Psalm 73

I went to a Bible study this morning.  We read Psalm 73.  It starts out pretty depressing.  The writer is lamenting that the wicked have good lives while good people suffer.  It made me think of Jesus' statement that "the poor you will always have with you." ( Matt 26:11)  Since Jesus said it, I guess all of our efforts to eradicate poverty are destined to failure.  We can do some good, but we will never solve the problem; because Jesus explicitly said that we will never solve that problem.

That won't stop me from working to eradicate poverty.  But it does dampen my enthusiasm.

In this Psalm the author says that the wicked have comfortable lives of luxury.  I wonder if they wouldn't have comfortable lives of luxury if the Psalmist hadn't written that.  Or, because maybe the Psalmist is less authoritative than Jesus, if we have any chance of ever fixing our society enough to correct that injustice?  Or are we doomed to failure here, too?

Clearly the main point of the Psalm is that this life is just a qualification round, and the wicked are disqualifying themselves from eternity.  Godly people should take some comfort from that, and from the fact that we have God's presence and assistance in this life as well.

But it is hard to not want the luxury, too.