Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 73: A prodigal's psalm

Psalm 73[1]

Plea for Relief from Oppressors

¹   Truly God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart.
²   But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.
³   For I was envious of the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
⁴   For they have no pain; their bodies are sound and sleek.
⁵  They are not in trouble as others are; they are not plagued like other people.
⁶   Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them like a garment.
⁷   Their eyes swell out with fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
⁸   They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
⁹   They set their mouths against heaven,
     and their tongues range over the earth.
¹⁰  Therefore the people turn and praise them, and find no fault in them.
¹¹ And they say, ‘How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?’
¹² Such are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.
¹³ All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
¹⁴ For all day long I have been plagued, and am punished every morning.
¹⁵ If I had said, ‘I will talk on in this way’,
      I would have been untrue to the circle of your children.
¹⁶ But when I thought how to understand this,
      it seemed to me a wearisome task,
¹⁷ until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.
¹⁸ Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.
¹⁹  How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!
²⁰ They are like a dream when one awakes;
     on awaking you despise their phantoms.
²¹ When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,
²² I was stupid and ignorant; I was like a brute beast towards you.
²³ Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.
²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,
      and afterwards you will receive me with honour.
²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you? 
     And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.
²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,
     but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.
²⁷ Indeed, those who are far from you will perish;
     you put an end to those who are false to you.
²⁸ But for me it is good to be near God;
     I have made the Lord God my refuge, to tell of all your works.

This psalm lies at the very centre of the psalter. Its placement is significant. For it also speaks of a deep theology of wrestling faith. It seems thoroughly ageless and thoroughly modern. It tells of a journey of understanding that starts by being distracted by the apparent victory of wrong over right. Faithfulness seems futile if its rewards are measured by the rewards of this world. Yet, as the words tumble out of the mouth of this soul, so disturbed by inequity, there is movement from an anguished naïve faith to a deeply relational faith with God who is not distant but present.

I am struck by the words ‘near’ and ‘far’ that conclude this psalm. The nearer you get to God’s refuge, the further you are from the kind of places inhabited by the self-centred, self-dependent, arrogant, proud, human way of living which does not live by God’s promises.

For it is only at the edges of power – far from the sleek-bodied ‘beautiful’ people of ease – that God’s presence is to be found, suggests the poet.

Initially the psalmist is apparently swayed by the green-eyed god, envy. It seems that following God’s ways are so painful and that those who do not put trust in God live such prosperous lives that it does not seem to be worth the candle. In verse 3, the prayer reveals searing honesty – ‘I was envious of the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.’ The poet tells how many others are also beguiled by the lives of those who are apparently free of pain, have no troubles, yet have power to speak lies and malice with tongues that ‘range over the earth’. In verse 10, we learn that the people find no fault in them. God is completely out of the picture (‘How can God know?’). These celebrities of their day – with wealth, health and ease – are very real to the psalmist. By comparison, an afflicted life of faith seems not to make any sense. ‘All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence,’ he says.  

Walter Brueggemann, in his study of the psalms, says that the apparent success of the affluent, cynical, well-off who seem to thrive is troubling to the psalmist because ‘they’ either prove that God is good to those who do not keep the covenant (which is a mockery of divine promise) or that God is irrelevant. ‘Either way, the special claim of Israel is in deep question. “They” are described in great detail, indicating not only that the speaker is a careful observer, but that he has been intensely, almost obsessively, fascinated with the subject…. They are exceedingly well-fed, and their bodies are well cared for. They engage in self-care and self-love to the point of self-indulgence. They live for themselves, and they evoke resentment from those schooled passionately in the care of the neighbour, who are exhausted and perhaps burned out…. They are not well-off because they are lucky. Such wealth and comfort, the psalmist argues, is based on violence (vs6) and oppression (vs8). They are skilful and adept at self-interest  and have no shame about it. They are genuinely autonomous people who look after themselves (vs11). The psalmist is troubled with the obvious conclusion: it works!’[2]

How this speaks to our day? What a thoroughly-modern psalm. What a critique of the kind of spirit that grips our time. How bleak it would be if the prevailing culture was the true way of life. Between vs 13 and 16 it seems the psalmist is beginning to believe that the way of God was a ‘wearisome task’. I find comfort in the honesty of this dialogue with God.

