Psalm 73 begins with a confession of faith, that God is good to Israel, and then admits a crisis: Asaph’s feet had almost slipped because he envied the arrogant and saw their prosperity. The lesson walks through his observations of the wicked, who seem free of trouble, wear pride like a necklace and ask whether God even knows, and through the temptation to think that keeping a pure heart had been in vain.
The turning point comes when Asaph goes into the sanctuary of God and perceives their end: they stand in slippery places, and God is a righteous judge. What follows is repentance, as he sees how senseless his bitterness was and that God had held his right hand all along. His final resolve is the heart of the psalm: whom have I in heaven but You, and the nearness of God is my good.