Hope For the Broken
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Read Psalm 73
Pray
I deeply identify with Asaph.
Asaph is someone who struggles with hope...
Here are the two basic questions Asaph is wrestling with...
Why do good things happen to bad people.
Why do bad things happen to good people.
This is why I love the bible. The bible is Brutally Honest!
The Bible doesn’t teach what most prosperity gospel preachers teach.
The reality is that when we look at this world with our eyes actually open we will see terrible terrible injustice.
Psalm 73 shows us that...
#1.. Though it’s full of God’s glory,
This World is Broken
This World is Broken
A broken world full of injustice and evil.
Look at the kinds of things Asaph observed about wickedness in this world...
Psalm 73:3 (ESV)
...I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.
Pangs = struggles or bondage.
Fat and sleek = they have more than enough food.
5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Stricken = Afflicted or plagued.
Basically, all the things that weigh us down or keep us from health and rest seem to not touch the wicked.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
They use their comfort and ease of life to commit atrocities against people like us. Because they feel untouchable, they go ahead and do terrible and unspeakable things to defenseless people.
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.
Essentially, they openly mock and hate God. They mock and hate those who love God. They do all that they can to steal glory from God.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.
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.
Basically, people who should be looking to God, are instead looking to the wicked for instruction and comfort.
In some cases, people might refuse to believe that the atrocities the wicked leaders do are real at all.
“Surely our politicians aren’t making money from endless wars!”
“Surely these men aren’t creating diseases to profit from their cures!”
“Surely those actors, politicians, billionaires, and presidents had no idea what Jeffrey Epstein was doing even after he was charged as a sex offender!”
Sadly, some have turned a blind eye to the reality that...
Evil flourishes in a broken world.
In other cases, people know their wickedness, see the reward from their wickedness, and follow their wickedness.
Just look at the state of morality in this age. People are being discipled to do evil all the while, the people at the top of the influence pyramid are getting away with some of the darkest and most evil things imaginable.
Sound of Freedom Movie
Blocked from release for five years.
Some media outlets are trying to call it a conspiracy theory. Who do you think owns those media outlets!?
Evil flourishes in a broken world...
And this world is broken
Psalm 73 shows us that...
#2. This world’s not the only thing broken...
We Are Broken
We Are Broken
We are Broken people tempted to love this broken world.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.
“Nearly” = The psalmist experienced such a test of faith that he almost… almost… began to distrust God.
I mean, I have to say this… The worst thing you could do, christian, is to distrust God.
Essentially, to look away from Him.
For the psalmist, for a brief moment, his attention was diverted away from God.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
He looked at the arrogant and the wicked.
Here, the Asaph is speaking primarily of the wicked human rulers.
He looked away from God and the reward of knowing God and was tempted to attribute the prosperity of the wicked as something more rewarding that God.
Asaph was essentially tempted to define “divine blessing” as being prosperity in this world.
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.
What’s the point of holiness?
What’s been the point of my sanctification?
Psalms 73–150 2. Perspective—Injustice Makes Godliness Seem Futile (73:2–14)
To him it is deeply personal, because he feels beat up continually as he reflects on the dissonance between how the arrogant prosper and how he is stricken despite his purity of life. Every morning this pain greets him, and it continues all day long, taking over his life and dominating his attention. By lingering on the injustice of his experience, the psalmist drifts toward the brink of despair.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
The Psalmist is acknowledging that his pessimism is dangerous to his faith community.
A lack of trust in God can spread faster than covid.
Broken people are prone to distrust God. To look away from God.
But.. Thankfully...
Psalm 73 shows us that...
Even though this world is broken and we are broken.
We can have hope because...
God is Good
God is Good
1 Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
“Truly” = a note of certainty and strong affirmation.
You have to read the rest of this psalm with this anchor in mind.
GOD IS GOOD TO HIS PEOPLE
Psalms 73–150 1. Principle—The Just God Is Good to the Godly (73:1)
Through his personal journey the psalmist has learned that God is indeed good to his pious people. In this psalm he will extrapolate from his own experience to the wider audience for which it is also relevant. Rather than being merely an individual expression of faith, this psalm is a testimony that “exists to build up the community of faith
This is both a personal testimony of experience and a divine testimony from the authoritative Word of God.
Asaph, and God, are testifying to the fact that God is good.
We have to hold firm to this truth if we are going to make sense of this broken world. We have to believe that God is good when Satan uses sin, wickedness, corruption, and evil to tempt us to believe that God isn’t good.
It’s easy to get distracted by evil.
16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
It’s easy to forget God is good. But look what happens next.
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.
The psalmist needed to go to the one place he would be reminded of God’s goodness!
Basically, he needed to go to church!
Psalms 73–150 3. Perspective—The Just God Judges Wicked People (73:15–26)
As long as the psalmist focused on the prosperity of the wicked, he felt despair, but once he includes God in the picture his vision is transformed
Asaph needed to go to church so that he could be reminded that a good God is a Just God.
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!
The wicked who get away with evil now and are fat and happy now will one day be held accountable for their evil.
20 Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
Not only is a good God just… A Good God is also merciful and kind.
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.
Even when Asaph was tempted to forget God and love the world, God was with him. God was holding on to him. God was forgiving him.
It is so important here to speak to this amazing Gospel truth.
God is just and yet merciful.
That is what the cross is about.
While, this is Asaph speaking as an Israelite, we know because of the cross, that all who have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory can find both justice and mercy at the cross.
All people are brutish and ignorant. All people need God’s hand of salvation.
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.
It’s not the prosperity of the wicked that is a divine blessing (verse 3)
It is nearness to God that is divine blessing.
Not wealth of the world with the riches of the world.
But wealth in heaven with the richness of knowing God.
26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
We have a good God!
I said earlier that there are two basic questions Asaph is wrestling with...
Why do good things happen to bad people.
Why do bad things happen to good people.
I think the answer is: We are broken and this world is broken…
Applications:
Look at God instead of the brokenness.
Don’t ignore brokenness: Injustice, famine, etc.
But while we seek to manifest justice here, make sure your hope is in God. Not in our attempts at correcting brokenness.
Take your dissatisfaction with brokenness directly to God.
Remember that our bitterness and distrust in God can spread faster than covid.
Go to church. Don’t skip it!
This is the place, and life groups, youth group, etc, are the place we are reminded of God’s goodness!
REMEMBER THIS
Broken people in a broken world can have hope because God is good
We won’t always be broken!
This world won’t always be broken!
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
We are broken people who live in a broken world. We need to be saved. We need to be rescued.
Drugs can’t save you
Drink can’t save you
Sex can’t save you
Bitterness can’t save you
Anger can’t save you
Prosperity can’t save you
A government can’t save you
A president can’t save you
Only Jesus will save you. Only Jesus’ salvation will protect your soul from this broken world. Only Jesus’ return will rescue you from out of this broken world.