Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world and increase in riches, being allowed to receive blessings and favors and to grow richer in this life. While open sinners enjoy that ease, those who really love God are surrounded with difficulties and perplexities which the open sinner does not have. Seeing that contrast while he himself was afflicted and failing made David envious of the foolish over the ease and success of the wicked, until his feet were almost gone and his steps had nearly slipped. He was tempted in that sight to doubt God and to think His ways unequal.
The danger in that temptation came from his own separation from God, not from God abandoning him. He could not understand this prosperity until he went into the sanctuary of God, where he understood their end. There he saw that they are set in slippery places and cast down to destruction, brought into sudden desolation and utterly consumed with terrors, and despised as a dream when one awakes. Seeing this grieved him and convicted him of his own foolish ignorance, yet assured him that God holds him by the right hand. It is good to draw near to God, to put trust in the Lord, and to declare all His works.
The prosperity of the wicked is often only seeming and is not safety. Those who forget God even for an hour or a moment are in a dangerous path. They may not realize its perils, but tampering with evil forms habit that holds them in subjection to evil as firmly as an iron band. God despises their course and His blessing will not attend them, so only those whose hearts are garrisoned with pure principles are safe.
Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world and increase in riches, being allowed to receive blessings and favors and to grow richer in this life. While open sinners enjoy that ease, those who really love God are surrounded with difficulties and perplexities which the open sinner does not have. Seeing that contrast while he himself was afflicted and failing made David envious of the foolish over the ease and success of the wicked, until his feet were almost gone and his steps had nearly slipped. He was tempted in that sight to doubt God and to think His ways unequal.
The danger in that temptation came from his own separation from God, not from God abandoning him. He could not understand this prosperity until he went into the sanctuary of God, where he understood their end. There he saw that they are set in slippery places and cast down to destruction, brought into sudden desolation and utterly consumed with terrors, and despised as a dream when one awakes. Seeing this grieved him and convicted him of his own foolish ignorance, yet assured him that God holds him by the right hand. It is good to draw near to God, to put trust in the Lord, and to declare all His works.
The prosperity of the wicked is often only seeming and is not safety. Those who forget God even for an hour or a moment are in a dangerous path. They may not realize its perils, but tampering with evil forms habit that holds them in subjection to evil as firmly as an iron band. God despises their course and His blessing will not attend them, so only those whose hearts are garrisoned with pure principles are safe.