Psalm 73 is brutally honest about envy. The Psalmist nearly slips because the wicked seem peaceful, wealthy, healthy, and untouched, while the righteous are corrected every morning. The turning point comes only in the sanctuary of God.
This Psalm gives language to one of the most common spiritual scandals: why do arrogant people prosper while the faithful suffer? Its answer is not a slogan. It is worship, final judgment, repentance for distorted vision, and the discovery that God Himself is the believer’s portion.
Psalm 73 (LXX 72) - Until I Entered the Sanctuary of God
Psalm Metadata
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| NKJV / Masoretic numbering | Psalm 73 |
| Septuagint / Coptic numbering | Psalm 72 |
| Accepted author | A Psalm for Asaph. Asaph is associated with temple praise and prophetic-wisdom instruction. |
| Period in author’s life | No precise episode is named. The setting is spiritual crisis brought into the sanctuary. |
| Christ prophecy status | Ecclesial and Christological, not a narrow prediction. Christ reveals the end, heals envy, holds the believer by the right hand, and becomes the inheritance greater than heaven and earth. |
| Coptic lectionary/service use | Verified local rows preserve printed Psalm 73:23, 24, and 28 across many annual Matins and Liturgy rows, with repeated use on saint and memorial dates, Fast of Nineveh rows, and other fixed-day readings. |
| Numbering issue | The embedded Scripture text is Brenton LXX Psalm 72. Local rows cited here preserve printed Psalm 73 references. |
Historical and Scriptural Context
Psalm 73 opens Book III of the Psalter in the Hebrew ordering and begins a series associated with Asaph. It moves from personal moral crisis to sanctuary vision. The problem is not theoretical. The Psalmist feels his faith becoming unstable.
The Psalm belongs beside Job, Ecclesiastes, Jeremiah 12, and Habakkuk. Scripture refuses shallow answers about suffering. It allows the faithful to ask hard questions, but it does not let envy become wisdom.
Geographical Significance ⛰️
The key place is the sanctuary. The Psalmist cannot understand the crisis while staring only at the visible success of the wicked. He must enter the place of God’s presence, where the end of things becomes visible.
The Characters 👥
Asaph / the Psalmist. A worship leader who nearly slips. His honesty is part of the Psalm’s authority.
The prosperous wicked. They appear secure, but their prosperity has swollen into pride and contempt.
The people of God. The Psalmist fears that careless speech would betray “the generation of thy children.” Private doubt can become public harm if spoken without discernment.
God. He is the sanctuary’s light, the guide who holds the right hand, and the final portion of the heart.
🕯️ Light from the Word
Psalm 72:1-12, the scandal of the prosperous wicked
72:1 A Psalm for Asaph. How good is God to Israel, to the upright in heart! 72:2 But my feet were almost overthrown; my goings very nearly slipped. 72:3 For I was jealous of the transgressors, beholding the tranquillity of sinners. 72:4 For there is no sign of reluctance in their death: and they have firmness under their affliction. 72:5 They are not in the troubles of other men; and they shall not be scourged with other men. 72:6 Therefore pride has possessed them; they have clothed themselves with their injustice and ungodliness. 72:7 Their injustice shall go forth as out of fatness: they have fulfilled their intention. 72:8 They have taken counsel and spoken in wickedness: they have uttered unrighteousness loftily. 72:9 They have set their mouth against heaven, and their tongue has gone through upon the earth. 72:10 Therefore shall my people return hither: and full days shall be found with them. 72:11 And they said, How does God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? 72:12 Behold, these are the sinners, and they that prosper always: they have possessed wealth.
The Psalm begins with doctrine: “How good is God to Israel.” Then it immediately confesses instability: “my feet were almost overthrown.” This is spiritually mature honesty. The Psalmist does not deny what he believes, but he admits that what he sees has shaken him.
The temptation is envy. He sees sinners at ease, proud, unjust, full, and loud. Their mouths are set against heaven and their tongues roam the earth. This is not only wealth. It is the apparent success of arrogance.
