Are you envious of the wicked? Psalm 72-74

Psalms 73:1-4 (NASBStr)

 Surely God is good to Israel,

To those who are pure in heart!

 But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling,

My steps had almost slipped.

 For I was envious of the arrogant

As I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

 For there are no pains in their death,

And their body is fat.

Psalms 73:17 (NASBStr)

Until I came into the sanctuary of God;

Then I perceived their end.

Asaph, the writer of this Psalm, is one of my most favorite Bible Characters.   I think he and I have lived in the same places.  Many, if not all, of his Psalms resonate with me because I have felt what he feels and thought what he thinks.   In Psalm 73 he talks about living with an "envy of the wicked."   He talks about watching them and noting that they seem to have little pain and are good and fat with the things of life.   To deny what we see is to not fully be healthy.  Like Asaph, we do see the wicked prosper and we do see them stuff themselves with the things of life.  They go on and on like there is no tomorrow and seem to enjoy life, completely absent of God.    Asaph admits the sin in even this simply act of envy.   He sees the wrong in his actions but can't help what he sees and what he feels.   What is he to do?  What am I to do, when I see and think the same things?  What are we to do?   Thankfully, Asaph doesn't leave us in this strange and ugly place.   In Psalm 73:17 we see how his mind and heart were corrected.   He would have continued in this way had he not walked into the place of God and taken on God's World View.   When he came into the place of worship he began to think of God's plan and God's judgement of the wicked.   That faith in God's plan was all that was needed to replace the mind of the flesh; the mind of envy.  Now, instead of envy for the wicked, Asaph morns!   He sees their end and knows of their destruction.  Instead of seeing their life of ease as a blessing he sees it as their blindness to the very judgements of God.   When we begin to envy the ease and lose cares of the wicked, it is wise for us to rejoice in God's plans and collect a world view based upon Faith, not Flesh.