Psalm 73 | Where are You Looking? - Psalms: The Heartbeat of God

Hey, I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor of the Road at Chapel Hills.

This is the Road Podcast.

Thanks for joining us.

My heart is to empower you to change the world.

I hope this message impacts you.

Here now is our guest speaker.

All right, well, I'm excited that you're in this series in the book of Psalms.

And I want to invite you to turn to Psalm 73.

Psalm 73 is where we're going to be.

And I'm going to be in the NIV, so if you have the choice of a translation, I'm going to be in the NIV.

One of the reasons that I love that you're in this series on Psalms, it's one of my favorite books, it's one of my go-to books, because it's so honest.

I love that it's focused on David often struggling with God.

And it taught me, Psalms has taught me that it's okay to be honest with God because He knows it anyway.

So if I'm not getting it out there, I'm just withholding it from myself.

And so it's taught me that it's okay to just catharsis to God when I'm struggling and when I'm down, but it always leads to praise and worship and a focus on the attributes of God, which I love.

And that's why my latest book called God Does What?

Question mark.

I took some of the least known attributes of God, and these are short chapters with discussion questions, songs of worship, and then a link to a sermon.

And so some of the chapters are about the laughing God.

Did you know that God sits in the heavens and laughs?

That's what Psalms 2 says.

The spitting God, Jesus spit on several occasions and healed somebody.

The sleeping God, he's asleep in the boat, and the disciples thought he didn't care.

And the grieving God and the comforting God and the surgical God.

So$10 or whatever you can afford, because I'm a big believer and it's not about the money.

And I love the old Keith Green approach.

If you remember Keith Green, he just let his music go out for whatever you could afford.

So anyway, it's I think it would bless you because it's about aspects of God that most people don't normally think about.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we thank you for your holy word.

And if you don't anoint this message, it'll be dry bones.

So would you breathe life?

Would you cause it to be almost prophetic for some today?

Some today that are looking in all the wrong places for meaning and value.

Today you're going to just grab them by the heart and you're going to direct them to you.

And thank you that you are all sufficient and that you are able to do all things that we need, and that you're so good, so loving, so faithful, so powerful.

So we now ask, Lord, I just pray with all my heart that this would be a very pivotal message for every person listening and even those online.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

In 1978, I went on a trip with up in the mountains of North Carolina with my opal GT and a girl I was dating, and we pulled along off the side of the road, and I kind of lost sight of how steep the little incline was.

And my opal slid off the road, and we literally almost, and I'm not exaggerating, we literally almost went all the way over the cliff.

She had to crawl over to my side to get out.

We had to have it towed.

It was extremely embarrassing.

But we almost fell over because I lost sight of what I should have been focused on.

And in this Psalm, Asaph, who's a worship leader, almost lost his way.

And the question that I'm going to ask us all to consider today is where are you looking?

Where are you looking for life and meaning and value and identity and purpose and all that we need for life?

That's the question today.

Where are you looking?

Hebrews 12 says we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

And in verse 1, we read this: Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

Psalm 73, 2.

But as for me, here it is.

That's what I did that day with my car.

But it's a bigger issue if you almost lose your footing in life.

You're heading in the right direction.

You're doing good.

And then you get your focus on things that are not good.

And it causes you to slip and almost fall.

The Bible in Hebrews talks about don't drift.

How easy it is to drift today.

We are pressured on so many fronts today.

There are so many things after us that are after our attention, after our money, after our affections, after our passions.

And if we if we get the focus on the wrong thing, we will almost slip, just like Asaph did.

A worship leader, a mighty man of God.

And so what we're going to see here, and if you look at verse 3, 4, and in the Hebrew, that's a key clause, which means because.

Why did he almost slip?

Because I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

We're going to see three movements in this passage today, or three directions.

We're going to see, first of all, that he focused outwardly.

He looked outwardly.

Y'all like emojis?

Here they are.

So he looked outwardly.

He looked at the world.

We're going to look at what it meant that he looked outwardly and he saw that the ungodly they were doing great.

The ungodly looked to be doing wonderful.

They don't give a flying rip about God, and yet they're successful.

They got a lot of money.

And he looked at that and he began to envy that and he began to struggle because he looked outwardly.

Then what did he do?

He turned his attention inwardly.

I know you guys in Colorado, you know, this is a state to come to if you want to find yourself.

You know, we've had people from Georgia come to Colorado to find themselves because of the Rockies, and then there's something legal here that's not legal in some other states, and so they like that too.

But then he began to look inwardly.

