THE PROSPERITY OF THE WICKED

The Psalmist wrote of a time when he almost lost his faith: “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.” (Psalm 73:2-3)

It can happen mighty easily. For example, a teenager in one of our inner-city ghettos sees the flashy clothes and fast cars of drug dealers and is thereby seduced into a life of crime. Or a young man or woman entering the business world observes some who moves ahead by unethical practices and is led to go in the same direction. It’s an old problem as can be seen by this Psalm written centuries before Christ.

What saved the Psalmist? Well, he tells us: “When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou cast them down into destruction.” (Psalm 73:16-18)  We might say, “He went to church and learned that while the life of sin may look good now, ultimately these sinners will be destroyed.”

Claude