Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
The psalmist battles carnal reason itself, contending against what the eye sees: the wicked gorged in wealth and pleasure while mocking God, and the righteous crushed under troubles. He nearly cast off all care for religion at this sight. But he reproves his own rashness in judging from the present state alone, and learns that when God's providence runs its course as He has determined in secret counsel, the righteous will not be cheated of their reward, nor the wicked escape the judge.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 73:1-28
As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. They owe their existence and prosperity to the forbearance of God, which the psalmist compares to a sleep; but as a dream vanishes so soon as a man awakes, so the instant the Lord begins to exercise his justice and call men before him, the pomp and prosperity...
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