The Fathers often warn that envy darkens the eye of the soul. Here envy does something even more dangerous: it makes the righteous life seem pointless. The Psalmist is not tempted first to steal or rage. He is tempted to conclude that holiness does not matter.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “what he sees has shaken him”; “envy makes the righteous life seem pointless.”
- Emphasize: the Psalm’s honesty about spiritual disorientation.
- Avoid: giving a quick answer before the Psalm reaches the sanctuary.
Psalm 72:13-17, the question that can only be solved in worship
72:13 And I said, Verily in vain have I justified my heart, and washed my hands in innocency. 72:14 For I was plagued all the day, and my reproof was every morning. 72:15 If I said, I will speak thus; behold, I should have broken covenant with the generation of thy children. 72:16 And I undertook to understand this, but it is too hard for me, 72:17 until I go into the sanctuary of God; and so understand the latter end.
This is the turning point. The Psalmist says what many faithful people have felt: “Verily in vain have I justified my heart.” But he stops himself. If he speaks that way without wisdom, he will break covenant with the generation of God’s children.
That restraint is important. Scripture does not forbid lament. It forbids irresponsible despair that wounds others. A teacher, parent, deacon, or servant may have real questions, but must not turn unresolved bitterness into public poison.
Augustine sees the problem clearly. The difficulty remains, he says, “only until I enter into the Sanctuary of God.” In the sanctuary the Psalmist learns to look toward “the last things,” not only present appearances. Worship does not erase the question. It changes the field of vision.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “irresponsible despair wounds others”; “worship changes the field of vision.”
- Emphasize: the sanctuary is the turning point, not an optional devotional detail.
- Avoid: shaming honest questions. The Psalm itself gives the question room.
Psalm 72:18-22, the end of envy and the repentance of the heart
72:18 Surely thou hast appointed judgments to them because of their crafty dealings: thou hast cast them down when they were lifted up. 72:19 How have they become desolate! suddenly they have failed: they have perished because of their iniquity. 72:20 As the dream of one awakening, O Lord, in thy city thou wilt despise their image. 72:21 For my heart has rejoiced, and my reins have been gladdened. 72:22 But I was vile and knew not: I became brutish before thee.
The sanctuary reveals the end. The wicked are not as secure as they looked. Their life is like a dream after waking. Their image fades when God reveals reality.
The Psalmist then repents not only of envy, but of brutishness. “I was vile and knew not.” That confession is not self-hatred. It is clarity. Envy had made him less than himself. It had reduced him to instinct, comparison, and resentment.
This is one of the Psalm’s deepest spiritual insights: envy is not only wrong because it resents another’s good. It is wrong because it makes us spiritually stupid. It strips the heart of discernment. The cure is not merely to stop comparing. The cure is to stand before God until reality is seen truthfully.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “envy had made him less than himself”; “the cure is to stand before God until reality is seen truthfully.”
- Emphasize: repentance for distorted vision.
- Avoid: describing the wicked’s end with vindictive pleasure.
Psalm 72:23-28, God as portion forever
72:23 Yet I am continually with thee: thou hast holden my right hand. 72:24 Thou hast guided me by thy counsel, and thou hast taken me to thyself with glory. 72:25 For what have I in heaven but thee? and what have I desired upon the earth beside thee? 72:26 My heart and my flesh have failed: but God is the strength of my heart, and God is my portion for ever. 72:27 For, behold, they that remove themselves far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed every one that goes a whoring from thee. 72:28 But it is good for me to cleave close to God, to put my trust in the Lord; that I may proclaim all thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion.
The Psalm reaches its healing here. “Yet I am continually with thee: thou hast holden my right hand.” The Psalmist began by almost slipping. He ends by discovering that God had been holding him even through the crisis.
