Psalm Ch73v1-28

Well, good morning, everybody. It's good to see you all. I bring you greetings from Middleton Baptist Church. Thank you for praying for us and thank you for praying for Carrick tool. It's two weeks away from being a year since we planted Carrick to a Baptist.

So we thank God for his faithfulness to us and time flies and we're very glad that they're doing very well. We miss them, but we're very glad that they're doing well. So thank you for praying for them.

Our passage this morning is Psalm 73. Psalm 73, if you'd like to turn there in your Bibles. Psalm 73.

Psalm 73.

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 are 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 tongue 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? 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 people. 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 towards 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 in heaven have I 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 all your works.

Let's pray for a moment.

I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you, the psalmist says.

Father, I pray that as we think and reflect on this psalm now in these next few moments,

that you would help us by your spirit to store up your word in our hearts,

that we might not sin against you.

Lord, where there is hardness of heart, I pray that you would bring tenderness and openness.

Where there is hopelessness, I pray you would bring hope.

Where there is sin, conviction,

and where there is coldness,

we pray you would bring warmth and fire.

I ask all these things and for your help in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Reading this psalm, when I was preparing,

reminded me of when we lived in the US.

It was a couple of years ago and it was during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A time of our lives I'm sure we're all keen to forget.

It was a strange time to be alive, wasn't it?

Do you remember how certain things were very hard to buy?

Like hand sanitizer suddenly was like more precious than gold.

Couldn't get a hold of it, at least where we were living.

Even toilet paper for a time had to be rationed out.

People were panicking in the shops.

It had to be rationed out so that they didn't sell out.

I remember as it all sort of kicked off and it was maximum panic,

I remember trying to get my hands on any sort of disinfectant spray that I could.

And one evening I was on Amazon and I found a tiny little bottle of Dettol fluid.

It was about that size.

Which, you know, would cost about three or four euro or three or four dollars.

And it was like fifteen dollars.

But I panicked.

And I bought it.

And I thought it was a good idea at the time.

I thought, I need this.

Who knows it's going to happen.

There's a lot of uncertainty here.

But as it turns out, we never used that bottle of Dettol even once.

It went under our kitchen sink into a little cabinet.

And it stayed there until we moved out about two years later.

Never even opened it.

And every now and again I would open the cupboard and see it there.

And just think, what was I thinking?

Paying all that money for a small little bottle of Dettol.

But of course, hindsight is twenty-twenty, isn't it?

You look back at the decisions you made.

And you think, how could I have gotten it so wrong?

Why did I think that was such a good idea?

What was I thinking?

Of course, that's a pretty harmless example.

But we all have times like this in our lives, don't we?

When we look back on a rash decision or some faulty reasoning and wonder,

what was I thinking?

How did I believe that?

Why did I do that?

How did I get so confused?

Sometimes things that make total sense in the moment

make no sense in hindsight.

And it's exactly this sort of realization,

this sort of what was I thinking, feeling,

that the psalmist is talking about here in our passage this morning.

Asaph, who wrote this psalm,

is looking back to the recent past,

back to a time when he was envious or jealous

of godless, wicked people.

A time when life as a believer didn't seem to make any sense at all.

I wonder if you ever felt like that.

But now, at the time of writing this psalm,

now with the benefit of hindsight,

he can see just how confused and wrongheaded he had become.

He looks back and says, so to speak,

what was I thinking?

Two quick things to note about this psalm,

just to give us some context.

The first is that this is what is referred to as a psalm of wisdom,

or a wisdom psalm.

The psalms have a huge variety.

There's different types.

There's psalms of praise, psalms of judgment, psalms of repentance,

royal psalms that speak of the coming king,

who will be fulfilled explicitly by Jesus.

And this psalm is generally agreed to be a psalm of wisdom.

In other words, it's written in order to make you and I wise people,

that we would avoid living unwisely in this world that God has created.

Second, a note about the author.

It's Asaph.

Asaph lived at the same time as King David.

And in 1 Chronicles 6, we read that King David put Asaph, along with others,

in charge of the service of the psalm in the temple.

So he was, you might say, a worship leader.

He was the chief music leader in the temple.

And in 1 Chronicles 25, verse 2, it also says that he prophesied

1 Chronicles 25:2

under the direction of the king.

So Asaph isn't just some random guy who managed to get one of his writings

into the Bible.

He's someone deeply involved in the religious life of Israel.

He's a friend of the king.

He's the worship leader at the temple.

And he prophesies.

