let's turn this morning to psalm 73 if you're visiting we're working through the psalms and i don't know how many more we'll do i don't know why i said that psalm 73 let's give our attention to god's word this morning 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 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 any 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 thus, 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 is 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. 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. May the Lord bless the hearing of His Word. There are certain things that are often said in the Bible and in the Scriptures that do not seem to correspond to reality. It makes for real confusion at times in the Christian life, doesn't it? For instance, let me throw a few at you. proverbs 10 the fear of the lord prolongs days but the years of the wicked shall be shortened so does that mean if i fear the lord i'm going to live a long life and that the wicked are going to have short lives is that what that means how do i understand that seems like that's what that's saying the blessing of the lord it makes rich the fear of the wicked it shall come upon him but the desire of the righteous shall be granted are you rich are we rich compared with the wicked psalm 32 many sorrows shall be multiplied to the wicked but he who trusts the Lord mercy shall surround him are the wicked sorry today are the wicked sorry is that what we see in this world we've been taught to believe this is kind of a general rule of how things work right i mean the general rule is if you follow the lord and you generally do what is right in this life you're going to experience god's blessing and those who turn away from him those who lead bad lives well they're going to be punished that's kind of the general rule right is that true always we believe that to some degree or a lot the problem is is when none of that appears true what do i then do how in the world am i uh to process and to think through these things when everything i believe as a christian does not seem to correspond to reality and i read these verses and i say come on i doesn't fit i had one of our students write in uh from college the other day and he was really struggling with this an entire family christian family was going to visit their daughter at northwestern university and the family got in a car accident and they all died and he was struggling how do you think through this the message he heard was don't be troubled don't be troubled about these things And he really struggled with that. Shouldn't I be troubled? These are hard issues to deal with. It's the struggle of Christians often that what we confess and what we say about God just doesn't seem always to show itself. And that can really bring a crisis of faith, can it? That's the struggle of Psalm 73. That's the issue that Asaph is dealing with this morning. This is what he has come to face and he is really struggling with one thing he is struggling with the goodness of god i want to look at how this um this saint wrestled through these issues years ago where he found the answer when um when nothing seemed to prove or validate what he believed about the goodness of god and how faith in the lord and his word how that all corresponded how that all worked out how he wrestled through reality and faith what you have in the first um 15 verses here is essentially a downward spiral and that downward spiral begins when he when he looks at things with worldly eyes and so we're going to look at this first section kind of looking at things with worldly eyes and then how things are made clear for him when he looks with redeemed eyes and then hopefully we'll be challenged to look unto Jesus as the author of Hebrews tells us to do look at verse one 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 could be summarized like this I um it's a known fact that God is good God has always been good to his people I can look throughout history and I can see that god has been good asaph is looking over the long history of israel and he's seeing god's goodness he's delivered his people i prayed in the prayer this morning he's always delivered his people to the pure in heart to your righteous lord this is where he starts but notice the contrast in verse 2 but as for me right there he's entered into this real crisis with his own experience with his own life i've almost slipped believing that i have almost slipped believing that but as for me because what i'm experiencing what i'm feeling what I'm facing is unlike that of your pure in heart. You hear his problem. Do you hear the doubt that's going through his mind right now? Whatever the circumstances that has confronted him, whatever he has been struck with, he is facing this honest period of doubt, and he says it. You're good. As for me, I've really struggled right now to believe that. I don't see it. What's going on? well verse 14 gives us a little bit of indication that something has gone on because he says he has been plagued all day long something specific has happened as like many of the other psalms we're not told what specifically the circumstance is you could apply it in a variety of ways terrible tragedy what did he face maybe a loved one died maybe it's sickness something has happened and he views it as a continuous plague from the lord upon him and i want to make sure this morning that that we really capture the heart of