Why do the wicked prosper?
It says in the Psalms
For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills. Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence.
https://web.mit.edu › www › cef
Bible Gateway Psalm 73 :: NIV - MIT
With the likes of Johnson and Trump getting away with so much is this more true now than ever?
For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills. Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence.
https://web.mit.edu › www › cef
Bible Gateway Psalm 73 :: NIV - MIT
With the likes of Johnson and Trump getting away with so much is this more true now than ever?
Comments
https://sacred-texts.com/neu/dun/tago/tago08.htm
I think it's as true now as when it was first written. We know a lot more but we are the same bunch of brutal chimps for all that. I guess that the psalmist's (and our) natural envy of the rich and wicked is why that is the 'wide road which leads to destruction*'. And why the narrow path is hard to find.
* - in this life, not necessarily their own destruction, as much as that of their victims. Still, we are to fear the One who deals with the soul, not those who can only kill the body.
I'm great fun at parties.
'oo said it is?
'... is it more true now than ever?'
No, of course it isn't.
It's always been the case.
Doh! I stopped at @mark_in_manchester. And yeah, it's always been thus.
If you prosper, you're wicked.
If being wealthy is what you are after, above all else, for many people, it is achievable. The portraits in their attic, however, are now just piles of rotted paint.
One of the things the bible says in various ways and places is that real prosperity is about moral rightness. Being decent, honest person. It will not bring you comfort of money, but you will be a decent person, and people will not want to shit on your grave.
Psychopath and sociopaths can do affable, cheerful, loving, kind etc when it suits them. But it’s all an act, they do not care.
@mark_in_manchester said -
Yes it is. But we aren’t all brutal, most of us are sociable, caring and kind - to those who are like us and to those who are not in our ‘tribe’.
Our envy and fear of the rich and wicked is what allows them their power.
The vast majority of evil is done not because the person who does it wants to do evil for its own sake, but because it benefits them. So, yes, the evil prosper because they're willing to do things that benefit them that other people wouldn't do.
Anyone else watching/watched Kin on BBC1? It's a really good illustration I think. The crime family at the centre of it don't do all the terrible things they do just for the sake of it; they do it to fund their lifestyle and don't care about the harm they do.