And he basically concluded, and then this is a common question today: why do good things happen to bad people?

That's looking outwardly.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

That was him.

He focused inwardly and he really struggled.

But then, and this is what we'll lead to today, he looked up.

And that's where he found hope and joy.

And so that's our three movements today.

So, first of all, here's the first point.

When he looked out, what happened?

He built resentment.

Looking out yields resentment because he saw what was supposed success in the ungodly.

Now, as I read verses three to twelve, notice the number of times the word they or there is used.

In the NIV, 16 times the word they or there.

So you see that he's looking outwardly and he's really struggling because he's frustrated, he's discontent.

So we begin in verse 3.

For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

They have no struggles.

Their bodies are healthy and strong.

I mean, maybe you have a physical issue and you've been asking God to heal you and he hasn't yet.

But yet your neighbor who doesn't give a flying rip about God gets over something real quick or has some therapy that treats them fast and they're healthy and strong, and not, and you're not.

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.

From their calloused hearts comes iniquity.

The evil conceits of their minds know no limits.

They scoff and speak with malice.

In their arrogance, they threaten oppressions.

Oh, and here's the big one.

Their mouths lay claim to heaven.

I mean, here's the ungodly, but they will almost pretend to know more about God than you.

And their tongues take possession of the earth.

Whatever they say, everybody just grasp hold of.

You know, they're an influencer on social media.

So everybody listens to them.

You know, they're a rock musician, but yet look, people look, well, who are you supporting in the election?

Like they know anything about politics.

But their tongues just take possession of the earth, it seems.

Therefore, their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.

What are they saying?

What are they thinking?

I want to follow them.

Then they say, Well, how can God know?

Does the Most High have knowledge?

And then he concludes this this is what the wicked are like.

Always carefree, and they increase in wealth.

Why do good things happen to these bad people?

They seem to have it great, and they don't give any care about God.

You ever had this experience where you're doing great, you're walking with the Lord, your joy of the Lord is your strength, and everything, you know, you're just really abiding in Jesus, and then all of a sudden you look and you start checking social media, and you look, and all of a sudden you see there that there's an old friend of yours.

Now they're retired, and they're showing their lake house and their exotic vacation, and they don't follow Jesus at all, and you start comparing yourself, and your joy just goes through the roof immediately.

You wonder why didn't God consult you when he decided to bless them like that?

How could that be?

And so if we look out, we will yield often resentment.

So he concludes the ungodly are better off than he is, so it seems.

Then what does he do?

He turns inward, begins to compare himself.

Looking in, point two, yields self-pity.

Looking in yields self-pity.

Now, in just verses 13 to 16, 11 times the word I or me is used.

In verses 13 to 16, 11 times the word I or me.

You might circle these.

Now he says, so again, verse 12, this is what the wicked are like.

He's concluded, they're carefree, they increase in wealth.

They're doing great.

Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure.

What's it been worth?

I'm really trying to see God.

I'm really trying to be in his word.

I'm really trying to abide in him.

I'm really trying to take my thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.

And it feels right now like it's all in vain.

What good is it really doing me?

In vain have I washed my hands in innocence.

All day long I have been plagued.

I've been punished every morning.

Now to make it worse, if I had said I will speak thus, I would have betrayed your children.

I can't even share this struggle with others because I might cause them to stumble.

Because I'm a leader, I'm a worship leader, Asap, who wrote this.

So now he's plagued because he can't even be honest about his struggles because he's afraid he'll cause others to stumble.

And when I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me.

He's in a real pickle now.

He looks out, they're doing great, he looks in, I'm not doing good, and he's oppressed.

He's confused.

There's self-pity, there's resentment, there's frustration.

I remember a testimony I heard in 1980, my sophomore year of college at the University of Georgia.

And I'll never, it's interesting how something, you know, we had testimonies every week at our weekly meeting.

And I'll never forget this one testimony.

This guy gets up and he shares how since he had gotten saved, life was harder.

You know, we expect these testimonies, you know, uh, was on drugs, now I've got Jesus, joy of the Lord fills me, and it's all positive.

And he actually said, to be honest, it's been a lot more difficult since I've given my heart to Christ because I used to be able to sin and not think twice about it.

Now I get convicted by the Holy Spirit.

Furthermore, it's not just my actions, it's even my thoughts and my motives I'm getting convicted.

Now he went on to say, overall, I'm so thankful.

And God is sanctifying me.

But I loved his realness about how following Jesus created greater challenges in many ways in his life.

And I think Asaph is wrestling a little bit with that here, feeling that it's all in vain.

