Psalm 73:19

How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) In a moment.—Literally, in a wink. (Comp. “In the twinkling of an eye.”)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 73:19-20. They are brought to desolation as in a moment — Their fall is wonderful, both for its greatness, and for its suddenness. They are utterly consumed with terrors — With the horrors of their own minds; or rather, with God’s judgments unexpectedly seizing upon them. As a dream when one awaketh — Their happiness is like that of a dream, wherein a man seems highly pleased and transported with ravishing delights, but when he awakes he finds himself deceived and unsatisfied. O Lord, when thou awakest — Arisest to punish them. Or rather, when they shall awake; namely, out of the pleasant dream of this sinful life, by death and the torments following. For the Hebrew is only בעיר, bagnir, in awaking, an expression which may be applied either to God or to them, as the context directs, and the latter application seems to agree best with the metaphor here before mentioned. Thou shalt despise their image — That is, all their felicity and glory, which, as indeed it ever was, so now shall evidently be discerned to be no real, or substantial and solid thing, but a mere image, or shadow, or vain show, which can neither abide with them, nor yield them satisfaction. Thus the word rendered pomp, Acts 25:23, is, in the Greek, φαντασια, a mere fancy and imagination. And Psalm 39:6, man is said to walk in a vain show; in the LXX., εν εικονι, in an image, the word used by these interpreters here. God is said to despise the image, when they awake, not really, for in that sense God ever did despise it, even when they were in the height of all their glory; but declaratively, things being often said to be done in Scripture when they appear or are manifest. The sense is, Thou shalt pour contempt upon them; make them despicable to themselves and others, notwithstanding all their riches; shalt raise them to shame and everlasting contempt. The LXX. render it, τον εικονα αυτων εξουδενωσεις, Thou shalt bring to naught, or make nothing of their image. God will render utterly contemptible even in their own sight, as well as in that of himself, of his holy angels, and the spirits of the righteous, those imaginary and fantastic pleasures for which they have lost the substantial joys and glories of his heavenly kingdom. For it is evident that what the psalmist here affirms, concerning the end of the wicked, cannot be understood, consistently with the rest of the Psalm, of their temporal destruction, but must be interpreted of their future wretched state in another world, which is often represented, in Scripture, by death and destruction; and so, indeed, these verses explain it. How are they brought to desolation in a moment, that is, the moment when they pass out of this life to another. It is then only that the wicked will be thoroughly awakened to see their misery, especially if they die without much pain or anguish, in a stupid, thoughtless way, as seems to be intimated Psalm 73:4. And here let us reflect, with Dr. Horne, If “the sudden alteration which death makes in the state of a powerful and opulent sinner, cannot but affect all around him, though they behold but one part of it; how much more would they be astonished and terrified if the curtain between the two worlds were withdrawn, and the other half of the change exposed to view! Let faith do that which sight cannot do;” let it show us, that the life of the ungodly is a sleep; their happiness a dream, illusive and transitory; at best a shadow, afterward nothing; and that, at the day of death, the soul is roused out of this sleep, the dream vanishes, and the sinner finds himself consigned to everlasting torments, “and then the ungodly, however wealthy and honourable, will surely cease to be the objects of our envy.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

73:15-20 The psalmist having shown the progress of his temptation, shows how faith and grace prevailed. He kept up respect for God's people, and with that he restrained himself from speaking what he had thought amiss. It is a sign that we repent of the evil thoughts of the heart, if we suppress them. Nothing gives more offence to God's children, than to say it is vain to serve God; for there is nothing more contrary to their universal experience. He prayed to God to make this matter plain to him; and he understood the wretched end of wicked people; even in the height of their prosperity they were but ripening for ruin. The sanctuary must be the resort of a tempted soul. The righteous man's afflictions end in peace, therefore he is happy; the wicked man's enjoyments end in destruction, therefore he is miserable. The prosperity of the wicked is short and uncertain, slippery places. See what their prosperity is; it is but a vain show, it is only a corrupt imagination, not substance, but a mere shadow; it is as a dream, which may please us a little while we are slumbering, yet even then it disturbs our repose.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! - How suddenly and unexpectedly does destruction come upon them! Nothing can be argued from their apparent prosperity, for there is no ground of security in "that," no basis for an argument that it will continue. The end must be seen in order to form a correct estimate on the subject, and that end may soon come. Compare the notes at Job 15:20-21.

They are utterly consumed with terrors - literally, "they perish; they are destroyed by terrors;" that is, by terrible things, or by things suited to produce terror in the mind. The idea is not that they are destroyed by their own fears, but that things come upon them which are suited to overwhelm the soul, and that by those things they are utterly destroyed. It is by this result that we are to determine in regard to the equity of the divine administration, and not by their prosperity and their apparent safety.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18-20. their end—future (Ps 37:37, 38), which is dismal and terribly sudden (Pr 1:27; 29:1), aggravated and hastened by terror. As one despises an unsubstantial dream, so God, waking up to judgment (Ps 7:6; 44:23), despises their vain shadow of happiness (Ps 39:6; Isa 29:7). They are thrown into ruins as a building falling to pieces (Ps 74:3).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Their fall is wonderful, both for its soreness and for its suddenness.

