The Prosperity of The Wicked - Psalm 73 (Aug 10) Mihir Sircar

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God for the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Well, good morning, Church.

Thank you so much for uh for having me here today.

It's uh it's really a blessing and an honor to be here with you this morning.

Um I serve at Hope Markham, as Mark mentioned, and uh that's about a 30-minute drive, I'd say.

Uh funny enough, I live about 15 minutes down the street from here.

So it was a wonderful commute here this morning.

So thank you for having me.

Um we're gonna be looking at Psalm 73.

And so if you have your Bibles, turn there to Psalm 73.

Let's begin.

Years ago, it was in 1981, Rabbi and author Harold S.

Kushner released a book, and it was titled, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Now you see the book that he released, it addressed the age-old question of why good people suffer?

Why is it that seemingly good people suffer and sometimes endear the greatest injustice in this life, while those who are committing evil seem to prosper with no consequences at all?

Why is it that at the workplace when you've been working so hard to honor the Lord, putting in late hours, you've gone above and beyond to care for your team, but someone else in the office then gets the big promotion, or maybe you get laid off?

Or why is it that you can barely afford to live, but those who are cutting corners on their taxes or involved in illegal activities seem to have no financial concerns at all.

You see, if we're honest with ourselves, church, we each of us have had these moments in our lives where we have looked at evil prospering around us, and we've asked the Lord, why?

Why, Lord?

And if we're even more honest, I would say that there can be moments of discouragement where we find ourselves questioning our faith, questioning God's goodness.

So, how can the believer find strength to continue doing what is right while wicked prospers all around us?

That's exactly where Asaph, the psalmist, finds himself today as we look at Psalm 73.

He finds himself in this position where he's really addressing the soul perplexing dilemma.

If God is good, then why do the wicked prosper?

And so that's what we're gonna look at today.

And so today in Psalm 73, you'll see four characteristics that I hope will give you hope to endure the evil around you in the midst of this wicked and fallen world.

And so If you would please stand with me.

Let's honor the Lord as we read his holy word, Psalm 73.

Psalm 73.

A Psalm of Asaph.

Truly, God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.

For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For they have no pangs until death.

Their bodies are fat and sleek, they are not in trouble as others are, they're not stricken like the rest of mankind.

Therefore, pride is their necklace, violence covers them as a garment, their eyes swell out through fatness, their hearts overflow with follies, they scoff and speak with malice, loftily, they threaten oppression, they set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues strutch through the earth.

Therefore, his people turn back to them and find no fault in them.

And they say, How can God know?

Is there knowledge in the Most High?

Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease.

They increase in riches.

All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.

For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.

If I had said, I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task until I went into the sanctuary of God.

Then I discerned their end.

Truly, you set them in slippery places, you make them fall to ruin, how they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors.

Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant, I was like a beast toward you.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you.

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

Whom have I in heaven but you, and there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish.

You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.

But for me, it is good to be near God.

I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of your works.

Father in heaven, Father, would you bless this time today that we have as we look to your holy word.

As we see the struggle of Asaph, Lord, it is so easy, I confess, to have our eyes focused on the wickedness of this world and the prosperity of those in this world.

But Lord, we praise you for your word.

And so I ask, Lord, that you would please minister to us today here at Redemption, Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit, and that you would comfort us with the truth that you are indeed in full control with a good plan for those who remain faithful to you.

May we find hope and encouragement by setting our eyes upon you alone once again, Lord.

And Father, I pray that you would hide me behind the cross, that you may be known and heard, and that perhaps, Lord, if there's anyone here today who does not know you, that they would be granted this day as the day of their salvation.

For your glory.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Church, you may take your seats.

Well, Church, it's uh it's important for us as we begin today, just to get into the context of this psalm briefly.

The book of Psalms is the largest book in the Bible.

It has 150 chapters, and the psalms are written by multiple authors, ranging all the way from King David to King Solomon, Moses, and more.

And I would say this: I would say that the Psalms cover the entire range of the human experience in this life.

Psalm 73 in your Bibles here begins as a Psalm of Asaph.

That's an inspired subtitle that you see there.

