Text -- Psalms 73:9-28 (NET)

73:9 They speak as if they rule in heaven, and lay claim to the earth. 73:10 Therefore they have more than enough food to eat, and even suck up the water of the sea. 73:11 They say, “How does God know what we do? Is the sovereign one aware of what goes on?” 73:12 Take a good look! This is what the wicked are like, those who always have it so easy and get richer and richer. 73:13 I concluded, “Surely in vain I have kept my motives pure and maintained a pure lifestyle. 73:14 I suffer all day long, and am punished every morning.” 73:15 If I had publicized these thoughts, I would have betrayed your loyal followers. 73:16 When I tried to make sense of this, it was troubling to me. 73:17 Then I entered the precincts of God’s temple, and understood the destiny of the wicked. 73:18 Surely you put them in slippery places; you bring them down to ruin. 73:19 How desolate they become in a mere moment! Terrifying judgments make their demise complete! 73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. O Lord, when you awake you will despise them. 73:21 Yes, my spirit was bitter, and my insides felt sharp pain. 73:22 I was ignorant and lacked insight; I was as senseless as an animal before you. 73:23 But I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. 73:24 You guide me by your wise advice, and then you will lead me to a position of honor. 73:25 Whom do I have in heaven but you? I desire no one but you on earth. 73:26 My flesh and my heart may grow weak, but God always protects my heart and gives me stability. 73:27 Yes, look! Those far from you die; you destroy everyone who is unfaithful to you. 73:28 But as for me, God’s presence is all I need. I have made the sovereign Lord my shelter, as I declare all the things you have done.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 73:9

¹ tn Heb “they set in heaven their mouth, and their tongue walks through the earth.” The meaning of the text is uncertain. Perhaps the idea is that they lay claim to heaven (i.e., speak as if they were ruling in heaven) and move through the earth declaring their superiority and exerting their influence. Some take the preposition -בְּ (bet) the first line as adversative and translate, “they set their mouth against heaven,” that is, they defy God.

NET Notes: Psa 73:10

¹ tc Heb “therefore his people return [so Qere (marginal reading); Kethib (consonantal text) has “he brings back”] to here, and waters of abundance are sucked up by them.” The traditional Hebrew text (MT) defies explanation. The present translation reflects M. Dahood’s proposed emendations (Psalms [AB], 2:190) and reads the Hebrew text as follows: לָכֵן יִשְׂבְעוּם לֶחֶם וּמֵי מָלֵא יָמֹצּוּ לָמוֹ (“therefore they are filled with food, and waters of abundance they suck up for themselves”). The reading יִשְׂבְעוּם לֶחֶם (yisvÿ’um lekhem, “they are filled with food”) assumes (1) an emendation of יָשׁיּב עַמּוֹ (yashyyv, “he will bring back his people”) to יִשְׂבְעוּם (yisvÿ’um, “they will be filled”; a Qal imperfect third masculine plural form from שָׂבַע [sava’] with enclitic mem [ם]), and (2) an emendation of הֲלֹם (halom, “to here”) to לֶחֶם (“food”). The expression “be filled/fill with food” appears elsewhere at least ten times (see Ps 132:15, for example). In the second line the Niphal form יִמָּצוּ (yimmatsu, derived from מָצָה, matsah, “drain”) is emended to a Qal form יָמֹצּוּ (yamotsu), derived from מָצַץ (matsats, “to suck”). In Isa 66:11 the verbs שָׂבַע (sava’; proposed in Ps 73:10a) and מָצַץ (proposed in Ps 73:10b) are parallel. The point of the emended text is this: Because they are seemingly sovereign (v. 9), they become greedy and grab up everything they need and more.

NET Notes: Psa 73:11

¹ tn Heb “How does God know? Is there knowledge with the Most High?” They appear to be practical atheists, who acknowledge God’s existence and sovereignty in theory, but deny his involvement in the world (see Pss 10:4, 11; 14:1).

NET Notes: Psa 73:12

¹ tn Heb “Look, these [are] the wicked.”

² tn Heb “the ones who are always at ease [who] increase wealth.”

NET Notes: Psa 73:13

¹ tn The words “I concluded” are supplied in the translation. It is apparent that vv. 13-14 reflect the psalmist’s thoughts at an earlier time (see vv. 2-3), prior to the spiritual awakening he describes in vv. 17-28.

² tn Heb “heart,” viewed here as the seat of one’s thoughts and motives.

