Psalm 73: Until I Went into the Sanctuary

"Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men… Pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment."

"They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression… And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world… Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued… When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end."

"Surely thou didst set them in slippery places… How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment!… Thus my heart was grieved… So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory."

"Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever… But 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."

The prosperity of the wicked

The speaker's envy is concrete: the arrogant are well fed, healthy, dressed in pride and violence, and they "set their mouth against the heavens." The same question drives Job, Jeremiah 12:1 and Ecclesiastes. Psalm 73 does not deny the facts; it changes where the speaker stands to see them.

The turn in the sanctuary

The poem pivots at v. 17: "until I went into the sanctuary of God." What happened there is not described. The second half answers the first point by point: the wicked stood on firm ground, now they are on slippery places; the speaker's feet almost slipped, now God holds his right hand. The word "Surely" ('akh) opens v. 1, v. 13 and v. 18, marking the creed, the doubt and the new sight.

"To Israel" or "to the upright"

73:1 Hebrew le-yisra'el, "to Israel." Many scholars divide the same consonants as la-yashar el, "God is good to the upright," which matches the parallel "to such as are of a clean heart." No manuscript is known to read it that way; it is a conjecture based on the poetry.

"Afterward receive me to glory"

73:24 uses laqah, "take," as in Psalm 49:15 and of Enoch and Elijah. It can mean that God will take the speaker to an honoured place after his trial, or after death. Together with "my portion for ever" (v. 26), many readers see here one of the clearest Old Testament hopes of communion with God beyond death; the poem does not describe what that would be.

The heading

"A Psalm of Asaph." Asaph was a Levite singer appointed under David according to 1 Chronicles 16:5–7 and 25:1–2; 2 Chronicles 29:30 calls him "the seer." Twelve psalms carry his name (50 and 73–83). "The sons of Asaph" were still a guild of temple singers after the exile (Ezra 2:41), so the heading probably names a guild and its collection rather than one poet. Book III begins here and is dominated by Asaph and Korah psalms; only Psalm 86 is "of David."

In the versions and in modern thought

The library's Greek and Latin also read "to Israel" in v. 1 (Vulgate "Quam bonus Israel Deus"), and render v. 24 "cum gloria suscepisti me," "you have taken me up with glory" (a past tense), which strengthened later readings of the verse as hope beyond death. The Jewish philosopher Martin Buber wrote a celebrated meditation on Psalm 73 ("The Heart Determines," 1950s), reading its turn as the discovery that nearness to God is itself the answer.