Matt's Sermon | Psalm 12
Notes
Transcript
4-5 year olds you guys are dismissed to go upstairs children’s church, and everyone else if you’ll grab your Bibles and head on over to Psalm 73.
As you’re headed there I’ve got a question for everybody…have you ever been in one of those moments where you do everything right—you work hard, you have integrity, you have the right attitude, all of it—and the outcome of your doing the right thing results in you getting punished and someone else getting promoted?
Kids, you ever do the right thing and then a parent walks in and your little sibling blames you for the ONE thing that went wrong and boom, you’re in trouble? Maybe you’ve experienced it in the workplace where you were the best employee, but that raise or promotion not only never came about, but it was offered to someone else who’s half the employee you are. Or maybe it’s a little more personal than that…like our psalmist today, Asaph, you’ve done your bone your best to remain faithful, but all that’s seem to come of it is hurt, confusion, and doubt. And now, in every one of these circumstances, how do you begin to look at the other person…with envy, beginning to question if God himself is good.
And that’s where Asaph found himself. He had nearly slipped.
Asaph was King David’s worship leader and as we’re about to see, despite his faithfulness, the wicked seemed to prosper and all that happened to him was that he suffered. Yet Psalm 73 isn’t one in which misery loves company, what Asaph discovers is that as he brings his embittered heart to God he finds not only the one who will make all wrongs right, but also the portion that will sustain him now.
So follow along as I read Psalm 73. We’ll read, pray, and then dive into it.
A Psalm of Asaph.
Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.
And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
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.
This is God’s Word. And we respond: Thanks be to God. Let’s pray.
I’m going to frame this up a little differently this morning. I want to ask 3 questions of this passage:
What’s the point?
Where can the answer be found?
Where does this take us?
Starting with the first question:
1. What’s the point?
1. What’s the point?
Asaph starts with a theological conviction that all Christians hold Psalm 73:1 “Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.”
Fundamentally we believe that God is good to those who are truly, and completely faithful to him. Yet while Asaph’s conviction is right, there’s a problem: what he sees, experiences, and feels casts a shadow on the goodness of God. He looks around him and see the arrogant succeeding. He sees the prosperity of the wicked and he begins to want what they have. Asaph confesses he has begun to grow envious.
Now, what’s envy? Simply put, it’s wanting what others have. But JD Greear points out that the root of envy is much deeper. He says, “Envy is doubt in the goodness of God’s towards you.” That’s Asaph’s real problem. Yes, his suffering is real. The wicked’s health, wealth and prosperity is real, and when the superficialities of Asaph’s faith run into the realities of the world what springs up is doubt in the goodness of God.
But what does that say about Asaph’s understanding of what God’s goodness is? His conclusion was that God’s blessing equals prosperity, yet when he looks around what does he see?
The wicked live lives in which they don’t suffer. They eat well. They’re prideful. They’re oppressive and loud about it. The way they talk is basically them shaking their fist at God saying, we’ve got it figured out and we don’t need him.
If God’s blessing equals prosperity and the wicked prosper, then really what’s the point? What’s the point of being faithful? So what does Asaph say?
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
There is a quote by Old Testament Scholar Derek Kidner that I’ve wrestled with all week regarding this verse. He says, “To decide that such earnestness has been a waste of time is pathetically self-centered—what did I get out of it?”
But how often do we think the same thing? Truthfully, this is the test of our faith. Are we faithful because of what we get out of it, or what we get in it? Or are we faithful because of who we belong to?
In other words, do you remain committed to the Lord or do you seek the Lord because of the outcome? It makes you feel a certain way or it gives you a certain image or status? Maybe the thought is I’ll serve the Lord—whether that be as a pastor or SS teacher or just showing up on Sunday morning and being present here—because of what I need or what I get.
