How many of you noticed a small cut in your pay check this month? Most all of us did due to some taxes going up. How do you feel about that? Is that fair? Well, the good news is that not everybody in America is feeling the pinch. That’s good news, isn’t it? Don’t you feel glad for actress Jennifer Aniston who made $27 million this year? What about baseball player Alex Rodriguez who made $34 mil? That’s fair, right? TV host Kelly Ripa only made $8 mil so I feel a little sorry for her. Tiger Woods, on the other hand, even after the cheating and divorce and the scandal still brought down $110 mil. Not bad for playing golf all day. Actor Will Ferrell made $31 mil for acting like a goofball. Now, I know Beyonce is a singer and maybe an actress but is she really worth $80 mil? And she just married rapper Jay-Z not long ago and he’s bringing in $82 mil so they probably live pretty comfortable. I’m glad for them.
Yea, real glad. Actually, no, I’m not. I’m not really glad that people whose job is only to entertain make ridiculous amounts of money. That’s not right, not when school teachers and cops and firemen and…pastors don’t make much. I mean, that’s why I got into this job was to make money! You believe me, right? J
Is it fair that Tom Cruise makes $15 mil and looks like…Tom Cruise? And don’t get me started on Brad Pitt. If I was Brad Pitt I wouldn’t own a shirt. I would just walk down the street shirtless holding hands with Angelina Jolie all day and buying stuff. I have to admit that it sometimes bothers me that some people seem to have it made. They have everything. They have wealth, health, good looks, beautiful girlfriends (some of whom actually exist, unlike that Manti Teo guy from Notre Dame) and it is easy to forget everything with which I have been blessed when I look at them. But I’m probably the only one who has ever felt that way, right?
Actually, no, there was at least one other person who has felt this way and his name was Asaph. Asaph was a musician and an author who was a contemporary of King David. You might say that Asaph was the music minister while David was the preacher in the temple. And poor Asaph sometimes doesn’t get what he deserves even today. I’ve told you before that if I am going through the Psalms just for fun and I see “A Psalm of Asaph”, I probably skip over it until I see “A Psalm of David” and then I read that because I feel like I know David. Since I was a little boy until now, I have studied David from when he was a little boy until he was an adult. But Asaph I don’t know much about.
In Psalm 73, Asaph was going through a difficult time in his life. He was a mature believer in the one true God. He had a relationship with God and knew God to be loving and good but at the same time he could see the people around him who were not believers and who lived their lives only for themselves, he could see them prosper and live well and they were having wild and crazy parties and doing things that were morally and even legally wrong but they still seemed to continue to prosper. And so he bares his soul to God in Psalm 73 and I would like to read that passage this morning.
All through January I have concentrated my sermons around the topic of prayer. We have looked at what we should do when Satan attacks and how to handle it when it seems that God doesn’t hear our prayer. And in this passage we see how we are to pray when things don’t always make sense. It’s one thing to go to God as Job did, basically saying, “Who do you think you are to do this to me?” and it’s another thing to go to God as Asaph does here and humbly say, “Lord, I have some questions. Would you please help me understand?” Let’s read the 73rdPsalm.
A psalm of Asaph.1 Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.3 For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.4 They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.[a]5 They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills.6 Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence.7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity[b];their evil imaginations have no limits.8 They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.10 Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.[c]11 They say, “How would God know? Does the Most High know anything?”12This is what the wicked are like—
always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence.14 All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.15If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children.16When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply17 till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.18 Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.19 How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!20 They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.21 When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered,22I was senseless and ignorant ;I was a brute beast before you.23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.24 You guide me with your counsel ,and afterward you will take me into glory.25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.27 Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.28 But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lordmy refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.
always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence.14 All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.15If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children.16When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply17 till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.18 Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.19 How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!20 They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.21 When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered,22I was senseless and ignorant ;I was a brute beast before you.23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.24 You guide me with your counsel ,and afterward you will take me into glory.25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.27 Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.28 But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lordmy refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.
The problem with Asaph was that he had bad eyesight. Not his physical eyes but his spiritual eyes were distorted. He was looking in the wrong direction for the wrong reason and so I want us to see this morning the way that Asaph was looking and where he should have been looking and the outcome of looking correctly. In you bulletin insert you will see that Asaph was looking outward when he should have been looking upward and if he had it would have changed how he looked inward.
I love how Asaph starts his prayer. That word “surely” or “truly”can also be translated “nevertheless”. Asaph has these doubts and fears that are making him miserable and so he goes to God to ask Him about them and starts out by saying, “Nevertheless” or“No matter what answer you give or don’t give, I know that God is good. I don’t understand you but I know that you are good. Now here is my problem.”
We have talked before about the kind of prayer that God will answer and I just picture God hearing Asaph start like this and God leans out to the edge of His royal throne and says, “I’m listening, dear one. I’m listening.” How powerful it is to think of having an audience with the Creator of the entire universe who listens to us when we have a problem! And Asaph not only starts his prayer well, he is also very honest with God and that is important. God knows what is going on with us but it is important that we are honest with ourselves before God. You are not fooling Him. Humbly coming to God with our doubts and fears is biblical. Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
In the next verses, though, Asaph shows that he was looking outward. He says in verses 2 and 3, “2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.3 For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”
I often make mention of how much I appreciate the way this church looks outwardly and not inwardly. You have shown that you are not as concerned about yourself as you are other people and that is the way we are supposed to be but the problem comes when you look at other people and start comparing your life with theirs. When you start seeing all the ways it looks like they are blessed compared with how you are blessed it is easy to think that God is unfair and that is like walking on a sheet of glass. Asaph says his feet had almost slipped.
