Waking Up to Reality

It is 11:30 on a Tuesday night. The house is finally dark. You are lying in bed, the blue light of your phone illuminating your face. You open LinkedIn, and there it is.

The guy from your office just got promoted to Vice President. You know he cuts corners. He throws people under the bus. He brags about his affairs at the water cooler.

Annoyed and frustrated, you swipe out of LinkedIn and open Instagram. Now you’re looking at your neighbors. The ones always driving new vehicles. Those who treat their weekends like a massive, carefree, never-ending vacation! They’re posting flawless pictures from their lake house somewhere remote in Colorado!

And as you lie there in the dark, you feel it. It is a physical weight in your chest. It is a poisonous mix of exhaustion, bitterness, and envy.

You think about your own life. You’re trying to do it right. You’re fighting for your marriage. You are trying to raise your kids to love Jesus. You are tithing when money is tight. You’re keeping your integrity at work. You’re serving in the church and community. And you're exhausted.

And in that quiet, dark moment, a terrifying question bubbles up. Am I the punchline to a cosmic joke? Have I kept my heart pure for nothing?

If you’ve ever felt this, you’re not alone.

You’re feeling the exact same gut-punch that a man named Asaph felt three thousand years ago.

Asaph was a worship leader in Israel. He wrote Psalm 73 — the psalm that opens the third book of the Psalter, right at the moment Israel's songbook turns to ask this question: where does hope live when everything visible is falling apart? And in this Psalm, Asaph does not just blow warm fuzzies at us! He gives us raw, bleeding honesty!

He exposes a lie that our culture preaches to us every single day.

The lie is this: the material world is all there is — what you can see, touch, buy, post online and test by science. That is all that’s real. Stop believing in fairy tales and live in that reality.

But Asaph is going to judo-flip that script. He is going to show us this Big Idea today. We lose our footing when we stare only at the present. But we find our ground when God reveals reality.

Turn with me to Psalm 73. We are going to look at the first thirteen verses first.

Listen to how Asaph describes his and our crisis of faith!

Psalm 73:1–13 NIV

1 Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. 2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. 3 For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. 5 They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills. 6 Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. 7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity; their evil imaginations have no limits. 8 They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression. 9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. 10 Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. 11 They say, “How would God know? Does the Most High know anything?” 12 This is what the wicked are like— always free of care, they go on amassing wealth. 13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence.

Now, look at verse 2. Asaph says, "My feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold." Why? Because he is staring at the present. Look at verse 3. "For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked."

Church, we lose our footing when we stare only at the present.

Asaph is doing what we all do. He is judging God's goodness by his current material circumstances. And when you do that, you enter into a distorted reality. Envy creeps in and envy is a liar. It creates an illusion.

Look at the illusion Asaph builds in his mind. In verses 4 through 12, he starts listing all the ways the wicked have it better than him. He says they have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They’re pretty and fit people! They aren’t ever in trouble like other men. They don't get stricken with disease.

Do you hear what he is doing? He is looking at their highlight reel! He is doing ancient Instagram scrolling. Oh look, the Babylonians are at the lake house again. Look, the Philistines got another promotion. Look at their curated, filtered lives. Everything is roses and unicorns for the wicked!

He assumes that because they have money, because they have health, they have no pain. He looks at the wicked prospering and he thinks God’s ripping him off.

This is where the danger sets in and this is what Asaph’s internal struggle looks like for us today.

For the single professional in the room right now — you’re fighting for purity. Saving yourself for marriage, honoring God with your dating life. And you watch your friends who don't care about God at all. They seamlessly pair off. They move in together and sleep around with whoever. They look wildly happy. You stare at the present, and your feet begin slipping.

For the older saints in the room — your body is failing. You are dealing with chronic pain. You get a terrifying diagnosis. And you look across the street at a neighbor who mocks God. He's out playing eighteen holes of golf. He's laughing. He's living completely pain-free. You stare at the present, and your feet begin slipping.

When we stare at the material world, we start to believe the secular lie. We start to believe that the arrogant guys who die rich in their sleep actually won. We start to believe that suffering means God is absent or not real at all!

