EXPOSITION
THIS is a didactic poem, and resembles in some respects Psalms 37:1-40, and Psalms 73:1-28. It deals with the same problem—the contrast between the lot of the righteous man, whom the wicked persecute continually (Psalms 73:5), and these wicked themselves, who are wealthy and prosperous, found families, leave them their wealth, and even "call their lands after their own names" (Psalms 73:6, Psalms 73:10, Psalms 73:11). The problem is solved, more distinctly than anywhere else in the Psalms, by the doctrine of compensation in a future life (verses 15, 19), so that (as Hupfeld says) the psalm "contains a real, though crude and imperfect, theodicy." The wicked man has his good things in this life, and after death evil things, while with the good man the case is exactly the contrary. The date of the psalm is uncertain; but from its style it may be placed between the time of David and that of Hezekiah. The ascription of it to "the sons of Korah" deserves acceptance.
Metrically, the composition divides itself into three portions: