Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Psalms Capitolo 73

Psalms 73:0.

The Prophet, prevailing in a temptation, sheweth the occasion thereof, the prosperity of the wicked, the wound given thereby, diffidence; the victory over it, knowledge of god's purpose, in destroying of the wicked, and sustaining the righteous.

A Psalm of Asaph.

Title. ףּלאס מזמור mizmor leasaph.— The Psalmist here considers that great question, Why wicked men are permitted to prosper, and good men to be miserable and afflicted; and, to put the case home, he describes these wicked men as profligate to the last degree; highly impious towards God, and injurious to men; and yet suffered to live in ease and affluence, and at last to enjoy a death without any great pain. There are no bands in their death, Psalms 73:4. They have no pains when they die, says Le Clerc. This had almost tempted him, he says, to doubt the providence of God; but then he was soon cured of the temptation, when he reflected on the miracles that God had wrought for his people, which left no room to question a providence. See on Psalms 73:15. Still he was under some perplexity while he looked no further than the visible appearances of things; till he entered the sanctuary of God; then understood he the end of these men: their future wretched state in another world. See on Psalms 73:17. In consequence of which he expresses his firm hope and trust in God: Assured of a future state of rewards and punishments, his heart was so perfectly and entirely at rest, that he seems, to wonder how he could be so weak as to fall into doubts and perplexities about this matter. See Psalms 73:21-22, and Peters on Job.

return to '

Psalms 73:2. My feet were almost gone— By these figurative expressions the Psalmist means, that he began to stagger in his faith, and was in danger of falling into a disbelief of God's providence. The foolish and wicked are used in the next verse as synonimous terms; because wickedness argues a manifest defect in understanding. Mudge renders the word foolish, by men of no principle.

return to '

Psalms 73:6. Therefore pride compasseth them, &c.— That is, They are holden, as the other translation has it, or they are wholly possessed with pride: in like manner, as their necks are encompassed with a golden chain; which used to be worn by way of ornament. See Song of Solomon 4:9. Castalio renders the next clause, They are clothed with the garment of violence; i.e. "They maintain their pompous greatness by acts of violence:" These are what so magnificently clothes them.

return to '

Psalms 73:8. They are corrupt, &c.— They mock, and speak maliciously of oppression: they speak from on high. From on high, signifies, from the superior station to which they are advanced: or, from the bench of justice. See Psalms 94:10.

return to '

Psalms 73:9. They set their mouth against the heavens— i.e. They blaspheme the God of heaven; and their tongue walketh, &c. i.e. is let loose to abuse and calumniate whomsoever they please.

return to '

Psalms 73:10. Therefore his people return hither— "Therefore God's people falleth off to them, and from thence they reap no small advantage." Green. Mudge renders it, Therefore, let his people come before them, and waters in full measure would be wrung out from them. This seems, says he, to continue the description of their haughtiness and oppression. "Should God's people (for he is mentioned in the next verse) come before them, they would squeeze them to the uttermost: they would wring out all the juice in their bodies." Waters in full measure, seems to be proverbial. Houbigant and Fenwick give different versions from any of these. Houbigant reads, Therefore bread fills them to the full, and water is drank by them in a flowing cup. Fenwick reads the passage in a parenthesis.

"(For this his people broken-hearted sit, And tears in great abundance shed.)" The reader must judge for himself.

return to '

Psalms 73:15. If I say, I will speak thus, &c.— Reckon or reason thus:—I should offend against the generation of thy children; i.e. "I should give the lie to the history of our forefathers." See Peters, and the first note. Others, by the generation of God's children, understand all true believers: those who have undertaken the service of God, and entered into covenant with him: part of which covenant and profession is, to believe in God's Providence: which therefore to deny, question, or doubt of, is to break the covenant, to prevaricate, to deal perfidiously; according to the meaning of the original word בגד bagad, rendered offend.

return to '

Psalms 73:17. Then understood I their end— This certainly cannot mean their destruction by death; for he had before expressly taken notice of their felicity or ease in this respect. Nor is it easy to say how the sanctuary, or any thing there, could inform him of the manner of the death of wicked men. This must be learned from observation. Nor can what follows in the next verse be understood consistently with the rest of the psalm, of a temporal destruction, but of their future wretched state in another world; which is often represented in Scripture by death and destruction; and so, indeed, the following verses explain it. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! Psa 73:19 i.e. The moment that they pass from this life to another, they are utterly consumed with terrors. Psalms 73:20. As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, in arousing or awakening them, for so it should be rendered, Thou wilt despise or debase their image. This, obscurely as it is expressed, evidently points at something after death; for it is then alone that the finally impenitent can be thoroughly awakened to see their misery. If, therefore, the word rendered their image, means the ειδωλον, as Homer calls it, the separated soul; methinks there is an exquisite propriety in the word here used, and rendered despise or debase: "Thou shalt debase, spurn, and render contemptible, the separate spirits of those haughty wretches, whose pride had raised them in their own conceit above all other men, and even led them to despise their Maker and his laws. Their condition in the region of departed souls shall be as low and despicable, as here it was in appearance high and happy." The Chaldee paraphrast understands the passage of the day of judgment; and Dr. Hammond compares it with that of Dan 12:2 that some shall awake to shame and everlasting contempt. See Peters, and more on the 24th verse.

return to '

Psalms 73:24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, &c.— See Psalms 49:15. That the future wretched state of wicked men is understood in the preceding verses, seems further evident, from its being opposed to the happy state of the righteous in this verse; where the very term glory is used, whereby the happiness of heaven is described in the New Testament. The two next verses are no less remarkable; for no Christian could express his hope of being for ever with God in more apt words. It follows, Psalms 73:27. They that forsake thee shall perish. What can be meant by this, but the future perdition of wicked men? For, do they perish? i.e. Are they certainly punished here? Are they so universally? if not, How is it possible to understand these words of any thing temporal? or how, in short, can this knot be untied, this difficulty solved, which has so often perplexed good men, but by the doctrine of future rewards and punishments? This was then that doctrine of the sanctuary, which set the Psalmist's heart at rest. If it be still asked, What was there in the sanctuary to quiet and compose the Psalmist's doubts, or to confirm him in the belief of another life? The answer is easy; that his entering the sanctuary of God would naturally turn his thoughts towards heaven, the habitation of God and his holy angels; of which the tabernacle and temple were a sort of standing symbol or memorial. The figures of the cherubim, which were not only placed in the Holy of Holies, but sculptured on the walls of the temple round about, have been generally believed, both by Jews and Christians, except a few moderns perhaps, to represent the hosts of angels that attend upon the divine Majesty as his ministers to do his pleasure; and there is so near an affinity between the doctrine of angels and that of the human soul subsisting after death, that they who believed the one, could scarcely be ignorant of, or disbelieve, the other. There is, I think, a promise made to Joshua the high-priest, Zec 3:7 that if he discharged his office with fidelity, God would hereafter give him a place in heaven among the blessed angels his attendants. I will give thee places to walk among them that stand by; or among these ministering angels. See Peters, p. 292.

return to '