Psalm 73.
We here begin the short Third Book of the Psalms, which ends with Psalm 89. It continues but one of David’s, —the 86th.
In the First Book, ending with Psalm 41, are the great principles of the position of the Jewish remnant in connection with Christ, the rejected and glorified One.
In the Second Book the remnant is seen separated from the wicked inhabitants of Jerusalem, and gone from the city; in it too we found the Lord coming to cheer and deliver the remnant, and to set up His kingdom.
The Third Book now looks at the condition of Israel as a nation restored to their land, though it distinguishes the goy or true-hearted among them. In this Book the coming of the Lord is not included; the Fourth Book will again set that glorious event forth.
In Psalm 73 the saint has been troubled seeing the prosperity of the wicked, and the trials of the godly. Is it not often so today? Pride, violence, riches, oppression, boastfulness, —these are still the common marks of the ungodly in the world, and the people of God on the other hand are usually not prosperous, are even in deep distress and suffering from oppression through the selfishness that is natural to man; waters in fullness are wrung out to them. (Verse 10). They wonder if God knows how they are tread, and that it is the wicked that prosper and heap up riches.
Thinking over it all, the saint at first decides that he has cleansed his heart and hands for naught, because all the day he has been plagued, and every morning chastened. But if he should say this he would be faithless to the generation of God’s children (verse 15). He could not understand; the state of things was so contrary to what one would expect, for an Israelite looked upon riches and possessions as proof of God’s blessing. Going into the sanctuaries of God, he understood their end. (Verses 19-20); he was all wrong, as ignorant of the ways of God as a beast.
Instructed of God, the saint is comforted in a contrary scene; God has preserved him; He will guide him by His counsel, and after the glory, after it has been revealed by the coming of the Lord —he will be received and blessed on earth. (See Zechariah 2:88For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. (Zechariah 2:8)). He realizes his blessed portion through the exercise of soul he has been experiencing, and sees and desires none but the Lord. Flesh and heart fail indeed, for man is a frail creature at all times, but the intelligent language of faith at all times and in all circumstances is “God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.” In God alone is safety and true blessing. It is through affliction that the believer learns the truth of the last verse of the psalm,
“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.”
ML 02/15/1931