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Psalm 73
Good evening, it is good to be with you this evening and I hope To give you this hope that we can trust in God. Tonight and in our present day in our country. We can trust God. I Am NOT going to make you stand.
I did this morning and it was a long passage. I'm not going to do that. But I do want to read this passage for us. Psalm 73. I'm gonna start in verse 1 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 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 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 their 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 towards you. Nevertheless, I'm 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 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. Let's pray together Lord. I pray that you'd bless the preaching of your word tonight.
That you'd bless the hearers that you would have their eyes opened to see what they have in Christ. That they can trust him that he is more than enough and we pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. All right, I don't know if you guys carry cash around with you.
But this is our US dollar on the back of it it has four words you may May know this may just look past it not think about it, but it says in God we trust. Is that true for our country? Many Think that that is that's where a Christian country.
But that's a slogan that we have printed on our money that we use. And I won't but I want to tell you about a man this morning who it's more than just a slogan for him. He believed it and it was his life that he trusted in God.
So I want to tell you about ASAP a little bit before we go into our text. ASAP was a Levite. He was of a priestly line. ASAP was appointed by King David to direct the music of the worship of God in the tabernacle.
Or the Ark of the Covenant rested. He directed the worship of God through three kings David Solomon and Jeroboam. He wrote 12 Psalms Psalm 73 through 83 and Psalm 50. He would go into the tabernacle every day in Israel and he would lead the people in the worship of God and This is his plea.
This is a song that they would sing and so starting at verse 1. Truly God is good to Israel to those who are pure in heart. Before ASAP begins the meat of this psalm. He pens this reality truly God is good to Israel.
This is the foundation for the rest of the letter. He places his feet upon this rock before he says anything else. He makes this crystal clear affirmation. This is a lens that he saw everything in his life.
God is good to Israel. He is fixing to lay down some things to his people that many would be viewed as a stumbling block. ASAP you are a leader of God's people. How are you thinking this way? So he sets the foundation.
This is what you have to understand before I go into any of this. God is good. God is objectively good. This needs to be our lens as well as we view the world around us. We view everything else. We need to place our feet on this solid rock.
God is good all the time and all that he does. It is sure and it will never change. It is not up for debate the goodness of God. It doesn't matter if you think God is good and someone else doesn't. God is good all the time.
And all the time God is good. His goodness permeates from all that he does. Not just the ones that we think are good. There is not one fault with God his mercy in his mercy. He is good in his grace. He is good in his judgments.
He is good in his giving and withholding. He is good in his creation in his sustaining his chastisements. His patience his love his anger his wrath his justice. Every attribute of God is good. I could say it this way.
Who is God? God is good. His essence is good. We have never known God apart from his goodness. I want you to understand that not one minute of your life has been lived apart from knowing God in his goodness.
Even when you were not a Christian God was good to you. But as we see in the second part of this verse, it says to those who are pure in heart. So this is a point that I believe that all scripture points to.
It's only one people that God delivers. It's only one people that he strengthens that he makes a covenant with and those are the pure in heart. The true Israel the Israel within the Israel. Okay, Romans 9 6 it tells us it's not by circumcision.
It's not by your heritage. It's not by the family that you come from. It's by the promise if you believe in the promise, that's. That's the children of God. It's not just Israel the nation. It is those who are within Israel the true Israel.
God's chosen people of the promise. The God that Asaph is speaking of is the one he worships and the one he spends every day walking with depending on trusting. And the people like Asaph are the pure in heart those who trust and Hope and God the people of the Genesis 3 15 promise the promise that we have in the beginning where the seed of the woman were to crush the serpent's head and He would bruise his heel.
That's the promise that they had and those who are trusting in that promise. Those were the pure in heart not the Perfect people but people that were born again. That's who this text is talking about.
You cannot understand this text without Understanding that you must be born again. That's the people that God strengthens. That's the people that God holds up. If you're not a Christian in here some of these promise in here.
