Almost Stumbled
For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Psalm 73:3 · Berean Standard Bible
When he saw wealthy people thriving without any apparent moral restraint, jealousy took hold of him—he actually envied their position.
Asaph watched wicked people accumulating wealth, gaining power, living without obvious consequences. And instead of feeling righteous anger at injustice, he felt... tempted. He wanted what they had. This is the honest voice of someone watching injustice and struggling with covetousness rather than faith.
Asaph, naming the specific temptation that almost undid him.
This echoes the test that runs through all Scripture: Will you trust God's way even when the world's way looks more rewarding? It's the temptation Adam and Eve faced, the temptation Jesus faced in the wilderness.
He explicitly names his temptation: envying the wicked's material success, the desire to abandon covenant obedience for their apparent advantage.
The word קִנְאָה (qin'âh)—envy or jealousy—suggests not mere observation but emotional destabilization. In a society where material prosperity was interpreted as divine approval, watching the unrighteous accumulate wealth while the faithful suffered produced acute cognitive dissonance with traditional retribution theology.
Asaph articulating the precise nature of his crisis with clinical honesty, refusing to spiritualize away the raw emotion.
This echoes the crisis of figures like Jeremiah (12:1-2) and Job, where the apparent prosperity of the wicked becomes theological scandal. The psalter validates this as a legitimate question rather than a failure of faith.
1Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
2But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.
3For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4They have no struggle in their death; their bodies are well-fed.
5They are free of the burdens others carry; they are not afflicted like other men.
Read all of Psalm 73 — Asaph nearly lost his faith watching the wicked prosper — until he entered the sanctuary and saw the end of the story.
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