And knowing all this about Asaph will help us understand

the crisis of faith that he is having here in these verses.

Okay, so to begin with,

he begins by stating up front his final conclusion.

So he begins at the end, as it were.

Here's what I now know to be true.

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

But as you move into verse 2, he moves back in time.

He says, it wasn't always like this.

And from verse 2 all the way down to verse 16,

he's reflecting on this time, which I think was pretty recent,

when he was having a crisis of faith,

and he doubted God's goodness toward his people.

Maybe you're here this morning,

and you wouldn't express it in such explicit terms,

but you're doubting if God is good.

He puts it this way.

As for me, my feet had almost stumbled.

My steps had nearly slipped.

Because I was envious of the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

He's looking at the world around him

and seeing people who want nothing to do with God,

and they're having a great life.

He says they're prospering.

The word there is the word shalom.

It's this idea of wholeness and peacefulness.

Everything is as it's meant to be.

So they are living the shalom life,

even though they are rejecting God.

And Asaph essentially is looking out at this

and saying, what gives?

Why do the wicked seem to have such a great life?

And this really troubles him.

He cannot stop thinking about it.

Do you ever get that?

Like some problem that starts to annoy you in your head.

It doesn't go away.

It just goes, it warms its way deeper and deeper

into your thoughts.

And it consumes him.

It's all that he can think of.

In verses 4 to 12, he goes into great detail

about both their prosperity and their wickedness.

First in verse 4 to 7,

their prosperity says they have no pangs,

no pain until death.

And their bodies are fat and sleek.

So while the rest of us are working hard

just trying to keep ends, make ends meet,

these guys have so much food, they're fat.

They've got such an abundance.

And they have great health.

They live pain-free lives right up to the day they die.

In verse 5, they're not in trouble as others are.

They're not stricken like the rest of mankind.

It's as if the curses of the fall

and all the brokenness of this world

just skips over them.

everything's easy for them,

at least as Asaph sees it.

Their whole life just looks like

one continuous Instagram story.

In fact, life is going so well for them,

they are openly proud.

Verse 6,

therefore pride is their necklace

and violence covers them as a garment.

They're smug.

They feel free to be violent towards other people.

That's their prosperity.

And then he, from verse 8,

recounts their wickedness.

He says,

they scoff and speak with malice

and loftily they threaten oppression.

It seems that the people that Asaph has in mind here

are people with power

and influence.

Because when you have power,

you can threaten oppression, can't you?

Like a bad landlord

who puts up the rent

year after year

and when their tenants ask for a break,

they just say,

if you don't like it,

you can get out

and they'll find someone else who can pay.

Or like a bad business owner

who mistreats their staff

and doesn't pay them

their full wages.

When you have power,

you can be a jerk

and get away with it, can't you?

Their speech also shows their wickedness.

It says,

they set their mouths against the heavens.

They speak blasphemous things

and speak against heaven where God is

as if there's no one up there.

And their tongues struck through the earth.

This confident,

imagine,

look at that imagery of their tongue,

their speech,

walking around like they're the boss.

They can say whatever they want,

whenever and wherever they want.

And all of this,

their great wickedness

and their seemingly great prosperity,

Asaph says,

has a terrible effect on God's people.

Look at verse 10.

He says,

therefore,

his people,

that is God's people,

turn back to them.

They turn to the wicked

and find no fault in them.

So God's people look at these people

and say,

there's nothing wrong there, is there?

They seem to be just living the good life.

And they're deceived.

They think,

well, I guess living like that is fine.

In other words,

sin looks safe.

It looks advantageous.

And it looks like the only way

to really get ahead in this life.

You ever feel like that?

The way of this world

does not flow in the way of righteousness.

It flows in the way of sin.

And Asaph is saying,

it sure would be nice to swim

along with the current for once.

The wicked say,

verse 11,

how can God know?

Is there knowledge of the Most High?

This is peak arrogance.

God does not see what's going on.

That's what they're saying.

You think God's watching all of us?

God's not watching all of us.

We can do whatever we want.

And it's a might makes right kind of world.

We see that in the news all the time,

don't we, with politicians?

If you can get away with it, do it.

If you can get it, take it.

And whoever has the biggest hammer

gets to push everybody else around.

Let's see where that ends.

Finally, in verse 12,

Asaph summarizes what he's seeing.

He says,

Behold, look,

these are the wicked.

Always at ease,

they increase in riches.

Friends, can you see Asaph's dilemma here?