his struggle all of us at some point will be tested with this all of us at some point are going to be confronted with the goodness of god and the goodness of god is going to be called into question and what are we going to do when it is and and and the circumstance and the thing that has happened in front of us does not seem to declare it at all that he is good and you stand back from this and you feel like saying well it's good for them it's good for them it's good for them it's good for them but what in the world does this say this is where asaph is this is where asaph is i have read about the goodness. I hear it preached all the time. The preacher man stands up and says God is good. Where is it? Where is it? How do you explain goodness in life of this? This is the event that whatever has happened is so distressing to Asaph. He's looking back and it's interesting. He had almost walked away from the faith. I believe that's what he says. When my feet almost slipped, he says, I almost let it all go. What in the world is this worth? He was ready to abandon and walk away from the very thing that he had at one time become sure of. And what an instructional moment, isn't it? Because a man who at one time in life was strong and sure and confident had all of a sudden slipped into this period of intense doubt. intense struggle i see nothing of goodness and i believe this is a crucial moment that the psalm challenges us to be aware of it's a crucial moment because i had never forget i had a very wise elder uh one time tell me that you know when tragedies happen in people's lives and when hardships happen in people's lives people shift you could hold to a position all your life you can be strong about this and strong about that and let a life experience tragedy happen and people will shift something happens to a son something happens to a daughter something happens to a spouse people will shift their belief they will shift their theology and positions on things all based upon reality and feeling and circumstances not corresponding to the truth that was previously held. Real. This happens. This is where he is. Goodness is ripped away. And what happens when we become frozen? And we can't sing. Let all exalt Jehovah's goodness. Maybe somebody was here this morning and couldn't sing it. What do we do? How do you feel? It's a time of despair. you feel like giving up and then what begins to happen it's the questioning isn't is god really there does god really care is he really invested in me in my life does he is he is he he's that great he's got i heard a secular person say he's got wars to worry about right why is he worrying about us well here's what happened to asap here's what he did the psalm is presenting to you this this downward spiral and because of this present tragedy his eyes have fallen away from the lord he is not looking to the savior and they have started to survey here's what he started to do he started to look outside this is what happens you start to look on the outside and you start to survey the lives of those who don't know God and he says they're slipping they're slipping because I am seeing something completely different going on in the world notice where he goes in verse 3 notice where this begins to take him for I was envious of the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked see where he's gone it takes him to the question of why the lord allows now this is his perception the godless to have a painless life pain-free life and those who put their hope in him suffer so the question has gone deeper what is what is really my christianity about what is it really worth i mean i have i have made the commitment i have counted the cost i follow him i've generally done what's right this is the mentality i've done what he's called me to do and this is what i come up with this this is what happened this is what i experienced he says in verse 2 my feet almost stumbled if i have to go through this to be a christian what's it worth and what is the reason for this what is it i said we all accept this general rule of thumb kind of thing that God rewards the godly God is with the righteous and he punishes the wicked right we'll even say this to our children at times if you follow the Lord then you will be blessed in this life right is that always true depends on how you define blessing I suppose but it's an interesting moment for Asaph and and he's moving here he's going somewhere the problem that we're now faced with the problem that we're really struggling with is in fact the sovereignty of god isn't it because we believe in a sovereign god we we believe he holds up everything by his powerful hand he's ordained everything he is involved he knows our even our thoughts he's determined even the boundaries and the lines where we're going to dwell he's that involved so the one who upholds everything the one who keeps everything the one who knows everything, the one who determines everything, and nothing here to deal with it. Down, down, down. He's gone. The problem goes worse. It gets worse. Because then he takes his eyes off of the inside, if you will, and he starts to look and survey the lives of those who don't don't know God, saying I was envious. Envious of the wicked. Here I am going through this struggle and when I begin to survey, I begin to survey those who have absolutely no interest in you and you know what they're doing? They're scorning you and look at their lives. I mean, look