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[1] Psalms 73-83 are attributed to Asaph (also Psalm
50). Psalm 72:20 is the conclusion of
the “prayers of David.” The first Psalm of Book III is similar to Psalm 1 of Book I. Psalm 1 says of the blessed man, “He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers (tsalach).” In Psalm 73, the Psalmist’s foot almost slips because at one point he meditated on how he thought the wicked were blessed, “For I was envious of the arrogant As I saw the prosperity (shalom) of the wicked” (v.3). Like Book I, Book III is structured around an inclusio, “Ps 73 deals with the confession of an individual whose faith has been pushed to the brink of failure by’ the prosperity of the wicked, while 74 deals with the inexplicable inactivity of Yahweh in history. Ps 88 is a powerful individual lament which challenges God’s treatment of its speaker, and Ps 89 is a lament about the incongruity of Yahweh’s commitments and the actuality of history. Thus at both ends of Book III there is a psalm which deals with the theological distress of an individual followed by a psalm which expresses the distress in terms of the nation” (Tate, Word Biblical Commentary: Psalms 51-100, p.429). |
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[2] Chapter 5 of the Westminster Confession of Faith cites Psalm 73 as a proof text when discussing the tests that God’s people often undergo, The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave, for a season, His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled; (2 Chron. 32:25–26,31, 2 Sam. 24:1) and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends (2 Cor. 12:7–9, Ps. 73, Ps. 77:1,10,12, Mark 14:66–72, John 21:15–17) (paragraph 5). |
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[3] “to Israel”
is one word in the Hebrew (לישׂראל).
But if we separate this one word it
means “to the upright” (אל לישׂר). The creed of the covenant community (v.1)
is embraced by the invididual (v.28). |
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[4] John Hooper was a 16th century bishop in the Church of England and martyr. He was removed from his office by Queen Mary, imprisoned in London, tried for heresy, found guilty and burned at the stake on February 9, 1555. Hooper’s works were treasured by the Puritans (Who's Who in Christian History). While John Hooper was in prison he wrote an exposition of Psalms 23; 62; 73 and 77. He wrote, “All men and women have this life and this world appointed unto them for their winter and season of storms. The summer draweth near, and then shall we befresh, orient, sweet, amiable, pleasant, acceptable, immortal, and blessed, for ever and ever; and no man shall take us from it. We must, therefore, in the meantime learn out of this verse to say unto God, whether it be winter or summer, pleasure or pain, liberty or imprisonment, life or death, ‘Truly God is loving unto Israel, even unto such as are of a clean heart’” (Ps.lxxiii., verse 1)” (Prothero 240). |
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[5] “While there is general agreement that the idea of divine retribution for good and evil is deeply embedded in the OT, the concept does not become solidified into a simplistic dogma in which every misfortune is viewed as evidence of sin and every success is viewed as evidence of obedience and piety. Job and Eccl as well as certain Ps (cf. e.g., 34; 49; 73; 94), Prov (cf. e.g., 15:16; 28:6), and prophetic texts (cf. e.g., Jer 5:27, 28; 12:1, 2; Mal 3:15) raise serious questions about the equation of the good life with the prosperous life. Job’s counselors, in fact, are chided [Job 21] for promoting the idea that the righteous will always prosper and the wicked will always suffer, along with its corollary that suffering proves sinfulness and prosperity proves righteousness” (New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis; Volume 4:1141). |
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[6] Verse 11 is an example of what Adele Berlin calls
morphologic parallelism; parallelism which involves words from different
parts of speech. The verb “know”
parallels the noun “knowledge” and is striking in the Hebrew because the same
root appears in both halves of the parallel (The Dynamics of Biblical
Parallelism, pp.34,55). |
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[7] This is the same Hebrew verb לָקַח (laqach) is found of the two men in the Old Testament who never died. It is used in Genesis 5:24, “Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took לָקַח (laqach) him.” It is also used for Elijah being taken into heaven (2 Kings 2:3,5,9-10) and in Psalm 49:15, “But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, For He will receive me.” |
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[8] “But as for
me” (וַאֲנִי) not only
occurs in vv.2,28 but also vv.22,23. |
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[9] The NASB95 translates “Lord God” (’Adonay Yâhovah) because “Lord LORD” would be awkward. ’Adonay Yâhovah occurs about 300x in the in the OT but only 4x in the Psalms and all four occurrences are found close together: Psalm 69:6; 71:5,16; 73:28. As is noted in Psalm 1, there are several problems translating the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) as “LORD” (1) YHWH does not mean “lord”; (2) translations miss something when they exchange the covenant Name of Yahweh with the title “LORD”; and (3) the definite article is often used “the LORD” which is not found in Hebrew. |
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[10] Psalm 73:24-28 are cited by the famous first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism: What is the chief and highest end of man? Man’ s chief and highest end is to glorify God, (Rom. 11:36, Cor. 10:31) and fully to enjoy him forever. (Ps. 73:24–28, John 17:21–23) |
