When I thought how I might know this, It was too painful for me;
Keeping silent about such thoughts does not heal them; it only drives the wound deeper. Asaph's conscience forbade him to scandalize God's family by speaking his doubts aloud, but suppressed fire in the bones rages more fiercely than if it could find a vent. A smothered grief grows worse and worse until it threatens to overwhelm him entirely.
AI summary
Reason alone cannot reconcile the prosperity of the wicked and the afflictions of the righteous with God's perfections and wise providence. This labor is too great for the unaided mind; it was a work Asaph was not equal to without consulting Scripture and experience.
AI summary
He kept his mouth by remembering God's children; though his heart reasoned that he had cleansed it in vain, he would not speak the thought aloud. To utter evil is worse than to think it, it gives the poison an imprimatur and infects others. Better to lay your hand upon your mouth and let the error die with yourself than to publish your doubts and destroy the faith of those whom God owns as His own.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 73:15-20