well as i said i'm um beginning um a series sort of essential bible text i just wasn't very creative every text is essential but uh essential should I say favorite of Pastor Gordon's? That would have been too weird. But anyways, essential Bible texts, which I'm mainly because the summer's coming and there will be a lot of things going on with Synod, and I wasn't ready to start another major series yet, so this gives us an opportunity to move around and look at some of the more crucial texts, especially as we have a changing church and many new people that we can consider some of these important texts. I may be moving this to the morning, as I said. But this tonight, we'll begin with Psalm 73, beginning of book three of the Psalter. It's found on page 574, and we'll look at the entirety of the psalm tonight, the psalm of Asaph. Beginning at verse one of Psalm 73, 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 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 heaven, 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've 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. Oh 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 beside you my flesh and 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. And there ends the reading of Psalm 73. Well, as you know, in this life, nothing ever really seems to go as planned. And maybe one of the great confusions for you in this life is why does the Lord allow so many afflictions for His people, the righteous? We read things like Psalm 32, many sorrows belong to the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. It's a wonderful statement. The problem is, in this life, that doesn't seem to be what we often experience, and I highlight that, experience, it seems that the wicked are happy and carefree and that the righteous seem plagued with troubles and anxieties. That's just the sort of struggle that we constantly see and the reality that we seem to live. This is the kind of thing that Asaph is describing here in Psalm 73. The issue really is coming down to this great question of, is God good is he good that attribute of God of his goodness is the attribute that permeates this psalm and the attribute that seems to be for Asaph in question I have seen more than a few times many Christians in light of the providences of God question this very thing the goodness of God? Is God really good? And this doesn't seem much like mercy surrounds me. It seems like nothing but conflict and hardship and adversity and woe often surrounds me. Well, that's the struggle that he's describing tonight, and I want to look at how one of the saints in the past that God gave us a whole song to sing about this, and that Asaph's struggle is captured here, and where he moves through this, and how he works through his problems. That's one of the beautiful things here in the scriptures that we often see, especially in this altar, is a great struggle is raised, and there's a questioning in the mind and the heart, and a wrestling with the promises and the truth and by the end of the psalm all of the thinking is redirected that psalm especially noted in psalm 73 and that issue of wrestling with when it seems that the lord is not good or that the lord has forgotten me in his goodness what we have in the the sort of first 15 verses is essentially a stumble, if you will, a downward spiral, if you will, of the psalmist as he describes his struggle in this life. I think you will connect with it, and if you don't today, then you will tomorrow, because as you know, we never know what's coming. We just never know what's coming. Truly God, verse 1, 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. It can be summarized really, I think it's a clear thing that he's struggling with here. It's a known fact that God is good to his people, that God throughout history has been good to his people. I believe that. I think of the Belgic Confession. We all believe in our hearts and confess in our mouths that there is a single and simple spiritual being whom we call God, eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, unchangeable, infinite, almighty, completely wise, just, and here's how it ends. And good, and the overflowing source of all that is good. It's a wonderful statement. asaph says i can look over history and see that so it's not a psalm where a man has lost faith but as you see he comes to a crisis of faith in a sense he clearly recognizes and believes in the goodness of god god has always delivered his people god has always done good to his people god has always been true to his people but you get a sense of the struggle when he says he's good to the pure in heart but as for me well this is uh i think the heart of it you almost get a sense of the struggle right there he's good to the pure in heart but for me what i'm experiencing must say something different what i'm feeling what i'm facing is unlike one of your pure in heart. That's precisely, again, why I love the Psalter. It's so honest. It's so real. These are the songs that people sang when they came to worship, by the way. That's so important to say today. I mean, there's substance to this. There's meaning to this. We were in catechism today and talking about music, and one of our a senior said you know it's interesting that we sing and if you sing songs that are somewhat mindless or you sing highly repetitious songs nobody walks away remembering what they just sang they just thought about how how it felt what about