Why do the wicked prosper while the pure of heart are afflicted?

                                                             Psalm 73.

This psalm is a bitter and hopeless search, recalls the kind of question that troubled Jeremiah and Job (Job 21.1-34; Jer. 12:1), and the Psalmist has a confession and a supreme discovery to share.

Asaph, the man who in the days of King David was highlighted as leader of the Temple music seems to have been a man of some distinction in his day. Set in the days of King David, there were no problems of this nature, means misinterpret human life and human nature.
The psalmist is an issue that afflicts: why do the wicked prosper, apparently without God's action? Why are afflicted with a pure heart? However, from a broader perspective and deeper life, faced with the emptiness and futility of the glamorous life of the wicked.
The psalmist begins by recognizing that "God is good to Israel, with a clean heart." He understands and has no doubt the goodness of God, even throughout the psalm go through personal crisis. A first reading could lead to a problem of retribution, cause and effect, where those who strive to live a godly seed purity of heart and life. There are biblical passages that clarify this aspect, the "clean heart" does not come from man but from God (Psalm 51.10; Ez 11:19, 36:26, Rom 2:28-29).



Verses 2-12, dominate "them" but within view of the "self."

Narrowly missed the Psalmist to "get lost on the way" or "had well nigh turned from his steps." Identifies what he called "deviation", the reasons that attracted him the envy seeing the "prosperity of the wicked." The health of the wicked and their apparent freedom from the worries and woes led to arrogance, which led the Psalmist to the temptation to envy them.
The word "shalom" takes a look at the priestly blessing (Numbers 6.22-27). Asaph was blessing so the wicked, not necessarily your actions, but people, while their human nature wanted this "shalom." Some Bible versions translate "shalom" for "prosperity", others omit the word, but expresses all other translated as "good luck" and "how well".



Verses 13 to 16, dominates the "I".

There is a sequence of parallel antagonistic: while the wicked are "not distressed", who keep pure heart are "afflicted and punished every morning" - verses 5 and 14, the "pride and violence" involves the wicked, those who keep pure the heart "wash their hands in innocence" - verses 6 and 13.
From this moment begins the "why this?", "Why that?" Which leads the psalmist to declare: "... needlessly kept pure heart ... ". Where is your prosperity? Where is your blessing?

How to believe in a God that is good, reserves the punishment for a pure heart. But the simple fact of the formulation of the psalmist thought shocked to the point of adopting a better mental attitude. And he begins to express and declare a public act, the result of a conscious decision - "If I had thought of speaking these words ..."
Certainties, it is good to talk, but in case you should not talk, because there are issues that the human intellect can not understand, and that should be taken only to God.



Two verbs call attention to verse 15.


First, the verb "talk" with the sense of expressing declare.
Second, the word "betrayed" is that in order to betray, be treacherous.

Israeli understanding, the individual could not be called a child of God (Deut. 14:1; Ex. 4.22), but only the people, as a community, were children of God.
Therefore, by betraying the community, the individual loses the participation in this title.
We can say that the apostle Peter makes the same relationship, a people belonging to God, when he quotes:

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, to proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: you, yes, that before, you were not people, but now you are God's people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. " (1 Peter 2:9-10)
Asaph reflects and expresses his inability to understand the things of God.


Of its inability to solve and explain the situations of life.
He alone did not understand, did not have the strength to understand.



God, the second person, determines the fate of "them" (verses 17-22).




From this point one can see the turnaround.

The psalmist enters the Sanctuary of God and realize their end. The psalmist, although surrounded by continuously unfair, do not fold, because it follows the law of God and meditates continuously.
From that moment he begins to discern the facts.
While standing in God's presence, it is shown that the unrighteous shall go to destruction, disintegration in death total. The safety of the wicked, based on power and wealth, is illusory. While appearances indicate a trajectory falsely grandiose in reality are slippery in place. Their lives are reflected by the expectation and fear of losing their fortunes and power. This fear becomes terror and perish, because they identify with what they have. The lives of the wicked was not real, because it was a broken relationship with the Lord.
From the encounter with the Lord, the psalmist was taken to assess your vision. The reflection led him to identify his situation, brutish, ignorant, a bigot was before the knowledge of God.
Now, instead of dwelling on the prosperity of the wicked, he finally arrives at the Lord's presence and believes that the greatest blessing is to have God as your guide and close adviser.
Regardless of what may happen in your life, God is God. It is centered in God transcends heaven and earth, and it is God who sets the dimension as "forever", "eternal" and "everlasting".

Conclusion
"Those who turn away from thee, behold perish: thou destroy all who are unfaithful to you" - answered the questions in verses 18-20. "For me, it is good to be near God, the Lord God will set my sanctuary, to proclaim all his deeds" - answers the questions in verses 24-26.

It can be concluded that the fidelity of the fair is the absolute trust in Jehovah, God of the Covenant.