to be (causatively · verb, piel perfect, 1st person common singular
foolish
בַּֽהוֹלְלִ֑יםba.ho.Lim
H1984
to be clear (orig. of sound · preposition with the article + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
saw
אֶרְאֶֽה'er.'Eh
H7200
to see · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
prosperity
שְׁל֖וֹםshe.Lom
H7965
safe · noun, common masculine singular construct
wicked
רְשָׁעִ֣יםre.sha.'Im
H7563
morally wrong · noun, common masculine plural 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 21:7 Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
Jeremiah 12:1 Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper…
Psalms 37:7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wic…
Proverbs 23:17 Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
Psalms 37:1 Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
Proverbs 24:1 Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them.
Proverbs 3:31 Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.
James 4:5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
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…
For I was envious at the foolish,.... The atheists, as in Psalm 14:1, who deny the creation, as Arama; the wicked, as after explained, as all wicked men are, how wise soever they may be in things natural and civil, yet in religious things, in things of a spiritual nature, they have no understanding; they are proud boasters, glory in themselves, and in their outward attainments, as the word (d) here used signifies; the external happiness of these, their riches, health, and ease, were envied by the psalmist; see Psalm 37:1,
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked, or "the peace of the wicked" (e); with an evil eye. This was the occasion of his slip and fall, this was the temptation he was lef…
Psalm 73:1-3
1. Yet God is good to Israel, to those who are right of heart. 2. As for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped. 3. For I envied the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
As to the author of this psalm, I am not disposed to contend very strongly, although I think it probable that the name of Asaph was prefixed to it because the charge of singing it was committed to him, while the name of David, its author, was omitted, just as it is usual for us, when things are well known of themselves, not to be at the trouble of stating them. How much profit we may derive from meditation upon the doctrine contained in this psalm, it is easy to discover from…
The Church Fathers
But why even this? "For I was jealous," he says, "in the case of sinners, looking on the peace of sinners" [Psalm 73:3]. I observed sinners, I saw them to have peace. What peace? Temporal, transient, falling, and earthly: but yet such as I also was desiring of God. I saw them that served not God to have that which I desired in order that I might serve God: and my feet were moved and my steps were almost overthrown.
It was in this way, you see, that the psalmist whose feet were shaken blamed himself, because he had started to find fault with God and was already on the point of doing so; but he was almost on the point of it; he was not quite there yet. He did not deny that God knew, but he staggered, as if his feet were shaken. What does it mean to stagger? To doubt. When he blamed himself, though, for not having an upright heart, what did he say? "Why were my feet disturbed? Because I was envious, he said, of sinners, seeing the peace of sinners. Because I saw that the wicked were rich, I envied them; and I said I have lost out on justice, and for no reason have I made my heart just, and washed my hands among the innocent. And while I am in doubt, this is how I have begun to understand.""This is how I have begun," he says, "to understand this; there is toil ahead of me." Great toil, to solve this problem. It really is hard labor. All is well with that one, and he is a bad man; all goes badly with this one, and he is a good man; and over them both is God the judge. So the just judge is giving good things to bad people, bad things to good people. "There is toil ahead of me." But for how long is the toil there? "Until I enter into the sanctuary of God and understand about the last things." So if you understand about the last things, you will enjoy the quiet rest of discovery, the toil of inquiry will be over and done with.
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
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…
Blindness · 21:14;22:13,14; — 21:14;22:13,14;
Envy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Happiness · . — .
Happiness Of The Wicked, The · Is derived from: Their worldly prosperity — Is derived from: Their worldly prosperity
Integrity · 16:19,20; — 16:19,20;
Murmuring · .Asaph — .Asaph
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
Worldliness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
Now follows the occasion of the conflict of temptation: the good fortune of those who are estranged from God. In accordance with the gloominess of the theme, the style is also gloomy, and piles up the full-toned suffixes amo and emo (vid., Psa 78:66; Psa 80:7; Psa 83:12, Psa 83:14); both are after the example set by David. קנּא with Beth of the object ion which the zeal or warmth of feeling is kindled (Psa 37:1; Pro 3:31) here refers to the warmth of envious ill-feeling. Concerning הולל vid., Psa 5:6. Psa 73:3 tells under what circumsntaces the envy was excited; cf. so far as the syntax is concerned, Psa 49:6; Psa 76:11. In Psa 73:4 חרצצבּות (from חרצב = חצּב from חצב, cognate עצב, whence עצ…
The poet sees the prosperity of the wicked as unfair (see 72:7) and resents it. • The psalmist’s feet were slipping from the way of wisdom and godliness (see 17:5; 37:31), but God kept him from falling off the trail entirely (38:16; 66:9; 94:18; 121:3). • when I saw them prosper: Cp. 72:3, 7.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 73:3
For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For I was envious at the foolish. "The foolish" is the generic title of all the wicked: they are beyond all others fools, and he must be a fool who envies fools. Some read it, "the proud:" and, indeed, these, by their ostentation, invite envy, and many a mind which is out of gear spiritually, becomes infected with that wasting disease. It is a pitiful thing that an heir of heaven should have to confess "I was envious, "but worse still that he should have to put it, "I was envious at the foolish." Yet this acknowledgment is, we fear, due from most of us. When I saw the prosperity of the wicked. His eye was fixed too m…