They're not for you. God is not holding you up. God will not strengthen you. There is no wisdom that you can gain Unless you are born again. So as we read this text if this is not you if you realize you're not born again, I know we have children here.
If you're not born again, you must come to Jesus Christ because he can be a refuge. The pure in heart are Not people that just have a perfect bank account. There's not just people that attend church every Sunday.
They're the people who are born again, not perfect. Asaph wasn't perfect, but it's those who are trusting Christ. Verse 2. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled my steps had nearly slipped. So first Asaph acknowledges his unfaithfulness and his weakness before God that he almost slipped.
Wasn't God that did anything it was Asaph. He understood there was something wrong with me. I'm the one who was envious not God. God was not the one at fault, but Asaph verse 3. For I was envious of the arrogant.
So what was the stumbling block? What was the stumbling block of Asaph almost slipping? It was the prosperity and the arrogance of the wicked. Let us consider that this morning. Do you do this? Do you covet what the world and its followers have and I'm going to show you from this text.
All these things are worthless. It doesn't make sense for you to want what the wicked have. It's gonna be burnt up in the end. You don't want it. You don't need it. But that's what Asaph was doing. This is common, this is common in God's people.
I want you to know that to question the goodness of God and ask why do good things happen to bad people and bad things to good people. Let me tell you if you're a believer, it's not hopeless. This this is not a hopeless.
If you have this question, it's not hopeless. Because what we understand is the reason that these things are happening. This has been a question that the church has had for a long time. If you think that I must not be a Christian because I have these questions, that's not true.
That's not true. It is common among believers to have this. So let me just encourage you with that. The wicked seem to have wealth and health and don't have a care in the world. The ones who are reaping the benefits of God and they're turning their back on him and God seems to prosper them.
The scripture is so relevant today, isn't it? We see that happening today. We just had the president that approved and did all sorts of wicked things that you already know of. I don't have to go into it.
But there's things that are happening in our country that this man occupied the highest Official status in the world and he was a very, very wicked man, a foolish man. God, what are you doing? God, do you not see what's going on?
That's what Asaph was dealing with. Is God giving them a pass? Does he not see what's happening? He seems to bless them with prosperity, not just getting by, but having more than enough. That's what the wicked are doing, a life of peace and wealth.
Verse four. For they have no pangs until death, their bodies are fat and sleek. So the idea here is that death does not scare them. They die most of the time peaceful and easy. And when it says their bodies are fat and sleek, it doesn't mean that they're obese or they're big people.
It means they're healthy. The wicked are like healthy. Verse five. They are not in trouble as others are, they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. No trouble. They seem to escape justice and unfortunate circumstances.
Their crimes go unpunished and the sufferings that others endure seem to miss them. The guilty being called innocent. The ones who curse God miss those bad situations. No disease, no bad doctors report.
Their children are healthy. They live a carefree life because they never face distress. And we tend to think, well, my kids are sick and I'm a Christian and their kids never get sick. They don't even go to church.
Asaph was a worshiper of God, he led God's people and he's dealing with seeing this. We see it in our day, too. My car broke down on the way to church to worship you, God. What's going on? These are real things that happen to God's people.
They have these questions. Verse six. So what is the outcome of this life? The life of the wicked that they're leading, a prosperity, arrogance. They don't seem to fear death. What is the outcome of that life?
They hope and they trust in their own works. Verse six. Therefore, pride is their necklace. Violence covers them as a garment. Their pride is what they wear so all can see. They boast in it, their own deeds.
Look what we've done. And not because God's allowed it. That's what they think. I've done all this, not because God's doing it. And we can tend to slip into that thinking, too, right? When times are good and everything is going our way.
We forget God is in control and we forget Job 121. God gives and God takes away. God is the one doing it all. The only reason why we're here today is because of God. The only reason that we have what we have.
The money in our bank accounts, the car that we have outside. The rifles that we have, the clothes that we have on our back. It's not because of what we have done, but it's because of God. That's the only reason.
Verse seven. Their eyes swell out through fatness. Their eyes, their hearts overflow with follies. So they have more than they expected. The imagery is that of abundance, of overflow, of being engorged.
