“'Whom Have I in Heaven': Hope in a Wicked World (Psalm 73)” | 10/4/2020
Psalm 73| 10/4/20 | Thad Yessa
How many of you like playing games? How many of you have ever been dealt a lousy hand, and everyone else seems to have been dealt the best hand? One common response to that scenario is, “That’s not fair!” to which most people quickly respond with “Life is not fair!” Most of us quickly brush that statement off without much thought or care. Let’s change the scenario a little bit. How many of you have ever felt as though life has dealt you a bad hand? I am talking about the hard stuff:
Injustice we see around the world
Lost a job
Lost a child
Lost a parent
A loved one gets diagnosed with cancer.
I could go on, but what do we do in these situations? Who did we cry out to about what we deem as unjust/unfair circumstances?
We want to know the answer to the questions:
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Why do good things happen to bad people?
Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Is God fair?
Is God good when life doesn’t seem good?
Is Christianity really worth it?
“Well, yes, of course He is,” But the answer of our experience is often “No, He doesn’t seem to be” We may not outright admit that to someone, but that is how we feel.
More people have left Christianity or rejected it because of an inability to reconcile a good and loving God with the pain, suffering, and injustice in the world. If God is good, he would wouldn’t allow suffering. If God could, he would, which means that God would step in and stop all the wicked in the world.
These are big and important questions that we need to be able to answer. If you haven’t asked these question in your life yet, you need to be prepared for when you do. For me, I asked this question when I was 20 after watching my friend, who was a youth pastor, riding in a bus on the way from youth camp, bus flipping, and dying. I found myself asking this question.
Today we will see four responses when we think we have been dealt a bad hand at life and want to call foul on God.
A Psalm of Asaph.
73
Truly God is good to Israel,
To those who are pure in heart.
2
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4
For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5
They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6
Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
7
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8
They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9
They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10
Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.[a]
11
And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12
Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
13
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14
For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
15
If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16
But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
18
Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20
Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21
When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22
I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
23
Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27
For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28
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.
-
I. Pour your heart out to God
This psalm is a brutally honest confession, from the heart of Asaph to the God he felt had given him a rip-off. He took his doubts and confusion to God in prayer. He didn't pretend everything was okay. He did what Job did. Job was a righteous man who lost all his children, his possessions, and his health. In Job 29-31, this broken man struggles with the raw deal he received. He wrestles with the tension of holding onto God's goodness and sovereignty while dealing with the tragedies he was experiencing. And through it all, he stayed real with God. "God I'm so angry! I don't understand what is happening or why! I want answers, God." There is no record that God ever rebukes Job for being honest.
In fact, God offers this invitation in Isaiah 43:26: "Take Me to court; let us argue our case together. State your [case], so that you may be vindicated." Psalm 145:18 adds that "the Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth." (ESV)
Asaph on the other hand starts by recounting what he knows, “Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.”(V. 1) Asaph had an intellectual view, that those who follow and obey God are blessed. We can get behind that thinking, right? That makes sense right?
God, I know this to be true, but for me, I am beginning to doubt. He then proceeds to air out his dirty laundry before God:
I am jealous of the wicked!
The wicked are prospering
They have no concerns for death
They aren’t dealing with the issues of the rest of mankind
They mock God
And yet, they still prosper. How can people be so wicked and evil and yet YOU, God, who is supposed to be the judge keeps seemingly rewarding such wicked behavior. How is any of this fair?
We can easily do this right? We view employment, health, financial stability all as sign that we have found favor with God. And when we are sick, lose a job, no money in the bank that somehow we have lost favor with God. We may say that we don’t believe in the prosperity gospel, but when something goes “wrong” we simultaneously believe something is wrong with our relationship with God. When in reality the promise of the gospel was never you will be rich, healthy, gainfully employed.
Jesus said, I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
Asaph is beginning to doubt whether God is really good. I don’t think it’s about a bad thing when we doubt God. Our Christianity better be bigger than blind faith otherwise when these struggles of life come we will be in big trouble. I don’t think that doubt is the enemy of our faith, but our doubt can be what drives us into deeper faith.
“I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24) is at once a statement of faith and an admission that our faith is far from perfect.
God is big enough to take your anger, your pain, and your questions. The Psalms give a words to say when we might not have the right words to express our feelings. The Psalmist here is angry and lets God know. So go ahead, tell Him about it. Don't keep those emotions cooped up inside you, building layers of resentment and hardship between you and God. Stored up anger vents itself in headaches, ulcers, bitterness, resentment, private rehearsals of the injustice you've experienced, and outbursts of anger that are disconnected from the real problem. Unload that acid. God is waiting to talk with you. God can take it, if He couldn’t then He would be God. Understand though that in your questioning like Job, you may not get the answer you are looking for.
II. Weigh your choices carefully
In v. 12-14, Asaph's envy had so taken his heart that he was fed up with living a godly life. He was angry and disillusioned. All of these wicked people are blessed and I, your faithful servant,
“All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all day I have been stricken.”
My faithfulness has resulted in the opposite of blessing, instead, I have been stricken!
Still, in v. 15, he stops to consider the impact his next steps will have: "If I had said, 'I will speak thus,' I would have betrayed your children." Asaph realized that if he went public with his inner struggles, letting his cynicism and anger out in words, he would become a tool of Satan's for the ruin of God's people.
