My wife’s uncle has a nice telescope. When it’s in focus, you can see mountains on the moon and the rings around Saturn. When it’s out of focus, everything’s a blur. Now, when life doesn’t seem fair, I’ve lost my focus. This was the experience of the psalmist in Psalm 73.
How can it be that an arrogant person who mocks God can be so well off, while a Christian struggles to get by? “Behold, these are the wicked; they increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean” (vv. 12-13). He sees ungodly people flourishing as they blaspheme God and extort the weak for a profit.
Meanwhile, the psalmist tries to live right and gets “stricken and rebuked every morning” (v. 14). The wicked get treasures while believers get trials. The psalmist admits his faith was shaken when his experience didn’t line up with his expectations. He “almost stumbled . . . nearly slipped” for he “was envious” of “the prosperity of the wicked” (vv. 2-3).
He vents this out to God–bitterness for not having all the nice things the evil folks have. But then the Lord helps him get back a right focus. He remembers that for those who reject God in their lives, this life is the only heaven they will ever know (v. 27).
After the psalmist has wrestled with his envy and bitterness, he turns to the Lord saying, “Nevertheless, I am continually with You; You hold my right hand” (v. 23). Notice it’s not that the man was clinging so tightly to God—no, he’d acted “ignorant” toward God (v. 22). But all along it was GOD who wouldn’t let him go.
With the faithfulness of God to us in view, all the riches of the world start to lose their luster. When we get God’s great grace for us back in focus, we can say with the psalmist, “there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You” (v. 25).
