Sermon Tone Analysis

Call To Worship Scripture

Psalm 73:

Sermon Scripture

Psalm 73:24-26

Experiential benefit of the counsel of God in ones life, is directly tied to ones trust in God.

Why?

Because counsel not adhered to, or direction not taken is of no benefit.

Also tied to trust and therefore counsel (as we discussed last week) is joy.

A delight in doing what has been commanded, a joy in following direction, an absence of grumbling or complaining in the working out of the righteousness of God in your life.

A true pleasure in ones commitment to and account before almighty God.

This address of joy in discipline, joy in correction and joy in counsel and how it is addressed as to one who is an offspring or a child of (God), is why last week we related proper submission as being absent from grumbling and full of joy as with a child and their parent.

But today we answer the question of “why” or “how”?

Why should I take joy in another’s counsel (as opposed to my own)?

How is it better that I do what another commands of me than what I myself desire?

This is another area where scripture is a paradigm shift of sorts.

Easily we have been trained to corralate freedom (as in the doing what we want, absent from commitment and accountability) to happiness/joy (perhaps rightfully so).

However in doing that we have defined freedom as the right to do what we want rather than the ability/liberty to do what is right.

Freedom or liberty in Christ is the being made perfectly holy, perfectly righetouss in Christ and therefore the obtaining of the ability to live out from that righteousness.

You could not do this before.

You were enslaved to sin.

Now being liberated in Christ - is in one portion, liberation from our own carnal desires.

This means that we see things a little different.

Before we thought of the obtaining of our own carnal desires as the destination where freedom is found.

Now however we know our own desires as carnal and depraved and completley lacking of any ability for freedom.

Our thought process has changed.

It has been redeemed.

It has been sanctified.

This is called godly wisdom.

is a wisdom Psalm, and in poetical fashion it puts this wisdom on display as a picture for us to observe.

We can in this Psalm look at the different contrast that are made in the artist color choices and strokes and from that see, by proper observation, the heart and cause that makes joyful the position of submission, the stance of trust, and counsel adhered to.

But as a fine piece of art it ought to be studied with eyes longing to see and know the passion of the artist, and the picture in all of its intent which demands more than a mere five second glance.

We must strive to see not just the picture but the strokes and the fullness of the color pallet.

Psalm 7

The very first verse of this Psalms indicates that the artist/author is taking us on a retrospective journey.

It is intended to look back in observation.

This retrospective observation and the wisdom stance as having a problem resolved before even allowing us in to know the problem.

We see this in the words “Truly” or “Surley”

Truly/Surley is from a Hebrew word which expresses certainty and expresses a new found conviction following the Psalmist crisis

Therefore as we paint this picture we begin with this bold stroke of conviction: GOD IS GOOD.

There is no doubt here and there is no question.

Everything will be based of of the affirmed conviction that GOD IS GOOD.

That is both the battle and the solution.

The question and the answer.

From this we are given who God is good to.

Meaning that the stroke of conviction does not end simply at the GOD IS GOOD, but it gives us insight or further description into God’s goodnes.

GOD IS GOOD TO....

Israel - That is His covenant people.

The people whom He has chosen for Himself.

The people who by the grace of God have enterened into covenant agreement with God.

But this description of Israel isn’t left to just a cold legal covenant document but the stroke of conviction gives shape to the people of Israel of whom the Psalmist is speaking.

Pure In Heart - Here the Psalmist makes a distinction between faithfulness and simple national identity.

More than speaking of cerimonial, ethical or sanitary purity; the Psalmist distinguishes purity “of the heart”.

This in scripture indicates a state of the heart where complete devotion to God is found.

Thus this brings us back to that submission and trust harmonized with joy.

The new found conviction of the Psalmist is that:

GOD IS GOOD TO HIS PEOPLE (ISRAEL) WHO ARE COMPLETLEY DEVOTED TO HIM AS THERE GOD.

The beauty here is we have a conviction highlighting the wonderful goodness of a two way blessed relationship between God and His people.

For the people of God, to be devoted to God is to know the goodness of God as there own no matter what the circumstance.

That is the first stroke of conviction in our text, that is the first layer of color that all else will be contrasted from.

II.

Now our painting enters into the retrospective framework.

It becomes personal rather than national.

Into this retrospective painting the artist brings himself and the prosperity of the wicked to the front as a internal conflict.

It is through his own individual experience that he will approach the topic of the wicked’s prosperity.

Prosperity is a close relative of abundance.

And the prosperity spoken of here is the abundance of riches and perceived success in their labor.

It is the absense of physical struggle in this present time and the presence of perceived power.

To this the Psalmist says that his eyes (I saw) were looking upon the present prosperity of the wicked.

You can see in the painting the young eyes looking out into the world and seeking a path to follow.

There he sees the lustful, the envious beauty of riches, so promising in appearance that the darkness, evil and destruction behind it almost goes unnoticed.

With the eyes upon that of the wicked (not the wicked portion, but the pleasure thereof) the Psalmist heart is contrasted to the heart in verse one.

Rather than “pure in heart” the Psamilst describes himself as “envious” and “arrogent” .

The result is that his walk becomes more as a drunkard than a man resting in the promises of God.

His feet almost stumbled and his steps nearly slipped.

In otherwords this arrogant envy of thinking of himself higher than he ought, and rather than trusting in the perfect rightousness of God almost led him to his ruin.

When envy (I want) and arrogance (I deserve), becomes our cause of pursuit in life, then we end up steering our lives as drunkards behind the wheel, swaying left and swaying right unto our own demise.

Now in verse 4-12 we get more depth added to our painting in the area of the wicked.

The Psalmist will leave his retrospective point and spend time lamenting in the present tense.

He will add depth to the benefits of the wicked and highlight as he did with himself their wickedness before God.

We will go on a journey through his reasoning and wrestling.

We read all of this mindful of the Psalmist introductory conviction that God is good to his people who are devoted to Him - or to be said with more context - the goodness of God (is as a constant) is known/experienced by His people who are devoted to Him in every circumstance.

The Psalmist emphasis here then, is that the wicked are not devoted to God (leaving the question, is the perceived good that the wicked experience actually the goodness of God or is something else upon the horizon?)

Psalm 73:

Now, what has been set forth in our painting is that receiving the present prosperity is the wicked, and the action of the wicked is to set their mouth against the heavens, against God, while yet there pains appear to ease and they increase in riches.

Again, our struggle in looking at this painting is that there is an apparent contradiction.

The colors aren’t harmonizing.

It is as though one side of the canvas displays one picture of a stated truth while the other side displays a completely different perceived reality.

Now the Psalmist paints with a brush stroke of realism, a response and reaction, a place that we have all been.

It is background to his arrogance and insight to his grief.

Thought Process Step One:

Psalm

The observance that all godliness seems futile and the despair that goes with this observance.

The stricken rebuke.

The word for rebuke here has been translated plagued and is sometimes connected to God’s discipline.

()

Here is the description of the perceived picture:

The wicked have prospered

The pure have been plagued (disciplined by God)

Notice that the grief is caused by defining good the same as the wicked.

Vanity is felt when vanity is exersised, when worldly prosperity is sought, craved or lusted after rather than God as ones portion.

III.