Augustine’s comment on verse 26 should be quoted because it catches the Psalm’s center: “Let the people of God cry, my portion is my God. Not for a time my portion; but my portion is my God for everlasting.” This is the answer to envy. The wicked may have ease, wealth, image, and applause. The faithful have God.
This is not a consolation prize. It is the heart of salvation. “What have I in heaven but thee?” means that even heaven is not chiefly desirable apart from God. The saints do not desire a reward detached from the Rewarder. They desire communion.
The final line turns personal healing into proclamation: “that I may proclaim all thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion.” The one who almost slipped becomes a witness.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “God had been holding him even through the crisis”; “the faithful have God.”
- Emphasize: God Himself is the inheritance, not merely the giver of better circumstances.
- Avoid: presenting faith as a technique for getting the same prosperity the wicked have.
The Church’s Voice in Worship 📖
The local Coptic crosswalk preserves printed Psalm 73:23, 24, and 28 across a large number of annual Matins and Liturgy rows, including Toba, Abib, Mesra, Tout, Baba, Hator, Kiahk, Paona, Amshir, Bashons, and Fast of Nineveh rows. The repeated verses are the healing end of the Psalm: God holds the right hand, guides by counsel, receives to glory, and it is good to cleave close to Him.
That selection is spiritually wise. The lectionary does not usually select the Psalm’s long description of arrogant prosperity. It selects the answer: nearness to God, guidance, glory, and trust. On saint, memorial, repentance, and fixed-day readings, this is exactly the Church’s proclamation. The righteous life is worth living because God is the portion.
Iconography Connection 🖼️
Psalm 73 resonates with icons of the saints more than with icons of worldly victory. The saint’s face says what the Psalm learns: “God is my portion.” It also resonates with icons of the Last Judgment, where present appearances are overturned and the true end of each life is revealed.
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
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Name envy before it becomes theology. The Psalmist almost builds a false worldview out of jealousy. Confess envy early.
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Take hard questions into the sanctuary. Do not solve spiritual scandal only by analysis, news, comparison, or social commentary. Bring it into prayer and worship.
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Guard younger believers from unresolved bitterness. The Psalmist refuses to betray the generation of God’s children with careless speech.
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Let God be enough, not because life is easy, but because He is the portion of the heart. This is the Psalm’s hardest and most liberating truth.
Teacher's Notes
- Timing: 8 minutes for context, 30 minutes for the four text units, 10 minutes for lectionary and iconography, 10 minutes for spiritual fruit.
- Where to linger: Psalm 72:17 and Psalm 72:23-26.
- Where to compress: the repeated lectionary date list. Summarize the pattern rather than reading all dates.
- Pastoral warning: do not shame people for asking why the wicked prosper. The Psalm dignifies the question, then heals it.
- Key phrase to say slowly: “The saints do not desire a reward detached from the Rewarder.”
Glossary
- Asaph: A temple singer and prophetic-wisdom voice associated with several Psalms.
- Sanctuary: The place of God’s presence and worship, where the Psalmist receives a true view of the end.
- Portion: Inheritance or chosen share. In Psalm 73, God Himself is the believer’s inheritance.
Translation and Source Notes
Embedded Scripture is Brenton’s English Septuagint, Psalm 72. The study title uses NKJV/Masoretic numbering first, Psalm 73, with LXX 72 in parentheses. Local Coptic rows cited here preserve printed Psalm 73 references.
Sources
Primary sources: Brenton Septuagint, Psalm 72; Job 21; Jeremiah 12:1; Habakkuk 1; St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus; St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 72, sections 17 and 24, accessed through New Advent.
Secondary academic sources: Robert Alter, The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary, notes on Psalm 73; J. Clinton McCann, notes on Psalm 73 in The New Interpreter’s Bible.
Coptic Orthodox / liturgical sources: Coptic Orthodox lectionary lectionary references for printed Psalm 73:23, 24, and 28 rows across annual Matins and Liturgy, including Fast of Nineveh and fixed-day readings.