the truth think about what's being sung here he doesn't um provide us precisely what he's facing praise be to god for that if we knew his struggle, we probably wouldn't apply it if we didn't connect with his own. It presents a sort of range of possibilities that call into question God's goodness, and not so much to everyone else, but notice how personal this is. But to me, but to me. So he's facing some kind of period of honest doubt. He's facing the question, God may be good, but as for me, my feet have almost slipped believing this i'm not seeing it verse 14 he says that he has been plagued all day long so something specific has happened to him god has in his providence sin a difficulty upon him and he cannot process it at some point i suppose we can say the goodness of god is called into question in our lives and the thing that we are confronted with seems to say that he's not good and you stand back struggling with this you've always shown goodness I see goodness over here I see goodness in their life I see goodness in that person's life they're not plagued with this they're not going through this but as for me why is my story so different well if you've ever been here what a psalm for you how do you explain goodness the word for slip my foot almost slipped here is important. It's really a sort of bookend of this psalm. It comes up again at the end. But I think he's in a sort of crisis of faith. I almost slipped in believing your goodness. I almost slipped in believing this anymore. I see nothing of goodness. As we know, when we sing psalms like this and we reflect upon psalms like this, the heart is a, as I mentioned this morning, a deep well and as we cover up there are often things going on in your hearts and your lives and you don't always feel like the praise song. I wonder what percentage of the congregation truth be told the heart is in deep turmoil at any given time. Ever thought about it? it doesn't matter if the person's smiling doesn't matter if the person's greeting is God there does he care is he a help to us well we begin to look at things with earthly eyes and that's what he does as he opens up this question and he begins to question God's goodness it leads him somewhere it leads him somewhere and the question that really comes out in the psalm is I'm struggling with the fact that experience -wise everything is so backward in this life. Here's what happened to Asaph, leader of the music. The psalm is presenting to you a downward descent. So he begins and he comes with these questions that make him begin to stumble, if you will. He almost slips seeing something completely different going on in the world. He almost slips when he looks outside of the church and he looks outside of the kingdom of God and he looks into the world and he says that seems backward for verse three I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked the boastful really I began to contemplate life you might say without God what would that be like life without God what would it be like life without God well here I am going through this whatever it is and i so i begin to survey those who have no interest in you i begin to survey those who have made the choice to reject you i begin to survey and think about those who even scorn you who run their mouths against you he says and i see something entirely different how is it that in in this world the wicked and those who reject the lord and hate him and despise him seem to have it so easy. They don't seem to worry about things. I seem to worry about everything, he might say. They don't seem to face these things. Why is it then, is it then that when I get close to God and I get close to his kingdom, that why is it then am I afflicted? But away from him, that doesn't seem so. Notice he begins to outline truths about the wicked here, at least as he sees it. First, they seem to go through life carefree. They seem to go through life absolutely carefree without any struggle. That overwhelmed him. Look at verse 4. They don't have pangs in their death until death. Their bodies are fat and sleek. They're not in trouble as others are. They're not stricken like the rest of mankind. It's as if he says, Lord, they seem to live completely free of any worry. They appear strong, and even all their way to their deaths, they don't worry about it. They go through life completely, seems to be with a lack of care about any of it, all the way till the face of death, and it doesn't even seem to bother them. You think of Ecclesiastes, there's a lot of wisdom in this psalm, wisdom kind of feel in literature of something like Ecclesiastes, in this meaningless life of mine, I've seen both of these, the righteous perishing in their righteousness, and the wicked living long in their wickedness. There's no worry. It's a marvel to me. Day and night, you might say they're all, you know, and today, you know, maybe this just fits with our day, that everyone, whoever lives, thinks they're going to heaven. heaven everyone's promised heaven what hollywood star isn't think that doesn't announce afterward they're a star in heaven they live without a care in the world they live doing whatever they want to do is that a good life is that a free life so you hear what he's wrestling with here i am a child of God being afflicted and behind it is I know the Lord's good and behind it is he certainly has the power to do good I believe he's sovereign believe he has the power to deliver but he doesn't with me many are if