Saturday's Ladies Brunch September 26, 2026 - Psalm 73 - Lesson Given by Stacy Brinnkley

YBC Ladies Brunch 9/26/26

Psalm 73 is a hymn written by Asaph, who was a Levite. The male members of the tribe

of Levi, the Levites, were the worship leaders for the Israelites. So right away we know

that this psalm will take a different flavor or perspective than most other psalms, which

were written by David.

The role of the Levites is discussed in 1 & 2 Chronicles, and I gave you a couple of

verses to look at later if you want to take a deeper look. Asaph eventually became a

leader or mentor to other Levites, and also was seen as a prophet because of some of

his other psalms that he wrote.

I want us to establish this foundation of who Asaph is, because the context of his role as

a worship leader and role model to other worship leaders will be important as we study

this psalm.

Read Psalm 73 in entirety

This is a lengthy psalm, so we will take this apart in chunks to digest what’s happening

here.

In v.1-3, we have an introduction to a problem. Asaph understands God’s goodness,

and the value he places on a pure heart. We know that purity does not mean

sinlessness, but it does mean striving towards keeping God’s commands and avoiding

evil. But Asaph was seeing evil around him and felt that the wicked were prospering and

doing well in life, and he became envious of them. He admits in verse 2 that his envy

was causing him to enter into sin by describing his feet nearly stumbling and his steps

nearly slipping.

Let’s look at Proverbs 14:30 which talks about the danger of envy: “A tranquil heart

gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.”

Another word for tranquil is composed—we could say that Asaph was losing his

composure. Let’s keep that in mind as we think about our context of Asaph as a worship

leader as we move on.

In verses 4-12, Asaph describes what he was seeing around him.

In verse 4, he saw the wicked appearing very healthy and the ESV even says “fat”—in

those times, a larger body size indicated wealth, and a thin frame indicated poverty or

lower means/less access to food.

In v. 5 they appear to be escaping hardship and difficulty.

In v. 6 they are proud and even given to violence; gives the mental picture of being so

wicked and prideful that they may use any means necessary, including violence, to get

what they want.

In v. 7 the wicked are described as having hearts overflowing with follies. I looked up the

definition of folly because I wanted a full understanding of what Asaph was describing

here. Folly is “a lack of good sense; a lack of prudence.” So essentially the lives of the

wicked are full of unrestrained foolishness and evil.

In v. 8 we see their speech: they scoff (another word for mock, jeer, ridicule, sneer,

scorn), they speak with malice (a desire to cause harm, injury, or suffering to another

person), and in the second half of the verse they are pridefully threatening to exert

unjust control over others.

In verse 9 we see the wicked speaking against God with loose and prideful

tongues—don’t forget the power of the tongue that James describes in James 3—it is a

restless evil.

In verse 10 we see that wicked attracts wicked and does not offer correction when they

see wrongdoing.

In verse 11 the wicked are ignorant of God’s complete and infinite knowledge, they think

God doesn’t know their sin, and they think they know better than God. It sounds a lot

like verse 6—pride is their necklace.

In verse 12 Asaph gives a summary of what he sees around him: the wicked have an

easy and prosperous life, getting what they want, with no cares in the world.

At this point, let’s pause think about how we can apply this today. It’s not hard. He would

have seen child sacrifice, which we see today with abortion and transitioning children to

another gender; he would have seen corrupt religious figures who would take money

from the poor to enrich themselves—an example were Eli’s and Samuel’s sons, and we

see this today; he saw corrupt political figures who were dominating the people—this

was Saul, and we also see this in politics today. Just as it was easy for Asaph to look

around and become envious of what appeared to be an easy life of the wicked, it’s not a

stretch for us to fall into envy today too.

Moving to verses 13-16, we see more of Asaph’s distress. He is now comparing himself

to the wicked. He says that he has been stricken in v. 14, but in v.5 he said the wicked

are not stricken; he has faced hardships despite keeping the pure life that he describes

in v. 13 with a clean heart and innocent hands. He is dealing with a question that others

before him and others since him have asked: why does it seem that God punishes the

righteous but the wicked prosper? We’re back at v.2-3: Asaph is allowing his envy to

overwhelm his thoughts and relationship with God, and his feet are about to stumble

and his steps are about to slip. We need to be cautious here too: we can easily go down

Asaph’s path when we begin to think or act legalistically: if I obey God and act right, I

will not suffer. Or we can even fall into the trap of the prosperity gospel: I do good so I

can get good from God.

Verse 15 is an important verse: If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed

the generation of your children.