In 1 Chronicles chapter 6, if we read that, it tells us that King David had assigned worship leaders in the choir of the tabernacle that was God's holy temple, and that Asaph was one of these men.

1 Chronicles 6 · chapter mention

Asaph was from the tribe of Levi, and that's to say that he's from the line of Levitical priests, and he's also a choir master, better known today as a worship leader, I'd say.

Asaph would have served in God's holy temple, and in fact, the scriptures often mention Asaph together right with King David.

In fact, the great preacher Charles Spurgeon once had said that if David is the son of the Psalms, then Asaph is the moon to David's son.

He is a satellite that is close by and echoing everything that King David has said.

And so Asaph now writes this psalm that you have in front of you.

He writes a psalm as a psalm of worship, and he writes it for the purpose of giving wisdom to the godly.

And so I want to explore our first point here now.

As we look at verses 1 to 12, we're going to begin by seeing our first point, which is God's silence with the wicked.

God's silence with the wicked.

Look at verse 1 in your Bibles.

Truly, God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

You see, Asaph begins by confirming here what he knows intellectually.

He begins here with an affirmation of his understanding of the character of God.

He reminds us that God is good.

And he goes further to say that God is good to Israel.

Now, I believe that as a Levitical priest, he would likely be recalling here God's covenantal love towards Israel, towards his people.

And then he says that God is good to those who are pure in heart.

Now, those who are pure in heart, those are the ones who have an attitude of being totally committed to God.

And so God is not only good covenantly towards Israel, the nation, but within Israel there are those who are pure in heart, a subset of those who are faithful.

In fact, Psalm 24, verse 4 says, He who has a clean hand he who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully, he will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Psalms 24:4

ASAP goes on, and he mentions the human heart in this entire psalm a total of six times.

He says it in verse 1, verse 7, verse 13, verse 21.

He mentions the heart twice in verse 26.

And in fact, I would say that the Bible as a whole mentions this idea of the human heart over 1,000 times.

And essentially the heart is where our deepest desires dwell.

Our heart is the human control center.

Now, ASAF, after affirming this truth that he knows in his mind, he goes on now to describe his struggle in verse two to three.

Here's what he says.

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled.

My steps had nearly slipped, for I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

And you see, church, this is where the journey begins.

Asaph begins to describe here the seduction of his heart, the temptation that he's facing.

His feet almost stumbled, his steps nearly slipped.

He's speaking here about his spiritual walk.

But I want you to notice he doesn't say here that he fell completely, but there is a slipping of some sort.

Remember, verse 1 acknowledged God's covenantal love, that the Lord would not allow him to slip completely, because the Lord upholds his people.

However, as we all personally know, God's people can fall into temptation.

In verse 3, he goes on and he shares this temptation.

I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

You see, the wicked seemed to be doing well, and not just well, they were prospering.

He was tempted in his heart to envy others by looking at those who were living in the world immorally and seeing them doing well.

Look at verse 4.

For they have no pangs until death.

Their bodies are fat and sleek.

They are not in trouble as others are.

They're not stricken like the rest of mankind.

You see, these people who were living immorally, they didn't feel the pain of life that others do as faithful believers.

They have no pangs until death.

That means that they're unconcerned about tomorrow.

They're unconcerned seemingly about the difficulties of this life.

Some translations in this verse use the word struggles or burdens instead of pangs.

And so whether it's physical difficulties or whether it's emotional difficulties, these evil people around ASAF seemingly had no difficulties at all.

They were fat and sleek, meaning that they had the money to eat whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted.

They could go to all the fancy restaurants, they could eat all the Japanese A5 Wagyu steak that they wanted.

Any time of day or night.

You see, being overweight in those times would have been a sign of wealth.

And while most people barely made enough to eat their basic meals, these people had everything they wanted.

If you remember in Genesis chapter 3, at the time of the fall, Adam was cursed to work by the sweat of his brow, and his labor had become toilsome to him due to his sin.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

But it seemed to Asaph that somehow the curse of the fall didn't affect these people.

