The Bible Study Podcast, episode 405. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study of the

book of Psalms with Psalm 73.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. Psalm 73 is the first of the third

book of Psalms. Psalm is broken up into a number of books. We could have taken a break here before Psalm 73,

but we're going to take a break instead in the midpoint after Psalm 75. And then we're going to go back

into the New Testament and we're going to do a gospel.

Psalm 73 goes like this.

Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

But as for me, my feet had almost slipped.

I had nearly lost my foothold, for I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens. They are not plagued by human ills.

Therefore, pride is their necklace. They clothe themselves with violence. From their callous

hearts comes iniquity. Their evil imaginations have no limits. They scoff and speak with malice.

With arrogance, they threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take

possession of the earth. Therefore, their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.

They say, how would God know? Does the Most High know anything?

That's rather a long section there that I read. So the psalmist here, and this is a Psalm of Asaf,

is saying that he slipped or he almost slipped, he nearly lost his foothold because he envied the arrogant. It is easy for us

to think the grass is greener. It is easy for us to look at the lives of someone else. In our day and

age, we as a society look a lot at celebrities. We look a lot at entertainers, strangely enough,

and probably overly value their contribution to society.

But I think we also tend to look at each other and think, well, if only I could be like him, because that person has made it, if I had their life, then everything would be okay.

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