Psalm 73 grapples with the eternal dilemma of the wicked prospering while the righteous suffer. The psalmist highlights the privileged lives of the wicked, "Among the toil of lowly men they are not, and they are not smitten by pain like other men (v. 5)." The wicked are a class apart, spared hard labor and free of pain. Their special status results in their hubris. "Therefore pride is the ornament around their necks; their form enwraps itself in violence (v. 6)." Pain is an important teacher; it focuses our attention and tempers our self-absorption. The working individual makes the connection between effort expended and the attendant result. He learns to earn his keep. The wicked individual, who neither toils nor suffers, is impervious to the concerns of others. He is proud, arrogant and assured of his uniqueness. He answers to no one, neither G-D nor his fellow man. Consequently, he "enwraps himself" in violence; he takes what he wants at his will. It is only when the psalmist looks to their end, when he sees what their actions have wrought that he makes peace with their apparently untroubled lives. "And when I reflected to understand this, it was iniquity in my eyes, until I came to the sanctuaries of G-D, and contemplated their end. Only on slippery places do You set them, You cast them down into destruction. How they have become desolate in an instant! They came to an end, they were consumed through bewildering terrors (v. 16-19)." It is only when one sees clear to the end of their story that one realizes that they are indeed punished.

 

Copyright, 2008 Rachel Lerner