They didn't suffer the same frailties, the same adversities, the diseases, the toilsome labor that is common to all of us in humanity.

These people seemingly live above the frustrations of daily life.

Look at verse 6 to 7.

Therefore, pride is their necklace.

Violence covers them as a garment.

Their eyes swell out through fatness, their hearts overflow with follies.

All of this power led to them wearing pride as a necklace, is what ASAF is saying here.

And a necklace again, this would have been a clear, visible, outward sign of their wealth and status.

And so the people that ASAF is talking about, they're so proud in the way that they're living that others could symbolically see the arrogance on their necks.

And not only that, ASAF tells us they have a garment of violence.

And this was the way of saying that whatever gain that these wicked people had was due to the lawless way of life in which they lived.

They lived at the expense of others around them.

Yet they prospered.

Their eyes swelled out through fatness.

And in fact, one commentator, I love the way he puts this, he says that swollen eyes means both an overindulgence on themselves, but also a blindness to the needs and the sufferings of others.

And then Asaph says, their hearts overflow with follies, which means that at their very core, these evil people were thinking foolish things all the day long.

Their thoughts were consumed with evil desires day and night.

Look back at your Bibles, verse 8.

Asaph continues to speak here about the wicked.

They scoff and speak with malice.

Loftily, they threaten oppression.

And so what ASAF is saying here is that the wicked here, those are the ones that rule with their tongues.

They instill fear in others.

They use their tongues as instruments of evil and they threaten other people without hesitation.

And Asaph here is, he's perplexed by all of this.

He's wondering, why can these people do these things?

And in fact, in verse 3, he remember he had said he had become envious of these things.

And so the temptation here is to have this kind of freedom, this kind of power.

Have you never wanted to live an easy life?

Or to have a nice house or perfect health or a perfect family or the money and power to do whatever you want.

And verse 9 to 11, he escalates it now even further.

And he says this, look at verse 9 to 11.

They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongues struts through the earth.

Therefore, his people turn back to them and find no fault in them.

And they say, How can God know?

Is there knowledge in the Most High?

You see, the wicked are so full of pride that they speak without any fear of God.

From their vantage point, God does not see, God does not know, God does not even care about what they're doing.

And why?

Because they don't want to live with any accountability.

They live for the here and for the now, and seemingly they are accountable to no one.

Now I would say that for us as faithful believers, oppositely, we always live with a sense of accountability.

In fact, in Matthew chapter 12, verse 36 to 37, Jesus says that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every careless word spoken.

Matthew 12:36–37

Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10, that tells us that every believer must bef must appear before the judgment seat of Christ to be rewarded accordingly or to suffer loss.

2 Corinthians 5:10

And Revelation verse 20, or excuse me, Revelation chapter 20, verse 11 to 15 tells us of this great white throne judgment where all who have not trusted in Christ will give an account.

Revelation 20:11–15

And so I would simply say this for us, we need to remember that all that you say, and in fact, all that you do, you will one day have to give an account.

But the wicked are those who deceive themselves to believe that they will not give any account at all.

They're so arrogant in their own power, they deceive not only themselves, but if you look back at the verse there, they also deceive others by speaking in the way that they do.

In verse 10, ASAP tells us that the wicked have followers.

Their followers, they turn back to them, they find no fault in them, and their many, many followers see all that they do, and they find nothing wrong.

They increase in prosperity, in popularity, in prestige daily.

These are the ones who people follow.

They are the influencers of society, and people see nothing wrong with the way that they're living their lives.

And then look at verse 12.

He goes on to tell us this.

Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease, they increase in riches.

Always at ease.

Now, who doesn't find that tempting?

To be always at ease, to somehow still have enough passive income to be increasing in riches?

Somehow these people conduct evil all the day long and they continue to increase in riches.

And so the question is, how is it possible that God is so silent?

Is it his long suffering?

Is it his patience?

Remember, Asaph began here by reminding us in verse one of God's goodness.

And so God seems to be extending a degree of patience that is incomprehensible to Asaph.

In fact, I'm sure they'd be wondering, or he'd be wondering, why isn't God's judgment coming down now?

But now I want you to look at verses 13 to 17.

