True Perspective

Introduction: As we continue with our worship of the Lord this morning, I want to invite you to turn with me to Psalm 73 as we continue with our summer series: Summer in the Psalms. The goal of this series is for us to learn how to express ourselves to God. There are times in life when we do not know how to best handle our thoughts and our feelings. We don’t have the right verbiage. Maybe even, we feel a little bit embarrassed about how we are feeling toward God in some moments. And that’s ok.

What we are seeing through these Psalms is that they provide some guidance on how we are able to approach God.... and I think that might be even one of the best lessons that we learn through the Psalms is that no matter what you are going through, you do not have to hide it or sugar code it at all with God. God welcomes us into His presence and wants us.... calls us… gives us the words… to run to Him. So, if you learn nothing else from this series.... remember this…

God wants you to run to Him.

In every and all circumstances in this life.... the good, the bad, and the ugly... God wants you to keep coming to Him. He is the one that will give you the correct perspective. This is certainly what we see going on in this Psalm this morning.

Hear the Word of the Lord this morning... 1 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. 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 (Ps 73:1–28).

As we think about the Word of God this morning, let’s pray together as we study the Word together.

Let’s Pray Together.

This Psalm has been one of my favorite Psalms for a really long time, as I think that it speaks to something that all of us have gone through or will go through in this life. Have you ever felt like there was injustice in the world? Have you ever felt like you had gotten the short end of the stick, so to speak? Like no matter how hard you tried to do everything right, no matter how hard you attempted to walk that straight line, no matter how hard you were trying to follow God and His way, the only thing that seemed to happen for you was pain and affliction. Has that ever happened to anyone? Like, life seemed to get harder and not easier?

But then you look over to your neighbor, co-worker, classmate, friend, those on TV, or whoever, and they live like little devils, but they seem to have no problems at ALL! EVERYTHING SEEMS to be going right for them, and you start to wonder…. what in the world GOD? What is this all about? How is it that I am trying to do life as you said to do life and all I get is beat up, but these people don’t care about you or your ways one bit and everything seems to go smoothly for them? I DON’T UNDERSTAND GOD!!! I Don’t understand this at all!!!

You’ve been there, right? I’m not the only one, right?! I remember in particular when I was really wrestling with these thoughts and feelings. Looking back, it seems silly to me now, but I remember just being so jealous of people I went to high school with and just some other people who were out-living life. They seemed to have it all together. They had cars. They had nice paying jobs. They had their own house. And I was stuck working at McDonald’s. I had done all that I thought God called me to. I went to school. I got my degree for ministry. I was ready to serve Him.... but there I was stuck being a manager at McDonald’s living in my in-law's basement because we could not afford anything else.

And I just remember being so hurt and bitter. I was trying my best to do everything correctly… but God did not seem to be there for me… at least that I what I thought. But everyone around me seemed to be prospering. I just did not get it.

In this life, it is easy to get envious of those around us. In this life, it is easy sometimes to see the prosperity of others and to begin to think… “That should be me!” “What about me GOD? DO you see what I’ve been doing? If they get all of these “blessings”, shouldn’t I get more?”  We can become jealous and angry. It is easy to fall into this trap. It is easy to slide down into this line of thinking. What we need to address is this: how do we deal with these feelings of envy and jealousy? How are we to see this situation?

Body: Here is what we will see in the Psalm, If I had to summarize the teaching of the Psalm into a main idea it would be this: To deal with our envy, we need God to give us a proper perspective. That is what we see happen in this Psalm. It is not until we are able to come and humble ourselves before the Lord that we can truly see what is going on. Our eyes and feelings have a tendency to lie to us! But, when we are able to fix our gaze upon the Lord, we get to see with a proper perspective.

Let’s look at this Psalm together, look at verses 1-3 with me. 1 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 (Ps 73:1–3).

Notice what the Psalmist is saying, God is good to Israel…. That is a fact. I know that God has been good to His people…But as for me…. I didn’t think that was the case. I had almost fallen. My walk with God was getting a little shaky. I was starting to have some doubts about what in the world was going on. This guy was starting to question his faith a little bit. You guys ever been there? Ever have something happen that you begin to question and wonder if what you believe is correct or not? That is what is going on with this guy. He says that he starts to question everything because he envied the arrogant and saw the prosperity of the wicked. He couldn’t reconcile what was going on around him with what he thought should be true. It just didn’t make sense to him.

