Psalm 73:1-15

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 73:1-14

This psalm begins somewhat abruptly: Yet God is good to Israel (so the margin reads it); he had been thinking of the prosperity of the wicked; while he was thus musing the fire burned, and at last he spoke by way of check to himself for what he had been thinking of. ?However it be, yet God is good.? Though wicked people receive many of the gifts of his providential bounty, yet we must own that he is, in a peculiar manner, good to Israel; they have favours from him which others have not. The... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 73:15-20

We have seen what a strong temptation the psalmist was in to envy prospering profaneness; now here we are told how he kept his footing and got the victory. I. He kept up a respect for God's people, and with that he restrained himself from speaking what he had thought amiss, Ps. 73:15. He got the victory by degrees, and this was the first point he gained; he was ready to say, Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and thought he had reason to say it, but he kept his mouth with this... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 73:1

Truly God is good to Israel ,.... To Israel, literally understood; in choosing them to be his people above all people on earth; in bringing them into a good land; in favouring them with many external privileges, civil and religious; in giving them his word, statutes, and ordinances, as he did not to other nations: or, spiritually understood, the Israel whom God has chosen, redeemed, and called by his special grace; verily of a truth, God is good to these; there is abundant proof and evidence... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 73:2

But as for me ,.... Who am one of the Israel of God whose heart has been renewed and purified by the grace of God, and to whom he has been kind and good in a thousand instances; yet, ungrateful creature that I am, my feet were almost gone ; out of the good ways of God, the ways of truth and holiness just upon the turn, ready to forsake them, and give up all religion as a vain thing: my steps had well nigh slipped , or "poured out" F3 שפכה "effusi sunt", V. L. Pagninus,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 73:3

For I was envious at the foolish ,.... The atheists, as in Psalm 14:1 , who deny the creation, as Arama; the wicked, as after explained, as all wicked men are, how wise soever they may be in things natural and civil, yet in religious things, in things of a spiritual nature, they have no understanding; they are proud boasters, glory in themselves, and in their outward attainments, as the word F4 בהוללים "in arrogantes", Gejerus; "stolide gloriosos", Michaelis; "at vain glorious... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 73:4

For there are no bands in their death ,.... Nothing that binds and straitens them, afflicts and distresses them; they have no pain of mind nor of body, but die at once, suddenly, in a moment, wholly at ease and quiet, without any bitterness of soul; see Job 21:13 , or "there are no bands until their death" F6 למו־תאם "usque ad mortem eorum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis. ; they have no straits nor difficulties all their life long, no distempers nor diseases... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 73:5

They are not in trouble, as other men ,.... Either of body or of mind, as the saints are, who through many tribulations enter the kingdom; or are not in "labour" F8 בעמל "in labore", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus. , do not labour for food and raiment, or get their bread by the sweat of their brow, as poor men do; nor are weary, so Arama: "neither are they plagued like other men"; smitten of God, corrected, and chastised by him, as his children... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 73:6

Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain, Which was the sin of the devils, and of our first parents, and of Sodom, and is the sin of antichrist; and which, of all sins, is most hateful to God; this arises from, at least is increased by, outward prosperity. Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked; pride and fulness of bread went together in Sodom; and, where it is predominant, it binds as a chain; such who are under the power of it are slaves unto it, they are chained and fettered by it, and it... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 73:7

Or their face, the eyes being put for the whole face; so the Targum, "their face is changed, because of fatness;' see Job 15:27 , otherwise through fatness the eyes are almost enclosed: or "it goes forth out of the fatness of their eyes" F9 יצא מחלב עינמו "prodit vel exit e pinguedine oculorum eorum", Michaelis. ; that is, either "pride", which shows itself in haughty looks and scornful airs, through the abundance possessed; or "violence", seen in the fierceness of the eyes,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 73:8

They are corrupt ,.... In themselves, in their principles, and in their practices, being shapen and conceived in sin, and born of the flesh; and are corrupters, or "corrupt" themselves, and their ways, and also others by their corrupt speech, evil communications, and bad examples: or "they consume away"; like smoke, or into it, as Psalm 37:20 or as wax melteth at the fire, Psalm 68:2 , where the same word is used as here: or "they cause to consume away" F15 ימיקו "dissolutos... read more

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