🎵WEB · Psalms 73:12
What does Psalms 73:12 mean?
"Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches."
— Psalms 73:12 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth.
Therefore their people return to them, and they drink up waters of abundance.
They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches.
Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence,
For all day long I have been plagued, and punished every morning.
If I had said, “I will speak thus”; behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
Explanation
Psalm 73:12 comes in the middle of Asaph's honest wrestling with a problem that troubles believers in every age: why do the wicked seem to prosper while the righteous struggle? In plain language, the verse simply observes that the wicked live comfortably, untroubled by hardship, and their wealth keeps growing. Asaph isn't approving of this state of affairs — he's describing what he sees with his own eyes, and it disturbs him deeply.
Asaph was a Levite appointed by David as a worship leader and psalmist for Israel (1 Chronicles 15:16-19), and this psalm is attributed to him. Psalm 73 opens with a statement of faith — "Truly God is good to Israel" (v.1) — but immediately pivots into confession: "But as for me, my feet were almost gone" (v.2). Asaph admits he nearly stumbled in his faith because he envied the arrogant when he saw the prosperity of the wicked (v.3). Verses 4-12 describe this prosperity in detail: the wicked have no struggles, their bodies are healthy, they are free from the burdens common to humanity, pride is their necklace, violence clothes them, and their words drip with malice — yet through it all, they remain at ease and grow richer. Verse 12 is essentially the summary conclusion of that whole observation.
Theologically, this verse captures the tension between appearance and reality, between temporal circumstance and ultimate justice. Asaph is not denying God's justice; he's voicing the honest confusion that comes
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