So I invite you to turn to Psalm 73, Psalm 73 found on page 616 in your pew Bible, 616 Psalm 73 as we consider this familiar and wonderful song. Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord, 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. 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 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? Behold, these are the wicked. Always at ease, they increase in riches. All in vain, I kept my heart clean. and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I had 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's 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. And there ends the reading of God's wonderful Word. Well, in light of this morning, I thought Psalm 73 would be a good follow-up tonight to consider the basic thing that we considered in Matthew 13 this morning in the parable of the wheat and the tares and the development of the kingdom of the great question of why the the terrors and the unbelievers seem to have such a prosperous life they seem to have it easy they seem to to go forward without any worry or out any care in this life and this tonight i thought would be helpful to consider what is the real difference between the righteous and the wicked notice that this is a very black and white psalm in that regard that it is drawing a great contrast between the righteous and the wicked in this life. And we don't typically talk a lot like that very often anymore in the Christian community. We're afraid to make those kinds of distinctions for sounding self-righteous. And the Scriptures constantly do this. They speak in this kind of way of making a great divide between the peoples of God and the peoples of the world, the wheat and the tares, the two seeds that we considered this morning. And this is important tonight for what we essentially have in this particular psalm is a struggle of the man Asaph, a struggle with this very perplexing and this very confusing question about life. You see it right in verse 1. 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. It's an interesting beginning to a psalm, isn't it? A fascinating beginning. It can be summarized this way. It is a known fact that God has always been good to His people. No one's ever questioned that. When His people look at the history of His goodness, who has questioned that? When we look collectively at God's goodness to His people, it's always been known. It's always been seen. I have no problem saying that. But you'll notice here what He says. I'm having a hard time seeing that for me. He shifts from the collective to the individual, doesn't He? to the personal. I'm not so sure I see it to me. He says it in verse 2, as for me, my feet had almost stumbled. I had almost slipped in believing that for me. It's a very fascinating way to pitch and explain his problem. He's saying that what I'm particularly experiencing in this life, what I am facing in this life is unlike what the pure and hard have experienced. You hear his problem. He's entered a period of doubt. We might think of the psalm in doubt and temptation. He's in this time of doubt, Psalm 73. Whatever circumstance that has confronted him, he is facing an honest period of doubt. You think about the fact that the Lord inspired this to show the honest cries and struggles of his people. I've almost slipped believing that God is good to me. All day long, verse 14, I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. What in the world is going on with this guy? God has allowed something to happen. God has in His providence and arranging of things allowed some terrible circumstance to overcome Him, and God has confronted Him in the midst of it. He feels confronted by God. He feels rebuked by God. What did He face? I don't know. That's one of the things I love about the Scriptures is sometimes they're not too specific so that we learn how to think and learn to apply these things to us. I could go through 20 or 30 scenarios tonight of what he may have faced but i think you might just say he faced the real struggle of living in this confusion this real confusion that the psalm is describing i don't get it i am confused and it calls the goodness of god into question you stand back and feel like saying this you have always shown goodness to your people i've witnessed your goodness in the life of others i've read of your goodness i've heard it preached all your life we sing of the goodness of the lord we sing when we enter into worship psalms of praise praise to the lord the almighty the king of creation he is good he shows his goodness to the good and faithful but i call him to question that for me. And the event was, or the problem was so distressing to Asaph. He is looking back and he realizes that he's almost abandoned the faith because of it. That's the sense you get here. I've almost slipped. I've almost slipped. You'll notice that later in the psalm, there's another slipping that happens isn't there surely you cast the wicked on slippery places i've almost slipped with god's goodness i've almost slipped seeing and believing this it's a kind of crisis of faith it's it's a big crisis that the man has has come upon and and and that's why this psalm is so so helpful for us it's very helpful for us because i believe that all of us it's how do we not go through this life and at some point come to this questioning of whether