And look where it leads Asaph. Verse 13 is one of the most depressing verses in the entire Bible.

"Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure."

It was all for nothing.

This, Church, is what happens when you build your life on the slippery illusion of the present. You begin to define "reality" by what you can see. And if what you can see is all there is, then your obedience to Jesus feels vain. Your sacrifices feel like a cruel joke.

That’s basically the conclusion he comes to. He is drowning in this poisonous soup of envy and exhaustion. He is looking at the wicked. He is looking at his own life. The math just isn't adding up. Listen to how he says it. Look at verses 14 through 16.

Psalm 73:14–16 NIV

14 All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments. 15 If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children. 16 When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply...

Have you been there? Trying to figure out why God is letting this happen. Or why God isn't answering your prayers. It troubled him deeply. It troubles us too. You just get a headache. A heartache.

Asaph is drowning in the illusion of the present, but he’s about to step out of it! He’s about to wake up to reality. And it happens in one specific place.

The camera pans away from the wicked, and the lens focuses on God. Look at verse 17. It's the turning point of the whole text.

Asaph says the present he can see, troubled him deeply...

Psalm 73:17 NIV

17 till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.

unTill. That’s the pivot.

Folks, we lose our footing when we stare only at the present. But we find our ground when God reveals reality. That is exactly what happens right here. The illusion is only broken when we step into the presence of God.

We do not find our ground by looking harder at the world. We find our ground by letting God reveal ultimate reality.

Asaph steps into the sanctuary. And suddenly, the fog clears. You know those crazy carnival mirrors that stretch and bend everything? They finally stop spinning. His vision is corrected. He stops staring at the present, and God allows him to look at the end of the story.

Listen to what he sees. Read verses 18 through 20 with me. Addressing God, Asaph says:

Psalm 73:18–20 NIV

18 Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. 19 How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! 20 They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.

Do you see it? Asaph thought he was the one slipping! Back in verse 2, he said, "My feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold."

But now he enters the sanctuary. He looks through the lens of eternity. And he realizes: I am not the one slipping. They are!

The arrogant. The corrupt. The ones who exploit the poor and mock God while posting photos from their yachts. They look like they are standing on solid rock. But God says, "No, actually, they’re standing on black ice." They are standing on a trapdoor, and the hinges are groaning.

And here in the presence of God, Asaph begins to hear those hinges creaking.… it sounds like the sweet sweet justice of God. And when Asaph hears it — when we hear it — something deep in our hearts screams YES. God is not asleep. He is not indifferent. Every account will be settled. Justice will be done.

And here is the thing. Every one of us craves this. Even the person who wants nothing to do with God craves this. And rightfully so! When we see a corrupt politician take bribes, something inside of us screams. When an arrogant CEO abuses his employees, steals their pensions, and retires to a private island, something inside of us screams even louder. We clench our fists and we yell, "That's not fair! That's not right!"

Let me pause right here and speak to the skeptic in the room. Or maybe you’re a Christian who is just wrestling with serious doubts. You look at the injustice in the world, and you use that as a reason to reject God. You say, "If there is a good God, how could He let these corrupt people get away with this?"

I want to affirm your anger. You are right to be outraged. Asaph was outraged too! The Bible does not hide from this tension; it puts it on the front page.

But we have to push a little deeper. Maybe you're someone who believes the physical world is all there is — we're just an accident of gas and time. Then I have a question for you.

Why are you mad?

We all hate injustice. We hate it when things aren't fair! But if you think God isn't real, you have a massive problem. You can feel outraged, sure. But your belief leaves you nothing to stand on. If we are just blood and bone, just molecules in motion, then the arrogant Wall Street jerk who manipulates markets and steals from the poor, he didn't do anything "wrong." He just won the survival game. If nature is all there is. Evolution is all there is. There is no God just survival of the fittest… well then in nature the strong eat the weak. It is what is. Not right or wrong, just nature being nature.

You see, saying there is no God lets you feel the anger, but it takes away your reason for it. It leaves you with a tragic lie: this deeply unfair world is all there ever will be.