Asaph comes to his senses in a way—he recalls his role as worship leader and the

implication here is that he is reflecting on his role as a mentor or role model to the

generations behind him. He recognizes that if he had allowed that envy to fester which

could potentially lead to anger and broken relationships, or even joining in with the

activities of the wicked, this would have a devastating impact on Israel with huge

consequences. This is important for us as women: we have roles as mothers,

stepmothers, aunts, grandmothers, and we are spiritual mothers even if we are not

biological mothers. We have a tremendous influence on our families and the

generations coming behind us who are watching us. Titus 2:3-5 says “ 3  Older women

likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are

to teach what is good, 4  and so train the young women to love their husbands and

children, 5  to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own

husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” All of us are an older woman to a

younger woman, and those relationships matter. So much of raising children, or even in

our relationships in general, is caught and not taught. How will we respond to hardship

or suffering? Will we revile God and His word? Or will we remain self-controlled and

continue to honor God? Like Asaph, let’s not forget that we have influence, and our

responses to hardships or wickedness in our day will be noticed by the generations

behind us.

Moving on to v. 16-17, we have a turning point in the psalm and a shift in Asaph’s

perspective. He says that trying to understand the world around him is far above his

own wisdom and discernment…but we have a key word in verse 17, UNTIL. We will see

from this point forward, Asaph’s tone completely changes. What happened at this point?

My mom used to call this an “attitude adjustment.” He went into the house of God. He

was back into fellowship with other believers, he was in the presence of God, he was in

public worship. John 1 tells us that Jesus is the light of the world and his light shines on

darkness; his truth exposes darkness. God used the truth of scripture, corporate

worship, and fellowship of believers to help Asaph refocus on God and off the

wickedness around him, and He does this for us too. We have talked about this recently

in Sunday School, that there is a lot of risk of a Christian remaining isolated. We lose

accountability, we run the risk of our minds running amok, and we lose the edification

that comes from being around other believers.

In verses 18-20, Asaph tells us what happens to the wicked—they fall to ruin, they are

destroyed instantaneously and swept away. This is an assurance to us that God will

take care of wickedness.

In verses 21-22, Asaph recalls again what he was like prior to this perspective shift, or

attitude adjustment—taking us back to verses 2-3. He confesses his bitterness, he says

he was pricked in heart which is another way to say that he was in anguish. He was

brutish, which is another word for insensible or having little intelligence, he was

ignorant, which we know means without knowledge, and says he was like a beast

towards God. Essentially, he is confessing that he had become out of control of his

emotions, unable to reason or rationalize, he was all emotion and no logic.

Verse 23 starts with another great word, “nevertheless,” which is showing us another

turning point like our word “until.” In verses 23-24, Asaph recounts God’s goodness,

now that he had that perspective shift by being in the house of God. He recalls God’s

continual presence and guidance, and his future security.

In v.25-26, we have a contrast between Asaph’s desires and the world’s desires. Asaph

says that God is his heart’s one desire and his portion, that there is nothing on earth he

wants, just God. Asaph gave us such a contrast of the wicked in verse 12, that they are

in constant pursuit of wordly riches. We see too that Asaph truly understood the

Greatest Commandment from Deuteronomy 6, which he would have been taught as a

child, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your might and with all your

strength. Asaph’s confession here in these 2 verses are a powerful statement to his

understanding of this commandment.

In verse 27, Asaph again tells us what will happen to the wicked,

Then in verse 28, our last verse gives us a great summary of this psalm and Asaph’s

journey from bitterness to hope:

But for me, it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I

may tell of all your works.

And it applies to us. For us, it is good for US to be near God, to continually pursue our

relationship with Him through prayer, the Word, and corporate worship. God then

becomes our refuge—our safe place—our place to run when the wicked seem to be

thriving around us and we don’t understand why. He is our place to run when the

evilness of our culture tries to overwhelm us. He is our comfort when bad things happen

to us. We don’t have a promise in this psalm that we will never experience suffering, but

we have the assurance in this psalm that God’s presence gives us comfort and security.

And at the end of this psalm, Asaph is ready to tell of all of God’s works. May it be so for

us! May our relationship and nearness to God and our security in Him drive us towards

fulfilling the Great Commission from Matthew 28, that we would go and tell of God’s love

and saving power, and make more disciples. 

Stacy Brinkley is the wife of Pastor Darin Bracy of Yorktown Baptist Church. Stacy is currently a Nurse Practitioner with James River Cardiology. Stacy holds a BS in Nursing from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Masters in Nursing from the University of Virginia. Stacy has also served as a missionary in Peru. She has two step daughters, Ashlynne (married to Justin), and Aftyn, and one granddaughter Harper. You can reach Stacy via her email at Stacy.Brinkley@gmail.com