They have more than enough. And their hearts are filled with foolishness. And they say foolish things. So this is a picture of a person who God has given up to the pleasures of their own heart. They're diving, headlong in sin.
All right, you want to go that way? You want to just lead this life of wickedness? You just want to gain all this stuff? Don't care about me? God says, go ahead. Go ahead and do it. God's not saying, OK, you want to come to me?
I'm going to keep you away. No, he's saying, do what you want to do. Your end is not going to be good. This is a picture of God. Giving people up. Verse eight. They scoff and speak with malice. Loftily, they threaten oppressions.
They speak arrogantly with anger. They speak evil and corrupt things. They deride people. They have a sense of self-righteousness and are better than others. They speak cruelty and they want violence.
There is no mercy or forgiveness in their hearts. No love at all. This is what the wicked heart is like. Verse nine. They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongues struts through the earth.
They speak profanely about God's word, his works, his ways. They hate the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is folly to them. They don't want God or to know him. They blaspheme God. They ridicule and hate God's people and the worship of God.
This is I could sum it up this way. In verse nine. There is no fear of God before their eyes. That is the sum of the wicked's life. There is no fear of God. They don't bridle their tongues. They speak with their noses turned up towards heaven.
Beating their chest, thinking they are better and wiser than God. Verse 10. Therefore, his people turn back to them and find no fault in them. So what do they get? All this pride and boasting and turning their nose up towards heaven.
What do they get? An audience. They get followers and people are led astray by their foolishness. It tickles their ears. God, surely they don't. People aren't going to flock to this kind of foolishness.
And people do. We see it all the time. People just eat this stuff up. I believe the working of Satan has much to do with this. Many are blinded and approve and applaud this foolishness and haughty thinking.
Verse 11. And they say, how can God know? Is there any knowledge in the Most High? They become a practical atheist. God doesn't know anything. He doesn't have any power. Is God even there? Verse 12. Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease, they increase in riches.
Verse 13. 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. So Asaph makes a statement that we can relate to today.
Can't we? Is this life of following God, is it even worth it? I have pursued God and I've been walking with you. And yet the wicked that don't know you have more than me. They scoff at you and you bless them.
I am a worshiper of you and you take from me and I suffer. The wicked don't care about you. They don't care about your people, your sanctuary. They don't go to church and they keep getting richer. And life just keeps getting easier.
Is this life that I'm giving up, is this life that I devote to you, is it worth it? Have I done all of this in vain? That's what Asaph is pleading out. That's a cry of his heart. I make gathering with the church a priority.
I teach my family the Bible regularly. I stay on the path and you bring distress my way. God, is this how you treat your people? God, is this how you treat your children? You said you care for us. What are you doing?
You said you care for your sheep and I'm your sheep. But I feel like I'm just being cursed all the time. And I'm not being blessed like these wicked are. That's a real question that God's people have.
Verse 16. But when I thought, well, I'll go to verse 15. He says, if I had said I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of my children. He feels like he can't speak these things. It would cause a stumbling block for the people.
Verse 16. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a worrisome task. He tried to think of this question in his own strength, trusting in his own understanding. And it could not produce that the clarity he needed.
I'm trying to, OK, these OK, maybe I'm sinning and this is why this isn't happening to me. Or maybe these people are doing this certain thing. He wasn't seeking God. He was trying to understand these things in his own strength, in his own understanding.
Not coming to God. Verse 17. Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I discerned their end. Until he went before God, until he went into his sanctuary, until he went to church and his word. And he sought him before he was looking horizontally, right?
He was looking around him. He was comparing his life to others. But then he looked vertically. He looked towards God and showed him the strength that Asaph had wasn't enough. His understanding would not help him.
But he had sought the Lord before this, before coming into his sanctuary. He had not looked to his word. You know, many things can be made clear. And there can be many pitfalls that we avoid by seeking the Lord first.
You know that there are many things that we can avoid by just seeking the Lord first. Giving him the preeminence. Not trying to get through it on our own. Not trying to say, I'll just go this far in my own strength.
