John Calvin Commentary Psalms 73:3

"For I was envious at the arrogant, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked." — Psalms 73:3 (ASV)

For I envied the foolish. Here he declares the nature of the temptation with which he was beset. It consisted in this: when he saw the present prosperous state of the wicked and, from it, judged them to be happy, he had envied their condition. We are certainly under a serious and dangerous temptation when, in our own minds, we not only quarrel with God for not setting matters in proper order, but also give ourselves free rein to boldly commit wickedness, because it seems we can do so and escape without punishment.

The sneering jest of Dionysius the younger, a tyrant of Sicily, is well known. After robbing the temple of Syracuse, he had a prosperous voyage with the plunder. “Do you not see,” he says to those who were with him, “how the gods favor the sacrilegious?” In the same way, the prosperity of the wicked is taken as an encouragement to commit sin, for we are ready to imagine that since God grants them so many of the good things of this life, they are the objects of His approval and favor.

We see how their prosperous condition wounded David to the heart, leading him almost to think that there was nothing better for him than to join their company and follow their course of life.

By applying the term foolish to the ungodly, he does not simply mean that the sins they commit are due to ignorance or carelessness. Instead, he contrasts their folly with the fear of God, which is the essential part of true wisdom. The ungodly are, no doubt, crafty. However, because they lack the fundamental principle of all right judgment—namely, that we must order and shape our lives according to God’s will—they are foolish. This foolishness is the effect of their own blindness.