to be translucent · verb, piel perfect, 1st person common singular
heart
לְבָבִ֑יle.va.Vi
H3824
the heart (as the most interior organ) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
vain
רִ֭יקrik
H7385
emptiness · noun, common masculine singular absolute
washed
וָאֶרְחַ֖ץva.'er.Chatz
H7364
to lave (the whole or a part of a thing) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
hands
כַּפָּֽיka.Pai
H3709
the hollow hand or palm (so of the paw of an animal · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix
innocency
בְּנִקָּי֣וֹןbe.ni.ka.Yon
H5356
clearness (literally or figuratively) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 21:15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?
Psalms 26:6 I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O LORD:
Job 34:9 For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.
Job 35:3 For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
Psalms 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Malachi 3:14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the…
James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Hebrews 10:19-22 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 73:1-14
This psalm begins somewhat abruptly: Yet God is good to Israel (so the margin reads it); he had been thinking of the prosperity of the wicked; while he was thus musing the fire burned, and at last he spoke by way of check to himself for what he had been thinking of. "However it be, yet God is good." Though wicked people receive many of the gifts of his providential bounty, yet we must own that he is, in a peculiar manner, good to Israel; they have favours from him which others have not.
The psalmist designs an account of a temptation he was strongly assaulted with - to envy the prosperity of the wicked, a common temptation, which has tried the graces of many of the saints. Now in this accoun…
Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain,.... Which supposes that his heart had been unclean, as every man's is, and which appears by what is in it, and by what comes out of it; that it was now cleansed, not in an absolute and legal sense, as if it was wholly free from sin, for this no man can say; but in an evangelical sense, being purified by faith in the blood of Christ; that he had himself some concern in the cleansing of his heart, which seems to be contrary to Proverbs 20:9 and besides, this is the Lord's own work, Psalm 51:10 wherefore this may be considered as a wrong and rash expression of his; for as he was wrong in one part of it, its being cleansed in vain, so he might be in the…
Psalm 73:10-14
10. On this account his people will return hither, and waters of a full cup will be wrung out to them. 11. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? 12. Behold! These are the ungodly, and yet they enjoy repose [or quietness] for ever: they heap up riches. 13. Surely I have purified my heart in vain, and washed my hands daily. [174] 14. And I have been scourged daily, and my chastisement has been every morning.
10. On this account his people will return hither. Commentators wrest this sentence into a variety of meanings. In the first place, as the relative his is used, without an antecedent indicating whose people are spoken of, some understand…
The Church Fathers
And again when David sheweth concerning the purity of his thoughts he likeneth them unto hands, and their freedom from iniquity he compareth unto the washing of the hands, saying, "I have washed my hands in innocency," that is to say, I have cleansed and purified my thoughts, and I have remembered Thy altar, O Lord. And again he saith, "I by myself have purified my heart, and washed my hands in innocency."
"And I said, therefore without cause I have justified my heart" (ver. 13). In that I serve God, and have not these things; they serve him not, and they abound in these things: "therefore without cause I have justified my heart, and have washed among the innocent my hands." This without cause I have done. Where is the reward of my good life? Where is the wage of my service? I live well and am in need; and the unjust man doth abound. "And I have washed among the innocent my hands."
Indeed, you have there: "Behold, these are the sinners, and they prosper in the world; they have obtained riches. Surely in vain have I justified my heart, and in innocence washed my hands, and been scourged all day long?" I worship God, they blaspheme God. They have happiness, I have calamity. Where is the fairness? Hence the moved feet, hence the nearly slipped steps, hence the near destruction. For see to what danger he came. There he says: "And I said, 'How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?'" See to what danger he came by seeking earthly happiness as a great reward from God.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Hand — Called by Galen “the instrument of instruments.” It is the symbol of human action (Ps. 9:16; Job 9:30; Isa. 1:15; 1 Tim. 2:8). Washing the hands was a symbol of innocence (Ps. 26:6; 73:13; Matt.…
Psalms, Book Of — The present Hebrew name of the book is Tehill’im, “Praises;” but in the actual superscriptions of the psalms the word Tehillah is applied only to one, (Psalms 145:1) ... which is indeed emphatically…
Ablution · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Blindness · 21:14;22:13,14; — 21:14;22:13,14;
Doubting · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Integrity · 16:19,20; — 16:19,20;
Meditation · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Murmuring · AGAINST GO — AGAINST GO
Punishment Of The Wicked, The · In this life by: Put in slippery places — In this life by: Put in slippery places
Rich, The · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Righteousness Of God, The · Saints: Acknowledge, though the wicked prosper — Saints: Acknowledge, though the wicked prosper
Washing · Of hands, a token of innocence — Of hands, a token of innocence
The persons speaking are now those apostates who, deluded by the good fortune and free-thinking of the ungodly, give themselves up to them as slaves. concerning the modal sense of ידע, quomodo sciverit, vid., Psa 11:3, cf. Job 22:13. With וישׁ the doubting question is continued. Bצttcher renders thus: nevertheless knowledge is in the Most High (a circumstantial clause like Pro 3:28; Mal 1:14; Jdg 6:13); but first of all they deny God's actual knowledge, and then His attributive omniscience. It is not to be interpreted: behold, such are (according to their moral nature) the ungodly (אלּה, tales, like זה, Ps 48:15, Deu 5:26, cf. המּה, Isa 56:11); nor, as is more in accordance with the parallel…
Recognizing the ramifications of his discouragement and doubt, the psalmist turns to the Lord and receives special insight.
73:13-14 These rhetorical questions expect a discouraging “yes” for an answer. The psalmist wonders if godliness has become a meaningless ritual (see Mal 3:14-15). • My heart refers to his whole being. • The psalmist’s pain comes from discipline and rebuke (Ps 39:11; Prov 1:23, 25; 12:1).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 73:13
Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain. Poor Asaph! he questions the value of holiness when its wages are paid in the coin of affliction. With no effect has he been sincere; no advantage has come to him through his purity, for the filthy hearted are exalted and fed on the fat of the land. Thus foolishly will the wisest of men argue, when faith is napping. Asaph was a seer, but he could not see when reason left him in the dark; even seers must have the sunlight of revealed truth to see by, or they grope like the blind. In the presence of temporal circumstances, the pure in heart may seem to have cleansed themselves a…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