And this is where the Sanctuary of God offers a much better story to us all!

When you step into the Sanctuary, to the real presence of God, He puts His arm around you and says, "Your outrage is justified. Because I am just."

You see, the wicked are on slippery ground. The universe is not a cold, empty machine. Ultimate reality will be revealed. Every wrong will be made right. Justice will be done. Look at how the Psalm nails this down in verse 27.

Psalm 73:27 (NIV) 27 Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

The very ones who looked untouchable are the ones who don't make it home. The man at the lake house and the man on the trapdoor may be the same man.

Look at what this realization does to Asaph. When he sees reality from the eternal perspective of heaven, it changes how he sees himself. Look at verse 21.

Psalm 73:21–22 NIV

21 When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, 22 I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.

Asaph realizes that when he stared only at the present—when he let envy consume him—he lost his humanity. He became a beast.

That is the destructive power of envy: it reduces us to sheer, reactive instinct. We see someone with a better house, a tighter family, a freer schedule, a better spouse and our animal brain just growls: I want that. Mine. We become bitter. We become prickly.

Maybe that is exactly where you are sitting today. To the exhausted believer in the room—the one who is so tired of trying to lead your family faithfully when everyone else seems to have it so easy: hear this. Release your white-knuckled grip on the picture-perfect life. Stop staring at the illusion of the present. Log off social media. Stop obsessing over someone else's curated highlight reel. Step back into the Sanctuary. Open the Word. Gather with the saints. Pray with brutal honesty. Let God re-anchor you in what is actually real.

And also before we get too comfortable judging the world around us, all of us need to face the terrifying plot twist of the Gospel.

You see, it’s so easy for us to demand justice for everyone else while begging for grace for ourselves. Asaph looks at the wicked and says, "They are on slippery ground. They deserve judgment." But if we are devastatingly honest... if we really look in the mirror... we too are the ones who have lived for ourselves. we too are the ones who have been bitter, beast-like, and arrogant toward God.

If God's justice is absolute, then we are the ones who deserve the slippery ground right along with the wicked! We deserve the trapdoor. We deserve to be cast away into outer darkness just like them!

So how in the world does Asaph end this Psalm with hope? How does he possibly survive the blinding justice of God? Look at verse 23. It pivots on a wildly beautiful "nevertheless."

Right after confessing his own beastly, sinful heart, Asaph says this:

Psalm 73:23–24 NIV

23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

Wait. How is that possible? How can a perfectly holy God look at an envious, beast-like sinner? How can He reach down, grab him by the right hand, and say, "I am always with you"?

Notice Asaph doesn't just say "you hold me by my right hand." He says "afterward you will take me into glory." This isn't only about surviving today — it's a promise that outlasts the grave! Whatever Asaph faces between now and then, the ending is already secured.

Folks, if we just read Psalm 73 by itself, we don't get the full answer. We just get the promise. But if we keep reading our Bibles, we eventually arrive at a hill outside the city gates of Jerusalem.

To understand how Asaph gets grace, and how you and I get grace, we have to look at one man. He's the only man who actually deserved the easy life. Jesus Christ is the only human being who never once looked over the fence in envy. He never grumbled. He never doubted the Father's goodness. He was perfectly innocent.

But look at what happens to Him.

Jesus goes to the cross. And on the cross, the trapdoor of the gallows opens. Jesus' feet are placed on the slippery ground. He is completely swept away by terrors. The full weight of God's justice comes crashing down. It crashes down on our beastly envy. It crashes down on our bitterness and self-pity. It crashes down on the innocent Son of God.

Jesus is thrust into the outer darkness. He screams, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

And at that moment, the curtain of the temple tears in two, from top to bottom. Do you see what that means? The cross and resurrection; that’s the sanctuary's final room. The place where God reveals ultimate reality is no longer behind a veil in Jerusalem. It is Golgotha and the empty grave. When Asaph stepped into the sanctuary, he saw the end of the wicked. When we look at the cross and empty grave, we see even more. We see the end of our guilt.

And why did all of this happen?