Can you relate to what he's feeling?

How do I reconcile the wickedness

of these people

with their abundant prosperity?

Why is life so good

for those who reject God?

This dilemma causes Asaph

to question his own life choices.

Look at verse 13.

He says,

All in vain have I kept my heart clean

and washed my hands in innocence.

What's he saying there?

He's essentially saying this.

Why do I bother?

Why am I striving

to follow after the Lord

and live a life

that is pleasing to him?

Why have I spent

all of this effort

fighting temptation and sin

to keep myself clean?

I mean, look where that's gotten me.

Verse 14, he says,

All the day long

I have been stricken

and rebuked

every morning.

I think Asaph here

is referring to a physical illness

in his body

that he has been stricken

with ill health

and also there is this rebuke

which I think is God's discipline

in his life.

Like we read in Hebrews chapter 12,

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

God disciplines his people,

God disciplines us

for our good

that we may share

in his holiness.

For the moment,

it says,

all discipline seems painful

rather than pleasant,

but later

it yields

the peaceful fruit

of righteousness

to those who have been

trained by it.

God disciplines us

not to punish us.

Christ has taken

all of our punishment

on the cross.

God disciplines us

rather to purify us

that we might share

in his holiness.

Asaph knows the pain

of physical suffering

as well as the discomfort

of God's rebuke

and he's starting

to resent it.

Here I am, Lord,

serving in your temple

day after day,

putting in all this hard work,

striving to keep my heart

and my hands clean

from sin

and instead of prosperity,

instead of shalom,

I have a body

that is breaking down

and from you,

rebuke.

And meanwhile,

the wicked walk around

like they own the place.

And their lives

are just going

fabulously.

It's like Asaph

is driving along.

If you think of life

like a journey,

he's driving along

in his car,

but it's a real old

banger of a car.

You know,

when you start driving,

you always,

it's kind of like tradition,

you start off,

your first car is terrible.

It's like he's been driving

for many years

and he's still got

that first car

that's just about

hanging in there.

You know,

the dash is full of lights.

It's sputtering out

smoke and leaking oil.

And as he's driving

along slowly,

he hears the sound

of a sports car

driving up behind him

and he looks in the

rear view mirror

and he sees this

brand new jet black

Porsche just gliding

along in the fast lane.

And as this beautiful

Porsche just whizzes

by him,

he sees the driver

and says,

I know that guy.

That's that wicked man

who lives down the road

from me,

who does whatever

he wants,

who rejects God

and is evil.

And as that car

just glides off

into the sunset

ahead of him,

he thinks,

why does he get

that car

and this is mine?

I should be driving

the Porsche.

He should have

this banger.

This is not fair.

Why is my life

so rough

and his so smooth?

Have you ever

thought like this

as a Christian?

Maybe just quietly

to yourself

as you lie in bed

you ask yourself,

what's the point?

This is so hard.

Following Christ

in this world,

swimming against

the stream,

fighting

outwardly

and inwardly

sin and temptation

day after day

after day

after day

while those

who ignore God

seem to have

it so easy.

For any of you

ever been tempted

to think like this?

You look over

the fence

at your non-Christian

neighbor and say,

man,

the grass really

does look

a bit greener

over there.

I think if we're

honest,

we've all thought

things like that

in the past.

Maybe you're thinking

of right now

when we've envied

those who

reject God

like Asaph

did here.

And it's no

exaggeration to say

that Asaph

is having a crisis

of faith here.

This is no small

thing.

He's thinking

of throwing in the

towel and walking

away and just

saying,

I can't do

this anymore.

He even

considers in

verse 14

what would

happen if he

were to walk

away.

He said,

if I had spoken

out like that,

if I had just

come out and

said,

there is no

God,

just do

whatever you

want.

He realizes

I would have

betrayed the

generation of

your people.

In other words,

if I were to

just say that,

I'd have been

a traitor to

your people.

I'm not going

to do that,

but that doesn't

solve his

problem.

He says in

verse 16,

but when I

thought how to

understand this,

it seemed to

me a wearisome

task.

I cannot make

heads or tails

of what's going

on here.

I love the

honesty of this

psalm.

There's no

plastic religion

in the Bible.

It's real

people dealing

with real

life, following

the real

God.

The turning

point of this

psalm, the

hinge of it

all, is in

verse 17.

This problem

vexes Asaph

until, he

says,

until I

went to the

sanctuary of

God.

Then I

discerned their

end.

That is the

end of the

wicked.

