Psalms 73:20
in Psalms 73Like one waking from a dream, so You, O Lord, awaken and despise their form.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
As a dream when one awaketh, So, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou wilt despise their image.
KJV
As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
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This verse in Psalms 73
Commentary
13 notes on this verseA commentator
Ambrose of MilanInterrogation of Job and David, Book 3, Chapter VIII · Written before 397.
Subsequent events also go to show how the image of such a person is not found but perishes, since his image is not found in the city of the Lord, that Jerusalem which is above. For the Lord has painted us in his image and likeness, even as he teaches us, saying, "Behold, O Jerusalem, I have painted your walls."
This site's exposition
You set them on slick ground
on Psalms 73:18-20
What the sanctuary showed is that the firm ground under the wicked is slick, and God is the one who set them on it. The fall is sudden, a laying waste and a sweeping away by terrors. Their form goes the way a dream goes at waking.
This site's exposition
awaken and despise their form
Spurgeon took God's patience as the sleep. When He rises to judge, the pomp of the proud melts like a dream at waking. Wesley read their form as all their felicity and glory, a mere shadow in the end.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
A commentator
Ambrose of MilanInterrogation of Job and David, Book 3, Chapter VIII · Written before 397.
proposed
Therefore, in regard to the latter, David also says, "They have ceased to be and have perished by reason of their iniquity as the dream of one that wakes up." This means: The wicked cease to be, and they disappear as a dream does when one first wakes up from sleep, "because they are in darkness and have walked in darkness";7 not a trace of their good work remains, but they are like those who see a dream. Now one who dreams, dreams at night, whereas night is in darkness.
"Like as the dream of one rising up" [Psalm 73:20]. How have they vanished? As vanishes the dream of one rising up. Fancy a man in sleep to have seen himself find treasures; he is a rich man, but only until he awakes. "Like as the dream of one rising up:" so they have vanished, like the dream of one awaking. It is sought then and it is not: there is nothing in the hands, nothing in the bed. A poor man he went to sleep, a rich man in sleep he became: had he not awoke, he were a rich man: he woke up, he found the care which he had lost while sleeping. And these men shall find the misery which they had prepared for themselves. When they shall have awoke from this life, that thing does pass away which was grasped as if in sleep. "Like as the dream of one rising up." And that there might not be said, "What then? A small thing does their glory seem to you, a small thing does their state seem to you, small things seem to you inscriptions, images, statues, distinctions, troops of clients?" "O Lord," he says, "in Your city their image You shall bring to nothing."...He has taken away the pride of rich men, he gives counsel. As if they were saying, We are rich men, thou dost forbid us to be proud, dost prohibit us from boasting of the parade of our riches: what then are we to do with these riches? Is it come to this, that there is nothing which they may do therewith? "Be they rich," he says, "in good works; let them readily distribute, communicate." [1 Timothy 6:18] And what does this profit? "Let them treasure unto themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of true life." [1 Timothy 6:19] Where ought they to lay up treasure for themselves? In that place whereunto he set his eye, when entering into the Sanctuary of God. […]
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord! when thou awakest, or when they awake (as some read it), thou shalt despise their image, their shadow, and make it to vanish. In the day of the great judgment (so the Chaldee paraphrase reads it), when they are awaked out of their graves, thou shalt, in wrath, despise their image; for they shall rise to shame and everlasting contempt.
They awake - Out of the pleasant dream of this vain life. Despise - Thou shalt make them despicable both to themselves and to all others; raise them to shame, and everlasting contempt. Image - All their felicity and glory, which shall be evidently discerned to be, no real or substantial thing, but a mere image or shadow.
As a dream when one awaketh,....
5 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century5 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
their end--future (Ps 37:37, 38), which is dismal and terribly sudden (Pr 1:27; 29:1), aggravated and hastened by terror. As one despises an unsubstantial dream, so God, waking up to judgment (Ps 7:6;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. They owe their existence and prosperity to the forbearance of God, which the psalmist compares to a sleep; but as a dream vanishes so soon as a man awakes, so the instant the Lord begins to exercise his justice and call men before him, the pomp and prosperity of proud transgressors shall melt away. When God awakes to judgment, they who despise him shall be despised; they are already "such stuff as dreams are made of, "but then the baseless fabric shall not leave a wreck behind. Let them flaunt the little hour, poor unsubstantial sons of dreams; they will soon be gone; when the day breaketh, and the Lord awake as a mighty man out of his sleep, they will vanish away. Who cares for the wealth of dreamland? Who indeed but fools? Lord, leave us not to the madness which covets unsubstantial wealth, and ever teach us thine own true wisdom.
