Psalms 73

The AIT Bible

The Prosperity of the Wicked

1A psalm of Asaph. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure of heart.

2But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.

3For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the well-being of the wicked.

4For they have no pangs at their death; their body is sound and fat.

5They are not in the trouble of mankind, and they are not stricken like other men.

6Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them like a garment.

7Their eyes bulge out from fatness; the imaginings of their heart overflow.

8They scoff and speak with malice of oppression; from on high they speak.

9They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.

10Therefore he brings his people back here, and waters of abundance are drained by them.

11And they say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

12Behold, these are the wicked; ever at ease, they increase in wealth.

13Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence.

14For I have been stricken all the day long, and my chastisement comes every morning.

15If I had said, “I will speak thus,” behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

16When I thought to understand this, it was a trouble in my eyes—

17until I came into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.

18Surely you set them on slippery places; you make them fall into ruins.

19How they became a desolation in a moment, swept away, brought to an end by terrors!

20Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself you will despise their phantom.

21When my heart was embittered and I was pierced in my inward parts,

22then I was brutish and did not know; I was like a beast before you.

23Yet I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.

24You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.

25Whom have I in heaven but you? And with you I desire nothing on earth.

26My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever.

27For behold, those far from you shall perish; you destroy everyone who is unfaithful to you.

28But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord Yahweh my refuge, to recount all your works.

Where this passage connects across Scripture — each link typed and reasoned, part of the AIT Bible Nexus Chart.

parallel Job 22:1 — The quoted skeptic's question 'What does God know?' matches the wicked's words in the psalm, 'How does God know?'
allusion Psalms 94:7 — Both quote the wicked denying God's knowledge of their deeds.
allusion Psalms 26:6 — Shared imagery of washing hands in innocence as a sign of purity before God.
echoed in Psalms 26:1 — Shared image of washing hands in innocence as a claim of moral purity.
thematic Jeremiah 12:1 — Jeremiah raises the same complaint about why the way of the wicked prospers.
thematic Job 21:7 — Both develop the same problem of the wicked prospering, at ease and dying without pangs.
thematic Job 21:1 — Both develop the problem of the prosperity of the wicked who ignore God yet flourish.
thematic Proverbs 24:19 — Proverbs warns against being envious of the wicked, matching the psalmist's confessed envy.
thematic Psalms 94:16 — The image of the foot slipping/nearly stumbling, sustained by God's grasp.

echoed in Job 20:1 — Both compare the fleeting end of the wicked to a dream that vanishes on waking.
allusion Psalms 35:6 — Shared image of the wicked being set on slippery ground for their downfall.

thematic Lamentations 3:24 — Shared confession that the LORD is my portion as the ground of hope.
thematic Lamentations 3:21 — Both name God as the portion of the soul.
thematic Psalms 23:3 — Both express God's guidance of the psalmist along the right path.
thematic Psalms 16:5 — Both declare Yahweh to be the psalmist's portion, his enduring inheritance.
thematic Psalms 73:27 — The psalmist contrasts the fate of those far from God with his own good in nearness to God.
thematic Psalms 49:13 — Both Korahite/Asaphite wisdom psalms voice hope that God will receive/take the faithful beyond death.
thematic Psalms 73:23 — The psalmist contrasts the fate of those far from God with his own good in nearness to God.
thematic Psalms 142:1 — Both declare God as the psalmist's portion in distress.