The turning point for the psalmist seems to come in an unspecified experience which happens in the sanctuary of God (vs17).

The life of the sleek is just a ghost-life which will be chased away like a dream at the dawn of day.

Yet, the psalmist’s searing honesty continues. Looking back, he or she realises that when their heart was embittered by these thoughts then they were like a ‘brute beast’ towards God. Far from God. Completely obsessed. Perhaps seduced again by pragmatism rather than fidelity.

Then, the most beautiful part of this psalm bursts forth in word pictures of close communion, friendship, guidance along a faithful path. From verse 23 onwards a new future seems possible, not dragged back by greed, oppression and easy ways: God is close enough to hold the right hand of the psalmist, offering relationships and a new way open to a faithful life. Inner counsel, wise thoughts from a rich inner life rather than something motivated by all that glitters on the surface, is the source of new hope. And having being guided by God’s counsel and held by the right hand, the faithful person discovers they are received into the wellbeing of God’s presence (and this does not particularly mean some future heavenly glory after death either). This is about enjoying God’s presence in the here and now, this world, not just the next. As pray-ers of the Lord’s prayer, our daily cry is that God’s kingdom and will both come and are done on earth as they already are done in the heavenly realm.

This is a prodigal’s psalm. It is the story of a person who had close relationship with God, but whose eyes were tempted and taunted by wealth and ease. Yet at some unspecified point – not in a pigsty but in the sanctuary – the psalmist ‘comes to his senses’ (see the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15.17) and realises that the way of the self-centred is a false journey. Behold, those who are far from God lose their way. Those who are distant from God die. Autonomy does not work. Self-reliance creates a hard shell around the heart. Close friendship with God, who opens our hearts to hardship and sorrow and schools us in the way of fellowship and endurance and hope, is the only way to fullness of life. In Jesus, we find the encouragement again and again to return to God. And in the Parable of the Prodigal Son we see the most moving and profound reconciliation is truly possible. No-one, not even the sleek-bodied and once wealthy, are barred from the feast of friendship with God. The wellbeing of the prodigal is echoed in these final verses. False living is replace with friendship. The gulf between God and those who oppress and deceive and make merry without accountability is closed when the false ways of the heart are left behind.

I have found this a psalm which needs meditating upon in our time.

It has taken me more time to sit with and reflect upon than almost any other psalm.

It is a psalm of great wisdom which applies as much to our times as it did all those millennia ago.

It is a psalm, above all, which studies the motivations of the heart and describes the ways of the heart. It is, indeed, a meditation on the heart. Martin Buber is quoted by Brueggemann in a final flourish of his examination of Psalm 73. He points out that the ‘heart’ is mentioned six times in these 28 verses.    

   The pure in heart (vs1)
   The heart overflowing with follies (vs7)
   A well-kept heart is futile (vs13)
   A sour embittered heart (vs21)
   A failed heart (vs26)
   A strengthened heart (vs26)

What turns this heart from despair to deeper friendship with God, from seduction to healing, from isolation to fellowship?

Looking back it seems something happened to change the psalmist’s heart. It seems that in fact vs15-16 are as significant as vs17. What is important to the psalmist is, in the end, remaining faithful to a way of life that he or she has lived before their children. They could not turn back on that faithfulness because of their children. Their ‘wake-up’ moment seems to be not dissimilar to the prodigal in Jesus’ beautiful parable. It is all about faithful relationship in the end. And our hearts are made stronger by these kinds of faithful relationships – always. The holy place still plays its part. Because it is only in the holy place, Brueggemann suggests, ‘where one gets free of the ideology of self-sufficiency, affluence, and autonomy long enough to recognise the decisive reality is a move on the part of the faithful God. The denial of God (vs11) does not change the reality of God (vs23). This psalmist has arrived at a new orientation, a decision to maintain an alternative reading of reality.’[3]

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[1]
New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] The Message of the Psalms; A Theological Commentary, Ausburg, Minneapolis ©1984, p117

[3] Ibid p121