Also, as a quick note, I want you to see something. The language that is used there is used in past tense…. meaning that this is something that the Psalm writer is looking back on…it is a past experience for him. It is something that he had walked through but now stands on the other side of it. Which for us means... There is hope to be found in this Psalm for those who feel this way. This isn’t some call to wallow in self-pity. There is hope to be seen here in these words.

But notice what he does here. Look down at verses 4-12 with me, this is where the Psalmist describes the prosperity of the wicked. He gives us this picture of what he is seeing. 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. 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. (Ps 73:4–12).

We all know people like this don’t we? We know people who, no matter what, always seem to come out on top. Everything seems to run smoothly for them. It is almost like they have no trouble in life at ALL. They have everything that they want and need. Nothing is withheld from them at all. Here is the crazy thing, these people are, at times, ones who give no regard for God or His ways. Sometimes these people even mock God and the things of God.

“Does God know everything? How can God know?” they say. It is almost as if they are pointing their fingers at the people of God and saying, “look at you. You are trying to walk a straight line and look at where it is getting you. NO WHERE! What advantage is there to living life your way? We have everything that we want, while you seem to be lacking. Surely your ways are outdated, and you need to get with the times. Stop following this God of yours and get caught up in this life. DO whatever it takes to get what you want and start living for you and yourself…you are all that matters.”

Isn’t that the message that the world tries to feed us? Life is about YOU! When you start chasing your dreams and doing whatever it takes to get what you want, then you will be happy in this life. If you start living life this way, then you will not have problems and pain. The world tells us that following God and His ways is too much for us, and we are better off living life the way we want.

The Psalmist looks at these people and he sees how others are turning to them, and the Psalmist says this, look down at verses 13-15 with me 13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. 14 For all 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 (Ps 73:13–15).

“God, have I followed you for nothing?” That is a hard question to ask. “God, has been following you worth it?” “The only thing that I have been experiencing for following you has been pain and misery, is that the way that it is supposed to be?”

Have you ever been there? Have you been in this type of place, where you start to wonder if this whole Christian life is worth it? You see everyone else living it up, having fun, getting what they want, while you are sitting there being afflicted EVERY SINGLE DAY? It is not an easy place to be, but it is something that people struggle with. Notice what he says in verse 15, “If I had decided to say these things aloud, I would have betrayed your people.” He felt like he couldn’t speak openly about how he was feeling, and obviously, that feeling was dealt with because he wrote this Psalm. But he felt like to talk about it was to openly question God’s goodness and he would have betrayed the people of God by his doubts.

‌So, how does one deal with these thoughts and feelings? Look at verses 16-17 with me. 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 (Ps 73:16–17).

How does the Psalmist make sense of what he sees going on? He admits that alone is a hopeless task. It doesn’t make sense at all. He doesn’t understand it at all…. until what? Until he entered God’s sanctuary….it was then that he understood their destiny. To understand what was going on, he drew near to God, and as he drew near to God, he then understood what was really going on.

Here is the revelation that is given to him as he draws near to God. Look at verses 18-20 with me. 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 (Ps 73:18–20).

Even though everything seemed to be going ok for them now, that was not always going to be the case. One day their way of life will cost them dearly as they face the wrath of God. To understand what was really going on, God had to give the Psalmist a different perspective of the situation. Yea everything seemed to be going good in this life, but this life is only temporary…there is something else after we take our last breath. Those who live lives far from God will one day face the Wrath of God for the way they live.

Having this perspective changed the way the Psalmist viewed God and life. Listen to what he says down in verse 21-26 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 ( Ps 73:21–26).

He starts off by saying how stupid and foolish he really was toward God. He compares himself to a dumb animal in God’s sight. The point is…he acknowledges that he wasn’t thinking, he was only reacting. He was going off of instinct and not what he knew to be true. He wasn’t using his head.