Imagine for a second that I wanted something from my wife. So I clean the house, I do the dishes, I cook dinner, fold & put up laundry—I do all the things, and then after I do all the things she doesn’t even say thank you. She doesn’t give me whatever it is I want—approval, gratitude, intimacy. I don’t get any of it. Not just once, but for years. How do I begin to feel? I’d become bitter. I’d be hurt. I’d begin to question and doubt. And then when I look over here at you and I see you have a great marriage and you’re getting whatever it is you want then what grows in my heart? Envy. I want what you have.
On the flip side, what if she gives me everything I want. Any act of service I do, word of affirmation I give becomes the key by which I unlock the door to whatever it is I want or think I need. It seems great, but what can begin to grow in me is self-satisfaction. I see what I earned, what I deserved. My gratitude isn’t towards my lover, it’s towards myself.
You see in both of these situations our faithfulness is really put to the test. Are we doing the things we do because of who we’re faithful to, or are we doing the things we do because of what we get out of it? If my faithfulness is to my wife because she’s my wife and I love her then I will pursue her, serve her, and give myself up for her regardless of what benefits me. But if my faithfulness is to what I get out of the relationship, then what’s the point?
Psalm 73:13 “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.”
This morning maybe you find yourself saying the same thing. Wondering what’s the point? God I’ve been faithful to you and look at my children. God I’ve done the right thing and look at my marriage. God I’ve done my best to be faithful, but look at my life.
Maybe you’ve begun to doubt the goodness of God in your life. Yet you’re here. And that’s something. Maybe it’s out of habit, or heritage, but here you sit wondering deep in your heart: where can the answer be found? Well that’s our second question.
2. Where can the answer be found?
2. Where can the answer be found?
Where can the answer be found?
God started working in Asaph through his identity
“The first step to enlightenment was not mental but moral: a turning form the self-interest and self-pity revealed in v3 & 13 to remembering basic responsibilities and loyalties.” Kidner
His identity prevented foolishness, but didn’t answer his question.
God brought clarity in the sanctuary
He remembers their future.
He almost slipped; they are in slippery places.
“If earthly good were of much value, the Lord would not give so large a measure of it to those who have least of his love.” Spurgeon
What appears as prosperity is really the setup to prove they aren’t who they think they are.
“They are prosperous, but they are not safe.”
“He finds more than an answer about them; he awakens to the reality of God with him.
He realizes his foolishness
Doubt & envy lead to embittered & hardened hearts that cause us to act like dumb animals.
How could someone who has been embittered, ignorant, and beastlike remain near a holy God?
He rejoices in God’s faithfulness.
In the sanctuary he finds more than perspective…he finds truth.
God held his right hand - God wasn’t absent while Asaph was bitter.
God didn’t leave while Asaph wondered
In the sanctuary he find guidance.
Ps. 32:8 —what we looked at last week. The Lord counsels us knowing everything.
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
In the sanctuary he is reminded of glory
Who else, what else can give him this?
Ps. 16:2 - David has no other Good
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you.”
Phil. 3:8 - Paul counts the rest rubbish
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
D-group…portion = satisfaction
Instead of being satisfied with the things he was previously envious of, he found satisfaction in the Lord. This caused him to say there’s nothing on earth he desires but the Lord. What is it that we truly desire?
Well behaved children, right reputation, making it on some level of sports, retirement—or never retire, families with us?
Not bad things. When our greatest desire is for position, promotion, or comfort, then the Lord isn’t our Lord.
3. Where does this take us?
3. Where does this take us?
Where does this take us?
Trusted in God’s goodness — The Lord was his refuge
Abandonment wasn’t the issue — The Lord held his hand
Understanding or clarity wasn’t what brought security — The Lord counsels
What others said or did — The Lord is his refuge
Death wasn’t the challenge — glory awaited
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Is your heart satisfied in the Lord because it’s safe in the Lord? Or are you envious of others and doubting the goodness of God towards you?
Told others of God’s greatness
A satisfied heart overflows.
Envy of prosperity faded in the light of God
JD Greear version of John Wesley’s illustration…car breaks down outside a bank
