Thrust Statement: The most important thing in life is to
experience the presence of God.
Scripture Reading: Psalm 73
INTRODUCTION
As one reflects upon Psalm 73, one discovers that this Psalm flows from doubt to certainty. Asaph is willing to share with the nation of Israel his spiritual biography. In his life story he reveals that he was on the very threshold of an unspeakable disaster—his faith was almost gone. His problem was the prosperity of the wicked versus the poverty of the righteous. He looked at the ungodly and then looked at the righteous. Things did not measure up to equality, so he thought. Asaph’s story is a story of temptation, self-pity, disillusionment, resentment, uncertainty, and near ruin.
Asaph pulls back the curtain to reveal his struggle that almost took
him over the edge. One can follow his logic as he narrates the events that lead
to his near downfall. One witnesses doubt as it grips him, but then one also
witnesses his renewal of rededication in the face of his crisis. He previously felt his feet going out from
beneath him and the nuts and bolts on which he had depended collapsing. Yes,
his faith was almost gone. Why? He thought that high-quality performance should
be appreciably rewarded—but such was not the case. Asaph goes right to the
heart of his problem with God:
But as for me, my feet had
almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
For I envied the arrogant
when I saw
the prosperity of the wicked (Psalms 73:2-3).[1]
DAVID’S ASSURANCE OF FAITH
The concept that God is bound to reward the good and punish the wicked was also the concern in the Book of Job as well as in the Book of Habakkuk. But experience in the lives of men and women challenged that belief. This same theme of the wicked prospering and the righteous wanting is also the theme of David’s Psalm 37. David writes:
Do not fret because of evil
men
or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will
soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away (Psalm 37:1-2).
Be still before the LORD and
wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes (Psalm 37:7).
ASAPH’S MENTAL DILEMMA ABOUT GOD’S JUSTICE
Asaph, too, expresses his initial dilemma to Israel:
Surely in vain have I kept
my heart pure;
in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.
All day long I have been
plagued;
I have been punished every
morning (Psalm
73: 13-14).
Ultimately, Asaph came to the conclusion that true goodness, contentment, and tranquility consist of a different kind of reward—the experience of God’s presence.
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 (Psalms 73:23-28).
HABAKKUK’S DIALOGUE WITH GOD ABOUT JUSTICE
Habakkuk (609 BCE), too, confronts this question of evil in the face of God’s holiness head-on. He could not square God’s holiness and His patience with evil. The prophecy of Habakkuk is a dialogue between himself and God, not an oracle addressed to Israel. In the first two chapters, he argues with God over Israel’s rampant disregard for His holy law. Habakkuk is perplexed over sin in Israel—the evilness of Israel’s behavior, skirmishes among the Israelites, and cruelty so rampant among its citizens—that he could not reconcile what appears to him to be God’s unseemingly unconcern to punish the wrong doers. In other words, he accuses God of doing nothing about the neglect of His holy law. He files his complaint before His Creator:
How long, O LORD, must I
call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you,
“Violence!”
but you do not save?
Why do
you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are
before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore
the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the
righteous,
so that justice is perverted (Habakkuk 1:2-4).
God informs Habakkuk that He intends to do something about the sins of Israel. He tells the prophet that He is going to raise up the ruthless and impetuous Babylonians to punish His people. God’s answer is so shocking that God tells him that even if He were to tell him, he still would find it difficult to swallow:
“Look at the nations and
watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do
something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.
I am raising up the Babylonians,
that ruthless and impetuous
people,
who sweep across the whole earth
to seize dwelling places not
their own.
They are a feared and dreaded people;
they are a law to themselves
and promote their own honor (Habakkuk 1:5-7).
Again, Habakkuk files a second complaint about God’s actions. He simply cannot fathom such behavior—behavior that allows one nation to punish another nation that is more righteous than itself. Listen once more as he records his grievance:
O LORD, are you not from
everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, we will not die.
O LORD, you have appointed
them to execute judgment;
O Rock, you have ordained them to punish.
Your eyes are too pure to
look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrong.
Why then do you tolerate the
treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than
themselves? (Habakkuk 1:12-13).
But God makes it clear that eventually He, too, will punish Babylon for
its immoral actions. Ultimately, as Habakkuk reflects upon God’s actions, he
expresses concisely his feedback of resignation to God’s behavior—a behavior
that he could not fathom: “But the righteous will live by his faith” (2:4). You also may question God about His apparent
unconcern, but you, too, must respond: “But the righteous will live by his faith.”
ASAPH SHARES HIS SPIRITUAL BIOGRAPHY
In Palm 73, Asaph tells his readers about the
moment when he was on the very threshold of an unspeakable catastrophe—His
faith was almost gone. How many Christians can identify with Asaph? Is your
faith drifting away? Is your grip on God about gone? Are you losing your
assurance of God’s mercy? Are you unable to find God’s promise of love and
saving power in your own life? How do you react in the face of trials and
temptations in life? Just how do you react in the face of adversities in your
own life? Are you alarmed that you are on the very brink of losing your faith?
Asaph pulls back the curtain and shows us his struggle that almost took him over the brink of the falls. One can see him in the very jaws of doubt as well as the ecstasy of faith in this short psalm. The joy that he found is available for every believer. What made the difference in his mental outlook? Listen to the Psalmist as he exclaims:
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 (Psalm 73:16-17).
