The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"truly," Hebrew akh (אַךְ), surely, indeed. The psalm opens with its hard-won conclusion, "Truly God is good to Israel." The word is emphatic, a verdict nailed down after a struggle rather than a platitude spoken before it, and Asaph places it at the front like a traveller telling you the destination before recounting the hard road that got him there.

"clean heart," barei levav (בָּרֵי לֵבָב). God's goodness is said to rest on "such as are of a clean heart." That narrowing is exactly what will trouble him in the verses ahead, for the men who prosper are anything but clean.

"feet were almost gone," ke'ayin natuyu raglai (כִּמְעַט נָטָיוּ רַגְלָי). With rare honesty he tells how nearly he lost that conclusion. Here is a man of God confessing that his faith very nearly went over the edge.

"well nigh slipped," shuppekhu ashurai (שֻׁפְּכוּ אֲשֻׁרָי). "My steps had well nigh slipped." The slip was real, and yet he is the one who wrote, "Truly God is good"; the psalm exists to show the way back.

"envious," qinneti (קִנֵּאתִי). What pushed him to the edge was not persecution, nor doubt about God's existence, but something quieter and more common. Envy is a slippery place, and comparing our lot with the prosperity of those who ignore God has toppled many a believer.

"prosperity of the wicked," shelom resha'im (שְׁלוֹם רְשָׁעִים), the ease, well-being of the wicked. He looked at the ungodly, prosperous, at ease, untroubled (vv4-12), and then at his own hard, plagued life (vv13-14), and the comparison poisoned him.

Explanation

Notice, first, that the psalm begins with its ending. "Truly God is good to Israel", that is the settled conviction Asaph finally reached, and he places it at the very front, like a traveler telling you the destination before recounting the hard road that got him there. The word "truly" (akh) is emphatic, a conclusion nailed down after a struggle, not a platitude spoken before it. And then, with rare honesty, he tells the truth about how nearly he lost it: "But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped." Here is a man of God confessing that his faith very nearly went over the edge. What pushed him? Not persecution, not doubt about God's existence, but something quieter and more common: "I was envious... when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." He looked at the ungodly, prosperous, at ease, untroubled, rolling in riches (vv4-12), and he looked at his own hard, plagued life (vv13-14), and the comparison poisoned him. Envy is a slippery place; comparing our lot with the prosperity of those who ignore God has toppled many a believer. And the psalm's great honesty is a comfort: if you have ever looked at the wicked flourishing and your own faithfulness seeming to cost you, and felt your feet begin to slide, you are not the first, and it need not be the end. Asaph nearly fell, and yet he is the one who wrote, "Truly God is good." The slip was real, but so was the recovery, and the psalm exists to show us the way back.

Gospel Focus

"My feet were almost gone... For I was envious... when I saw the prosperity of the wicked", the cure for the envy that nearly toppled Asaph is found in Jesus Christ, who teaches us where true treasure lies. The Lord Jesus warned against measuring life by the prosperity of the ungodly, "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth" (Luke 12:15), and told of a rich man whose barns were full the very night his soul was required of him (Luke 12:20). He calls us to "lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6:20) rather than envy the treasures of earth that moth and rust corrupt. And He Himself, though rich, "for your sakes... became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9), showing that the truest wealth is not what the wicked hoard but what Christ gives. The believer tempted to envy the ungodly must do what Asaph did, look past the present to the end, and past the world's riches to Christ, in whom are "unsearchable riches" (Ephesians 3:8). When your feet begin to slip at the sight of the prospering wicked, remember that you have a treasure they know nothing of, and a Saviour worth more than all they possess. The slip is real, but so is the grip of the God who holds you.

Word Study

"thought to know," Hebrew va'achashevah lada'at (וָאֲחַשְּׁבָה לָדַעַת). Asaph tried to solve his crisis the way we usually try, by thinking about it, turning it over, reasoning it through. It did not work.

"too painful for me," amal hu ve'einai (עָמָל הוּא בְעֵינָי), a trouble, a weariness in my eyes. Some problems only get heavier the longer you carry them alone in your own head. The more he brooded on the prosperity of the wicked, the more it wearied and wounded him.

"sanctuary," miqdeshei-El (מִקְדְּשֵׁי־אֵל), the holy places of God. The hinge of the whole psalm turns on a single word, "until." The breakthrough came not from harder thinking but from a change of place: when he stopped turning the riddle over in isolation and came into God's presence, the whole picture reframed. Worship restores perspective.

"understood," avinah (אָבִינָה). What reasoning could not give him, worship did. The understanding he had been chasing arrived the moment he stood in the right place.

"their end," le'acharitam (לְאַחֲרִיתָם), their latter end, their outcome. Notice precisely what he saw there. His mistake all along had been one of perspective: he had been staring at the wicked's present, their current ease and riches, and it looked unanswerable. In the sanctuary he saw where it all finally leads, and the puzzle dissolved.

