Slippery Stance (Psalm 73)

When you get blindsided by life… how do you deal with it? When things get overwhelming, those times where life doesn’t make much sense… you find yourself surrounded by pain or terrifying circumstances… your confused… your hurting… how do you handle it? How do those times affect your faith? Do you find yourself growing in your faith… or do you find your faith being challenged? That’s a good question to ask yourself because reality is… one of the few constants of life that we can depend on… is that life is messy… and will continue to throw curve balls at us. In a message I’ve entitled “Slippery Stance” I want to look at Asaph’s raw deal and his response to it.

A Brutal Confession (v.1-11)

Asaph pours his heart to the God who he felt had ripped him off.

He admits to being envious and having only judged for what he saw

One translations says that his feet almost slipped that his foothold had all but given way.

The foundation that he had rested on, the place he had found himself. He said it was slipping away

The idea here is that it was all happening pretty quick

He took his doubts and confusion to God in prayer.

He didn’t pretend everything was okay.

He brought his request just as Job did

Job was a righteous man who lost all his children, possessions, and his health.

But Job stayed real with God

He confessed that he was angry! That he didn’t understand the what, why, or how!

Not once did God ever rebuff Job for being honest

One of the most beautiful things and yet one of the hardest things I have ever learned is that I do not have to come before the Lord dignified.

I don’t have to be perfect

If anything, God calls us to come to before him. To stand in his presence, fully undignified

Before we came into a sense of knowing who God was he knew everything about us

He said he wanted us in that state

The best way that I can explain this is if you have ever observed a child who likes to sing, you’ll see that they particularly don’t care about the notes

They don’t focus on all the words being perfectly formed

They just sing

As they grow older, they begin to become conscious of the the how and what they sing

Somewhere along the way, we started to mask who we are

As if we need to look a certain way to earn God’s respect and be deemed worthy by him

We forget that He called us to him when we were enemies! That when we could not care any less about him, he made the first step towards us

But we come to God thinking we have to carry ourselves a certain way and be dignified and speak certain words and look a certain way

As His child, we look unrecognizable.

There is no right way, no dignified way to come before God. We don’t have to earn his respect

God actually offers an invitation in Isaiah 43:26 “Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.”

To take him to court and to plead your case

I think if were not careful we begin to have the wrong view of how we should approach God.

Don’t get me wrong we should never come before God with a selfish heart or one that is filled with complaining

Asaph, Job, David, Solomon, and even Christ

They didn’t come to God with this thought of getting vindication but rather a broken heart that needed to be mended

God is big enough to take your anger, your pain, and your questions

Let them rip

Tell Him all about it

Don’t keep them cooped up inside you

That leads to hardship and bitterness between you and God.

A Bigger Picture (12-20)

Asaph had allowed his envy for the wicked take his heart

He even says that he was fed up living a godly life

He was angry

He considers how his choice in words will influence the next generation

If he allowed himself to speak his inner struggles to man rather than God, then he would become a tool of Satan to ruin God’s people.

When he tried to understand this, he says that it pained him

Until he went to the sanctuary of God

This transformation of his outlook was a decisive moment

The first step to enlightenment was not mental but moral: a turning from self-interest and self-pity revealed the true answer he had been searching for

As he turns to God, the light breaks in and he begins to worship

Then he understood their destiny (slippery places)

When he came to worship God he made God the object of his focus and not his problem

We’d be wise to take a step back and realize that God should be the object of our focus not ourselves

David discusses this in Psalm 27:4 “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.”

David states that the only thing he desires is to behold the beauty of the Lord

The only way that we can truly become whole is by worshiping God

When we come broken, we are mended

When we come wounded, we are healed

When we come desperate, we are rescued

When we come empty, we are filled

When we come guilty, we are pardoned

A Better Relationship (21-28)

After spending time with God and understanding that he wasn’t given a raw deal

He turns his heart back to God and through all of this he comes out with a better relationship with God.

He beholds himself in the mirror and it reveals his imperfections

He says that he was foolish and ignorant

He said he was as a beast before God

To be honest trials, temptations, difficulties are meant to bring you closer to God not farther away.

Asaph realizes that in verse 25 when he claims there is none upon earth that he desires beside God

Asaph had a better relationship with God because he realized how weak he was

Each and every day you should be learning something about yourself

Things that you thought you would like you don’t

Things that you thought you would want you don’t

Things that you thought you could do but you can’t

Asaph understood how his flesh and his heart will fail him

But God is the strength of his heart

He doesn’t need anything else

When his strength runs out God’s strength kicks in.

On February 24, 2001, a one-year old Canadian girl named Erika wandered out of her house and spent the entire night in the Edmonton winter.

When her mother, Leyla Nordby, found her, Erika appeared to be totally frozen. Her legs were stiff, her body frozen, and all signs of life appeared to be gone.

Erika was treated at Edmonton’s Stollery Children’s Health Center where she was resuscitated. To the amazement of all, there appeared to be no sign of brain damage, and doctors gave Erika a clear prognosis.

When a Christian backslides, his heart grows cold to the Lord, but God in his mercy and his compassion is able to restore the Christian’s first love if he will repent, if he will seek restoration.