this is all real questioning of whether this is all true and this is a crucial moment that i think we have to be aware of because i believe the psalm really captures in this particular circumstance the heart of what brings about such doubt like this i'll never forget that a wise elder told me years ago, when the tragedies of life happen, what he has seen is that people shift. People shift. When life gets hard, when some great tragedy happens, you study the story of Nicholas Wolterstorff. People shift their beliefs, their theology, their positions on things, all based on the conflicts and the sorrows of life. How could I explain a good God in light of this? And they hadn't ever faced that until this tragedy came. Sudden tragedy, sudden events, all of a sudden we feel goodness has been ripped away and we question, was it even ever there? That's the heart of this psalm. What happens when you've come to this kind of place, this time of despair, of feeling like giving up? then what begins to happen is then we question God's presence and does God care as we're rocked to the core of our our faith and we begin to look at things with earthly eyes and the one great question that begins to come out is well what is this even worth if that's how it's going to go what is it all worth what do we do well the psalm is sort of presenting to us this this downward descent of asaph for a moment he'll come back up and get get a big gas of air but he goes down for a bit his eyes have fallen away from the promises away from the savior and for a moment they have they have started to survey the lives of those who don't have this god who don't know this god all with the question is that life better it seems easier it just seems a lot easier i've come to this knowledge i've come to this i have the scriptures but since i have it seems to be nothing but conflict but for them it doesn't it doesn't he had almost slipped seeing something completely different going on in the world. Notice where he goes in verse 3. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked, for they have no pains until death. Their bodies are fat and sleek. You see where he's gone. It takes him to the question of why the Lord allows the godless to seemingly have a pain-free life. why do those who put their hope in the Lord suffer? This is where the man is and we can surely take that. What is Christianity even worth? I've made this commitment. I've counted the cost. I've generally done what I'm called to do and this is what I come up with. This is what happens. This is what I get. I think that's a real struggle, isn't it? My feet had almost stumbled. If I have to go through life like this to be a child of God, I'm not sure I want it. I'm not sure I want it. Well, I think there's some reasoning behind that line of thinking that we'll look at here in a moment, But initially, we all kind of accept a general rule of thumb. What is it? That God rewards the godly. Right? God is with the righteous. And He punishes the wicked. That's what we think. That's true, isn't it? Of course it's true. But reality seems to be that I'm being punished and the wicked are being rewarded. So we move here. The problem now we are overwhelmed with is the fact of the sovereignty of God. The God who I confess made everything. The God who I confess knows all things. The God who I confess made and orders and controls everything who constantly says He's good to His people and does nothing to change this. Envious of them. I was envious of the arrogant when, listen, I saw their prosperity. They make it all the way to death. Here I am worried about this and worried about that. They make it all the way to death. And it doesn't seem to bother them a lick. Their bodies are fat and sleek. They don't seem to have our pains. How is it that in this sad world, the wicked who reject the Lord seem to have it easy. How is it? Lord, I don't understand it. And instead, while His people suffer, He will allow the wicked to have heaven on earth. He'll allow the wicked to have all this when he doesn't have to. You see? Well, this is what overwhelmed Asaph when he says in verse 4, they are not in trouble as others, They are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Those who hate you live freely this way. Here's the worst part. They all seem in their wicked life to completely disregard you, O Lord. Did you see that there? Pride is their necklace. Violence. Now think of our society today. I mean, how can you not see this reality unfolding right in front of you? Pride is their necklace. Violence covers them like a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness. Their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and they speak with malice. Loftily, they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongue struts through the earth. Verse 8 is interesting, isn't it? Loftily, they speak concerning oppression. it's an interesting phrase to consider in our day because I think you see it all the time. They seem to be about everything in their eyes that is good and moral and right and all the social causes they're talking about of oppression and injustice with all their answers. And they pompously speak against all this stuff. They sound so righteous in their causes. but look at how they live total hypocrisy and they say in the midst of it all how can God know does God know anything is there knowledge