And if it just doesn't work out, then I'll, OK, then I'll ask God. Then I'll talk to God. You go to God first. You can avoid many pitfalls. So what changed for Asaph? How did his eyes go from looking around him to the temporary to looking up?
This is what God did. God showed Asaph the end of the wicked. See, God's word is wonderful and makes these things plain to Asaph. That's why we need the word of God. That's why we need the local church where God's word is spoken plainly and preached rightly.
We cannot discern anything of eternal value apart from it. That's why when we sit under the faithful, preached word of God, we listen. Because we need it. Not the preacher's words, but God's words. We ought to make prayer a priority.
Because we need God to work and give us strength. Imagine going into battle without your sword. Oh, we're fixing it. We're fixing a charge. I forgot my sword, man. I'll probably be OK. You're not. That's like walking out your front door without seeking the Lord first in prayer.
It's like going into battle without your sword. God's church ought to be a place where we prioritize to be with God's people. To encourage us, to help us, to challenge us, to keep us going, to keep our eyes on Christ.
This is the wicked's end. The pleasures and the prosperity that they had accumulated in this life. They were only temporary. Judgment and hell would be their end. That's what God showed Asaph. Verse 18.
Truly, you set them in slippery places. You make them fall to ruin. God sets them in slippery places. God will pour justice upon them. And God will not let them get away with their wicked lives. So let this be a warning to us.
God knows and will hold us accountable for what we have done. That's in Acts 17. Unless you have the blood applied to you. Unless you have the blood God will meet you in judgment. And your end will be the wicked's end.
Unless you have the blood. Then your end. We'll find out in a minute in verse 24 what that is. Verse 19. How they are destroyed at a moment and swept away utterly by tears. Their life will be taken in a moment.
And all they worked to achieve will be just burnt up. Verse 20. Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself. But you despise them as phantoms. God despises sin and the wicked. And he is not indifferent to them.
Verse 21. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart 22, I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast towards you. Asaph realized that he was foolish. And he was ignorant and arrogant for not trusting God before He compared himself to like a beast.
Think of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel. How he was just, he was like a beast feeding, eating the grass. That's how Asaph said he was Compared to God. The things that I was thinking and saying, I was like a beast.
I was foolish to think those things. Verse 23. Nevertheless, I'm continually with you. You hold my right hand. God is sustaining Asaph. God is with you and with him. And he's holding you up. If it were up to you to hold on to God Let me tell you, you would let go.
But we have this passage that Asaph tells the people. They're singing this. He says this to his own heart. I'm continually with you. You hold my right hand. God is the one that's holding it up. That's comforting.
Verse 24. You guide me with your counsel. And afterward, you will receive me to glory. So how has Asaph gotten this far? It was God's counsel. If left to his own or the wicked's counsel He would have fallen like the with wicked.
But in this verse, in 24 We already saw the wicked's end. It's hell, it's judgment. Verse 24. This is the believers end. The end of those who trust in God. It's glory. It's salvation. Those who trust in God Now may be bereft of possessions And status and riches and accolades And the things of this world.
But they will get God in the end. The Lord showed him his future In worshiping him, devoting his life to him. Not perfection or sinlessness But pursuing God. This is Asaph's future. You're going to go to the finish line.
And this is what you're going to get. You're going to get the reward. You may not think you're rewarded now. But in the end, you will be rewarded. You will get glory. You will get Christ. You will get heaven.
He showed him that this life is not meaningless. And it's not in vain. And it's serving this one main grander purpose. Glory. God's people have never been called to trust in the here and the now. But looking at the finish line We get God in the end.
And furthermore, we have God now. If you're in Christ today, he is with you. He is for your godliness. He will keep you to the end by his power, his grace And by his son's work on the cross. Today, we have this confidence.
Christ died for me. He loves me. I am his. It would do us well to stop looking around us and look at look more at Christ and what he has done. When we are tempted to think it's too much going on. There's too much chaos.
