Psalm 73: Ecclesiastes And The Psalmist
Different existential conclusions
While Psalm 73 bears many numerous similarities to the book of Ecclesiastes, there is a marked difference between the psalmist and the author of Ecclesiastes. On the one hand, they both seem to be questioning good and evil, wisdom and foolishness, and the value of work in this world.
But when the psalmist envies the foolish and the evil (73:3), and marvels at how the wicked are healthy (73:4) don’t need to do a honest day’s work (amal) (73:5) and are rich (73:7, 12), as his life is filled with afflictions (73:14), he keeps quiet.
He doesn’t complain, because he is afraid of being traitorous to God by asking (73:15). His theological belief seems to be that you accept your portion in life, and that the wicked will get theirs. His attempt at understanding how this worked felt like a Sisyphean task (amal) to him, so he gave up (73:16). (Apparently no one gifted him a copy of Rabbi Harold Kushner’s “When Bad Things Happen to Good People?” for Hanukkah).
He accepted his ignorance and the psychological bliss, or numbness, that accompanied it (73:21-23). And so he “let go,” and, as the modern phrase goes, “let God” (73:23-26).
But in his abdication of trying to understand, he mimicked the actions of the wicked who he so envied. They didn’t do the work (amal), and neither did he.
This is not how the author of Ecclesiastes acted. He openly questioned the value of work (amal) in this world (Eccl. 1:3).
He accepted the inherent unfairness of the world as a given, and as a starting point. “In my own brief span of life, I have seen both these things: sometimes a good man perishes in spite of his goodness, and sometimes a wicked one endures in spite of his wickedness (Eccl. 7:15).
But he didn’t sit one day and say, “this is too difficult for me to understand.”, rather, he put his “mind to studying, exploring, and seeking wisdom and the reason of things, and to studying wickedness, stupidity, madness, and folly” (Eccl. 7:25).
It wasn’t easy. “For as wisdom grows, vexation grows; To increase learning is to increase heartache” (Eccl. 1:18).
Even though he ultimately deemed it “meaningless”, he did the work to try to understand. And even if, by the end of his book, Ecclesiastes arrived to a similar conclusion about God, it was through tireless experimentation and constant questioning.
“Indeed, man cannot guess the events that occur under the sun. For man tries strenuously, but fails to guess them; and even if a sage should think to discover them he would not be able to guess them” (Eccl. 9:17).
Even though it is admittedly fleeting, he understands the importance of work (amal, Eccl. 9:9). And he never regrets it. ”Whatever it is in your power to do, do with all your might” (Eccl. 9:10).