This is where we'll begin to see Asaph begin to shift his focus.

You see, he doesn't understand our first point, God's silence with the wicked, but God now allows him to then see our second point, which is this God's perspective for the faithful.

God's perspective for the faithful.

Look at verse 13.

All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.

For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.

You see, Aesaph's first problem was that he was led astray in temptation because his eyes were focused on the wicked.

But now he looks towards himself and his own experience.

He begins to say, All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.

Why have I strived to live in purity as far as possible?

You see, Asaph began to doubt the value of his faithfulness to God.

And if we're honest, it's likely that we've been there at some point as well.

Asaph is doubting the value of his sanctification.

That is to say, his day-by-day growth in the Lord and why he bothered, striving to keep his heart clean.

And so let's be honest, folks.

God's way is often not the easy way in this life.

Asaph is going through some serious mental turmoil here.

That's the beauty of the Psalms, is that it is, it is raw.

It tells us exactly what he's going through.

Verse 14 says he wakes up feeling stricken and rebuked every morning.

And so, friends, I would simply ask you this.

Are you standing firm in your beliefs?

Yet there are others who are around you, who are mocking you.

Are you not compromising in the workplace when they ask you to fudge the numbers?

Or are you being persecuted when you stand on God's truth that says there are only two genders, male and female?

You see, there's a whole lot of reasons why you can be persecuted in 2024 as believers for your faithfulness.

But I want you to remember what the Lord Jesus said in John chapter 15, verse 18 to 20.

John 15:18–20

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

If you were off the world, the world would love you as its own.

But because you are not off the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Remember the word I said to you.

A servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

I once heard a pastor say, When we do God's work, God's way, we can expect adversity.

And so whether it be external persecution or whether it be internal spiritual battles, this is the way of holiness for all who are faithful unto the Lord.

And this is the same struggle that Asaph faced.

I want you to look back at your Bibles, verse 15.

If I had said I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

And so you see, despite all this temptation and the inner turmoil, Asaph still did what was right by not openly speaking and leading astray God's people.

He had a deep concern for God's people, the generation of God's children, as the verse says.

Like any faithful believer, he here shows a great love for God's sheep.

He feels a personal sense of responsibility in the way in which he lives and the way that he understands that his actions would either tempt God's people or he would inspire God's people unto further righteousness.

And so, church, I would say, far be it from us to bring temptation to God's people.

Friends, when you hear of church leaders' fall, or when you hear of those who have supposedly walked away from the faith, I would say this.

I'd say perhaps the biggest tragedy of all is how they have harmed God's people.

You see, everyone will be personally held responsible for the ways in which they have treated, led, or tempted those in their lives.

And so we must not, just as ASAF says here, we must not betray this generation of God's people.

The weight of responsibility towards others is what keeps us accountable.

It's a portion of what keeps us accountable and keeps us from sin.

And this is why I think it's so important for us as believers to be plugged into regular fellowship with others.

Whether it be in our time serving or small groups or discipling children in youth or men's or women's studies, whatever it may be, we need to feel the weight of our responsibility before the Lord and before others.

Our accountability to other believers is one way.

It is God's way and part of his design and what keeps us from stumbling, what keeps our feet from slipping.

Look at verse 16.

But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task.

And so, church, I would say that when we keep our eyes focused on the wicked, when we try to understand why the wicked prosper in this life, it is a wearisome task.

It leads to inner turmoil.

And so, from a human vantage point, who can understand why these people are getting away with so much evil?

You see, we live in a generation that makes it easier than ever to have our eyes focused on evil.

Asaf is writing this psalm in a generation long before technology, and he still can't get away from the public evils of the wicked around him.

But I'd say for us, with the advent of social media, our generation is hyper-focused on what everyone else is doing around us.

Evil is masqueraded as good.

And so I would caution you, as brothers and sisters, who are in Christ, to truly consider the value of keeping your eyes always on others.

Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6, the eye is the lamp of the body.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

If the eye is healthy, then the body will be full of light.

If the eye is evil, then the whole body will be full of darkness.

And so we must be wise.

We must be wise.