So listen closely to this statement.

As we come now to the key point, and we're about to come to the real apex of this.

Nothing circumstantial has changed in Asaph's life.

But a major internal shift is about to occur.

Be careful that you don't judge God based on circumstances.

Be careful that you don't judge God based on your personal circumstances.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1 that he was burdened beyond his strength, so that he despaired even of life itself.

But this happened that he might not rely on himself, but on God who raises the dead.

Now the shift occurs.

So hold on because this is awesome.

Verse 17.

So let me begin in verse 16 again.

When I tried to understand all this internally, figure it out, find yourself.

Just it's all within you.

It was oppressive to me.

Verse 17.

Until or till I entered the sanctuary of God.

Until I entered the sanctuary of God, now he begins to look up where he should have looked all the time.

Now he shifts his focus from outward, inward to upward.

Listen, until you and I get alone with God, seeking the Lord in prayer and the word and worship, we'll never be able to make sense of anything.

Struggles are meant to drive us to the Lord.

Struggles are meant to drive us to our knees.

Drive us to the word.

And only there do we find truth and meaning and value.

So our third point today is this: looking up yields contentment.

It yields joy.

It yields peace.

It yields power.

It yields perspective.

And then we're just going to walk through this.

Look what happens when he enters the sanctuary of God.

He seeks the Lord.

He humbles himself.

He basically is saying, God, I can't figure all this out.

I don't have what it takes, but you do.

I'm going to seek your face.

I'm going to seek your word.

And so until he entered the sanctuary of God, then look at the perspective that begins to change.

I understood their final destiny.

Those people that I had envied that I thought had it all so good.

That person that I struggled with when they made that social media post because they're retired at 58 years of age and they've got a lake house and a boat, and they're going on these exotic vacations in light of eternity.

Big deal.

It's gonna burn.

That boat will burn, that house will burn, it will not last.

It's temporal.

How easy it is to have a perspective skewed because we think it's all about what's in front of us.

But then when we get God's perspective, it's like a parade.

You can be on the ground of the parade and you only see what's right in front of you, or you can take an elevator of the building next to that parade, get on the 10th or 20th story, look at the parade from beginning to end.

That's what's happening here.

God is lifting up his eyes and lifting up his heart, lifting up his perspective.

Now he sees the parade from the 10th story of the building.

And he realizes I understood their final destiny.

Verse 18, surely you place them on slippery ground.

You cast them down to ruin.

How suddenly are they destroyed?

That rich person, that person that had it all, gets hit by a car, the person's texting, pulls into their lane, head-on collision, they're done, they're over, it's gone.

Just like that.

Completely swept away by terrors.

As a dream when one awakes.

I love this.

So when you arise, O Lord, you'll despise them as fantasies.

When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant, I was a brute beast before you.

So what he gets here is he gets eternal perspective.

I can't think of anything outside of just intimacy with Jesus that's had a bigger impact on me personally than eternal perspective.

When God began to just stamp eternity on my eyes, help me see what's going to last, what's not gonna last.

It began to affect what kind of career I wanted to go into.

It began to affect how I spent my money and my time, my hobbies.

I don't want to just give my life for something that's gonna pass away.

And I've written a little track called What on Earth Are You Doing for Heaven's Sake?

And in that track, I say, do the do what I call the cemetery project.

Go go walk through a cemetery.

It's a good thing to do occasionally.

And look at the tombstones.

Look at how old the person was.

They were only 32.

They were 98.

Doesn't matter, really.

In light of eternity, it's a blip on the scale.

The Bible says we're a shadow, a mist, a vapor.

Here today, gone tomorrow.

I love that passage in Ecclesiastes.

It says, Why did I envy those who had a lot?

Because it's that wealth is light has wings and it just can fly away so quickly.

That's what he's beginning to discover here.

He's getting an eternal perspective.

Listen, beloved, we've got to ask ourselves that question on a regular basis.

What am I giving my life to that will outlive me?

What am I giving my life to that is eternal?

I'm convinced that one of our experiences in heaven is going to be people coming up to us and thanking us for the impact we had on them on earth for Jesus.

And so there may be people that you never thought you impacted.

You just planted seeds.

You never saw the plant grow.

But it did grow.

The person later came to Christ.

Or those seeds you planted that you were discouraged about, that person ended up did becoming a multiplying disciple maker.

And you had a part in that, and they're going to come up and thank you in heaven.

And I love seeing how many of you are serving here because when you do what you do here, it is for eternity.

You're giving your life for something that matters for eternity.

