Ps. 73.1 (a proverb)

Truly / God is good / to Israel
to those / who are pure in heart. 

I have only occasionally made it a point to refer to the superscription. I think, in this case, we need to mention it. For various reasons, I think it especially important, as will become clear toward the close of the psalm. The superscriptions says it an Asaphite psalm. The Chronicler, in turn, links the Levites of the Ephreaimite with the Asaphite singers. In short, for other reasons internal to the psalm itself, I think the psalm is one spoken by a Levitical priest. We need only mention at this point that the Levitical priests, in particular, were not, upon entering the Promised Land provided with any land. Rather, their “portion” was God himself. (See vs. 26). To proceed to the body of the psalm—one thing we have noted in many of our psalms is the importance of the form of the psalm. For example, it is often the case that the second half of a psalm ‘answers’ the first. Or, the opening of the psalm, when compared with the concluding verses, reveal great depth. That is perhaps nowhere as clear, or as important to note, as in this psalm. We will chart the structure of the psalm as we proceed. For our purposes, however, this opening verse operates as a type of ‘springboard’. In it is contained both the problem and the resolution of the psalm. Further, it is I think highly likely that, in this way, it was a type of ‘proverb’, something that would have been oft repeated by faithful Israelites. It would have been almost a type of creed. If that is the case, then the use of the word “Truly” at the beginning is important in how it is later picked up in the psalm in verses 13 and 18. In verse 13 we read how the psalmist, in spite of the seeming ‘nothingness’, of his purity, maintained a clean heart and hands (priestly form of ritual purity). In verse 18, immediately following the central ‘turn’ in the psalm, the psalmist declares, “Truly, you will put them [the wicked] on slippery places…”. The sense in both of these is that ‘truly’ means that which is present reality will be upended and the righteous vindicated. In other words, the ‘truly’ of verses 13 and 18 function like a bridge from the present to the future, highlighting a current disruption that will be healed. When looking back to the opening, what we come to see is that this proverb is meant to ‘clash’ with the present, and the question is how, exactly, is this “truly” true. How is it not that God will be good but is good to Israel and the pure in heart. Verses 13 and 18 point to the future; the opening however points to the present. Second, we do find a potential disruption even in these opening lines. God’s goodness is displayed to Israel, “those who are pure in heart”. In other words, God’s goodness is here implied to exist only to those Israelites who maintain covenantal fidelity. The ‘heart’ is going to be battle-ground. To those who maintain the purity of their heart, God “is good”. To those who allow their hear to be made impure, God’s goodness will vanish. It can, like so many lights, ‘flicker out’ as hearts cease to maintain their purity. God’s ‘constancy’ as goodness is not a constancy divorced from the constancy of covenantal fidelity. The heart of Israel must mirror the constancy of God in order for his goodness to be displayed. In a way it is a dramatic goodness.