Else we will find ourselves with our eyes on the wicked continually.

And just like Asaph, that'll put our souls in inner turmoil as we watch the evil around us and those who are getting away with it.

Look again now at verse 17.

I would say that this is the crescendo of the Psalm.

This is the turning point.

This is now where everything changes.

It seemed to me a wearisome task until I went into the sanctuary of God.

Then I discerned their end.

You see, church, this is the aha moment.

This is where Asaf finally fixes his gaze back on the Lord.

He returns to the sanctuary of the Lord, and this is the key for us.

See, we must look to the Lord in order to see things from his eternal perspective.

Asaph as a Levite and as a worship leader here, he would understand that the sanctuary is where God's holy presence dwells with man.

In fact, I would say that many churches today they still call their worship center sanctuary, and it comes from this idea that the sanctuary was this physical representation place of where God's presence dwelled.

However, I would say for us, unlike the Old Testament, God's presence is not confined to a particular building.

Jesus says in John chapter 4 that those who worship God worship him in spirit and truth, not on any specific mountain or specific place.

John 4 · chapter mention

Our bodies are now the living temple of God.

And so if you are a believer in Jesus Christ and God's spirit, his presence dwells within you.

And so as believers in this church age, we can go into the sanctuary of the Lord in a different way.

We can seek a renewed, intimate relationship with God through our repentance, through our prayer, and through time in his word in order to remember his purpose and his mission for our lives.

You see, ASAP here, he's experiencing this renewed sense of worship.

Yes, he's been tempted, he's been broken, he's been perplexed by the evil of this world, but now he returns to the only place he knows he'll find any peace at all.

God's sanctuary.

This is where the Lord now supplies him once again with the right perspective.

He begins to see here God's perspective for the godly.

And that brings us to our third point, which is this God's wrath upon the wicked.

God's wrath upon the wicked.

Look with me at verse 18.

Truly, you set them in slippery places, you make them fall to ruin.

Friends, when we see people living in evil, it actually only need remind us of our need for faithfulness.

And why is that?

That's because of their eventual end.

You see, returning to the Lord allowed Asaph to remember God's perfect plan.

Asaf finally turned his eyes off the depravity of man, and he once again turns his eyes to the total and utter holiness of God.

Because God is holy, he is also just.

And because he is just, he must punish wickedness, and so God's righteous wrath will fall upon the wicked.

This is a sure promise.

God has set them in slippery places.

And Asaph sees it now from God's perspective.

He understands here that God has been patient all the while.

The wicked have been heaping coals of wrath upon themselves, storing up wrath for the day of judgment.

Verse 19 tells us how they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors.

You see, not only will God's wrath fall upon the wicked, but they will fall suddenly into utter ruin.

And so while it may seem that they're prospering in this life, they are doomed to fail.

From a human perspective, it may seem like the evil, like evil people in this world are living their best life now.

But the assurance that we have in God's word is that the wicked will be destroyed in judgment for their evil.

Like a dream, verse 20, look at verse 20, like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

And so just like a dream, which seems very real, it's instantly gone the second you wake up.

For those of us who are here in Canada, I would say this how many times have you found yourself somewhere in a beach in Hawaii, and then suddenly you've woken up and it's mid-January and it's minus 30 and you have to shovel the driveway outside?

Come on now, right?

A dream passes instantly.

Instantly it's gone like that.

And what he's saying here, ASAF is saying, such is the short life of the wicked.

He's comparing them here to phantoms.

Here today, gone tomorrow.

And so while we don't wish, let me let me let me let me say this clearly, while we do not wish for the destruction of the souls of other men and women, the godly can live with the understanding that evildoers are never truly winning, and God will one day vindicate his holy name.

Listen to what Jesus says in Luke chapter 12, verses 16 to 20.

Luke 12:16–20

He told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man produced plentifully.

And he thought to himself, What shall I do?

For I have nowhere to store my crops.

And he said, I will do this, I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods, and I will say to my soul, Sold, you have ample goods laid up for many years.

Relax, eat, drink, be merry.

But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is required of you.