I think it is important for us to consider what Asaph really means when he says his feet had almost slipped. What does it mean when any Christian slips and falls like he is talking about here? He is talking about slipping into sin by envying the wicked. When we slip and fall out of our faith and into sin do we lose our salvation? No, of course not. The Bible says in several places that nothing can snatch us out of God’s hand once we are there. The problem is that most of us take it to the other extreme. We don’t really worry about a little slip and fall most of the time but Asaph seemed to understand what it really meant to slip out of God’s favor and out of God’s will and out of God’s fellowship. He understood the consequences not only to himself but to all the others around him if he were to be found slipped away and so he goes to God with this prayer, praying that God would help him not to fall.
He goes on to say how the wicked seem to not have any struggles. They are healthy and strong and because of that they get proud and he says they wear their pride like a necklace. Asaph doesn’t seem to understand that what he is seeing is part of the answer to his prayer. God despises pride so much He won’t tolerate it in His children and so often times He allows us to struggle to keep us from becoming proud. That was a big part of last week’s message. But because Asaph is looking outward all he sees is people that are proud of themselves for what they have and he admits to being envious.
In verses 8 and 9 Asaph relates that the wicked “scoff and speak with malice and their mouths lay claim to heaven and their tongues take possession of the earth.” Dr. Carl Sagan was a scientist, astronomer, astrobiologist and astrophysicist. In other words, he was a pretty smart guy. You know, I started to do some of that myself when I finally got out of junior college but I decided it wasn’t for me. Anyway, Sagan was known for his brilliance and intelligence especially in relation to the cosmos. He published more than 600 scientific articles and authored nearly 20 books. And in his words, “I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.” That is laying claim to heaven with tongues taking possession of the earth. And people all over the world hear that and think that if Carl Sagan said it, it must be true.
When Asaph was looking outward he saw and heard the wicked and he had to admit that their lifestyle and their philosophy were starting to look pretty good. In verses 13 and 14 he says, “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure because all day long I am plagued.” All day long I suffer while the wicked are having a good time! And you can just almost see his feet start to slip. He is tottering and about to fall trying to figure out why it is that he tries to do the right thing and it seems like he is punished but the wicked people thrive and prosper.
And then we get to verse 17. Verse 17 is the hinge on which all of this turns. It is the verse that sheds light into the darkness of Asaph’s thinking; it is the key that unlocks the door out of the maze. He was confused, oppressed and feeling punished until that moment he started looking upward. “Til I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.”
The question is, “”Where is the sanctuary of God?” I need to know because, like Asaph, I sometimes have doubts and I don’t always understand why things are happening. Where do I need to go to understand? Is it this sanctuary? We call this room the sanctuary and you could say that it is the sanctuary of God but honestly just being in this room, while I know it is holy and special, it does not always give me understanding just being here. Do I have to go to the sanctuary in Jerusalem where Asaph worshiped? Tell me it ain’t so. And if not, then what is the address and I will go now?
The word sanctuary here means a consecrated, holy place set apart for God. And while it is sometimes used as the name of a place in the temple, here it is used not in the physical sense but in the spiritual. It is a spiritual place in our heart where God abides and when our heart is pure and our hands are clean we can go there and have an audience with the King. Spurgeon says Asaph stood where the thrice holy God stands and he gazed within the veil. Asaph came before God. He didn’t go to a place. He humbly brought all of his concerns and doubts before the great I AM and left them at His feet with a new understanding of Who God is and who he was and with his eyes focused upward everything started to make sense.
What was unfair to Asaph, he now understood to be the will and work of the sovereign Creator. What was tempting before now he saw as futile and ridiculous. What was inviting was now disgusting and horrible all because he looked upward. You see when we look outward it changes and distorts how we look upward but when our look upward is clear and pure it changes how we look inward.
Now, looking inward, Asaph saw himself and the wicked as God saw them. He saw that the wicked were the ones on the slick ice. In verse 18, he says, “Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.” He sees that God purposely put these people in prosperous but treacherous circumstances, not to bless them but just the opposite. Their position was dangerous and so He did not put His friends there but his enemies.
I love the word picture that Asaph draws in verse 20. “As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise o Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.” In a dream, your circumstances seem so real and so important sometimes to the point of scaring you real bad but how many times have you thought that dream was so awful but now that you are awake you can’t even remember what it was about? That’s the way the wicked are to God. They won’t even be remembered.
Continuing to look inward, Asaph says in verses 21 and 22 that when he was grieved and bitter it was like being a senseless animal, a cow whose eyes only see the grass and never the sunshine. Before God, Asaph felt like a fool for feeling the way he had.
In verses 24 and 25 he spells out the benefits both here and now on earth and in heaven later on. He says that earth has nothing I desire except you. When we meet with God and do business with Him we realize how foolish it is to chase after worldly things; how foolish it is to want more and more stuff, bigger tv’s and newer cars. None of that matters in light of Who God is and just being in His presence.
He says in verse 28, “But as for me, it is good to be near God.” Can you say that? Does the thought of being near God scare you or fill you with dread? Yes, we are told to fear God and that is true but when we come to God with our doubts and fears and problems and lay them before Him we have nothing to fear. David said in Psalm 51, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart , O God you will not despise.” It is time this morning to come to God with a broken and contrite heart and lay down your doubts, confessing all your sins and coming before him with clean hands and a pure heart.
And when all of that has been done, as Asaph says in the very last sentence, then “I will tell of all your deeds.” And I’ll end with one more quote from Spurgeon, “He who is willing to declare the works of God shall never be silent for lack of wonders to declare.”
No comments:
Post a Comment