The Strength of my Heart

Nelson’s Annual Preacher’s Sourcebook, 2007 Edition October 21, 2007: When Life Doesn’t Seem Fair

When Life Doesn’t Seem Fair

By Dr. Timothy Beougher

Scripture: Psalm 73:1–28, especially verse 26

My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Introduction: Our lives often seem filled with sickness, stress, family issues, financial crises, and so much more. Why, then, does it seem others, who don’t follow the Lord, have it so much better? Our passage today involves the same question, so turn with me to Psalm 73.

1. Perspective Begins with God’s Revelation (v. 1). This psalm was written by Asaph. Asaph was a godly man who served as the worship leader in the temple. He was the author of 12 of the 150 psalms. He begins this psalm with an affirmation: “God is good.” This truth is based on God’s revelation of Himself (cf. Matt. 7:11).

2. Perspective Is Lost When We Walk by Sight (vv. 2–14). The problem was this: Even as Asaph was trying to sing that truth, he was struggling with perspective. He had lost his focus of walking by faith and he began to walk by sight. He began to measure life only in terms of what his physical eyes could see.

A. We Envy the Wicked (vv. 2–3). Asaph is not critical of the arrogant. He is not rebuking the wicked. Instead, he is jealous of them! He has decided he wants what they have: “prosperity” which is the word shalom in Hebrew, a deep-seated peace. It doesn’t seem fair at all! Asaph is judging by only what he can see with his physical eyes.

B. We Covet the Fruit of Sin (vv. 4–12). These verses list the fruit that wicked people seem to reap: they seem physically strong and healthy, they inherit seemingly natural emotional blessings, they are proud, they do whatever pleases them, they mock believers and look down on God, and they seem to be blessed with wealth and an easy lifestyle.

C. We Conclude that Obeying God Is Futile (vv. 13–14). Why live for Jesus when those without Him appear to be doing okay? p 327 Does a godly lifestyle really pay off? When walking by sight it appears at times there is little reward for following God. Asaph was ready to throw in the towel. When we walk by sight, we become confused very easily.

3. Perspective Is Regained When We Walk by Faith (vv. 15–28). Human observation creates doubt, but divine revelation restores faith.

A. Recalling Our Responsibility to Others (v. 15). In his struggle, Asaph doesn’t trash God in front of others. Deep down he still knows the truth of verse 1, so he doesn’t cause others to stumble. The problem is that misery loves company. When we hurt, we want to talk to someone. It is okay to share doubts and struggles, but do it with those more spiritually mature, not with those who are “children.”

B. Renewing Our Focus on God (vv. 16–17). Walking by sight doesn’t provide the answer; it seems to raise new questions! He got worse! Verse 17 provides the major turning point: “Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end.” That’s why worship is so vital: it helps us regain our perspective! The mysteries of life begin to unravel in the presence of the Majesty.

C. Realizing the Destiny of the Wicked (vv. 18–20). It was in the sanctuary of God that Asaph could see the wicked were really not prospering at all. Instead of envying the things that lost people have, we could focus on what they don’t have: salvation. We should be concerned for their eternal predicament.

D. Recognizing Our Human Frailty (vv. 21–22). When consumed by bitterness, Asaph acted like an animal. The term used here describes a grazing animal that lives with his head hunched down, seeing only the ground, and never the sky. When we live for this life only, we are like an animal.

E. Rejoicing in God’s Blessing on the Righteous (vv. 23–28). These verses speak of God’s presence and His protection (v. 23), His guidance and His glory (v. 24). Asaph realizes God is all he needs (v. 25) and commits to walk with Him no matter what (v. 26). Make that decision now!

p 328 Conclusion: When our perspective shifts from our human understanding of the reality of eternity, we won’t be able to be quiet. We must speak. We will want to tell of all His deeds. We cannot sit on the good news while people are slipping and sliding into the horrors of hell.

Basketball story - Life is not fair.

Children who are members of loving, God-fearing, christian families, who are loved dearly, are killed in storms, or car wrecks, or from diseases, and there are others out there publicly proclaiming how proud they are of their choice to murder their unborn children in the womb and claiming that choice made them able to obtain success in their lives!

Or our hearts break when a godly parent is taken from their young family and we struggle to comprehend why that godly person has to suffer while we hear on the news about a parent who has been abusing their children for years is still here.

Church we understand that all too often when we look at this world through our physical lenses that life is not fair. And that idea, that statement of life not being fair has for centuries, for millennia has caused people of faith to struggle and there have been a great many people who have fell away from faith entirely because they could not reconcile a Just God, a Righteous God with the world that they see around them.

Here’s my question, do we still struggle with this today? Of course we do!

So this morning we are going to be looking at , with the understanding that this feeling, this understanding of life not being fair is something that people of faith have struggled with and conquered time and time again, and if they can conquer this very real form of doubt, that we can too. And by looking at how they conquered that doubt, we will be equipped with the knowledge we need to get through our own times of doubt.

In we find a Psalm of Asaph, most likely the same Asaph that served under kings David and Solomon as a musician.

Asaph begins the Psalm with the end of things at the beginning.

This is a story telling device that several movies have done

Tangled

Forrest Gump

But he got through this rough time in his life and he’s going to tell us how he did it, what went through his mind and how he got find his way to this clear conclusion that he has at the beginning.

Nearly Slipped, Nearly fell from his faith

Why? Envy!

No Pain

No Trouble

They openly taunt God and flaunt their evil ways

Yet they are always at ease

they increase in their riches.

Job 21 ESV

1 Then Job answered and said: 2 “Keep listening to my words, and let this be your comfort. 3 Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on. 4 As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient? 5 Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth. 6 When I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh. 7 Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? 8 Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes. 9 Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them. 10 Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry. 11 They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance. 12 They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe. 13 They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol. 14 They say to God, ‘Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. 15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’ 16 Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me. 17 “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger? 18 That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away? 19 You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’ Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it. 20 Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty. 21 For what do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months is cut off? 22 Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those who are on high? 23 One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure, 24 his pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist. 25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity. 26 They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them. 27 “Behold, I know your thoughts and your schemes to wrong me. 28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’ 29 Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony 30 that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath? 31 Who declares his way to his face, and who repays him for what he has done? 32 When he is carried to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb. 33 The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all mankind follows after him, and those who go before him are innumerable. 34 How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”