ASAPH ENTERS THE SANCTUARY OF GOD
Asaph
put himself where God could deal with him. Have you put yourself where God can
deal with you? He entered the sanctuary of God. And so it is today, every
believer must turn to God for answers to man’s dilemma. He wanted to be in the
presence of God. Where do you turn in the time of trouble? Forty years after the resurrection of Jesus
the Jewish nation suffered complete desolation of its nation, including the
destruction of the Temple (See Matthew 23 and 24). Peter addresses this
calamity by calling attention to this very fact: “The end of all things in
near” (1 Peter
4:7). But in all of the upcoming trials, Peter admonishes
them to “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (4:7).
The
author of Hebrews also spoke of the “last days” (Hebrews 1:1-2). How did
the author instruct the believers to respond to such problems? Listen as he
speaks of the Christian community: “Let us not give up meeting together, as
some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the
more as you see the Day approaching” (10:25). God provided the church (ekklesia) to assist His people in their
daily pressures from the wicked. Christians need one another. Just as Asaph
felt the comfort of God in His Sanctuary, so do the people of God find
encouragement and hope among other believers. How easy it would be for you that
are distressed to find the solution in God and with His people. The answers to
your doubts and frustrations can only be found in God and with His body of
believers.
ASAPH’S MEDITATION ABOUT THE END OF LIFE
As
Asaph enters the Sanctuary, a new panorama unfolds before Asaph’s eyes—the
triumph and prosperity of the wicked are only temporary. In a sense he catches
his breath as he looks upon the destruction that awaits them. It is true that
God makes His blessings to fall upon the godly and the ungodly, but the
ultimate blessings of God are available only in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3-14).
The ungodly experience joy for now, but certain destruction awaits them down
the road. Why be envious of the wicked? Their end is annihilation. Yet, in a
moment Asaph saw the shallowness of his own foolish heart and what is really
important in life—namely, a relationship with God.
Once
Asaph entered the Sanctuary, he discovered that he was in possession of great
wealth. He realized that he was in the presence of God. You may not be envious
of the prosperity of the wicked, but still you may be suffering, even as Job
did, but with no concrete answer to your predicament. Paul, too, faced problems
that were almost too great for him to bear. In fact, he approached God about
his thorn in the flesh—“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away
from me” (2
Corinthians 12:8). Did God take away his tight spot? Listen
to God’s response: “My grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9).
Have you lost a husband or wife in death? Have you lost your job? Do you have cancer? Have your utilities been
cut off? Are you without groceries? Remember, God is saying to each person: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power
is made perfect in weakness.”
Just
as Asaph found refuge in God’s Sanctuary, so everyone finds refuge with God and
with his people. When hearts are weary, one can find strength in God. When one needs
encouragement, what better place can one fine solace than with the people of
God? Among His people you will find God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. In Jesus
everyone experiences the constant presence of God and the forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 4:14-16).
Even in the darkest hours, one may feel the presence of God. No joy could be
richer than when you see and understand the full import of that assurance. How
often do you meditate upon God’s unfailing love? The sons of Korah wrote:
“Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love” (Psalm 48:9).
ASAPH’S DETERMINATION TO TRUST IN GOD
Again, one cannot help but reflect upon Asaph’s conclusion about God’s presence and his determination to trust in God and his determination to tell people about God’s wonderful deeds:
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 (Psalm 73:23-28).
Have you made the “Sovereign LORD” your refuge? Are you telling others about His deeds of redemption? Have you shared the gospel of God with others? Are you conscious of God’s presence, even in the face of calamities in your life? “Whatever happens,” Paul writes, “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27).
Remember that the Psalmist, too, thought that good behavior should be materially rewarded, but it was not:
Surely in vain have I kept
my heart pure;
in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.
All day long I have been
plagued;
I have been punished every morning (Psalm 73:13-14).
CONCLUSION
The
Psalmist came to the realization that true happiness and peace comes through
the experience of God’s presence (73:23-28—see citation above). There is a
sense in which faithful behavior is its own reward: “Surely God is good to
Israel, to those who are pure in heart” (73:1). It is significant
that Asaph begins his psalm with a positive note, even though his thinking was
not correct—at least initially concerning the status of the ungodly.
Ultimately, the Psalmist knew the happiness that Jesus also proclaimed in His
Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8).
He knew that his faithfulness was not in vain. When he says, “God
is good to Israel,” he does not mean the material prosperity and ease enjoyed
by the wicked in this psalm (73:4-12), but, for the
Psalmist, the essential goodness of life is to be near God. Thus, Asaph changed
his views of self-pity (73:13-14) to praise: “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” (73:28).
Asaph, in Psalms
73,
captures the testimony of Paul in his letter to Rome:
For I am convinced that
neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the
future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus our Lord” (Romans
8:38-39).
This announcement in Romans is for our living as well as our dying. This statement about trials and persecutions strengthens God’s people in whatever state they find themselves. Paul, too, captures the essence of Psalm 73 when he writes:
For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord (Romans 14:7-8).
The most important thing in life is to be near God. Are you near Him? As stated above, “The most important thing in life is to experience the presence of God.” Have you experienced God’s presence in your own life? Are you a Christian? If not, why not? Why not make the decision today to follow the Master. Are you experiencing the presence of God in your own life? Psalm 73 is the voice of a teacher of the faithful. This narrated experience is authentic and private, but this psalm is not a piece of private reflection; it is intended to provide others with direction and insight that will help them with the difficulty concerning the lack of correspondence between faith and experience. Job, too, could not correlate faith and experience, but he never accused God of wrongdoing, even when he lost so much. This message concludes with Job’s response to his material loss and the loss of his children:
At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing (Job 1:20-22).