On the slippery slope of envy

What will cause your feet to stumble? When and where does the slope get slippery?

I'm sure there is more than one answer, but one of them is envy.

But as for me, my feet had almost slipped,

I had nearly lost my foothold.

For I envied the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

On one level, Psalm 73 is a song about envy and its harmful effects. But on another, it is about a disordered sense of value, where material prosperity is foremost and Godliness takes second place. This is the slippery slope. The sliding may at first be imperceptible, but you are in a dangerous place.

The people the Psalmist envied were prosperous, healthy, and (therefore) heedless of God. They "have no struggles," they never seem to get in trouble despite their wickedness. They move from triumph to triumph, and so "pride is their necklace, and they clothe themselves in violence."

They are unfeeling, unsympathetic toward those who are weaker or less successful. The Psalmist calls this "callous hearts." In a striking phrase, he says "their evil imaginations have no limits."

They scoff and speak with malice;

with arrogance they threaten oppression,

their mouths lay claim to heaven, 

and their tongues take possession of the earth.

The ESV translation of that last line as "and their tongue struts through the earth." 

Perhaps you know someone like that. In the Psalms, these people are often called "the wicked." And yet God's people are prone to envy them. Even to "find no fault in them." Perhaps you know people like that, as well. They too begin to scoff, to bear malice. They too wear pride like a necklace and strut the earth even as they presume that God approves of them and that heaven shall be their reward.

But the Psalmist calls the position of the envious a slippery slope. You go from admiring the wicked for their successes in life, then to being unable to see their glaring faults, and finally to trying hard to be just like them. 

A slippery, slippery place. But the Psalmist, who comes very close to this slope, takes a turn at verse 18. For one thing, he begins to see the existential crisis these prideful strutters are in. These wicked ones should not be envied, because their destiny is bleak. They too are on slippery ground.

How suddenly are they destroyed,

completely swept away by terrors!

And now he looks back at himself, in light of this realization, at himself burning with envy for the wicked, and he realizes what a dreadful spot he too was in. His heart was grieved and his spirit embittered.

I was senseless and ignorant;

I was a brute beast before you.

Many Psalms contain a climax, a high point, where the Psalmist comes to an accurate understanding of God and of the world. In Psalm 73 this point comes at verse 23. Here begins the realization, the crucial remembering, that God is with him. "You hold my right hand." And that there is nothing better than this:

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart

   and my portion forever.

The wicked and those who envied them were both on the same slippery slope. It is the slope of believing that material prosperity is more important than being close to God. But when the Psalmist, whose feet had almost slipped, begins to see the bigger picture, it is as if God took him by the hand and pulled him upright just as he was about to stumble. Here I am. Remember me. I am your strength.

It is a good thing to remember that God alone is the strength of your heart and that nothing in this world is better than the destiny He has stored up for those who love Him. Therefore, be like the Psalmist: make Him your refuge and tell of His deeds.