Sunday, November 29, 2015

“The Prosperity of the Wicked” – Psalm 73





Those are the top headlines I woke up to Friday morning.  Yes, the day after we all sit around and tell all our family and friends what makes us thankful…this happens.  Black Friday!  How many of you dared to venture out to go shopping Friday morning?  How many cops did you punch?  No?  Not everybody does that, huh?

It’s no wonder that 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”  Now, I know that some people just like the activity; the sport, if you will, of shopping.  I can’t understand that.  It’s sort of like how I know some people like jazz music.  I don’t want any part of either one.  I go to Walmart when I think the fewest people will be there.  I go in and get what I need and get out.

But while some people like to shop and some don’t, we all feel that urge sometimes that we need some more, newer, better stuff, right?  There is something in all of us that makes us want a bigger, better TV or a newer car or nicer clothes or the latest purse and why is it that your neighbor, you know, that guy that never goes to church and has such a foul mouth and is just flat mean…how is it that he can afford all the cool, latest stuff?

Has anybody ever noticed that?  Why does it seem like the vilest people all have nice stuff?  You know what I’m talking about.  The drug dealer down the street that got that new Starcraft Deckboat?  That’s not fair.  Your heathen uncle who cheats on his taxes just got a Patek Philippe watch that tells time in 7 time zones and he never leaves Wise County.  That’s just not right.

You work hard.  You’re a good person.  You’re a Christian and you can’t afford a Timex.  You give to the church.  You donate to the food pantry.  You packed a couple of shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child and yet you struggle with your finances.  You struggle physically.  You struggle with relationships.  You struggle mentally and sometimes you just want something new and nice like other people have.  Is that so wrong?

Don’t respond out loud but do you ever feel that way?  Do you ever feel like this world is upside down and that all the people who are the least deserving seem to have the best stuff?  I mean, who are the Kardashians and what have they ever done to benefit society?  I don’t know but evidently they are crazy rich.  That doesn’t seem to be very fair, does it?  I know that if you were God, you would do things differently, wouldn’t you?

Well, you are not the first one to feel that way.  I don’t know how Asaph would have felt about the Kardashians necessarily but he definitely had a problem with how the least deserving always seemed to have the best stuff and the least problems.  You know, sort of like how you feel sometimes.  Asaph wrote Psalm 73 to address this problem he had and how he came to look differently at it.

Asaph was a musician and author and a contemporary to King David in the Old Testament.  You might say that Asaph was the music minister while David was the preacher in the temple of Jerusalem.  Poor Asaph didn’t get what he deserved back then and probably still doesn’t.  Most people know David wrote most of the psalms in the Bible and I have told you before that when I’m just reading through the Psalms for fun that when I see on that says, “A Psalm of Asaph” I usually just skip it and go find one written by David because I know David.  I grew up reading David.  David is a friend of mine.

But I don’t know much about Asaph.  I do know that the poor guy is having a bad day and that I’m glad he wrote about it because it helps me when I sometimes feel the same way he was feeling.  I appreciate his honesty and candor in writing a song about it so thousands of years later a little church in Lake Bridgeport can see and understand truth from it.

Turn to Psalm 73 if you haven’t already.  It’s on page 414 of most of the Bibles in the pews.  Psalm 73 starts the third book or section of the book of Psalms and I would love to be able to hear Asaph sing and play this song one day in Heaven.  Can you imagine that?  David will play the harp.  Moses and Abraham will sing a verse or two.  Peter, Paul and Mary will join in and I don’t mean the folk singers from the ‘60’s.  Then we will all be able to sing along with them at the end.  I can’t wait.

But today, you’ll have to settle for me just reading it and I know that there are parts that are lost in translation but it is still a beautiful and yet practical piece of literature.  Read along with me as I read Psalm 73. 

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. 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;
    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. 11 They say, “How would God know?
    Does the Most High know anything?”

12 This 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.

15 If I had spoken out like that,
    I would have betrayed your children. 16 When I tried to understand all this,
    it troubled me deeply 17 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, 22 I 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 Lord my refuge;
    I will tell of all your deeds.

The problem with Asaph is 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 your bulletin insert you will see that Asaph was looking outward when he should have been looking upward and it would have changed how he looked inward.

I love how Asaph starts this prayer.  The 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 wants to 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.”  I don’t know about you but I would give anything in the world to know that I have the undivided attention of the Creator of the universe for even just one minute and that is exactly what happens when we approach God in the right way.

Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”  It’s one thing to go to God like Job did and demand a hearing and to demand answers and say, “I don’t know Who you think You are!”  It’s something else entirely to say, “God, I don’t understand.  I have questions.  But even if you don’t answer them I know you are good.”

In the next verse, though, Asaph shows that he was looking outward.  He says in verses 2 and 3, “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 this church looks outwardly and not inwardly.  You have shown that you are not as concerned about yourselves 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 to 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 ice.  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 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 into sin most of the time but Asaph seemed to understand what it 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 others around him if he were to be found slipped away and so he goes to God with this prayer and with this song, praying that God would help him not to fall just like Jesus taught us to pray by saying, “Lord, lead me not into temptation.”

Historian Shelby Foote tells of a soldier who was wounded at the battle of Shiloh during the American Civil War and was ordered to go to the back. The fighting was fierce and within minutes he returned to his commanding officer. "Captain, give me a gun!" he shouted. "This fight ain't got any back!"   Daily Walk, July 10, 1993.  That’s how we should be when it comes to temptation.  There ain’t no back.  There ain’t no safe place.  God please keep me from it and give me the strength in your name to resist it.
Asaph goes on to say how the wicked seem to not have any struggles.  They are healthy and strong and because of it they get proud and they wear their pride like a necklace. (Verse 6)  Asaph doesn’t seem to understand that what he is seeing is part of the answer to his prayer.  God despises pride so much that He won’t tolerate it in His children so often times He allows us to struggle to keep us from being proud.  But because Asaph is looking outward all he sees are 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; with arrogance they threaten oppression.  9 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 not to. 


Anyway, Sagan was known for his brilliance and intelligence especially in relating 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, remembering, feeling part of me will continue.  But as 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.  14 All day long I have been afflicted.”  All day long I suffer while the wicked are having a good time!  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 while he is trying to do the right thing it seems like he is being punished and the wicked people thrive and prosper.


Then we get to verse 17.  Verse 17 is the hinge on which all of this turns.  It is the verse that sheds light on the darkness of Asaph’s thinking; it is the key that unlocks the door.  He was confused, oppressed and feeling punished until that moment he started to look upward - “till 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 fears 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 of God but honestly just being in this room, while I know it is holy and special, it does not always give me understand just being here.  Do I have to go the sanctuary in Jerusalem where Asaph worshiped?  If so, I’ll buy my plane ticket today.  Let’s go!  I have questions.


Actually, this word “sanctuary” here means a consecrated holy place set apart for God and while it is sometimes used as the name of the place of the temple, here it is used not in the physical sense but in the spiritual sense.  1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple?”  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.


Charles Spurgeon said that 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 with his eyes focused upward and 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 slick ice.  In verse 18 he says, “Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.”  He sees that God purposefully put these people in prosperous but treacherous positions, not to bless them but just the opposite.  Their position was dangerous and so God did not put his friends their…but His enemies.


I love the word picture that Asaph draws in verse 20.  “They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, 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 but how many times have you thought that dream was so real and 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; like 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 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 Him and that it 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 your sins and repenting of those 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.”  Let me end with one last quote from Spurgeon.  “He who is willing to declare the works of God shall never be silent for lack of wonders to declare.”
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)