His breakthrough

comes when he

goes to this

specific place,

the sanctuary,

that place where

God is worshipped

and praised as

the creator and

judge of this

world.

And it is there

in that holy

place where he

encounters God

in a fresh

way.

It is there

that he is

reminded of the

truth.

and his

perspective on

life is

corrected.

And he sees

things as they

really are.

Brothers and

sisters, you

know when we

need to come to

church every

week?

One of the

reasons is

because we

need to have

our eyesight

corrected at

least once a

week.

You know that

thing, I

should have

gone to

Specsavers,

that ad

campaign,

of all the

silly things

that people

do because

they never

went to

Specsavers and

got their

eyesight checked.

Think of

church as

Specsavers.

You go to

see things as

they really

are.

In a world

that screams

at you,

that there's

nothing special

about you,

and that it's

just,

might makes

right.

every Sunday

we gather

together as

God's people,

we open

our Bibles,

and we

hear,

thus saith

the Lord.

That's true

north.

That's 20-20

vision.

That is

wisdom that

will never

let you

down.

That's what

happens to

Asaph here in

verse 19.

Now that he

is inside the

temple looking

out as it

were, he

considers the

wicked again,

and he

draws this

sobering

conclusion in

verses 19

and 20.

How they

are destroyed

in a moment,

swept away

utterly by

terrors,

like a

dream when

one awakes,

O Lord.

You rouse

yourself.

You despise

them as

phantoms.

It would

be a

mistake to

read these

words of

Asaph and

think that

he's

gloating.

As if

he's happy

or in

some twisted

way excited

about the

fact that

God in

a moment

will bring

judgment upon

the wicked.

He's not

doing that.

No,

Asaph's

words here

are words

of somber

realization.

He's not

gloating.

He's

realizing

realizing that

whatever

prosperity the

wicked have

now, in

the end, it

will all

disappear in

a moment

and they

will be

judged by

God

himself.

self.

This is a

sobering

truth.

God is

not indifferent

to the

evil of

this world.

Asaph

remembers the

day is

coming when

God, in

his righteous,

perfectly

appropriate

anger, will

come with

his perfect

justice and

put an end

to the

wicked.

And now

that he

sees that

that's where

wickedness

ends, that

that's the

final destination

of those who

reject God,

now he

sees his

own situation

in a

completely

different light.

He goes,

if you think

back to the

car analogy,

he realizes

the most

important thing

is not how

easy your

journey through

this life

is.

What matters

is what

path you're

on and

where you

end up

in the

end.

Jesus

himself

taught us

in the

Sermon on

the Mount,

there are

only two

paths that

you can

take through

this life.

He says,

the gate

is wide

and the

way is

easy,

that leads

to destruction

and those

who enter

through it

are many.

But the

gate is

narrow and

the way

is hard

that leads

to life.

And those

who find

it are

few.

Fred,

let me

ask you

this

morning,

what path

are you

on?

Are you

on the

narrow and

hard path

of Jesus

that leads

to life?

Or are

you on the

easy,

well-lit,

comfortable,

broad,

freshly

tarmacadam

road that

leads straight

to hell?

Can you

see that

it is

infinitely

better to

plod

painfully

through this

life following

Jesus than

it is to

ignore him

and glide

smoothly to

destruction?

There are

only two

paths in

this life.

Christian,

Jesus told

us this way

is narrow

and hard.

No false

advertising from

Jesus.

He never

said this was

going to be

easy.

easy.

It's always

been like

this for

God's

people in

this world.

And just

like Asaph

here, let

us not

lose our

right

perspective

on life.

So whereas

before when

Asaph was

focused on

the here

and now

and sort

of throwing

himself a

bit of a

pity party,

he was

filled with

envy of

the wicked.

Now he

can see all

the way down

to the end

of the road

and he

sees a

fork in

the road

where the

one lane

leads to

eternal joy

and the

other leads

to sudden

judgment.

And now

his old

banger of

a car,

his difficult

life,

seems like

a noble

chariot and

that black

Porsche just

looks like

a hearse.

Friend,

let me ask

you again,

what path

are you

on?

Are you

following

Jesus or

someone or

something else?

Where will

you end up

when your

life's journey

comes to an

end?

And don't

think you

have more

time because

judgment comes

suddenly.

And tomorrow

is promised

to no man

or no woman.

Are you

trusting in

Jesus and

following him?

Have you

come to him

for forgiveness

or eternal

life?

Jesus is

the one

who has

been cast

off from

God for

us.

