Sunday School

THE LESSON BACKGROUND. Psalms is a title derived from the Greek word “psalmos” describing a poem sung to the accompaniment of musical instruments. The Hebrew title for the book of Psalms was “Sepher Tehillim” which means Book of Praises. Although most psalms are ascribed to David, not all the psalms were written by him. Seventy-three psalms are ascribed to David, twelve to Asaph (see Psalms 50 and 73-83), two to Solomon (see Psalms 72 and 127), one to Moses (see Psalms 90), one to Ethan (see Psalms 89), and twelve to the sons of Korah, a family of Levitical singers (see Psalms 42-49; 84; 85; 87 and 88). Psalms 73 along with Psalms 74-83 was written by Asaph who was a Levite appointed by King David to lead the music in the worship at Jerusalem (see I Chronicles 16:4-5). Asaph was a man of great musical ability and he used that talent for God’s glory (see I Chronicles 15:15-17, 19; 16:7). Since David’s reign as King is placed at about 1000 B.C., Asaph most likely wrote this Psalm during David’s thirty-three year reign in Jerusalem (see II Samuel 5:4-5; I Kings 2:10-11). It appears that Asaph wrote Psalms 73 while he was struggling with something that has perplexed good people for years—the prosperity of the wicked. He was perplexed by the question of how a just God could allow unrighteous people to prosper while righteous people struggled.