at their lives. How is it that the wicked in this world seem to have it so easy and instead God's people seem to get hit. Notice he outlines two truths about the wicked here. First, they seem to go through this life careless and without troubles. This overwhelmed him. He says in verse 4, There are no pangs in their death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men. Can you hear it, Lord? Those who hate you freely live and they appear strong and they go all the way to death and they don't even worry about it. We go through this with some kind of fear often, don't we? And we go through the struggle and we feel, you know, we struggle with doubt. We struggle, I mean, this is honest, isn't it? We struggle with maybe at the end I won't make it. These people don't even have any of those thoughts. Isn't there something terribly wrong with the fact that the wicked can go to their grave and not even worried about it? There's no worry at all? Who even believes in a hell today? It's all but been eliminated from every other world religion. Who even talks about hell? Even in Christianity, you don't hear messages on hell. When have you ever seen a sermon title that said, Hell? They go through life strong. And in the last hours, then somebody like Michael Jackson dies and everyone says, oh, heaven got a star. Boy, the worse you are, the better heaven is reserved for you, it seems. And I marvel at this. They just, they don't seem to suffer. One of the most moving scenes I remember on the news was a bunch of Christians back in the South and they were all huddled up around a church. They were holding hands and the film caught it. And they were all singing Amazing Grace because their husbands had been stuck down in one of those mines. And this is what they did for a living back in Kentucky. And so the news came back. They all had died. So here are these men, charcoaled lungs, down how many feet below the earth, trying to act out a living for their families. And then that happens. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. i don't know what they thought when they turn on tv and they see beyonce half naked at the super bowl i noticed this past week kind of ashamed i even know who these people are but chris brown and rihanna planning a wedding they're pop stars today and this was the article they want tattoo artists fire breathers and a naked wait staff they're going to have pre-rolled joints at the reception and the wedding will all be and i quote about swagger bling and sin this is the culture this is what we're in it's all backwards come on this is all backwards asaph says it in verse seven and eight they have more than their hearts could wish they speak scoff and speak wickedly lord he says they even set their mouth against you in the heavens and their tongue walks throughout the earth and they take their lips and they fire it off at you and you let this go on and they say god doesn't know they just drink a cup of water it's all of it is like the waters of a full cup are drained by them they just let out they drink water and pour it out like they pour out sin those who have set themselves against god actually have more than their hearts could wish they busy themselves in vain they heap up riches what don't they have and here i sit dumbfounded over the fact that the world increased creases in riches and i'm plagued all day long amazing moment in the song isn't it job went through this very same thing i mean the wording of Job is Job 21 why do the wicked live and become old why do they 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 yet they say to God depart from us for we don't desire a 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 barely pay the mortgage i'm thinking through asaph's mind barely pay the mortgage see my loved ones suffer and i come to church and i sing let us all exalt jehovah's goodness the first 15 verses really have spiraled him down to make him question whether this is even worth it Now I said that many of you may not identify with this now and you say, I'm so blessed. And you know, visiting some of the older saints, I hear this all the time. The Lord is so good. And it's moving to hear. But the psalm is telling us that we will undoubtedly be challenged in this life at some point with that. And the experiences and the circumstances of life, you're going to be challenged with what you believe about the goodness of God. And what do you do? And I believe the Lord, I mean, it's really remarkable the Lord would inspire this psalm and put this here for us. That the Lord would give us this psalm to consider what happens when these moments come when we start to look at things with earthly eyes. That's exactly what He's doing. And we let our faith be driven by experiences. It'll take you somewhere. And where has this landed him? Did you notice the tone of the attitude that's coming out here? He is bitter. Bitter. He says, when I thought about how to understand this, verse 16, it's wearisome. It's a wearisome task. This is the problem I could not solve. Do we get here? How many of you are here? How many of you have stayed here for a long time? you can do that. And I assure you that you'll never get out until you listen to what Asaph is saying and telling you this morning. I've seen people bitter for a long time. And it's because of this. Circumstance driven. How did he get out? Verse 17 is a real shift in the recovery, isn't it? 