Consumed with terrors; either, with the horrors of their own minds; or rather, with God’s dreadful judgments unexpectedly seizing upon them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment?.... Very suddenly, which is often the case of wicked men, who cry Peace and safety, and sudden destruction comes upon them, 1 Thessalonians 5:3, so as in a moment were the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Pharaoh and his host, and of Korah and his company, Lamentations 4:6, the words are expressed with admiration, as wondering at the sudden and amazing turn of things:

they are utterly consumed with terrors: their destruction is not only sudden, but entire; it is like the breaking in pieces of a potter's vessel; a shard of which cannot be gathered up and used, or like the casting of a millstone into the sea, which will never rise more; such will be the destruction of antichrist; see Revelation 2:27 and this is done "with terrors"; either by terrible judgments inflicted on them from without; or with terrors inwardly seizing upon their minds and consciences; as, at the time of temporal calamities, or at death, however at judgment, when the awful sentence will be pronounced upon them; see Job 27:20.

Geneva Study Bible

How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are {i} utterly consumed with terrors.

(i) By your fearful judgment.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. How are they become a desolation in a moment!

They are at an end, they are consumed with terrors.

The word terrors, found here only in the Psalter, is a favourite word in Job in similar connexions (Psalm 18:11; Psalm 18:14, &c.).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! There is something very striking in the suddenness with which the prosperity of a wicked man often collapses. Saul, Jezebel, Athaliah, Epiphanes, Herod Agrippa, are cases in point, likewise Nero, Galerius, Julian. The first and second Napoleonic empires may also be cited. They are utterly consumed with terrors; literally, they perish; they come to an end through terrors (comp. Job 18:11; Job 24:17; Job 27:20). Psalm 73:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The poet calms himself with the solution of the riddle that has come to him; and it would be beneath his dignity as a man to allow himself any further to be tempted by doubting thoughts. Placing himself upon the standpoint of the end, he sees how the ungodly come to terrible destruction in a moment: they come to an end (ספוּ from סוּף, not ספה), it is all over with them (תּמּוּ) in consequence of (מן as in Psalm 76:7, and unconnected as in Psalm 18:4; Psalm 30:4; Psalm 22:14) frightful occurrences (בּלּהות, a favourite word, especially in the Book of Job), which clear them out of the way. It is with them as with a dream, after (מן as in 1 Chronicles 8:8) one is awoke. One forgets the vision on account of its nothingness (Job 20:8). So the evil-doers who boast themselves μετὰ πολλῆς φαντασίας (Acts 25:23) are before God a צלם, a phantom or unsubstantial shadow. When He, the sovereign Lord, shall awake, i.e., arouse Himself to judgment after He has looked on with forbearance, then He will despise their shadowy image, will cast it contemptuously from Him. Luther renders, So machstu Herr jr Bilde in der Stad verschmecht (So dost Thou, Lord, make their image despised in the city). But neither has the Kal בּזה this double transitive signification, "to give over to contempt," nor is the mention of the city in place here. In Hosea 11:9 also בּעיר in the signification in urbem gives no right sense; it signifies heat of anger or fury, as in Jeremiah 15:8, heat of anguish, and Schrder maintains the former signification (vid., on Psalm 139:20), in fervore (irae), here also; but the pointing בּעיר is against it. Therefore בּעיר is to be regarded, with the Targum, as syncopated from בּהעיר (cf. לביא, Jeremiah 39:7; 2 Chronicles 31:10; בּכּשׁלו, Proverbs 24:17, and the like); not, however, to be explained, "when they awake," viz., from the sleep of death (Targum),

(Note: The Targum version is, "As the dream of a drunken man, who awakes out of his sleep, wilt Thou, O Lord, on the day of the great judgment, when they awake out of their graves, in wrath abandon their image to contempt." The text of our editions is to be thus corrected according to Bechai (on Deuteronomy 33:29) and Nachmani (in his treatise שׁער הגמול).)

or after Psalm 78:38, "when Thou awakest them," viz., out of their sleep of security (De Wette, Kurtz), but after Psalm 35:23, "when Thou awakest," viz., to sit in judgment.

Thus far we have the divine answer, which is reproduced by the poet after the manner of prayer. Hengstenberg now goes on by rendering it, "for my heart was incensed;" but we cannot take יתחמּץ according to the sequence of tenses as an imperfect, nor understand כּי as a particle expression the reason. On the contrary, the poet, from the standpoint of the explanation he has received, speaks of a possible return (כּי seq. fut. equals ἐάν) of his temptation, and condemns it beforehand: si exacerbaretur animus meus atque in renibus meis pungerer. התחמּץ, to become sour, bitter, passionate; השׁתּונן, with the more exactly defining accusative כּליותי, to be pricked, piqued, irritated. With ואני begins the apodosis: then should I be... I should have become (perfect as in Psalm 73:15, according to Ges. 126, 5). Concerning לא ידע, non sapere, vid., Psalm 14:4. בּהמות can be taken as compar. decurtata for כּבהמות; nevertheless, as apparently follows from Job 40:15, the poet surely has the p-ehe-mou, the water ox, i.e., the hippopotamus, in his mind, which being Hebraized is בּהמות,

(Note: The Egyptian p frequently passes over into the Hebrew b, and vice vers, as in the name Aperiu equals עברים; p, however, is retained in פרעה equals phar-aa, grand-house (οἶκος μέγας in Horapollo), the name of the Egyptian rulers, which begins with the sign of the plan of a house equals p.)

and, as a plump colossus of flesh, is at once an emblem of colossal stupidity (Maurer, Hitzig). The meaning of the poet is, that he would not be a man in relation to God, over against God (עם, as in Psalm 78:37; Job 9:2, cf. Arab. ma‛a, in comparison with), if he should again give way to the same doubts, but would be like the most stupid animal, which stands before God incapable of such knowledge as He willingly imparts to earnestly inquiring man.