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Psalm 73

Well, one of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 73. I’m amazed by the content of this Psalm, the practicality, and how it does speak into our experiences in ways that have a ring of familiarity. I would entitle this Psalm “The Spiritual Insanity of Envy.”

It’s easy to look around and keep score, and this is what this song confronts. Let me read the first few verses of Psalm 73:

Truly God is good to Israel,
    to those who are pure in heart.
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.

Now notice the contrast here: God is good; but I was lost in envy.

Let me give you a definition of envy. Envy is a focusing more on what others have than what God has graciously provided for you, causing you to want what they have and to question the goodness of God.

Let me say it again. Envy focuses more on what others have than it does on what God has graciously provided, causing you to want what they have and to question the goodness of God.

Envy distorts your vision. Let me read.

For they have no pangs until death;
    their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
    they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
    violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
    their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
    loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
    and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore his people turn back to them,
    and find no fault in them.
And they say, “How can God know?
    Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

(and it goes on.)

Envy always distorts your vision. It always causes you to ask the question, “Is God good? Does he have favorites? Is he really caring for me?” Because what envy is able to do is always find somebody in your life who’s doing better than you; who has it easier than you.

And here’s the devastating question of Psalm 73, “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.” The psalmist says, “This is what I’ve obeyed for? This is why I followed you? This is why I’ve made these sacrifices? I’m being hammered, and these people who mock you are doing well.”

You will never properly understand the goodness and grace and presence and promises of God by comparing what you have to what others have. It only leads to an embittered heart.

When my soul was embittered,
    when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
    I was like a beast toward you.

(That’s a picture of anger in case you didn’t figure it out.)

What Psalm 73 then does is say, you can only ever make a proper evaluation when you look at life from the vantage point of eternity. From the vantage point of eternity, the wealth and pleasure and comfort of people who don’t know the Lord, the Psalm says, is like a dream. You awake in the morning, and it’s vaporized–it’s gone!

I would ask you: Are you looking around too much? Are you keeping score too much? Are you better at announcing what you don’t have than what God has graciously given you? Have you allowed yourself to doubt God’s goodness? Maybe envy is too much of a habit in your life. You’ll never ever build your confidence in the goodness of God by comparing what you have to what someone else has!

Author: Paul Tripp
https://www.paultripp.com/psalms/posts/psalm-73-the-spiritual-insanity-of-envy