Psalm 73:3 · Subject · Contentment
Contentment and Comparison
Psychologists have measured comparison with others for more than sixty years, and Psalm 73 and 1 Samuel 18 record the envy it breeds.
The day after the women's song, Saul hurled a spear at David while David played the harp (1 Samuel 18:10 to 11).
For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
- Books
- Psalms, 1 Samuel
- Hold in memory
- Psalm 73:25 to 26, Galatians 6:4
Summary
Scripture names envy as a fruit of comparing oneself with others and answers it with God Himself. Research on social comparison, a field of psychology, describes the same habit in measured terms. These studies corroborate and never ground what Scripture says, and each of them measures a narrow thing in particular groups of people.
- A review of envy research by Smith and Kim describes envy as a painful mix of inferiority, hostility and resentment at what another person has.
- People compare themselves with those above them more often than with those below, and the comparison usually lowers their judgment of themselves.
- Where a person's income ranked among others predicted life satisfaction, and the size of the income did not, in a study by Boyce, Brown and Moore.
Asaph and Saul
A psalm and a narrative show envy rising from what a person sees another receive.
This study belongs to the value of contentment, because a heart that measures itself against others is seldom at rest with what God has given.
The question it answers is what the research shows about comparing oneself with others, and what it leaves unshown. It reads Asaph's psalm and the story of Saul first. Then it sets beside them four studies of envy, income rank, upward comparison and social networking sites, each with what its design cannot show, and it closes on the measure Paul gives instead.
Asaph says that his feet "had almost stumbled" when he looked at the arrogant (Psalm 73:2).
until I entered God’s sanctuary; then I discerned their end.The verse stands here because the psalm's argument turns on what Asaph saw in God's sanctuary.
Charles Spurgeon, in The Treasury of David, wrote of the verse, "Thus he shifted his point of view, and apparent disorder resolved itself into harmony". Matthew Henry, in his Commentary on the Whole Bible, wrote that "the wicked man's enjoyments end in destruction, and therefore he is miserable".
And as the women danced, they sang out: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” And Saul was furious and resented this song. “They have ascribed tens of thousands to David,” he said, “but only thousands to me. What more can he have but the kingdom?” And from that day forward Saul kept a jealous eye on David.The narrative stands here because Saul's envy began with a public ranking of two men, the kind of comparison the studies measure.
Four Studies Side by Side
The papers appeared between 2007 and 2019, two of them in Psychological Bulletin.
The four papers differ in design and strength, from a review of definitions to meta-analyses of many studies.
| Study | Design | Finding | What it does not show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smith and Kim, Psychological Bulletin, 2007 | Review of the psychological research on envy | Separates envy proper, which "contains hostile feelings", from benign envy, which "is free of hostile feelings" | Measured sizes of effects, since it reviews definitions and findings |
| Boyce, Brown and Moore, Psychological Science, 2010 | Test of a rank-income hypothesis | "individuals weight upward comparisons more heavily than downward comparisons" | A cause, since it reports what predicts life satisfaction |
| Gerber, Wheeler and Suls, Psychological Bulletin, 2018 | Meta-analyses of the social comparison research | Contrast effect estimates of -0.75 to -0.65 for ability and -0.83 to -0.65 for affect | Firm results against a baseline, since few studies had "no-comparison control conditions" |
| Yoon and others, Journal of Affective Disorders, 2019 | Four meta-analyses; 5 articles each for the comparison analyses, with samples of 1,715 and 2,298 | Upward comparison on social networking sites went with depression "with a medium effect", more strongly than time spent on the sites | Which comes first; the authors name "heterogeneity in effect sizes" as a limit |
Looking Up and Feeling Less
A pooled review of social comparison research asked whom people choose to compare with and what the comparison does to them.
Gerber, Wheeler and Suls left open "why people choose to compare upward when the most likely result is self-deflating contrast".
I saw that all labor and success spring from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.The Teacher's verdict stands beside the review as an ancient observation of the same habit.
What Envy Is
The authors also considered how people cope with envy.
Smith and Kim asked why envy "has a tendency to transmute itself".
A tranquil heart is life to the body, but envy rots the bones.The proverb is set beside the review as Scripture's older word on what envy does to the one who carries it.
Rank and Income
One study asked whether people gain more from the size of their income or from where it ranks among others.
On the account of Boyce, Brown and Moore, a rise in one person's rank "will necessarily reduce the utility of others who will lose rank".
Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’The parable stands here because the grumbling workers judged their fair wage by what the last were paid.
The Limits of the Research
Each design sets a boundary on what its finding can mean.
Each of the four studies reports what holds across groups of people, and a group's average cannot be read off as one person's state. None of them measures trust in God, and none can show that a verse is true.
Scripture grounds contentment in God's provision and presence, whatever a study finds on a given question.
Each One Should Test His Own Work
Paul writes twice of measuring oneself, once of rival teachers and once of every believer.
We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they show their ignorance.Paul's refusal stands here because the teachers he answers were ranking themselves against one another, the habit the studies measure.
Each one should test his own work. Then he will have reason to boast in himself alone, and not in someone else.Paul's instruction stands here as the measure the New Testament gives in place of a neighbor.
God My Portion
Asaph's psalm ends with the one possession no comparison can take.
Whom have I in heaven but You? And on earth I desire no one besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.The psalm's last movement stands as the close because it answers the envy of Psalm 73:3 with God Himself.
Contentment, on this psalm's reading, rests on whom a person has, whatever others hold.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- Smith RH, Kim SH. "Comprehending envy." Psychological Bulletin 133, no. 1 (2007): 46 to 64. doi 10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.46.
- Boyce CJ, Brown GD, Moore SC. "Money and happiness: rank of income, not income, affects life satisfaction." Psychological Science 21, no. 4 (2010): 471 to 475. doi 10.1177/0956797610362671.
- Gerber JP, Wheeler L, Suls J. "A social comparison theory meta-analysis 60+ years on." Psychological Bulletin 144, no. 2 (2018): 177 to 197. doi 10.1037/bul0000127.
- Yoon S, Kleinman M, Mertz J, Brannick M. "Is social network site usage related to depression? A meta-analysis of Facebook-depression relations." Journal of Affective Disorders 248 (2019): 65 to 72. doi 10.1016/j.jad.2019.01.026.
- Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, vol. 3, on Psalm 73:17.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Psalm 73:17.
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