My Feet Almost Stumbled
Psalm 73:3 “I was envious of the arrogant.”
by Dick Wynia
Reading: Psalm 73:1-15
Suffering injustice, being treated unfairly, puts pressure on our faith. It tempts us to become envious and bitter. Those are just different ways of saying: I’m dissatisfied with God. As long as I’m caught up in envy, I can’t be happy. I can’t be comforted because I’m not living by faith in God. That’s really what Asaph is talking about here. He says, “I almost lost my faith in God.”
He—the faithful child of God—was suffering and the wicked were prospering. We don’t know if he’s talking about wicked people in Israel or outside of Israel; it doesn’t make that much difference in this case. It’s hard enough when your brothers and sisters are prospering, and you’re not. But, when you see the people who ignore God, and the people who reject God prospering, and you’re not, it really is a hard pill to swallow.
Doesn’t this bother you sometimes? It got to Asaph—big time: “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day I have been stricken and rebuked every morning” (v. 13). What good does 
it do, to serve God? What good has it done me, to try to live a God-pleasing life, to deny myself, and put others first?
It may be hard for you to believe that a Christian could ever feel this way. Or maybe it’s not hard to believe at all. Maybe you’ve had these thoughts. Perhaps the prosperity of the wicked and the struggles of God’s children have made you wonder what the point is of living the Christian life. Asaph’s bitterness may be quite familiar and you know something about how envy can get a hold of your mind and poison your thoughts.
How do you get out of this rut? You have to exercise your faith in God. Your circumstances are not a contradiction of the truth that “God is good . . . to those who are pure in heart” (Ps. 73:1). God has fully revealed and confirmed his goodness to you in the gift of his Son for your salvation. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32)
You can drive away envy and bitterness by fixing the eyes of your heart on God’s priceless gift of eternal life in Christ.