Here you have the psalmist in a fainting fit. He has allowed the flesh to conquer the spirit. The observant eye of reason has for awhile rendered dim the clear vision of faith.
Psalms 73:1. Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
That must be true. Whatever we have seen or felt, it cannot be doubted but what God must become a good God to his own people, «Such as are of a clean heart.»
Psalms 73:2-3. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
I began to envy those whom God hates, and to think that it would be better for me to have been one of them.
Psalms 73:4. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
Their unbelief helps them to die in peace, mocking at God even to the last.
Psalms 73:5 ; Psalms 73:8. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
They justify themselves in treading others down; they laud it over others; they bully them; they rob them; they crush them; yet speak as if they had a perfect right to do so.
Psalms 73:9. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
Leaving nobody alone, sparing no character, however pure.
Psalms 73:10-11. Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
They get to doubt the personality of God. If they will not precisely say that there is no God, yet they go as near to it as they can; they come to what is about the same thing. They have a God who does not know, and who does not perceive.
Psalms 73:12. Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
And this is what the good man said,
Psalms 73:13-14. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
«Is this all I am to get by my righteousness? Is this the reward of following after God, to be whipped as soon as I wake, and to be sent to bed sore with grief?»
Psalms 73:15. If I say, I will speak thus; behold I should offend against the generation of thy children.
So he did not say what he thought. Some have said, «If you think so, you may as well say so.» But not so. You might as well say if you have a match, you may as well burn your house down. Bad thought is bad to yourself, but it ends there; turn it into words and tell it to others and it may do an infinite mischief.
Psalms 73:16-17. 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.
He went and hid himself in his God; he got near his God. It does not mean that he went to some place of worship, but that he went to the God whom he worshipped hid himself in his God.
Psalms 73:18. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction.
«On hills of ice I see them stand,
While flaming billows roll below,
melting down their foundation.»
Psalms 73:19 ; Psalms 73:22. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my veins. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.
It is a man of God that talks thus about himself. He feels that he had got to act and think as a beast might do; for a beast only calculates things according to time present; it crops the grass, and is satisfied, and lies down; but an immortal man ought to take a wider sweep and range in his thought, and not merely think of today and of this present life, but of the end of time and of the eternity that lies beyond this present mortal state. And because he had failed to do so, he calls himself foolish and ignorant, and says:
Psalms 73:23 ; Psalms 73:28. Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.
He finds all his comfort in his God. He comes to the conclusion that, whatever the portion of the ungodly may be, his is infinitely better than theirs, because they have not God, and he has God, who is all in all.