Nearness to God Is My Good

Those who remain far from God perish, but the worshiper finds his good in God's nearness, makes the Sovereign LORD his refuge, and tells of all His works.

Understanding the Big Idea

Psalm 73:27-28 gives the psalm its final and decisive contrast. The people who persist far from God are not truly secure, whatever their present prosperity may suggest. Their covenant unfaithfulness ends in perishing under God's righteous judgment. The restored worshiper answers with an emphatic personal confession: nearness to God is his good. He no longer measures goodness by ease, health, wealth, or the apparent freedom of the arrogant. God Himself is the good. Therefore the worshiper makes the Sovereign LORD his refuge, not as a way to avoid every sorrow, but as settled reliance on the God who held, guided, and remained his portion. Refuge then becomes witness. The psalm closes with a resolve to recount all God's works, turning envy into worship and private recovery into public testimony.

Psalm 73:27-28 declares that alienation from God ends in destruction while nearness to Him is the true good. The gospel reveals how sinners who were far away may be brought near: Jesus Christ lived in perfect covenant faithfulness, bore the judgment of the faithless through His substitutionary death, rose bodily, and reconciles believers to the Father by His blood. Through Christ and by the Spirit, believers have access to God, find refuge from condemnation, and become a people who proclaim His mighty works. Nearness is therefore received by grace through faith and expressed in worship, holiness, dependence, and witness.

Psalm 73:27-28 is not a direct prediction of Jesus, but its canonical themes reach their saving fulfillment in Him. Jesus lived in perfect communion with the Father, never abandoning covenant faithfulness. He suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring believers to God. Through His substitutionary death and bodily resurrection, those once far away are reconciled and brought near. As the risen Lord, He is the refuge of His people, grants access to the Father by the Spirit, and forms a people who proclaim God's mighty works. This Christological trajectory preserves the psalm's direct worship of God and does not turn nearness into mere emotion.

To close the psalm by contrasting the destruction of those who remain far from God and abandon covenant faithfulness with the worshiper's recovered confession that nearness to God is his true good, the Sovereign LORD is his refuge, and God's works must be publicly recounted.

1. What does it mean to be far from God in this passage?
2. Why is covenant infidelity described with marital and sexual imagery?
3. What safeguards are necessary when teaching the language of verse 27?
4. How does verse 28 answer the word 'good' in verse 1?
5. What is the difference between God's nearness and the feeling that God is near?
6. How is nearness to God possible for guilty sinners?
7. What false refuges competed with God during the worshiper's crisis?
8. What does it mean to make the Sovereign LORD your refuge in present suffering?
9. Why does restored communion lead to recounting God's works?
10. Which work of God from this psalm most needs to be told in your congregation or household?
11. How does Ephesians 2 explain the movement from far to near?

Psalm 73 opens Book III by confessing that God is good to Israel, then immediately narrates how envy nearly caused the worshiper's feet to slip. The arrogant appear painless, prosperous, proud, violent, and influential. The speaker enters God's sanctuaries and learns their end, confesses his own embittered folly, and receives assurance that God holds, guides, and remains his portion forever. Verses 27-28 gather those discoveries into a closing two-ways verdict. Verse 27 restates the wicked's end as relational distance and covenant infidelity. Verse 28 restates the worshiper's restored life as nearness, good, refuge, and testimony. The repeated word “good” links verse 28 back to verse 1 and closes the psalm around the tested but reaffirmed goodness of God.

Psalm 73 is the opening psalm of Book III and bears the Asaph designation. Its exact historical date and the precise identity of the first-person speaker are not recoverable from the closing verses alone. The psalm reflects Israel's covenant and sanctuary world, where nearness to God, refuge in YHWH, judgment on unfaithfulness, and public recounting of divine works were intelligible within gathered worship. Verses 27-28 function as the poem's final wisdom verdict rather than as an isolated proverb. The language of covenant infidelity uses a strong marital-prostitution metaphor familiar from Israel's prophetic tradition, while the confession of Adonai YHWH as refuge joins sovereign rule with covenant identity.