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. Where did it start? What are you doing today? You've come out of the world and you've entered in somewhere. And Asaph says, I did the very same thing years ago. I went in and I listened. And I looked around, and I understood something. Have you noticed how much of a theme this has been in this altar, that God has set up a place to give us an answer, and God has chosen a place to meet with us, and a dwelling place where we can come and that we can be secure, and that we can be given answers from this? We ultimately may not find it in our singing, which is where much of the evangelical church has gone wrong today. They think they're going to find it in the music. You're not going to find the answer in the music because music goes up. What is God doing in the preaching of the gospel? He's giving you an answer. And this is what Psalm 204, O God, how good thou art to all the pure in heart. And this is what we sing in Psalm 73. Burdened with anxious care, I groped in dark despair till in thy house of prayer. All was made plain. I had a letter from an Abounding Grace listener this past week. And it was a really moving letter and he poured out his struggles of life and he was telling me of how much he's struggling in sin and discouragement and what a mess his family is. And I wrote to encourage him. I wrote to encourage him and what do you think is the first thing I ask? Where are you going to church? Where are you going to be fed with God's means of answering your dilemma and strengthening you for the Christian life? What do you think the answer was? He's not. And this is the thing that is so undervalued today. And the Psalms are telling us over and over, these are worship. These were used in worship to communicate this to us. And we're getting to Psalm 92, so it is good to sing your praises, O Most High, to declare what? Your loving kindness every morning and your faithfulness every night on the Sabbath. And so I encouraged him. But notice here, when his eyes were taken off the earth and they were focused heavenward, what occurred? The earthliness began to diminish. And that's what essentially happens every Sunday. Your earthliness is being attacked because we go out in the week and we are defiled with earthliness. We are defiled with earthly mindedness and we get consumed with things and this and that. And notice what's happening here. His earthliness is being confronted and as he's in the sanctuary he's seeing things he's seeing the sacrifices he's seeing everything that was done in the sanctuary to make provision for atonement and so he comes and he sees all of this and what does he realize when he comes into the sanctuary what does he say he realized i discerned their end now he's going to start there and move back up when god arises by his might it's going to be so sudden unbelievers are going to be utterly swept away in the terror by the terror of his might and his glory as when one awakes from a dream it's all going to be ripped away they're going to be swept away with terror this is what he learned looking at this it's going to be awful sudden destruction is going to come on this world and this is what's going to happen in thunder and glory he's going to come what you see and this is why we tell our boys and girls careful the posters you put up right they're not to be idolized all of that outward glory is going to be swept away in a moment when i was um up north in my first parsonage um there were a lot of animals that lived under that parsonage and i trapped a few of them and one of them that i trapped was a giant possum fat and sleek as the text says it was and it had been peeing under the parsonage for a long time i trapped it i was happy that i trapped it and i thought well how do i dispose of it i went out and bought two packs of this decon stuff and i started feeding it to the possum he ate both packs and he loved it and then i finally said maybe i should read the directions because this isn't working it needs to be activated with water so after two packs i dumped some water in there it was swift And I always thought, that's a lot like the wicked. It's a lot like the wicked. It's sad, isn't it? They drink up all the luxuries of this life. They live for this life. They shoot out the mouth at God. And God just told you they're being cast on slippery places. None of it will save them. And you know what Asaph's realizing? I'm envying that? I want that? Really? In the sanctuary, he had come in and here was a place of peace and goodness and holiness and purity and gospel. And here he can confess his sin and hear that God forgives his sin. That's what you heard this morning. When my soul was embittered, he says, and I was pricked in heart. I was, notice what he says, this is a confession here. I was brutish and I was ignorant. I was like a beast towards you, oh Lord. What am I doing? I'm acting like a beast. You ever seen a beast in the field with its head straight up in the air? Of course not. It chews the ground, doesn't it? I was like a beast. What was I thinking? Let's face it. We as Christians operate thinking that because we're Christians, because we're moral people, and those are the really bad people out there, we've counted the cost. We deserve better from the Lord. We deserve better from the Lord. That's in our thought. That's in us today. It's in me. And if we're honest, our Christianity is as deep as our prosperity. Oh yeah, we all have a little bit of Osteen in us. We