³ tn Heb “and washed my hands in innocence.” The psalmist uses an image from cultic ritual to picture his moral lifestyle. The reference to “hands” suggests actions.

NET Notes: Psa 73:15

¹ tn Heb “If I had said, ‘I will speak out like this.’”

² tn Heb “look, the generation of your sons I would have betrayed.” The phrase “generation of your [i.e., God’s] sons” occurs only here in the OT. Some equate the phrase with “generation of the godly” (Ps 14:5), “generation of the ones seeking him” (Ps 24:6), and “generation of the upright” (Ps 112:2). In Deut 14:1 the Israelites are referred to as God’s “sons.” Perhaps the psalmist refers here to those who are “Israelites” in the true sense because of their loyalty to God (note the juxtaposition of “Israel” with “the pure in heart” in v. 1).

NET Notes: Psa 73:16

¹ tn Heb “and [when] I pondered to understand this, troubling it [was] in my eyes.”

NET Notes: Psa 73:17

¹ tn The plural of the term מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash) probably refers to the temple precincts (see Ps 68:35; Jer 51:51).

² tn Heb “I discerned their end.” At the temple the psalmist perhaps received an oracle of deliverance announcing his vindication and the demise of the wicked (see Ps 12) or heard songs of confidence (for example, Ps 11), wisdom psalms (for example, Pss 1, 37), and hymns (for example, Ps 112) that describe the eventual downfall of the proud and wealthy.

NET Notes: Psa 73:18

¹ tn The use of the Hebrew term אַךְ (’akh, “surely”) here literarily counteracts its use in v. 13. The repetition draws attention to the contrast between the two statements, the first of which expresses the psalmist’s earlier despair and the second his newly discovered confidence.

² tn Heb “cause them to fall.”

NET Notes: Psa 73:19

¹ tn Heb “they come to an end, they are finished, from terrors.”

NET Notes: Psa 73:20

¹ tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.

² sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.

³ tn Heb “you will despise their form.” The Hebrew term צֶלֶם (tselem, “form; image”) also suggests their short-lived nature. Rather than having real substance, they are like the mere images that populate one’s dreams. Note the similar use of the term in Ps 39:6.

NET Notes: Psa 73:21

¹ tn Or perhaps “when.”

² tn The imperfect verbal form here describes a continuing attitude in a past time frame.

³ tn Heb “and [in] my kidneys I was pierced.” The imperfect verbal form here describes a continuing condition in a past time frame.

NET Notes: Psa 73:22

¹ tn Or “brutish, stupid.”

² tn Heb “and I was not knowing.”

³ tn Heb “an animal I was with you.”

NET Notes: Psa 73:24

¹ tn The imperfect verbal form here suggests this is the psalmist’s ongoing experience.

² tn Heb “and afterward [to] glory you will take me.” Some interpreters view this as the psalmist’s confidence in an afterlife in God’s presence and understand כָּבוֹד (cavod) as a metonymic reference to God’s presence in heaven. But this seems unlikely in the present context. The psalmist anticipates a time of vindication, when the wicked are destroyed and he is honored by God for his godly life style. The verb לָקַח (laqakh, “take”) here carries the nuance “lead, guide, conduct,” as in Num 23:14, 27-28; Josh 24:3 and Prov 24:11.

NET Notes: Psa 73:25

¹ tn Heb “Who [is there] for me in heaven? And besides you I do not desire [anyone] in the earth.” The psalmist uses a merism (heaven/earth) to emphasize that God is the sole object of his desire and worship in the entire universe.

NET Notes: Psa 73:26

¹ tn The Hebrew verb כָלָה (khalah, “to fail; to grow weak”) does not refer here to physical death per se, but to the physical weakness that sometimes precedes death (see Job 33:21; Pss 71:9; 143:7; Prov 5:11).

² tn Or “forever.”

³ tn Heb “is the rocky summit of my heart and my portion.” The psalmist compares the Lord to a rocky summit where one could go for protection and to landed property, which was foundational to economic stability in ancient Israel.

NET Notes: Psa 73:27

¹ tn Or “for.”

² sn The following line defines the phrase far from you in a spiritual sense. Those “far” from God are those who are unfaithful and disloyal to him.

³ tn Heb “everyone who commits adultery from you.”

NET Notes: Psa 73:28

¹ tn Heb “but as for me, the nearness of God for me [is] good.”

² tn The infinitive construct with -לְ (lÿ) is understood here as indicating an attendant circumstance. Another option is to take it as indicating purpose (“so that I might declare”) or result (“with the result that I declare”).