NIV) I have seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a green tree in its native soil,
(Psa 37:36 NIV) but he soon passed away and was no more; though I looked for him, he could not be found.
(Psa 37:37 NIV) Consider the blameless, observe the upright; there is a future for the man of peace.
(Psa 37:38 NIV) But all sinners will be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off.
(Psa 37:39 NIV) The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD; he is their stronghold in time of trouble.
(Psa 37:40 NIV) The LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.
FOR FURTHER STUDY.
(Psa 72:7 NIV) In his days the righteous will flourish; prosperity will abound till the moon is no more.
(Psa 72:16 NIV) Let grain abound throughout the land; on the tops of the hills may it sway. Let its fruit flourish like Lebanon; let it thrive like the grass of the field.
(Psa 92:7 NIV) that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.
(Psa 92:12 NIV) The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
(Psa 92:13 NIV) planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
(Psa 132:18 NIV) I will clothe his enemies with shame, but the crown on his head will be resplendent."