James 1:2-4 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
I for one am not one to first count trials as joy, but we need to remember that these moments we go through are not wastes, but God uses the difficult situations for His good. But in our lack of faith the wicked one uses it for the opposite, to draw others to doubt God.
How many rash words and unsifted actions have we wished to take back because of the negative consequences they brought about? That moment of anger towards a spouse that leaves you wishing you could pull those words back because of how deep they just cut. We do things that bring regret and heartache because we didn't stop to consider the consequences of our words and choices. Asaph paused to realize that his decisions will have ripple effects on others. I would urge you to follow his example, tracing the results your words and actions have on your family, friends, lost acquaintances, and church.
It is one thing to be wrestling with God goodness in a situation it is another thing to declare to social media and the world that God is a fraud.
III. Get the big picture
Here is where Asaph's perspective is expanded. Listen to his words in v. 16-17: "When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny." Asaph went to "church." So he enters “the sanctuary” (17), the temple in which the two tablets of the law are in the ark of the covenant, the altar of sacrifice, the mercy seat, and all the signs of God’s covenant promises and faithfulness. It is when he sees, and meditates, on the covenant that he says, “I understood their final destiny” (v 17b). He hears afresh, perhaps, the covenant blessing and curses that he gains full perspective: temporary satisfaction or eternal satisfaction. He brought his confusion under the truth of God. As long as Asaph tried to reason his way out of his troubled perception apart from God, he would hit his head against the wall. "It was oppressive to me," he said. The envy he had of the wicked was like blinders to his eyes. All he could only see their immediate pleasure.
Asaph had to get a look outside of himself.
In worship we can glimpse God's infinite perspective. You can sense this music director's relief when he comes to worship. Everything changed. In the sanctuary God was his focus, not his problems. There he was reminded of God's attributes, character and power. He could see both God's judgment of sin as well as God's solution offered to sinners. Eternity broke into his temporal perspective.
Verses 17b-19 show us that Asaph was now seeing things differently. "Then I understood their final destiny. Surely You place them on slippery ground; You cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! Their prosperity is only temporary. They enjoy their sin for a time, perhaps from a human perspective for a lifetime. But from the perspective of eternity, from the point of view in worship, there is a quick ride to the bottom. Asaph realized that "the world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." (1 John 2:17) God completely controls their destiny, not them. And their end will be terrible.
Asaph began to realize that true Happiness is beyond the reach of any evil life can bring.
IV. Renew your relationship with God
Armed with a new perspective about God and this world, Asaph also sees himself clearly. Envy had poisoned him and had powerful effects on him. Listen to his confession in v. 21ff.: "When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you." God, I was like an animal. Asaph confessed his self-pitying, self-centered bent. And then, in worship, he renews his relationship in praise:
Yet I am always with you; You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward, You will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from You will perish; You destroy all who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.
Asaph takes his raw deal to the right place and finds out that he didn't have it bad after all. With an eternal perspective, everything looks different. God wants to do that for you.
He praises God that He is always with us, that He holds us by our hand, He guides us and he counsels us, that He is with us all along the way, and then afterward He will take us into glory. He then breaks out and says, “Whom have I in heaven but you?” You are the great God, you are better than anything this earth has to offer, you are what I truly desire because you are truly good. On this earth, my flesh and my heart may fail, but you, God, are the strength of my heart, and my reward forever!! His pain once lamented turns into praise
Augustine comments on this: “God alone is the place of peace that cannot be disturbed -- and He will not withhold Himself from your love unless you withhold your love from him.”
Life in glory with God will suffice for the healing of all wounds,the answering of all questions Jesus has promised. He goes on again to restate the truth that those who are far from God will perish, and all who are unfaithful to God will be destroyed. He then says that it is good to be near God, it is better to have Him than have everything this world has to offer. That God is the sovereign – we are not the ones in control, we are not the ones who call the shots and have the final word. That he takes his refuge in Him. That God is his dwelling place, his strength and his protection. That now that he sees the end from the beginning and has the perspective of eternity, he will live to tell of all of the deeds of God. What Asaph is saying: with God, you are invincible. Nothing can touch you. Your greatest enjoyment, God, can never be taken away from you. In heaven, God is all you want and need. On earth, God is all you want and need. In death or in life, in sickness or in heath, even as your body wastes away, God is all you want and need.
That’s great for Asaph he found peace, but I am still doubting. I am still wondering why there isn’t this peace that God promised because I look around and I see chaos. That doesn’t make the pain go away.
We remember Malachi 3:6 - “For I the LORD do not change.”
We remember the Hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”
O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There's light for a look at the Savior
And life more abundant and free
Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there
O'er us sin no more hath dominion
For more than conqu'rors we are
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace
Friends, Jesus outshines the greatest treasures you can imagine.
We have a more sure hope than Asaph did, that Jesus the long-promised Savior has come, He did die for your sins and mine,, and He rose again, and He has promised to keep us until He brings us home.
Jude 24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
As Christ-followers, We don't need God’s explanation when we have God’s declarations.
He will always follow through on his promises.
Three promises that we can cling to:
God is Good
God is Just/Fair
God will put everything right
Deut. 32:4 - “The Rock, his work is perfect,
for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
just and upright is he.
Let’s Pray.