Hey, as good as that is, and as big of a you know, perspective changer as that is, it's getting it's gonna get even better as we read along.

Verse 23.

Yet I am always with you.

You hold me by my right hand, you guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me to glory.

So now he's realizing that all that stuff that I envied, it's gonna perish.

I'm gonna be with you forever.

And then the real culmination of this passage, verse 25.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

Whoa.

How many of us can say that today with integrity?

And besides you, God, besides you, Jesus, nothing on earth even compares.

You're so valuable, you're so good, you're where life is truly found.

Verse 26, my flesh and my heart may fail, I write there will fail.

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Do you know what that word portion means in the Hebrew?

It's the same word used for the dividing of the land of Israel.

Judah, tribe of Judah, this is your portion.

Manasseh, this is your portion.

Now Manasseh don't look at Judah and want his portion.

Judah don't look at Manasseh and have his portion.

It's like dividing a pie, pieces of a pie.

Here's your portion of that pie.

In other words, it's saying God is enough.

God is our portion.

When he gave the land to the tribes of Israel, he says, This is the place I want you to dwell in, abide in, be fruitful in, be content in, be thankful for.

Don't want what you aren't given.

Be satisfied with the portion I give you.

And here we're saying, God is our portion.

He's enough.

He's sufficient.

He wants to be our all in all.

That's the ultimate message here today.

Jesus wants us to be so close, so intimate, so abiding in him that he's our all-in-all.

And that we literally could say, and again, this ebbs and flows.

It's not like you get this and then you never leave it.

It's not one of those.

It's the place God wants us to live, but we so easily slip on a regular basis, but we can come back to this.

And that place is where He is sufficient.

He is our all-in-all.

He is the one we look to to meet, listen, our deepest needs.

He's the only one who can meet your deepest needs.

He's the only one who knows you completely and can satisfy you at a level no one else can.

Corey Tin Boone, while living in a concentration camp, said she believed the deepest point a person could get to in the Christian life is where Jesus is sufficient for everything.

What's that old saying?

Sometimes you don't realize that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.

Sometimes God in his sovereignty allows things to be stripped away from our lives, and we can't fully explain it.

But sometimes he allows things to be stripped from our lives and bring us even to a point of brokenness that we might find in him our all-in-all.

It was Philip Yancey who said this the highest level of faith is when you trust God when there's no apparent reason to accept that he's God.

In other words, you're not trusting him to get a blessing.

You're not trusting him to get his hands, you're trusting him because you're seeking his face just for who he is.

And whether his hands go to work for you or not, it's okay because you want him more than anything else.

Wow.

This is a deep challenge today, but it's a wonderful challenge because of What I want it to point to more than anything else is that the reason he challenges us to this is because he's sufficient.

Larry Crab says this ultimate contentment comes from looking to Jesus to meet our every need with just himself and then whatever else he chooses to give us.

In other words, I'm seeking his face.

I'm seeking Jesus.

And if he chooses to bless me with a good marriage, it's icing on the cake, but he's the cake.

If he chooses to bless me with a good career or financial blessing or health, icing on the cake, but he's the cake.

He's the one I'm looking to.

That's what Asaph is saying here when he says that God is his portion forever.

See, it's about Jesus being our life.

Colossians 1 said, When Christ, who is my life, is revealed.

In John 14, 6, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

Many of us know him as the way and the truth, but do we know him as our life?

As our all in all.

Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, therefore I shall not.

And yet many of us, do we not?

We have Jesus, but we want a lot of other things.

But when he's our true shepherd, then the wants decrease.

Because our ultimate focus is him.

And here's the passage that to me just is a perfect parallel to Psalm 73, Habakkuk chapter 3.

Habakkuk 3 · chapter mention

Though the fig tree doesn't bud, in other words, circumstances aren't going great.

Remember, this is an agricultural economy that Habakkuk was writing in.

There's no grapes on the vines.

The olive crop fails.

The fields produce no food.

Though there are no sheep in the pen.

Stock market has crashed.

401K is gone.

I don't even have any savings.

I barely can pay for gas.

We won't go there today.

And there's no cattle in the stalls.

Turning point, just like in Psalm 73, when he says, until I enter the sanctuary of God, yet I'm going to rejoice in the Lord.

And I will be joyful in God my Savior.

Circumstances aren't the source of my joy.

Things going well aren't the source of my joy.

God is.

God's the source of my joy.

So let me just finish today with three practical ways from the passage that I think will encourage you because here's what I want to end with an encouragement.