Jesus is

the one

who has

suffered

in our

place.

And if we

trust in

him,

we will

have eternal

life.

And I

plead with you

this morning,

listen to the

wisdom that

Asaph imparts

to us here.

do not

think because

you have a

prosperous

life now

that that's

a sign that

you're okay

with God

and that

you'll be

prosperous in

eternal life.

We live in a

very wealthy

part of the

world, a

very comfortable,

easy place to

live.

And that is

surely a

blessing from

God, but

it is not a

sign in and

of itself that

you have peace

with God.

The only way to

know you have

peace with God

is through

faith in his

son Jesus

Christ, the

righteous one

who died in

the place of

sinners like

you and

me.

If you turn

to Jesus in

simple faith

this morning,

he will save

you.

He will not

hesitate.

And he will

put you on

that narrow,

difficult path

that leads

to eternal

life.

Jesus says,

follow me.

If you're not

a Christian,

then wisdom

compels you to

turn to Jesus

today before

it's too

late.

For those of

us who are

Christians,

let's let the

wisdom of

this psalm

correct and

calibrate our

perspective on

life.

Ask yourself,

have I lost

the true

perspective on

things?

Are there

times, even

in this past

week, where I

have sinfully

grumbled

about how

hard it is

to follow

Jesus and

how unfair

it is that

others prosper

instead of

me?

It's not

wrong to be

weary.

I'm not

criticizing that,

to be weary in

the Christian

life, but to

grumble out of

unbelief.

in verse 21

to 22, Asaph

looks back on

his own sinful

grumbling and

he is ashamed.

He said,

when my heart

was grieved

and my spirit

embittered, I

was senseless

and ignorant.

I was a

brute towards

you.

In other

words, what

was I

thinking?

Having an

attitude like

that towards

God.

But it

doesn't end

there.

He also sees

that throughout

it all, God

never left

him, even

when he was a

brute.

Thank God

that God

never leaves

us, even

in our worst

moments.

Nevertheless, I

am continually

with you.

You hold my

right hand.

You guide me

with your

counsel and

afterward,

afterward,

you will

receive me

into glory.

Asaph's new

perspective shifts

his focus from

envying the

wicked to

praising God.

Whom have I

in heaven but

you?

He asks,

and there

is nothing I

desire in

heaven besides

you.

My flesh and

my heart may

fail, but God

is the strength

of my heart and

my portion

forever.

So he's

saying, my

physical health

may give

way, my

heart may

wobble and

fall, but

God is

enough for

me.

Christian, don't

lose your

perspective on

life.

However tough

life is for

you now and

however you

may feel day

to day, fix

your mind

on these

truths that

Christ will

never leave

you nor

forsake you.

He will

strengthen your

heart day

by day by

his spirit and

through his

word and he

will continually

guide you

along that

narrow,

difficult path

and afterwards

it will lead

to glory.

in the end,

the narrow and

hard path of

Jesus leads

to Jesus.

Christian, that's

where you're

going.

So don't

lose your

perspective on

life.

Asaph concludes

in verses 27

to 28 by

distilling his

experience and

the wisdom he

has gained

through his

crisis of

faith.

And I'm

simply going to

end by reading

these words.

For behold,

he says,

look, this is

the wisdom I

want to impart

to you.

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 all

your works.

Let's pray.

Father, I

pray that

this

psalm that we

have now

reflected upon

would bear

much fruit

in all of

our lives.

Whether in

someone coming

to trust in

Jesus for the

first time,

or for many

of us to be

renewed in

our trust in

you as we

continue to

follow you

along the

narrow and

hard path

that leads

to life.

Jesus, thank

you that on

the cross you

took away all

of our sins,

all of our

punishment,

and that you

secured all

the grace that

is necessary

to keep us

until we are

with you

face to face

eternally

in the joy

of heaven.

Holy Spirit,

I pray that

you would take

this word and

plan to deepen

our hearts

and our minds

and help us

to keep going

ahead with a

true perspective.

Help us,

Lord, not to

envy the wicked,

but to realize

where that

wickedness ends

and to tell

others about

Jesus that they

may leave the

broad path and

follow Jesus

instead.

We ask all of

this in the name

of Christ,

our Lord,

who is the

head of the

church.

Amen.

We're going

to stand

in response

and sing

in response

to God's

word and sing

in Christ

alone and

afterwards,

Jonathan will

come up

to lead the

Lord's

supper.

Thank you

Thank you.