think, oh, we don't cheat. We don't do that. we lead morally upright lives. Therefore, God should bless. Asaph realized life doesn't work that way. Looking at things from heavenly eyes and with redeemed eyes, God has promised us something that is to come. But sometimes we're so desperately trying to create it here, we refuse to see what is laid out for us. That's why we need this. Peace, health, happiness is secured for you where? In the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness shall dwell and the wicked will be put away forever. And I long for that. But you can't get it here. And for the present, we enter the kingdom through much tribulation. The whole Bible has told us that. But you know their end. And Asaph says, And I realize right here today, my, where I'm going, my end. When we begin to tie prosperity and happiness to what the wicked have, homes and woe-free children and woe-free lives and thickness and blessing, you know what you're setting yourselves up for. You're setting yourselves up to land right in the middle of verse 15 and knock it out. He may give you a lot of physical blessing in this life. He may not. Take two people. One's poor, one's rich. Is the poor Christian less of a Christian than the rich one? I believe Asaph was pulled out of this all the more as he realized he's a citizen of another country. But it's not that he should live this life expecting this life to be lifeless or miserable or lacking. That's not what he's saying here and that's what I love about this song. In what is most important, this man is saying, I'm as full as I ever could be in this life. and sometimes we don't see this as we should through all of the sorrow and all of the continual grief he's being put through what is the truth of the matter verse 23 nevertheless i am continually with you and you hold my right hand you guide me with your counsel And afterward, you will receive me into glory. There's your answer as the life of the believer, right? Christ is continually holding you up. That's the reality, even through the dark moments. And when your feet almost slip, Asaph was not saying, I held myself up. Asaph was saying, Lord, you put out your hand and grabbed me. The whole way through. you took your right hand to power you lifted me up in the midst of sorrow the truth of the matter is i was always with you and that's what's going to happen to me after this light affliction which is but for a moment afterwards i go right on into glory i think we come to the most powerful part of the psalm in verse 25 whom have i in heaven but you and there is 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 i think you should stop and do that when you're feeling incredibly worldly because i felt it coming out of last week and you should stop and you should say look at what i really have i think he stopped and he says the only one who can truly satisfy has given himself to me. What do you have today? If you have Christ, if you have Jesus Christ who lived and died, he has offered you living water. That's why I preach to the woman at the well. He's offered you true bread from heaven, not the food of this world that perishes, but him. And when you have him, you have everything. And you know what he's just told you? He cares for you. He supplies your every need. He does love you. And he forgives. And he gave his life to declare it. That you being joined to him by faith alone might know that you are rich. As Paul said to the Corinthians, you have everything. Everything. Pure happiness in this life is not tied to our homes. it's not tied to our great aspirations for our children. It's not tied to our bank account. It's not tied to our jobs. It's not tied to our social status. None of it can satisfy what Christ does. And whoever drinks of him, Jesus said, whoever drinks of me, you will never thirst. And out of your heart will flow rivers of living water because I'm going to give you my spirit. This is why Paul could say, I've suffered all things as loss for the gaining of Christ. Whether I live or die, I belong to Him. Body and soul and life and in death, Heidelberg one, I belong. Maybe we're fighting sometimes so hard to achieve what is absolutely unachievable in this life that the Lord has to knock us back. Think about that this morning. Your loving kindness, O Lord, is better than life. better than life. Your bodies may waste away. Your health may go out in the tank. But God's loving kindness to you and His Son is better than your life. And I believe that's why Asaph says in verse 28, it is good for me to draw near to God. Can you say that today? It is good to be in the house of the Lord today because He just purged all my worldliness. Boy, did I need it. Make every opportunity you have then to be here. Because he wants to do that for his people. That you might enjoy him. That you might know him. That you might be satisfied in him. For, as Jesus said, where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Amen. O Lord our God, we thank you for your wondrous word. And we praise you for a psalm on every occasion. There are brothers and sisters here going through this struggle right now. May these words have been the greatest words of peace to them. And whatever you have in front of us in the future, may we never take our eyes off what we have. Thank you, Lord, for giving your Son for us and that we might enjoy that life and that life abundantly. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.