in the most high you know who is really hit with this struggle lo and behold in the scriptures Job he could have written psalm 73 why do the wicked job 21 7 live and become old yes become mighty in power their descendants are established with them in their sight their offspring before their eyes their houses are safe from fear neither is the rod of god upon them but contrary it's on me you see yet they say to god depart from us for we do not 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 here i sit right everything in this life is full of conflict full of stress and worry. Nothing goes as planned. What do I have to show for all this? And then I face constant, it seems, chastisement. The first 15 verses comes to this great conclusion. Did you notice that here in verse 15 for all day long i have been stricken and rebuked every morning if i said thus i would 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 to be a wearisome task i can't figure this out so there's the first 15 verses all that comes to that painful conclusion now many of you may be saying right now well this is a pretty bleak and dark outlook on things i'm pretty blessed i'm blessed i'm blessed i know nothing of this the psalm is um is telling us undoubtedly that you will be challenged in this life due to circumstances with this at some point and then whatever blessing you had in the previous will be forgotten and you will be consumed with the first 15 verses of this psalm the question for me tonight is is this true is that true do the wicked have it easier how would you answer that do you think that living a life apart from the lord is easier and the answer is of course not of course not see i believe the lord inspired this for us to consider that when we begin to look at things only with these earthly eyes and let our faith be driven by circumstances everything that we considered this morning from the weed and the tares it will take you somewhere and this is where right here this is where you'll go right here in complete bitterness to god and i've seen it I've seen it. In fact, verse 16 is so crucial when he says that I thought how to understand this. It seemed to me a wearisome task. This is a problem I could not solve. What he's saying is that's what the end game is to this thinking. There is no answer. It leaves you in bitter perplexion against God. How did he get out of it? Verse 17 is the shift that begins his recovery, isn't it? When I began to think how to understand this, it seemed wearisome until I went where? Into the sanctuary of God. I just love that verse. The Psalter is so emphasizing of this basic truth. I had a recovery when I gathered and came to the house of the Lord. You notice how much of a theme this is in the Psalter, how much time it gives to this emphasis in the Psalter that God has a dwelling place. Psalm 204, O God, how good thou art to all the pure of heart we sing, though life seems vain. Burdened with anxious care, I groped in dark despair, till in thy house of prayer all was, what? Made plain. Look how prevalent the Psalter is with this thinking that when we come to the Lord, when we listen to his word, and we take our eyes off the earth and off the world, and we're focused heavenward, that the solutions begin to come. The earthliness begins to diminish. In other words, he hears from the Lord what's going to happen. What's going to happen? They're going to perish. They're going to perish. Notice verse 18. Here's the truth. Truly, you set them in slippery places. You make them to fall in ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by tears. Do you want to live with that threat of being swept away in a moment? Because they do. They do. sudden destruction comes upon them. Jesus talked about it all the time. God is going to come in thundering glory and sweep them away. What you see in the sad world is a minute away from fire. You understand that? A minute away from fire when He will burn it all up this is what Ahab is beginning, Asaph is beginning to think. I'm envying that. I'm envying that life. What did he see in the sanctuary? Jesus. Jesus. And the sanctuary was the announcement of a gospel. The whole sacrificial system talked about it. We think about all we've studied about the altar and the sacrifices and the announcement of the purification of God's people. And at this point, notice he's heading back up. He's heading back up to the surface. He's starting to get air again. And what has he could do? The first thing he does is he begins to confess his sin. 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 thinking this way. That's what he's saying. We all operate on the assumption that because we're Christians, because we are more moral than all the bad people out there, because we have counted the cost, We deserve a ride on into heaven on a couch, right? There's the sin right there. The sin of self-righteousness. We're the wheat. Give me the prosperity now. And if we're honest, our Christianity, especially in America, is often as deep as that prosperity is in our lives. We don't think, we cheat, we don't do that, we're morally upright, therefore God should bless us. Asaph just realized life just doesn't work that way in this world, does it? God has promised us the comforts that we're after when? Glory in the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness shall dwell. And yet most of you