As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. They owe their existence and prosperity to the forbearance of God, which the psalmist compares to a sleep; but as a dream vanishes so soon as a man awakes, so the instant the Lord begins to exercise his justice and call men before him, the pomp and prosperity of proud transgressors shall melt away.
As a dream when one awaketh - So their goods fled away. Their possession was a dream - their privation, real. Thou shalt despise their image - While destitute of true religion, whatever appearance they had of greatness, nobility, honor, and happiness; yet in the sight of God they had no more than the ghost or shade of excellence which God is said here to despise. Who would be rich at such risk and dishonor?
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
As a dream when one awaketh - Their prosperity is like the visions of a dream; the reality is seen when one awakes. A man in a dream may imagine that he is a king; that he dwells in a palace; that he is surrounded by flatterers and courtiers; that he walks in pleasant groves, listens to the sounds of sweet music, sits down at a table loaded with the luxuries of all climes, and lies upon a bed of down. He may awake only to find that he is encompassed with poverty, or that he is on a bed of languishing, or that he is the miserable tenant of a hovel or a dungeon. The reality is when he awakes. So it is in regard to our present condition on earth. The reality is seen when the dream - the gorgeous dream - of life is over. So, O Lord, when thou awakest - The Hebrew expression here - בעיר bā‛ı̂yr - occurs in more than fifty other places in the Scriptures, and is in all these places translated “in the city.” This interpretation, however, would be quite unmeaning here, and the probability is that the expression is a form of the verb עור ‛ûr, “to awake, to arouse;” and the idea is not, as in our version, that of “God’s” awaking as if he had been asleep, but it refers to the dreamer when he shall awake. It is, literally, in the awaking; that is, when the dream is over. Thou shalt despise their image - The image that floated before their imaginations in the dream of life. Thou wilt pay no attention to it; there is no reality in it; it will at once vanish. In the future world, God will pay no regard to the dreams of human life, to the outward show, to the appearance; but the affairs of eternity will be regulated by what is real - by that which constitutes the character of the man. By that, and not by the vain dreams of the world, will the destiny of people be determined. […]
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כַּחֲל֥וֹם | kachalom | like a dream | H2472 → | |
| מֵהָקִ֑יץ | mehakitz | from when awakes | H6974 → | 22 times |
| אֲ֝דֹנָי | ʾadonai | O Lord | H136 → | 440 times |
| בָּעִ֤יר׀ | bair | when waken | H5782 → | 80 times |
| צַלְמָ֬ם | tzalmam | image their | H6754 → | |
| תִּבְזֶֽה׃ | tivzeh | you will despise | H959 → | 44 times |
כַּחֲל֥וֹםlike a dream
kachalomH2472 →
מֵהָקִ֑יץfrom when awakes
mehakitzH6974 →22 times
אֲ֝דֹנָיO Lord
ʾadonaiH136 →440 times
בָּעִ֤יר׀when waken
bairH5782 →80 times
צַלְמָ֬םimage their
tzalmamH6754 →
תִּבְזֶֽה׃you will despise
tivzehH959 →44 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 39:6Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.
it leads to
- Luke 12:20–21
But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’
- Ecclesiastes 2:26
To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over…
- James 4:14
You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
- Ecclesiastes 12:13
When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man.
- 1 Corinthians 7:31
and those who use the things of this world, as if not dependent on them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
- Luke 12:20–21
Through
Job 20:8He will fly away like a dream, never to be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.
it leads to
- Psalms 90:5
You whisk them away in their sleep; they are like the new grass of the morning—
- Psalms 90:5
Through
Psalms 78:65Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty warrior overcome by wine.
it leads to
- Psalms 44:23
Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping? Arise! Do not reject us forever.
- Psalms 44:23
Through
Psalms 90:5You whisk them away in their sleep; they are like the new grass of the morning—
it leads to
- Isaiah 40:6
A voice says, “Cry out!” And I asked, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field.
- Isaiah 40:6
Where this verse is studied
About Psalms
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, Interrogation of Job and David, Book 3, Chapter VIII; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 73; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 3; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.