Quam bonus Israel Deus.
The temptation of the weak, upon seeing the prosperity of the wicked, is
overcome by the consideration of the justice of God, who will quickly
render to every one according to his works.
72:1. A psalm for Asaph. How good is God to Israel, to them that are of
a right heart!
72:2. But my feet were almost moved; my steps had well nigh slipped.
72:3. Because I had a zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the
prosperity of sinners.
72:4. For there is no regard to their death, nor is there strength in
their stripes.
72:5. They are not in the labour of men: neither shall they be scourged
like other men.
72:6. Therefore pride hath held them fast: they are covered with their
iniquity and their wickedness.
72:7. Their iniquity hath come forth, as it were from fatness: they have
passed into the affection of the heart.
Fatness... Abundance and temporal prosperity, which hath encouraged them
in their iniquity: and made them give themselves up to their irregular
affections.
72:8. They have thought and spoken wickedness: they have spoken iniquity
on high.
72:9. They have set their mouth against heaven: and their tongue hath
passed through the earth.
72:10. Therefore will my people return here and full days shall be found
in them.
Return here... or hither. The weak among the servants of God, will be
apt often to return to this thought, and will be shocked when they
consider the full days, that is, the long and prosperous life of the
wicked; and will be tempted to make the reflections against providence
which are set down in the following verses.
72:11. And they said: How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the
most High?
72:12. Behold these are sinners; and yet, abounding in the world they
have obtained riches.
72:13. And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my
hands among the innocent.
72:14. And I have been scourged all the day; and my chastisement hath
been in the mornings.
72:15. If I said: I will speak thus; behold I should condemn the
generation of thy children.
If I said, etc... That is, if I should indulge such thoughts as these.
72:16. I studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my
sight:
72:17. Until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning
their last ends.
72:18. But indeed for deceits thou hast put it to them: when they were
lifted up thou hast cast them down.
Thou hast put it to them... In punishment of their deceits, or for
deceiving them, thou hast brought evils upon them in their last end,
which, in their prosperity they never apprehended.
72:19. How are they brought to desolation? they have suddenly ceased to
be: they have perished by reason of their iniquity.
72:20. As the dream of them that awake, O Lord; so in thy city thou
shalt bring their image to nothing.
72:21. For my heart hath been inflamed, and my reins have been changed:
72:22. And I am brought to nothing, and I knew not.
72:23. I am become as a beast before thee: and I am always with thee.
72:24. Thou hast held me by my right hand; and by thy will thou hast
conducted me, and with thy glory thou hast received me.
72:25. For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon
earth?
72:26. For thee my flesh and my heart hath fainted away: thou art the
God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever.
72:27. For behold they that go far from thee shall perish: thou hast
destroyed all them that are disloyal to thee.
72:28. But it is good for me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the
Lord God: That I may declare all thy praises, in the gates of the
daughter of Sion.