would say that along the way he's given you a lot of it. But the reality is through the present we enter the kingdom through a lot of tribulation. But when we begin to tie our Christianity to the longing for what the wicked have in homes and woe free this and woe free that and thickness and blessing, we're setting ourselves up to remain in the bitterness of what the psalm is describing here. Now think about this, through all of the sorrow and continuous grief he's been put through, what is the truth of the matter? What is the truth of the matter? Well, what is not true is that they're living a pain-free life. I think you can see that today, isn't it? How can you think that the wicked are living a pain-free, happy life? Do you think that? Look at them. It's why the world's in the state it's in right now. They're all fighting. They hate each other. They bite and devour one another. And they're never satisfied. It's not true that they're leading a good life or a satisfied life. They may think they are. But that's a far different thing. You have to look a lot deeper than that. but what do you lack? That's the question. You see, you have been brutish in this thinking. You have been beastly in this thinking. Why? Because you have some of the most beautiful statements in this psalm in the whole Bible. I love this. Verse 23, nevertheless, I am continually with who? You. let that set in. This is the essence of God's covenant of grace promise. You are, I am your God. Listen to me. I am your God. And you are my people. Want to put a value on that? There's no value to that. That's the greatest thing that could ever be said to you. I am continually with you. You hold my right hand. Get the imagery. You guide me with your counsel. And then, after it's all over, afterward, you receive me in the glory. That's your life. That's your life. Christ is continually holding you up. Christ is holding your right hand. Christ has loved you and saved you. I think Asaph was saying so powerfully, I never once kept myself from stumbling, but the reality is when I almost slipped, you took hold of me. And your right hand of power, you lifted me up. And you've always held me amidst all the sorrows of this life and I see it because really all that really matters in this life that I have you and that's everything. After this light affliction, which is just for a moment, you'll afterward receive me into glory and he breaks out. It's in this beautiful, in verse 25, whom have I in heaven but you? There's nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. You should stop and do that and say that in life. Think about what you really have. And you start saying, that is the greatest, saddest of all lives that is going on before us of those who don't have the Lord. What do you have today? If you have Christ, you have everything. If your heart fails you tonight, if your bodies waste away, when you have Him, you have everything. When everything falls apart around you, when you have Him, you have everything. He's with you. He loves you. He's forgiven you. he gave you his life he's joined you to him by faith that you might know and have the joy of this comfort behold what manner of love the father has given us that we should be called sons of god that's a lot happier than looking out and wanting a home and a good life and all that isn't it this is why paul could say i've suffered loss for everything for gaining of christ whether I live or die, I belong to Him. Maybe we're sometimes fighting so hard to achieve what is never achievable in earthly happiness that it keeps us from seeing what we really have. Because we have yet to enjoy what is really given to us. Jesus, who is the strength of our life. Your loving kindness, Lord, is better than life. And I believe that's why verse 28 says that it is good for me to be near to God. You know that's what you're doing right now. You came tonight to be near to God. What a blessing. What a blessing. I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works. That's a life worth living, isn't it? That's a life worth living. I'm reminded tonight of what Jesus said. You can't serve God and mammon, but He said so beautifully, where your treasure is, there your heart will be. That's what Asaph's describing for you. And I hope you'll go out this week and realizing what you've been given in the Lord Jesus Christ. And don't buy into the lie of this world they're not receiving a kingdom their kingdom is being pulled from them but you've been given a savior and a kingdom that can never be shaken let's thank him together tonight heavenly father we praise the name of the lord thank you for being so faithful to instruct us in your wonderful word and we need to be reminded of this great truth the blessedness of being near to God and having what is most important. Let our feet not slip in buying into the lie of this world and everything that it sets in front of us for we see that they are surely cast on slippery places and in a moment could be swept away to hell. But you do and are good to your people and that includes us, me, all of us here. So we call upon the name of the Lord tonight asking that we would trust You in all circumstances for Your right hand upholds us because You have set Your King on Zion and given a Savior to deliver us. We have hope and peace and life in His name. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.