Psalm 73--God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

Psalm 73
English Standard Version

Book Three
God Is My Strength and Portion Forever
A Psalm of Asaph.
73 Truly God is good to Israel,
    to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
    my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
    when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4 For they have no pangs until death;
    their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
    they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
    violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;
    their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
    loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens,
    and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them,
    and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, “How can God know?
    Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
    always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean
    and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken
    and rebuked every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
    I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

16 But when I thought how to understand this,
    it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
    then I discerned their end.

18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
    you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
    swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes,
    O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered,
    when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant;
    I was like a beast toward you.

23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
    you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

​27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
    you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
    I have made the Lord God my refuge,
    that I may tell of all your works.

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Today, we're starting Book 3 of the Psalms which covers Psalms 73 through 89.  These will primarily be psalms of Asaph where Book 1 and Book 2 were primarily Psalms of David.  Asaph was one of the Levites responsible for playing music and leading the priests and the people in worship before the Ark of the Covenant.  His specific job was to play the cymbals, but we see that he was also filled with the Spirit and wrote all kinds of music and eventually became the chief musician (he probably ended up directing/conducting the musicians and the singers).  Asaph loved to focus on the steadfast love the LORD, but Asaph will also honestly tell us about his struggles with his faith as he writes his psalms.  That's where we start today.  This a psalm about Asaph, the one who was supposed to lead the people in worship, having doubts.  "But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked."

This serves as a warning to us not to covet what we think it is the world has that the LORD has called us to give up.  They seemed to be healthy and wealthy.  The appeared to be free of the kind of pain and suffering that Asaph felt.  They walked around proud and haughty and bullied others and got away with it--even to the point of despising the life of others whose lives meant nothing to them.  They would think nothing of doing violence to another for sport or pleasure or simply killing someone who got in the way of their selfish ambitions.

By their speech we know the wicked, for their words are scoffers and slanderers using their tongues to blaspheme God and to do violence to fellow men.  Threats and curses come from them as often as they breathe.  If God does not punish them, how can the people of God judge them to find fault with them?  It appears that God letting them experience blessings instead of curses means that He is okay with this kind of spirit and behavior, even though we know it is contrary to His Law and His very nature, for these kinds of men are acting in accordance with the character and nature of their father--the devil

The righteous like Asaph look at this and the hard work they have done to keep their hearts clean and ask, "Why bother?".  If the end of the righteous and the wicked is the same (for they both die) wouldn't you rather die being the head and not the tail? That is a very temporal perspective because it forgets to account for the judgment that comes after life and the blessings that the LORD has for those who are His servants and citizens of His Kingdom and curses for those who rebel against His authority and are citizens of the kingdom of this world that we call the kingdom of darkness.

It was only after Asaph went to the LORD's sanctuary (the Tabernacle) to pray, offer sacrifices and worship the LORD that he received the other information to answer the question he was trying to ask.  Truly the LORD sees the righteous and the wicked both and justice and wrath are coming for those who are wicked.  The punishment for wickedness may be in the future, but the blessings for obedience are here and now.  Asaph realizes that the fact that He can come to the LORD and worship and commune with Him is something the wicked do not have, and that is worth more than all the silver and gold, and long years and good food.  We may fail, but He is always faithful.  Then the words that are the title of this song, "God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."  That is to say that I don't need to look for anything else to satisfy me because He is enough for me.

In the end, the wicked will be judged and will perish (they will go into eternal death--eternal separation from the eternal life and the blessings that belong to the LORD's people).  Therefore, we find our strength and our security in the LORD, and we can tell of His wonderful name and His wonderful deeds to all the people (not just the people of God, but to the nations of the world).  That will be another theme of Asaph's is that God's people should declare His glory and His power and His salvation to the nations.  God knew what He was doing when He chose this man to lead His people in worship, but that doesn't mean that this man never had his own struggles.  It is good to have people be honest about such things so that we don't find it awkward when we too have such questions, but we can learn from what they told us so that we do not fall into the trap that they almost fell into.  Guard your hearts.  Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths (make your paths straight).