--- title: "Wesley" description: "Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. A clean heart — To all true Israelites, who love God, and serve him in spirit and truth" image: "/images/missing.jpg" url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/psalms/73" --- Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. *A clean heart* — To all true Israelites, who love God, and serve him in spirit and truth. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. *My feet* — My faith in God's providence, was almost overthrown. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. *No bands* — They are not dragged to death, by the sentence of the magistrate, which they deserve. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. *As other men* — As good men frequently are. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. *And speak* — Boasting of their oppressions. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. *Against* — Against God, blaspheming his name, and deriding his providence. *Walketh* — Using all manner of liberty, reproaching all sorts of persons. Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. *Turn* — To this wicked company. *Waters* — And partake of the same prosperity with their leaders. God seems to give them a full cup of consolation, as if he would wring out all his blessings upon them. Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. *Behold* — These seem to be the words of the psalmist, summing up the matter. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. *In vain* — Hence I was sometimes tempted, to think that religion was a vain, unprofitable thing. True religion is here described by its two principal parts, the cleansing of the heart, and the hands. If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. *Offend* — By grieving, discouraging and tempting them to revolt from God. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; *To know* — To find out the reason of this providence. Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. *Until* — 'Till I consulted the word of God. He alludes to the practice of those times, which was, in difficult cases to resort to God's sanctuary, and the oracle therein. *Their end* — There I learned that their prosperity was short. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. *Terrors* — With God's dreadful judgements unexpectedly seizing upon them. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. *They awake* — Out of the pleasant dream of this vain life. *Despise* — Thou shalt make them despicable both to themselves and to all others; raise them to shame, and everlasting contempt. *Image* — All their felicity and glory, which shall be evidently discerned to be, no real or substantial thing, but a mere image or shadow. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. *Pricked* — I was deeply wounded with disquieting thoughts. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. *Nevertheless* — Although I gave thee just cause to cast me off, yet thou didst continue thy care and kindness to me. *Hast held* — That my faith might not fail. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. *Go a whoring* — Those who revolt from thee, to work wickedness; which is called whoredom in scripture. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com","name":"Real Bible Believers","description":"RBB","publisher":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/search?q={search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/psalms/73#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/images/missing.jpg","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/images/missing.jpg","width":640,"height":370,"caption":"Wesley's Explanatory Notes - Psalms 73"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/psalms/73#webpage","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/psalms/73","name":"Wesley's Explanatory Notes - Psalms 73","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/psalms/73#primaryimage"},"datePublished":null,"dateModified":null,"author":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"description":"Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. A clean heart — To all true Israelites, who love God, and serve him in spirit and truth","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/psalms/73#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/psalms/73"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/psalms/73#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries","name":"Commentaries"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes","name":"Wesley's Explanatory Notes"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/psalms","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/psalms","name":"Psalms"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/psalms/73","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/psalms/73","name":"73"}}]},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","width":512,"height":512},"logo":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo"},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/RBiblebeliever","https://www.facebook.com/RBibleBelievers"]}]} ```