
Text -- Psalms 73:19 (NET)




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collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)
Wesley -> Psa 73:19
With God's dreadful judgements unexpectedly seizing upon them.
JFB -> Psa 73:18-20
JFB: Psa 73:18-20 - -- Future (Psa 37:37-38), which is dismal and terribly sudden (Pro 1:27; Pro 29:1), aggravated and hastened by terror. As one despises an unsubstantial d...
Future (Psa 37:37-38), which is dismal and terribly sudden (Pro 1:27; Pro 29:1), aggravated and hastened by terror. As one despises an unsubstantial dream, so God, waking up to judgment (Psa 7:6; Psa 44:23), despises their vain shadow of happiness (Psa 39:6; Isa 29:7). They are thrown into ruins as a building falling to pieces (Psa 74:3).
Clarke -> Psa 73:19
Clarke: Psa 73:19 - -- Are they brought into desolation - This is often a literal fact. I have known several cases where persons, very rich, have by sudden losses been bro...
Are they brought into desolation - This is often a literal fact. I have known several cases where persons, very rich, have by sudden losses been brought into desolation as in a moment; in consequence of which they were utterly consumed in terrors.
Calvin -> Psa 73:19
Calvin: Psa 73:19 - -- 19.How have they been destroyed, as it were in a moment! The language of wonder in which the Psalmist breaks forth serves much to confirm the sentime...
19.How have they been destroyed, as it were in a moment! The language of wonder in which the Psalmist breaks forth serves much to confirm the sentiment of the preceding verse. As the consideration of the prosperity of the ungodly induces a torpor upon our minds, yea, even renders them stupid; so their destruction, being sudden and unlooked for, tends the more effectually to awaken us, each being thus constrained to inquire how such an event came to pass, which all men thought could never happen. The prophet, therefore, speaks of it in the way of interrogation, as of a thing incredible. Yet he, at the same time, thus teaches us that God is daily working in such a manner as that, if we would but open our eyes, there would be presented to us just matter for exciting our astonishment. Nay, rather, if by faith we would look from a distance at the judgments of God daily approaching nearer and nearer, nothing would happen which we would regard as strange or difficult to be believed; for the surprise which we feel proceeds from the slowness and carelessness with which we proceed in acquiring the knowledge of Divine truth. 196 When it is said, They are consumed with terrors, it may be understood in two ways. It either means that God thunders upon them in such an unusual manner, that the very strangeness of it strikes them with dismay; or that God, although he may not lay his hand upon his enemies, nevertheless throws them into consternation, and brings them to nothing, solely by the terror of his breath, at the very time when they are recklessly despising all dangers, as if they were perfectly safe, and had made a covenant with death. 197 Thus we have before seen David introducing them as encouraging themselves in their forwardness by this boasting language, “Who is lord over us?” (Psa 12:4.) I am rather inclined to adopt the first sense; and the reason which leads me to do so is, that when God perceives that we are so slow in considering his judgments, he inflicts upon the ungodly judgments of a very severe kind, and pursues them with unusual tokens of his wrath, as if he would make the earth to tremble, in order thereby to correct our dullness of apprehension.
TSK -> Psa 73:19
TSK: Psa 73:19 - -- How : Psa 58:9; Job 20:5; Isa 30:13; Act 2:23; 1Th 5:3; Rev 18:10
they are : Num 17:12, Num 17:13; 1Sa 28:20; Job 15:21, Job 20:23-25; Pro 28:1; Isa 2...

collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)
Barnes -> Psa 73:19
Barnes: Psa 73:19 - -- How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! - How suddenly and unexpectedly does destruction come upon them! Nothing can be argued fr...
How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! - How suddenly and unexpectedly does destruction come upon them! Nothing can be argued from their apparent prosperity, for there is no ground of security in "that,"no basis for an argument that it will continue. The end must be seen in order to form a correct estimate on the subject, and that end may soon come. Compare the notes at Job 15:20-21.
They are utterly consumed with terrors - literally, "they perish; they are destroyed by terrors;"that is, by terrible things, or by things suited to produce terror in the mind. The idea is not that they are destroyed by their own fears, but that things come upon them which are suited to overwhelm the soul, and that by those things they are utterly destroyed. It is by this result that we are to determine in regard to the equity of the divine administration, and not by their prosperity and their apparent safety.
Poole -> Psa 73:19
Poole: Psa 73:19 - -- Their fall is wonderful, both for its soreness and for its suddenness.
Consumed with terrors either, with the horrors of their own minds; or rathe...
Their fall is wonderful, both for its soreness and for its suddenness.
Consumed with terrors either, with the horrors of their own minds; or rather, with God’ s dreadful judgments unexpectedly seizing upon them.
Haydock -> Psa 73:19
Haydock: Psa 73:19 - -- To thee. St. Jerome, "the soul intrusted in thy law." (Haydock) ---
Hebrew has now torec, which is rendered, "thy turtle dove." But the Septuag...
To thee. St. Jerome, "the soul intrusted in thy law." (Haydock) ---
Hebrew has now torec, which is rendered, "thy turtle dove." But the Septuagint have read d, instead of r, better; (Calmet) and Houbigant rejects with disdain the present Hebrew, though that figurative expression would have the same meaning. (Berthier)
Gill -> Psa 73:19
Gill: Psa 73:19 - -- How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment?.... Very suddenly, which is often the case of wicked men, who cry Peace and safety, and sudden d...
How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment?.... Very suddenly, which is often the case of wicked men, who cry Peace and safety, and sudden destruction comes upon them, 1Th 5:3, so as in a moment were the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Pharaoh and his host, and of Korah and his company, Lam 4:6, the words are expressed with admiration, as wondering at the sudden and amazing turn of things:
they are utterly consumed with terrors: their destruction is not only sudden, but entire; it is like the breaking in pieces of a potter's vessel; a shard of which cannot be gathered up and used, or like the casting of a millstone into the sea, which will never rise more; such will be the destruction of antichrist; see Rev 2:27 and this is done "with terrors"; either by terrible judgments inflicted on them from without; or with terrors inwardly seizing upon their minds and consciences; as, at the time of temporal calamities, or at death, however at judgment, when the awful sentence will be pronounced upon them; see Job 27:20.

expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

expand allCommentary -- Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis -> Psa 73:1-28
TSK Synopsis: Psa 73:1-28 - --1 The prophet, prevailing in a temptation,2 shews the occasion thereof, the prosperity of the wicked;13 the wound given thereby, diffidence;15 the vic...
MHCC -> Psa 73:15-20
MHCC: Psa 73:15-20 - --The psalmist having shown the progress of his temptation, shows how faith and grace prevailed. He kept up respect for God's people, and with that he r...
Matthew Henry -> Psa 73:15-20
Matthew Henry: Psa 73:15-20 - -- We have seen what a strong temptation the psalmist was in to envy prospering profaneness; now here we are told how he kept his footing and got the v...
Keil-Delitzsch -> Psa 73:19-22
Keil-Delitzsch: Psa 73:19-22 - --
The poet calms himself with the solution of the riddle that has come to him; and it would be beneath his dignity as a man to allow himself any furth...
Constable: Psa 73:1--89:52 - --I. Book 3: chs 73--89
A man or men named Asaph wrote 17 of the psalms in this book (Pss. 73-83). Other writers w...

Constable: Psa 73:1-28 - --Psalm 73
In this psalm Asaph related his inner mental struggle when he compared his life as one committe...