And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

Church, judgment will come swiftly for the wicked.

They will give an account, and that brings us to our final point.

You see, we've seen God's apparent silence with the wicked, we've seen God's perspective for the faithful, and God's wrath that will come upon the wicked.

But now Asaph goes to describe in verses 21 to 28 God's provision for the faithful.

God's provision for the faithful.

Look at verse 21.

When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant.

I was like a beast towards you.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you.

You hold my right hand.

And so ASAF recounts here in verse 21.

He was pricked in heart.

He was looking to the wicked, and he was pricked in heart.

And that can also be understood to say that he's grieved in his heart.

At this time he was irrational.

He was not ruled by wisdom.

He lived by his feelings, and he had almost lost a sense of what was right and wrong.

He had turned brutish and ignorant.

He felt like he was like a beast towards the Lord.

And he says here, when he was like an animal, he was one commentator, I think, really says this very well animals live without a view of the divine revelation of God.

I want to share with you a personal story, which is this.

A few months ago, my family and I, we decided to uh to go out and get a little golden doodle puppy and bring it home.

Please pray for us.

Um we prayed about this for months, and uh this is not our first rodeo.

We've had dogs before, but uh here's the point that I'm trying to make.

You see, when we brought that puppy home, we haven't been sitting down and we haven't been doing Bible study with the dog.

Um we've been teaching her how to sit, how to stay, and she's been using her natural instincts, and we've been doing whatever we can to teach her to basic obedience.

But she won't comprehend the scriptures and she won't do things of spiritual nature because she is an animal.

And that might be a silly example, but the point is this animals do not have the spiritual capacity or the ability to think beyond their instincts.

And I say that story to you because ASAF is saying here that he was like a beast, like an animal before God.

He lived without God's word in mind.

He almost lost a sense of the spiritual reality of this life.

And do we not get like that too at times?

But nevertheless, he is continually with God.

God holds his right hand.

And so, despite Asaph's stumbling, God was holding his hand.

Questions, doubts, despair, all of these things can be used by the Lord to mature his servants.

And so, even though Asaph had set his eyes on the wicked, God did not let him slip.

And in fact, God used Asaph's despair to bring him to a place of greater spiritual maturity, to a place of spiritual understanding, to a place where he once again realized God's provision for him.

And so, friend, I would say this.

Are you going through a low season in your life?

Perhaps you're afflicted by all the turmoil in this world.

And I would simply say, just like Asaph, return to the sanctuary of the Lord.

You see, the Lord uses these difficult seasons to wean us off this world, and he causes us to return to him.

He would use these moments of despair to cause us to place our trust in him and to show us his faithfulness.

He holds our right hand and he conforms us further day by day into the image of his son Jesus Christ.

And so the hope is look at verse 24.

Asaph goes back and he says here now in worship, you guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.

And so God, he guides his servants, and he guides his servants with his wisdom and with his counsel as we go through the trials of this life.

Our future is the Lord Himself receiving us into everlasting glory.

We have this assurance, this hope of heaven, that our best life is yet to come.

Look at verse 25 to 26.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

ASAP asked the rhetorical question: Who else does he have in heaven but God?

What else can one desire on earth except God?

And friends, this is the song of our hearts as believers.

This is the song of the faithful believer who is steeped in the presence of his Lord.

Nothing here on earth satisfies.

No car, no job, no vacation, no status, no worldly prestige, no desire, no nothing at all.

All the things that the wicked are supposedly prospering in, all of it is worthless in comparison to the treasure of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, there will be a time where our flesh and our hearts do fail.

But whether it be by old age, disease, or persecution, in that moment we need to remember God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

The very same God of Israel is present with the believer today, as he was with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, his protection and his guidance and his comforting presence.

What is there for the believer to lose when we are living from an eternal perspective?

The answer is nothing.

Nothing at all.

And that's why ASAF can go on to say in verse 27 here.

Look at verse 27.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish.

You put an end to anyone who is unfaithful to you.

But for me, it is it is good to be near God.

I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

Again, ASAP is stating here that those who are far from, those who are unfaithful to the Lord will perish.

