Psalm 73:1 Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
Do you feel like the good guys are winning today? Are the smartest people running the country? I don’t care about your party affiliation and I thank God for our country, our freedoms, and those who serve our country by leading it, but I think it is fair to ask if the smartest people are leading the country. To be sure there are a lot of ambitious people in Washington D.C. and elsewhere, but are they the best people?
What about the judicial system? Do you believe the innocent are being set free and the guilty are being punished? Is our judicial system good? We are blessed with the finest judicial system in the world, yet it is flawed. Do you believe that the noblest people in our country are being enriched or do you believe there are a lot of people with no good in them making lots of money from you? It is easy to stir up discontent, but my point is, do you really believe that the good guys are winning?
Well, hold your answer. Psalm 73:1 says, “Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.” The first four words in this psalm are “truly God is good.” The first several words of the last verse of this psalm are “but it is good for me to draw near to God.” So, God is good and it is good for me to draw near to God. Because of that, life can be good.
Now, four contrasts we find in this psalm highlight the goodness of God. The first contrast is envy and pride. God’s mercy extends to all people, but God’s goodness can lead to envy for those who feel like others are getting away with evil. Verses 2-3 say, “But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” He looked around and saw evil people prospering and he was envious.
What about the evil people themselves? Verse 6 says, “Pride compasseth them.” So, both the envy of good people and the pride of evil people come together in a latitude and longitude to bring you to a point where you realize God’s goodness and mercy. Sometimes we feel like God is too harsh. We feel like eternal judgment is too comprehensive to comprehend and too severe to seem right. On the other hand, we think that in this life there are people doing evil and getting away with it. It is almost as if a holy God cannot win for losing; we can’t be satisfied either way. That is because we have to come to the realization that God is good. He shows mercy. He is a just God. He is a God of judgment. Sometimes our timing and God’s timing don’t connect, but God is good. Both the envy of some and the pride of others show this.
Second, you find God’s goodness is a lesson to those who are wise. Verse 21 says, “Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.” I was jabbed in the side and learned a lesson about the goodness of God. Why? It was because what led to a lesson for the good man was nothing but a dream; it evaporated into the morning sun for those who are evil. Verse 20 says, “As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.” The prosperity of the wicked is like a dream that disappears in the morning sun.
So, you have a lesson to the good and a dream that just disappears with the evil. God shows them mercy and they take it for granted. Because they do, they face judgment. Psalm 52 essentially says, “Why do you brag, O evil man, the goodness of God endures.” That you have not been struck dead does not point to how good you are; it points to how good and merciful God is.
You see this in the contrast between the world and Heaven. In verse 12 the Bible says about the evil, “These are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.” They prosper, but they do so in the world, this life only. In contrast, verse 25 says, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee,” speaking of God. So, you have the contrast between the world in which the evil men may prosper for a time and eternity in Heaven with God, which is the hope of people like the psalmist.
Finally, you have strength and the end of strength. In verse 4 the psalmist is talking about the evil who seem to die an easy death, but verse 17 says, “Until I went into the sanctuary of God I; then understood I their end.” The evil may be strong today, but that will end tomorrow. The psalmist is saying, “God is good and it is good to be near to God.” The Bible tells us in the New Testament that the goodness of God “leadeth thee to repentance,” to a change of mind.
Today, let the goodness of God affect what you perceive of this world. There may be times when you do not see good, when it appears that evil is triumphing. But, know there is a God. He may not work the way you would suppose in the time you would wish, but He is working nonetheless. Truly God is good to Israel. It is good for me to draw near to such a God.