many are the afflictions of the righteous what's it worth if they get to live carefree without a care in the world without one observance of a sabbath day you know think of what we could be doing tonight right be at the of the padres playing does anyone think about that they're not being afflicted this is all backwards you know the rich in this life rarely are the righteous why do the elon musks prosper fill in the blank why are the most important positions in this life you know you think about this. Why are the most important positions in this life? What are the most important positions in this life? Well, I won't say pastors, but I could say teachers. I could say policemen. These are the most devalued positions. Everything's backward. The sports heroes are valued. The rappers get the millions. How in the world is that possible that snoop dog gets that and you're surprised i know that name asaph says they have more than a heart could wish and they scoff and they speak wickedly lord he says they even set their mouths against you and against the heavens their tongue walks out the earth that tongue means it just runs its mouth against the lord and everything that's righteous the wicked and they take their mouths and they shoot at God in the heavens. God doesn't know. Verse 11 describes the waters of a cup are full and drained by them in sin, like pouring out water. Look at them. They've set themselves against God. They have more than their hearts could imagine. They busy themselves in vain. They do nothing good with their lives. They heap up their riches. what don't they have? I'm dumbfounded that the world increases in all this and lives at ease. This was Job. Job's complaint. Why do the wicked live and become old? Yes, become mighty in power. Their descendants are established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear. Neither is the rod of God upon them. You hear what he's saying? God's not striking them. Yet they say to God, depart from us, for we don't desire the knowledge of your ways. Who is the Almighty that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him? Does any of this make sense? And then verse 14, a constant plaguing and chastisement I seem to receive from you. Now, I think the sort of big question that you could ask of this or ask of Asaph is, is this true? And you have to say much of it simply is not true. He's self -loathing. But you do have to say it's an experience that's real. It's real only when you look at this with earthly eyes and not with heavenly eyes. So verse 15 seems to say, my faith, what is it amounted to? The psalm is telling us that undoubtedly we will be challenged in life due to the circumstances of life and the circumstances that come upon us with the goodness of God. And I believe the Lord inspired this for us to consider that when we begin to look at things with earthly eyes and let our faith be driven by our experiences, it will take you somewhere. That's important. It will take you somewhere. And do you know where it will take you? In a place of bitterness to God. In a place of bitterness to God. Verse 16 is crucial. But when I thought how to understand all this, it seemed to me a wearisome task. That's a problem I could not, this is a problem I cannot solve. There are questions in life that are not good to dwell upon. You know that, right? There are some questions that God has not revealed to you that are not good to dwell upon. And I have counseled more than a few people and young men not to dwell upon questions that are harmful and that will lead you to a denial of your faith. But this is one of those questions that the Lord inspired for us and that he desired to give us great help with. And the psalm is remarkable in that way because it presents a recovery out of that kind of thinking and that's the transition through the psalm that verse 17 is the real shift in his recovery and you'll notice it there when he says but when i thought how to understand this it seemed to me a wearisome task until what i went into the sanctuary of god then i discerned their end that is absolutely crucial um it's a really powerful verse if you just meditate upon that where did he go he went back to worship when the psalmists are often describing coming into the sanctuary they're describing the act of gathering with God's people to worship the beauty of your tabernacles the beauty of your house have you noticed how this theme is so prevalent in the Psalter that God has set up a place to give us answers right and if people believe that then this place would be busting out the seams today and we couldn't fit people but this is the place God's given answers is the gathering of his people and the preaching of the holy gospel and the help that he's given us God's always had a people gather in worship and God has always had a dwelling place and it's not the building of course but it's his people and where his people gather he is specially with his people and he's nourishing and feeding them on the words of eternal life and God here gives us something beautiful by the inspiration of the spirit think of how we verse this psalm oh God how good thou art to all the pure of heart, though life seems vain. We sang this a few minutes ago. Burdened with anxious care, I groped in dark despair, till in thy house of prayer all was made plain. This is why Jesus spoke to Peter and said, do you want to leave? And he said, do you have the words of life? Where else are we going to go? All of