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Psalm 73:18

Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction.

16When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me—
17until I entered God’s sanctuary, and considered their latter end.
18Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction.
19How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors.
20As a dream when one wakes up, so, Lord, when you awake, you will despise their fantasies.
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← Psalm 73:17Psalm 73:19 →
Notice

“Slippery places” unsettle the apparent security of the wicked: from God’s sanctuary, the psalmist sees that their success cannot shield them from his judgment.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

Where, if anywhere, are you tempted to treat another person’s success as proof of secure footing?

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What is hard to reckon with in the words “You throw them down to destruction”?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

9 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Jeremiah 23:12Therefore their way will be to them as slippery places in the darkness. They will be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them, even the year …Both passages describe slippery places where people fall under judgment brought upon them by God.
Psalm 35:6Let their way be dark and slippery, the LORD’s angel pursuing them.Psalm 35 asks for a slippery path under divine pursuit; Psalm 73 declares that God has set the wicked on slippery ground.
Deuteronomy 32:35Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides, for the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them.”Both passages connect unstable footing with coming destruction and place the judgment in God’s hands.
Psalm 55:23But you, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in you.Both address God as the one who brings people down to destruction; Psalm 55 names bloodthirsty and deceitful men.
2 Thessalonians 1:9who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,Both speak of destruction as divine judgment; 2 Thessalonians specifies that the destruction is eternal.
Psalm 94:23He has brought on them their own iniquity, and will cut them off in their own wickedness. The LORD, our God, will cut them off.Both attribute the downfall of the wicked to God’s action, with Psalm 94 naming their own iniquity as its cause.
Psalm 92:7though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.Both describe destruction awaiting the wicked, whose apparent security or flourishing does not prevent their fall.
Job 31:3Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?Both associate wrongdoing with a disastrous end, though Psalm 73 speaks to God as the one who brings it.
Ezekiel 28:17Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I have cast you to the ground. I have laid you …Both portray God casting someone down; Ezekiel identifies pride and corrupted wisdom as grounds for that judgment.
Where this verse fits

Envy and comparison. injustice and anger.

What the Bible says about anger →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read Psalm 73:16–19 and underline who brings destruction

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Encouragement

When wrongdoing seems secure, this is a grave word: God brings the wicked down. Their present footing cannot keep them beyond his judgment.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 73:18. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 73 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).