Psalm 73 was written by Asaph who was one of the three chief musicians appointed by
David to preside over the worship and music services of the sanctuary (1
Chronicles 16:5). Asaph was a spiritually minded man, gifted in praise and
prophecy, whose impact upon his own family lasted down through the centuries. God
chose him to write 12 of the 150 Psalms.
Years ago, I heard someone say: “You can’t always help the first look, but it is the
second look that damns the soul.” We know that the more you look at something
with your eyes, the more you will think about it. That was the problem that
Asaph had, and that we also struggle with. We live in a materialistic culture
and are being overwhelmed with beautiful and new things every day. All around
us, we see people with new houses, new cars, new phones, new boats, new
everything, and we start envying, coveting, and wanting those things too.
We also notice, like Asaph, that the people who have these things don’t seem to
have a care in the world. They don’t go to church, they don’t read their Bibles,
(I doubt they even have one), they live immoral and ungodly lives, they are
proud and boastful and generally don’t have God in their thoughts at all. And
it appears that everything seems to go ok with them.
Asaph begins this chapter confirming that he knows that God is good and that He is
good to those who are pure in heart (v. 1). But notice, that verse 2 starts
with a “But”. And it is usually those “buts” that get us into trouble with our
thinking and in our lives. Asaph starts slipping down the slippery slope of
doubting!
The
Hebrew word translated "but" in verses 2 and 28, indicates a sharp
contrast. In verse 2, the more he measured his situation against that of the
ungodly, the more he began to slip from his firm foundation. There is a
difference between doubt and unbelief. Doubt comes from a struggling mind,
while unbelief comes from a stubborn will that refuses surrender to God (v. 7).
The unbelieving person will not believe, while the doubting person struggles to
believe but cannot.
From Asaph's viewpoint, the ungodly "had it made." They were healthy (vv.
4-5) and had no struggles in either life or death (Job 21:13, 23). They were
proud of their wealth and stations in life, and they wore that pride like
jewelry. They used violence to get their wealth and wore that violence like
rich garments. Like an overflowing river, their hard hearts and evil minds
produced endless ideas for getting richer, and they frequently spoke words of
opposition against the Lord in heaven. The words of the arrogant would
"strut through the land" and take possession of whatever they wanted.
To encourage their hard hearts and quiet their evil consciences, the wicked
affirmed that God didn't know what they were doing (Ps. 10).
Based on the evidence he could see around him, Asaph came to the wrong conclusion
that he has wasted his time and energy maintaining clean hands and a pure heart
(vv. 13 and 1, and see Psalm 24:4 and 26:6). If he had ever read the book of
Job, then he had missed its message, for we don't serve God because of what we
get out of it but because He is worthy of our worship and service regardless of
what He allows to come to our lives. Satan has a commercial view of the life of
faith and encourages us to serve God for what we get out of it (Job 1-2), and
Asaph almost bought into that philosophy.
Today, we need to turn our eyes upon Jesus and remember the old hymn: “O soul, are you
weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There’s light for a look
at the Savior, And life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look
full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In
the light of His glory and grace.”
God bless!
