“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.” Ps. 73: 2, 3.
THE prosperity of the wicked was and is and will ever be a great temptation, or rather stumbling-block, to the Christian. The world has so long attributed the possession of wealth to the direct blessing of God that when we see the worldly man prospering and the godly man suffering more or less from adversity, we are prone to overlook the fact that the one is merely an unfaithful steward of God’s means while the other one may be his victim.
Again, it may be that the man in adverse circumstances is merely undergoing his fiery trials that are to try all who dwell upon the earth. Money may be his besetting sin. The possession thereof might be his eternal ruin, even as it has dwarfed the soul of his prosperous fellow. So in love and tender compassion God has removed from him this snare — the “deceitfulness of riches.”
The man under trial, however, may like David permit his steps well-nigh to slip and his feet almost to go astray when he sees the prosperity of the worldling and allows himself to become envious at the foolishness of the wicked. For, says he, “They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.” Verses 5, 6.
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He can not understand their immunity from sickness, their freedom from all trouble. He sees that “they are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.” He is amazed when he sees their Heaven-defying pride, and hears them say, “How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High?” So in his discouragement he says: “Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.” For a time he forgets that “whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” Heb. 12: 6.
Thus are we tempted and tried, thus we murmur and fret until we consider the end of those who misuse their means in this life. As the psalmist puts it: “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 castedst them down to destruction.” And in conclusion he exclaims: “Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before Thee. Nevertheless . . . Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.”
So let us not for one moment envy the prosperous man his prosperity, nor the care-free their fancied security; for with it all they are liable at any time to be “brought into desolation as in a moment,” and to be “utterly consumed with terrors.” Amid all their gaiety there creeps in the dread knowledge of this suspended sentence: “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall these things be, which thou hast provided?”
All such people have is what they get from this short life. They sell their prospects of a future existence for the uncertain and deceitful riches of this life. There can be no call for the heirs of the kingdom to envy them their poor possessions. In fact God has chosen the “poor of this world” to be rich in faith and heirs of His eternal kingdom; and we must not forget that He who has given to us the Lord Jesus, will with Him give us freely also of all things. See Rom. 8: 32. And tho we may meet some hardships here, and be “plagued every morning,” yet “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us.” “For which cause we faint not; but tho our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things that are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Cor. 4:16-18.