But yet, and don’t miss the beauty of this, even though he was acting this way, God did not leave him or walk away from him. In fact, God did the exact opposite. God guided him. God walked with him. God took him by the hand, like a father and a little child, and showed him the correct way. Get that picture in your mind. Even when this person was wrestling with his faith in God, God did not leave him but was with him. God didn’t say, “you know what, you think you have all of it figured out, do whatever you want.” NO!!! God took him by the hand, walked with him, and showed him the way so that he could understand. Don’t ever be afraid to run to God with your doubts or with things that don’t makes sense to you. God wants you to run to Him in those times! Here is what happens, God guides you and afterwards, when everything is said and done…the person who has faith in God is taken up to be with God forever and always in glory.

As the Psalmist is thinking through this, his heart is changed toward God. Even though everything else seems to be not going right around him…even though life is not what it seems…once he has the correct perspective…his desire is for God and God alone. He wants nothing else…not in heaven or in earth…. HE WANTS GOD!!!  Even if his heart and flesh fail…God ALONE is his portion forever, and that is enough for him.

The Psalmist ends with a recap of the perspective he now has, he says 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 (Ps 73:27–28).

Those who live life apart from God and His ways…will suffer punishment for their sins. That is the ultimate reality. They may live 80 “good years” here on earth, but they will one day take their last breath and justice will be dealt with then. They are living life only for the here and now with no thoughts about what comes next.

The Psalmist, on the other hand, is playing the long game. He finds his good, not in the things of this world, not in the worldly pleasures that others seem to be enjoying, but his joy and his good are found in GOD. God’s presence is his good. That is why he has made God his refuge. God is the one that he is going to run to and not to the things of this world.

But why? Why does the Psalmist make God his refuge? “SO, I can tell about all you do.” God is his refuge so that he can tell other people about God and his goodness! The Psalmist wants other people to know about this God that he is serving. He wants people to know that there is a better way to live life than just having all of their comforts met in this life. The Psalm ends with this mission aspect to it. The people of God, who have experienced the goodness of God, should be compelled to tell others about the work of God.

Conclusion: This Psalm gives us a proper perspective in how we should live life. All of us have dealt with feelings that this Psalm has described. All of us have had the experience of looking at the lives of others and wondering, “why do they have it so easy?” “Why do these people seem to get everything that they want, while the only thing that I get is pain and suffering?” “Why does it seem like when I try to take two steps closer to God, the only thing that I get in life is a kick in the stomach, while Frank over there takes two steps away from God and His ways, and he gets a promotion?”

Envy of others is an ugly sin. Envy clouds our judgment and our thoughts. It causes us to see things not so clearly.

To deal with our envy, we need God to give us a proper perspective. That is what this Psalm helps us with. This Psalms calls us to remember and do a few things. So, let’s go back to our question for the beginning. How do we deal with these feelings of envy and jealousy?

We Run to God. We Remember his Goodness. We Are Open and Honest with God About How We Feel. We Remember that God Is ALWAYS With Us. We Remember that This Life Is Not All There Is. We Remember that God Is Our Ultimate Good.

Here is what I want you to ask yourself in closing, both kids and adults, listen to me, because here is what we need to consider in living this life…

Who or what do you really desire? The answer to that question will often drive envy if it is placed in the wrong thing. If you want a good easy life, then you are angry when you don’t get it. If your desire is for a good job, then you will be upset when someone else gets it. If you want to be liked by that one group of people, then it will feel like the end of the world when that doesn’t happen.  You become envious because others have what you think is really yours.

But, if God is the desire of your heart, if God is the only thing that you desire in heaven and on earth, if we can keep our focus there on Him, then we will not be disappointed at all because we will have the only thing that can truly satisfy our hearts. We won’t have to look around at things to make us happy, because we will have the greatest Joy, and nothing can take Him away from us.

Jesus put it this way, 23 And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?  (Luk 9:23-25 ESV)

If we gain everything in this world but don’t have Christ, then we have nothing.

But, if we have Christ and nothing in this world, we have everything!!!

Are you going to allow God to change your perspective and allow Him to become the desire of your heart?

Let’s cry out and ask God to Change our desires to want Him more.

‌Let’s pray together.