Sálmarnir 73:1

Heilögum Biblíunni

1 Asafs-sálmur. Vissulega er Guð góður við Ísrael, við þá sem hjartahreinir eru.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Truly: or, Yet, Psalms 2:6, Psalms 42:11

God: Psalms 73:18-28, Psalms 84:11, Isaiah 63:7-9, Luke 12:32

to such: John 1:47, Romans 2:28, Romans 2:29, Romans 4:16, Romans 9:6, Romans 9:7

of a clean heart: Heb. clean of heart, Psalms 51:10, Jeremiah 4:14, Matthew 5:8, Titus 3:5, James 4:8

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 23:5 - because the 1 Chronicles 6:39 - Asaph 1 Chronicles 15:17 - Asaph 1 Chronicles 25:2 - Asaph Nehemiah 12:46 - and Asaph Psalms 24:4 - pure Psalms 31:19 - Oh Psalms 125:4 - Do good John 3:10 - and knowest Romans 9:4 - are Israelites Galatians 6:16 - the Israel Hebrews 12:8 - General 2 Peter 3:1 - pure

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Truly God is good to Israel,.... To Israel, literally understood; in choosing them to be his people above all people on earth; in bringing them into a good land; in favouring them with many external privileges, civil and religious; in giving them his word, statutes, and ordinances, as he did not to other nations: or, spiritually understood, the Israel whom God has chosen, redeemed, and called by his special grace; verily of a truth, God is good to these; there is abundant proof and evidence of it; :-,

or "only" God is good to such; though he is good to all in a providential way, yet only to his chosen and redeemed ones in a way of special favour; the goodness others share is but a shadow of goodness, in comparison of what they do and shall partake of; they are blessed with blessings indeed, and are only blessed; so this particle is rendered in

Psalms 62:2, or "but", or "notwithstanding" b, God is good, c. that is, though he suffers the wicked to prosper, and his own people much afflicted, yet he is good to them he supports them under their afflictions, and makes all to work for their good; gives them grace here, and glory hereafter;

even to such as are of a clean heart; this character excludes the carnal Israelites, who were pure in their own eyes, but not cleansed from their filthiness, and describes the true Israel of God, and explains who are meant by them, such as are pure in heart, inwardly Jews, Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile; this is not natural to men, their hearts are by nature unclean, nor is it in their power to make them clean: this is God's work, he only can create a clean heart, and renew a right spirit; which is done by the sanctifying influences of his grace, and by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, and thus purifying their heart's by faith; yet so as not to be free from all impurity of spirit, but as to have a conscience purged from the guilt of sin, and to have the heart sincere and upright towards God.

a לאסף τω ασαφ Sept. "Asaph ipsi", Pagninus, Montanus; "Asapho", Gejerus; so Ainsworth. b אך "attamen", Tigurine version, Piscator, Gussetius, Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Truly God is good to Israel - That is, to his people; to the righteous; to those who serve him. That is, God is the “real” friend of the righteous. He has not forgotten them. He does not abandon them. He is not indifferent to them. He is not the friend of wicked people; and the administration of his government is not in favor of wickedness. After all that seems to indicate this, after all that troubles the mind in regard to his dealings, it is a truth that God is the friend of righteousness, and not of wickedness, and that there is advantage in his service. To see the force of what is said here by the psalmist we must realize that the train of thought in the psalm had passed through his mind, and that his perplexities had been relieved in the manner specified in the psalm. The margin here is “yet;” “yet God is good to Israel.” This word “yet” would, in this place, be a happy translation. The psalmist then would be represented as having been engaged in meditating on the subject and in looking at all its perplexities, and then he says, “Yet God is good; notwithstanding all the difficulties in the case, it is nevertheless true that he is the friend of his people - the friend of righteousness.”

Even to such as are of a clean heart - Margin, as in Hebrew, “clean of heart.” See Psalms 73:13. The reference is to those who are truly righteous, for all true righteousness has its seat in the heart. See Psalms 51:10.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

PSALM LXXIII

The psalmist speaks of God's goodness to his people, 1;

shows how much he was stumbled at the prosperity of the wicked,

and describes their state, 2-12;

details the process of the temptation, and the pain he suffered

in consequence, 13-16;

shows how he was delivered, and the dismal reverse of the state

of the once prosperous ungodly man, by which his own false

views were corrected, 17-22;

his great confidence in God, and the good consequences of it,

23-28.

NOTES ON PSALM LXXIII

THIS is the commencement of the THIRD BOOK of the Psalter; and the Psalm before us has for title, A Psalm of Asaph; or, as the margin has it, A Psalm for Asaph. The title in the Hebrew is מזמור לאסף mizmor leasaph; "A Psalm of Asaph:" and it is likely that this Asaph was the composer of it; that he lived under the Babylonish captivity; and that he published this Psalm to console the Israelites under bondage, who were greatly tried to find themselves in such outward distress and misery, while a people much more wicked and corrupt than they, were in great prosperity, and held them in bondage.

Verse Psalms 73:1. Truly God is good to Israel — Captives as they were, they still had many blessings from God; and they had promises of deliverance, which must be fulfilled in due time.

Such as are of a clean heart. — Those who have a clean heart must have inward happiness: and, because they resemble God, they can never be forsaken by him.