But as for him, as for us, as for the faithful, it is good to be near God.

We are to make God our refuge so that we may tell of all his works.

Our job is to proclaim the goodness of our God.

Psalm 34, verse 21 to 22 says, Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

Psalms 34:21–22

The Lord redeems the life of his servants.

None who take refuge in him will be condemned.

You see, Asaph's envy has now turned to contentment, to joy, to hope.

Asaph has returned to the sweet, joyful worship of his steadfast and trustworthy Lord.

He's returned now to being a man who lives life from an eternal perspective, a man who can once again endure the evils of this world, who can endure the evil of others, because his hope is found in the Lord alone, and he has his eyes set on God.

And so, church, as we come to a close here, we've gone through this entire psalm.

And we've gone through this entire psalm with this idea of the faithful and the wicked.

But the question is, who are the wicked and who are the faithful?

You see, the scriptures tell us that none are righteous, no, not one.

There's no one who seeks after God.

Mankind has the propensity to assume our own goodness.

But the reality is, is that each one of us is guilty before a holy God.

We're all born with sin nature, meaning that we're all wicked.

And if you were to die today and face the Lord Jesus Christ, how would you give an account for your sin?

But the good news is this the good news is that the scriptures tell us that there is no name under heaven by which one may be saved other than that of Jesus Christ.

And so if you haven't yet trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you need to recognize that Jesus is the perfect Son of God, the divine Son of God, the only person that lived a perfect, sinless life.

He was fully man, he was fully God, and he was crucified upon the cross to take the just wrath of God and all of our sin in his place.

The scriptures tell us that by placing your faith in Christ, by believing that the Lord Jesus Christ died in your place for your sins, and by trusting in him alone as Lord and Savior, you will be saved.

And so then when God sees you, he will then see the righteousness of Jesus Christ placed upon you, and your sins will be washed away by his blood upon the cross.

And so for the believer here today, understand that until the Lord returns, evil will continue to prosper.

This is a world that will only continue to get worse, but for us living in 2024 in a post-Christian world, a world that is quickly hostile towards God, we can expect evil to be called good and good to be called evil.

And we can expect to see the wicked prosper just like Asaph, but we need to be reminded to hope in the Lord, to set our eyes upon the Lord.

He is our portion in this life, he is our portion in the next.

And so I would just exhort you, church, to live faithfully with your eyes set upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

An eternal perspective is the only hopeful perspective in this life.

And so looking back at Rabbi Kushner's book, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

You see, the answer to that question is that it's really a flawed question because there are no truly good people.

There was only one truly good person, and his name was Jesus Christ.

Bad things happen to everyone because we live in a fallen world that is headed to judgment.

And we can be deceived to think bad things only happen to good people.

But the only ones that are considered faithful are the ones who have the righteousness of Jesus Christ placed upon them by faith.

And again, not because they are good, but because he is good.

And so I pray and I hope that you've made that decision to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ if you have not yet done so.

For those of us who are in Christ, let us remember that Christ alone is our only hope in this life and the next.

Set your eyes upon Christ.

And set your eyes upon Christ alone for the strength to keep going in the days ahead.

Church, would you pray with me?

Lord Jesus Christ, Father in heaven.

Father, thank you for your word and thank you, Father, that in the Psalms and as we read, as we heard from ASAF today, Lord, that we can have the hope to know that we can return to the sanctuary of God.

Father, it is easy at times to be tempted to look at the evil around us, to look at the wickedness in this world, which is uh quite often bombarding us, Lord.

But Father, would you help us to once again return to your sanctuary?

To return in repentance, to return in prayer, to return to your word, Lord.

Father, I pray that we would be consumed once again by your holiness, by who you are, that we would take our eyes off all that's happening here, and that we would set our eyes upon Jesus Christ.

And that Father, in doing so, we may bring you glory, we may live with hope and joy, and that Father, many around us would see the goodness of Christ, Christ in us, and that they too would come to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

So, Father, I thank you for this day.

Help us to live and apply this to our lives in the week ahead, not simply today, Lord, but may your word stay in our hearts for the week ahead and for our lives ahead.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.