God, you don't care about me. I don't know what to do. Look at Christ. Look at what he has done for you. Remember this that he has done. God has sent his son Jesus to die for you. That's how much he loves you.
He has sent him to bear your shame. To bear your guilt on himself. To bear your punishment. To bear the wrath that you deserve. That's what Christ has done for you. Look at that. Remember that Christ has done all of this for us.
To show us. To remind us not only this, but to remind us that he loves us and he will take care of us. We might not understand the very specific details of why God works and allows certain things. But we can trust this.
Romans 8, 28. God works all things for good. Not works all things that are good. So what I mean is God doesn't like if you're reading this passage and you're thinking, okay, well, good things aren't happening to me.
That verse is wrong. No. He works all things for your good. He works all things for your good and for his glory. Verse 25. Whom I have I in heaven but you. There is nothing on earth that I desire beside you.
Asaph sees God compared to everything in heaven. The angels, the mansions, the beauty, and they don't even compare to Christ. You can take everything on this earth and the world has the offer. Its kingdoms, its riches, its popularity, its health, its longevity, its ease and painlessness.
And you could put it on the scales and Christ on the other side and Christ outweighs it all. That's what trusting Christ looks like. You have. You can have all that this world. Have all this world, just give me Jesus.
That's what the Christian does. I don't have the world, but I have everything that I need in Jesus Christ. Verse 26, 27, and 28. I just want to run through though as practical application for the Christian and then we'll be done.
Verse 26. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Trust in God produces dependence. Asaph understood that he is weak and that his heart not just may fail, but will fail.
But God is the strength of his heart and all. And he has all that he needs and more in God. So how often are you drawing strength from God? How often are you understanding your frailty before God that you need God daily?
John 15, 5. Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branch. You can do nothing apart from me. Nothing. Do we understand that? So how are you depending upon him? Are you seeking God's face and prayer and in his word daily?
Verse 27. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. A Christian who trusts God is unashamed of the gospel and the justices of God. They are not trying to apologize for how God is.
They're not going to wink at sin around them either. And especially in our own heart. We talk all the time about reformation. OK, the wicked really need you, God. The wicked need to change. But I'm telling you, reformation starts in your own heart.
Are you willing to say, God, I'm opening every door. God, I hate my own sin first before I hate their sin. God, I want to put to death my own sin before I'm willing to say they need to change. That's what the Christian needs to do.
Verse 28. But as 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. A Christian that trusts in God is one who is constantly wanting to be with God in his word.
And in the church. That's where God is. That's where he is speaking to you. I need his counsel and his instruction. I need to be reminded of his love and what he has done for me and his promises to me.
A Christian depends on God as their refuge and everything. In a chaotic world of evil and confusion God is my hiding place. And every circumstance going to him and resting in him in faith. And realizing that God is not only the refuge in the day of trouble.
But a refuge from the wrath of God to come because of Christ. Knowing we have been pardoned and given refuge. We unashamedly tell of God's works and word to our neighbors. The wicked, they don't have any mercy or love in their hearts.
But us, because we have been given mercy, because we have been given forgiveness. We want to extend that forgiveness to others. And we tell others of God's works. We trust God and we say, look, we don't have everything that the world has.
We don't have everything our neighbor has. But I got Christ, I'm going to do what he tells me to do. And I'm going to go through this race, I'm going to just keep obeying him. I may be bereft of all the possessions.
My car might break down, my house might go away. My family might forsake me. But I got Christ. And I'm going to keep going, I'm going to keep trusting him. Because in the end, I see the finish line. It looks far away, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I see the finish line and God is going to make good on his promises. I'm going to get glory, I'm going to get him in the end. Let's pray Lord, thank you for this passage. Let this truth sink deep in our hearts that we can have confidence.
May we not look to what the world has. It's in vain, it's all foolishness. May we be content with what we have. May we trust Christ. And if all we have is Christ, it's good enough for us Lord, help us to have this dependence upon you.
Help us to understand we have all that we need. And much more, you are good to us. And we pray it all in Jesus' name, amen.