Faith & Doubt
The people I know who cut corners and lie keep getting ahead, and I am the one struggling. Why does God let that happen?
“But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”
Asaph led worship at the temple, which makes this psalm remarkable: the man writing the songs admits he nearly lost his footing over other people's success. He tracks his envy honestly through the middle of the poem and it does not resolve through argument. It resolves when he goes into the sanctuary and finally sees the whole picture, ending included.
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Paul uses an agricultural image his readers knew from ordinary life: what comes up matches what went in, and it comes up later than you planted it. He is not promising quick correction, which is exactly why the image is a farming one. The delay between sowing and harvest is precisely the season that tempts you to conclude nothing is being counted.
A path forward
Name the specific person you are comparing yourself to and pray for them by name for a week. Envy rarely survives sustained honest prayer for its target.
Audit what you would actually have to become to get what they have. Usually the shortcut carries a price you already decided you were not willing to pay.
Write down three things you have that never show up in the comparison: relationships intact, a clear conscience, work you are not ashamed of. Envy operates by editing the ledger.
Closing verse
“Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.”
- Psalm 37:7
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