And the encouragement is this: the reason we're called to this is because God is sufficient for everything we face.

And if you're here today and you're born again, what I'm about to say is true of you, regardless of your performance, regardless of how much you've been obedient, every point I make is going to be true for you.

If you're here or watching online and you're not saved, you've not given your heart to God, you're not born again, these truths are not true of you, but they can be today.

At a moment in time, you can receive Christ, receive a new nature, and receive these amazing truths about the sufficiency of God.

So I want to finish by three practical ways.

First of all, how can this be a reality in our life?

First of all, God's presence.

He says in verse 23, I am always with you.

God is with you.

And you are with Him.

He says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.

If you're a believer today, you've received Christ, your Bible says you're a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Can you believe that?

That's amazing.

Your body, your spirit, is a temple of the very Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.

He abides in you.

This is a new truth that hit me recently.

God not only loves us, he likes us.

You don't live permanently with somebody that you have a choice of whether you do unless you like them.

Now, sometimes you have to have people in your home that you don't like because you're just hosting them for a few days.

But if you have a choice in the matter, you can choose your roommate.

It's going to be somebody you like, especially if it's going to last for all of eternity.

God says, I'm going to indwell you.

I'm going to live in your house forever.

I'm going to live in your house on earth and you're going to live in my house in heaven.

That means he not only loves you, he likes you.

He likes hanging out with you.

He loves you as his friend.

Jesus said, called them friends.

So his presence, first of all.

Wherever you go, wherever you are, he's with you.

He'll never leave you nor forsake you.

Hebrews 13, 5.

Wow.

Never abandon you.

You may have been abandoned by a spouse, you may have been abandoned by a relative, you may have been abandoned by your parents.

And that leaves a deep wound.

God never abandons you.

He's faithful.

With you always.

You can be on the other side of the world, not know a human soul, feel lonely in the flesh.

God's with you.

He's right there.

Secondly, his provision, verse 24, you guide me with your counsel.

Isn't that cool?

He gives us provision in so many ways.

Guidance.

He says that his word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.

He provides through his people, the body of Christ.

He provides through his mercy and grace every time we fail.

His mercies are new every morning.

His grace, his mercy, his forgiveness.

There is no sin bigger or stronger than the blood of Jesus.

Hallelujah be to God.

The blood of Jesus is stronger, mightier than any sin we could ever commit.

There's no sin beyond the forgiveness of Jesus if you give your heart to Him.

So His provision is something that just can encourage you today that He can be your all in all.

And then finally, His power, verse 26.

Again, I'm going to put my words in.

My flesh and my heart will fail.

But God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever.

He's the strength of your heart.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12, in my weakness is his power made perfect.

The same power that raised Christ from the dead lives and dwells in your heart if you're a believer today.

And that power is greater and mightier than any challenge, struggle, or temptation you face.

So be encouraged today.

The reason we're called today to make God our all in all is because he is sufficient to be our all in all.

Through his presence, through his provision, and through his power.

So where are you looking today?

Maybe today is a wake-up call for some of you because you've been looking at things in the world, or you've been looking at yourself and trying to figure it all out.

Today is a day to shift your focus and to begin to look to God.

And I just really feel today that there are somebody in each of these services today.

There's somebody that's been really specifically looking to a relationship.

You've been looking to a relationship.

You've been looking to that other person, maybe boyfriend or girlfriend.

And you know, you know in your heart it is not right, it's not a healthy relationship, and maybe today God's calling you to cut it off.

Because that's been an idol in your life.

Maybe there's others of you that the money's been the issue.

Finances have been the focus.

You've been worried, stressed because of finances.

You're looking for that to give you validation, meaning.

Today you need to offer that on the altar of God.

And then I really sense that there's somebody that's going to be here today or watching online that has made ministry an idol.

And today you need to just offer that up.

You've been serving God for the wrong reasons.

Ministry has been an idol.

Ministry has been more important to you than the one you supposedly are serving.

But for all of us today, it's just a great day to examine ourselves and just say, God, I want you to be my all-in-all.

I want to look to you as my supreme need meter.

Hey, thanks for listening to the Road Podcast.

It's been my joy to be a part of your life today.

And you know, that's part of what we do here at The Road, and this is what I do in having this Road Podcast is to empower people to change their world.

My passion and desire is that you would take God's word through the power of the Holy Spirit and make that relevant for your life.

You know, the reality is that God has placed your life here on this earth to make a difference.

And if you'd like more information about how to grow in Christ, if you need prayer, if you want more equipping in different areas of your life, go to the road.org.

God bless you.