this is made plain for you right now. the wicked have their heaven now if you have your best life now then there's hell to pay tomorrow here's the truth of the matter the wicked perish in their sin that's the truth of the matter the psalm is very graphic at this point they will be cast down in a moment verse 18 truly now notice the the word you set them in slippery places my foot had almost slipped but it didn't slip. You set them in slippery places. You make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away by utter terrors, like a dream when one awakes. Oh Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in my heart, I was brutish and ignorant. God is going to come one day, thundering, and he's going to sweep people away when they least expect it. They will be consumed like a dream. All of those words that they shot out against him and their lives wasted will be taken away from them and carried off in the sanctuary where God's people come. What did God's people always see? A sacrifice. A sacrifice made for sinners where they could gather before the presence of the Lord and see that atonement is made you know the value of the gospel that's preached to you all the time of what you have think of this morning when Judas went out and threw the money in the pot he made atonement I did kind of think to myself was the money and his death and offering see he did not listen to the gospel God provides a provision for you and at this point notice what he does in his confession of his sin now I want to talk about confession and repentance it's kind of all here when my soul was embittered when I was pricked in heart you'll notice that when I was embittered I was brutish and ignorant I was like a beast toward you what am I saying why did I start thinking like this he woke he wakes up and he realizes something that is the key to the psalm tonight and something we don't see as we should and what is it through all the sorrow and difficulties of this life here's the truth of the matter here's the the truth of the matter verse 23 3. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold my right hand. That's his arm of power keeping you. You guide me with your counsel throughout all of this life. Here's the truth of your life. You guide me with your counsel throughout this life, and afterward, you will receive me to glory what a beautiful verse remember what c .s lewis said it would seem that our lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak we are half -hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea we are far too easily pleased your desires are not too strong but too weak did you hear what he said what does he have if you have the lord you have you have the christ if you are his child you've been given everything and no one has strengthened this life apart from him nobody he alone is the strength of our lives the portion of our lives you should stop and read this verse at times and just meditate on it i think he stopped and he said what am i saying the only one that can satisfy my heart the only one that gives living water is the one i have what do you have today. Well, if you have Christ, you have everything. Your heart may fail you, your bodies may waste away, but when you have the Lord, you have everything, and He has committed Himself to supply your every need, to try you and test you and keep you in every affliction, to forgive you all of your sins, to counsel you throughout the whole course of your life with his word to assure you that afterward you will be received into glory pure happiness in this life is not tied to what we have in body and soul you have him you belong to him maybe we're fighting so hard to achieve what is never achievable in earthly happiness and we remain bitter to the lord when things don't go our way because the things we're facing are those things that he's using to wean us off of weak desires and turn our hearts to him, to realize what you already have. Not what you will have, what you already have. Do you understand that? The things we're facing, he's using to wean us off of weak desire. Notice what he says. Your loving kindness is what? That's what you have. His covenant, steadfast, loving kindness in Christ. Your loving kindness. And I believe it is good. Notice here the beautiful statement that you cannot miss. 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 that is where he came you know this is the very prayer of our lord our lord jesus christ fulfilled for us and he wants us to live in the joy of what has been given to you things may look backward things may seem backward but you should know tonight the Lord has promised to keep you and the Lord has given you everything and in whatever trial or affliction it is that does not mean his goodness is taken from you he will show his goodness in time he will fulfill his word to you but right now his loving kindness is upon you so trust him and that's why verse 28 says it's good for me to draw near to God can you say that tonight make every opportunity to worship and enjoy your god put your trust in him worship him where your treasure is there your heart will be this is what asap real asap realized tonight he has everything what a verse whom have i in heaven but you there's none nothing on earth that i desire besides you my heart and flesh may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever dear Christians you have everything now and in the future he will receive you to glory praise God let's pray