Explanation

This is the hinge of the whole psalm, and it turns on a single word: "until." Asaph had tried to solve his crisis the way we usually try, by thinking about it, turning it over, reasoning it through, and it did not work: "When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me." Some problems only get heavier the longer you carry them alone in your own head; the more he brooded on the prosperity of the wicked, the more it wearied and wounded him. The breakthrough came not from harder thinking but from a change of place: "Until I went into the sanctuary of God." When he stopped turning the riddle over in isolation and came into God's presence, into worship, before the living God, the whole picture reframed. And notice precisely what he saw there: "then understood I their end." His mistake all along had been one of perspective, he had been staring at the wicked's present, their current ease and riches, and it looked unanswerable. In the sanctuary he saw their end, where it all finally leads, and the puzzle dissolved. The next verses spell it out: "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction... utterly consumed with terrors" (vv18-19). The prosperity that had looked so solid was a man standing on ice, and their comfortable "now" was rushing toward a terrible "then." This is a lesson for every believer baffled by the world: the answer to the prosperity of the wicked is not found by staring at the present, but by coming into God's presence and seeing the end. Worship restores perspective; the sanctuary shows you where things are going.

Gospel Focus

"Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end", the sanctuary where the believer's perspective is restored is opened fully to us in Jesus Christ, through whom we draw near to God. Under the old covenant only the priest could enter the holy place; but Christ, our great High Priest, has entered "into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Hebrews 9:24), and by His blood we now have "boldness to enter into the holiest" (Hebrews 10:19). The believer's sanctuary is no longer a building but the presence of God through Christ, into which we may come at any time to have our perspective set right. And in Christ we see "their end" and ours with perfect clarity, for He has revealed both the judgment that awaits those "far from thee" (v27) and the glory that awaits His own, "afterward receive me to glory" (v24). The riddle of a world where the wicked prosper is not finally solved by argument but by drawing near to God in Christ and seeing all things in the light of eternity, "the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18). So when the prosperity of the ungodly baffles and unsettles you, do what Asaph did, and what Christ has made possible: come into the sanctuary, draw near to God through Jesus, and see the end.

Word Study

"whom have I in heaven," Hebrew mi-li vashamayim (מִי־לִי בַשָּׁמָיִם). Having seen the end of the wicked, Asaph turns to what he has, and the question answers itself. This is the summit of the psalm: a soul that wants God so completely that nothing in heaven is desired beside Him.

"I desire," chafatzti (חָפַצְתִּי). "There is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." Notice how the envy is cured: not by getting what the wicked have, but by the desire itself being turned wholly toward God.

"faileth," kalah (כָּלָה), is spent, comes to an end. Notice the beautiful realism here. He does not pretend to be strong: "My flesh and my heart faileth", body and even inner man give out, and he says so plainly.

"strength of my heart," tzur levavi (צוּר לְבָבִי), the rock of my heart. "But God is the strength of my heart." The very thing that fails in us, God supplies from Himself, and He supplies it as a rock supplies a footing.

"portion," chelqi (חֶלְקִי), my allotted share, inheritance. This is an inheritance word, your allotted piece of the promised land. The wicked's portion is their riches; Asaph's portion is God Himself, and how can a man who has God for his treasure envy men who have only money?

"for ever," le'olam (לְעוֹלָם). The wicked's treasure will fail, for of them Asaph had said, "thou castedst them down into destruction" (v18); his own portion is for ever. The cure for envying the world is not to gain the world but to gain God, and to find that when everything else fails, He does not.

Explanation

Watch how Asaph's envy is finally cured, for it is not the way we might expect. He does not get what the wicked have; his circumstances do not change; he is still the plagued, chastened man of verse 14. What changes is that he discovers he already possesses something infinitely better than all their prosperity, "God is... my portion for ever." The word "portion" (chelek) is an inheritance word, your allotted share, your piece of the promised land. The wicked's portion is their riches; Asaph's portion is God Himself. And once he sees that, the envy simply evaporates, for how can a man who has God for his treasure envy men who have only money? "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." That is the summit of the psalm, and one of the summits of all Scripture: a soul that wants God so completely that nothing in heaven or earth is desired beside Him. The wicked's treasure will fail, "thou castedst them down"; but Asaph's treasure is "for ever." And notice the beautiful realism of verse 26: "My flesh and my heart faileth", he does not pretend to be strong; his body and even his inner man give out, "but God is the strength of my heart." The very thing that fails in us, God supplies from Himself. The cure for envying the world is not to gain the world but to gain God, and to find that when everything else fails, He does not. He who has God for his portion has lost nothing worth keeping and gained everything that lasts.

Gospel Focus

"God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever", this treasure is ours in Jesus Christ, in whom God gives us Himself as our everlasting inheritance. The believer's portion is the Lord, "The LORD is my portion, saith my soul" (Lamentations 3:24), and that portion is secured in Christ, in whom we "have obtained an inheritance" (Ephesians 1:11), "an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven" (1 Peter 1:4), utterly unlike the perishing riches of the wicked. Asaph's cry, "Whom have I in heaven but thee?" is the language of a heart that has come to treasure God above all, and it is answered supremely in Christ, who taught us that eternal life is "that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3); the reward is God Himself. And the realism of "my flesh and my heart faileth" is met by the Saviour whose "strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9), and who is "the resurrection, and the life" (John 11:25) even when the body finally fails. So the psalm ends where the gospel ends, with the soul's true wealth found not in the things of this world but in God Himself: "it is good for me to draw near to God" (v28). Make the Lord Jesus your portion, and you will never envy the prosperity of the wicked again, for you will have the one treasure that lasts for ever.