So that God could look at you in the middle of your mess. In the middle of your doubt. And say, "I am always with you. I hold you by your right hand."

Jesus took the slippery place so we could have the solid rock by faith. Jesus lost the Father's presence so we could be welcomed into the Sanctuary forever.

This is the Gospel engine. We do not secure God's grip on us by trying really hard to never doubt again. We don’t secure God's grip by pretending we don't struggle with envy. We look to the cross. Looking to the cross is how we finally stop staring at the illusion of the present. It is how we wake up to ultimate reality. We realize that our standing before God does not rise and fall with our performance. It rests securely on the finished work of Christ.

When that reality actually drops from our heads into our hearts, we finally find our ground. It changes what we want out of life — and how we see all of it.

Look at the climax of the Psalm. Look at what happens to Asaph's heart when he realizes he is held by grace. Read verses 25 and 26.

Psalm 73:25–26 NIV

25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Do you see the massive change in his heart?

At the beginning of the Psalm, Asaph essentially said, "God, I want what those wicked guys have. I want their money. I want their perfect bodies. I want their easy lives." He was using God as a vending machine to get the stuff he really wanted.

But now? After stepping into the Sanctuary? After seeing ultimate reality?

Asaph says, "Whom have I in heaven but you?" He realizes that the wicked might get their yachts, their promotions, and their highlight reels. But Asaph gets God.

Here is the great secret of the Christian life. The greatest gift of the Gospel is not that you get a mansion in heaven. The greatest gift of the Gospel is that you get God. He is the portion. If you have all the money, health, and status in the world, but not God, you have nothing. You are standing on black ice. But if your health fails, your bank account drains, and your heart physically stops beating — yet you have Christ — you have everything.

Let's bring this right down to the street level for us today.

To the single person in the room: you are watching your friends get married, buy houses, and start families. It feels like you are doing it right — honoring God with your dating life — and you're being left behind. Hear this first: you are completely known and infinitely loved by the King of the Universe. Christ is your portion. He holds your right hand. So don't let the temptation take root. Don't growl like a beast. Stop looking at their highlight reel. Step into the Sanctuary instead.

To the exhausted parents: you are scrolling through social media. Other families are taking perfect vacations. You are just trying to survive a Tuesday without a meltdown. The envy creeps in. The weariness takes over. But hear this: your identity is secured by the blood of Jesus. He is the strength of your heart. You do not need to hustle for an image of perfection. Cut the feed. Look at the cross instead.

To the suffering believer: your literal flesh and heart might be failing right now. You might be facing a diagnosis that has knocked the wind completely out of you. You look at wicked people who are perfectly healthy, and you wonder why. Hear the Word of the Lord today: God is your portion forever. Death cannot break His grip on your right hand. The grave is not a trapdoor for you; it is a doorway into the eternal Sanctuary.

Folks, behavior flows from identity. Because you are held, you do not have to hustle. Because Christ is your treasure, you do not have to be consumed by envy.

Look at how Asaph ends the song. Verse 28:

Psalm 73:28 NIV

28 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.

Asaph is no longer whining. He is worshipping.

The world is spinning. The carnival mirrors are bending everything around him. Culture is screaming that we’re missing out, that we need more, that God is holding out on us. It is a lie.

Remember the Big Idea. We lose our footing when we stare only at the present. We find our ground when God reveals reality. So step into the Sanctuary. Look at the cross. Look at the empty tomb. You don't need a better life. You need a better Savior, and you have Him in Jesus!

Have you ever watched a father walk a toddler across a parking lot? The child wraps a tiny fist around one of dad's fingers. Halfway across, the child stumbles. The little grip fails completely. But the child doesn't hit the pavement. Why? Because the father's hand was wrapped around that little wrist the entire time.

Friends, your grip on God will fail. It failed Asaph. It will fail you on some dark Tuesday night with your phone glowing in your face. But you are not held up by your grip on Him. You are held up by His grip on you. So draw near to God and make Him your refuge. He is holding your right hand, and He will never, ever let go! Lord Jesus help us wake up to this reality!

Let’s pray!