Psalm 73 tells the story of a man who studies the proud and the rich. He spends much time observing what happens to those who have amassed great wealth, power, and social status. The man looks on with envy and realizes that for these people, they ‘have no pain’, their ‘bodies are sound and sleek’, and they do not ‘share in man’s sorrows.’ Understandably, the man desires to have all these things.
But then the man realizes how the proud and the rich achieve these things. They ‘clothe themselves in violence’, and they have ‘their hearts overflow with malice.’ The proud and the rich achieve their status by ignoring God’s law. If the man wants to be like them, he realizes that he is going to have to abandon his faith. In this predicament, the man is stuck. He cannot understand why this is. He has to wait for God to give him the answer.
It is here that he eventually realizes what happens to these wicked men. After a time, they lose everything. They lose their wealth, fame, and fortune and ‘suddenly come to their ruin.’ The man realizes that the wicked are successful in the short term, but it never lasts. He then rejoices that he has always trusted in the presence of God and gives thanks for God’s goodness.
Even though this Psalm was written thousands of years ago. It still remains true today. Many of us can look on those who have amassed great wealth, fame, and social status and desire to have it for ourselves. This life can be very tempting, especially with the promise that we can avoid hardships. But more often than not, those who have gained that type of wealth have to compromise their morals in some way, and eventually, they will end up worse off than they were when they started (Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, or all the above). This happens because we try to use human solutions to overcome hardships. And while we can be pretty inventive, we will never be able to overcome the problems of this world through pure human genius. We need God’s help. But God often does not help us avoid pain and hardship, but asks us to trust Him to show us how to love through the pain and hardship. The cross is the path to the resurrection, and to avoid the cross is to avoid the resurrection.
So for the man in Psalm 73, the path became obvious. We must stick to God’s path even if it means more suffering. Because the end result for those who stay in God is greater than those who trust in their own strength. The temptation to trust in ourselves can be appealing, but eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him. Life is hard. It will have pain. We cannot avoid it, only delay it like the rich and the proud. But we can stay close to God who will redeem all of our pain if we trust Him and turn pain into an opportunity to love.
