Worship is the Cure!
SONGS FOR THE JOURNEY • Sermon • Submitted
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Asaph, Heman, and Ethan (Jeduthun) were Levites who served as musicians and worship leaders at the sanctuary during David’s reign (1 Chron. 15:16–19; 16:4–7, 37–42; 2 Chron. 5:12–14; 29:13; 35:15). Apparently they established “guilds” for their sons and other musicians so they might carry on the worship traditions. Twelve psalms are attributed to Asaph (50, 73–83). This one deals with the age-old problem of why the righteous suffer while the ungodly seem to prosper (37; 49; Job 21; Jer. 12; Hab. 1:13ff). Asaph could not lead the people in divine worship if he had questions about the ways of the Lord, but he found in that worship the answer to his problems. Note five stages in his experience.
BELIEVING: Standing on What He Knows (v. 1)
1 Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
The French mystic Madame Guyon wrote, “In the commencement of the spiritual life, our hardest task is to bear with our neighbor; in its progress, with ourselves; and in the end, with God.” Asaph’s problems were with God. Asaph affirmed “God is,” so he was not an atheist or an agnostic, and he was certain that the God he worshiped was good. Furthermore, he knew that the Lord had made a covenant with Israel that promised blessings if the people obeyed Him (Lev. 26; Deut. 28–30). The phrase “a clean [pure] heart” means, not sinlessness, but total commitment to the Lord, the opposite of verse 27. (See 24:4 and Matt. 5:8.) But it was these foundational beliefs he stated that created the problem for him, because unbelievers don’t face problems of this sort. If the Lord was good and kept His covenant promises, why were His people suffering and the godless prospering? This first verse marked both the beginning and the end of his meditations. He came full circle. Note that he used “surely” or “truly” in verses 1, 13, and 18, and that “heart” is used six times in the psalm (vv. 1, 7, 13, 21, 26). When pondering the mysteries of life, hold on to what you know for sure, and never doubt in the darkness what God has taught you in the light.
DOUBTING: Slipping from Where He Stands (vv. 2–3)
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.
The Hebrew word translated “but” in verses 2 and 28, and “nevertheless” (yet) in verse 28, indicates a sharp contrast. In verse 2, the more he measured his situation against that of the ungodly, the more he began to slip from his firm foundation. There is a difference between doubt and unbelief. Doubt comes from a struggling mind, while unbelief comes from a stubborn will that refuses surrender to God (v. 7). The unbelieving person will not believe, while the doubting person struggles to believe but cannot. “Prosperity” in verse 3 is the familiar Hebrew word shalom. It’s an act of disobedience to envy the wicked (37:1; Prov. 3:31; 23:17; 24:1, 19).
wrestling: Struggling with What He Sees & Feels (vv. 4–14)
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?”
From Asaph’s viewpoint, the ungodly “had it made.” They were healthy (vv. 4–5) and had no struggles in either life or death (Job 21:13, 23). They were proud of their wealth and stations in life, and they wore that pride like jewelry. They used violence to get their wealth and wore that violence like rich garments. Like an overflowing river, their hard hearts and evil minds produced endless ideas for getting richer, and they frequently spoke words of opposition against the Lord in heaven. The words of the arrogant would “strut through the land” and take possession of whatever they wanted. But the greatest tragedy is that many of God’s people don’t seem to know any better but follow their bad example and enjoy their friendship! (v. 10).
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.
Based on the evidence he could see around him, Asaph came to the wrong conclusion that he has wasted his time and energy maintaining clean hands and a pure heart (vv. 13 and 1, and see 24:4 and 26:6). But old Asaph made a mistake many believers do, for we don’t serve God because of what we get out of Him but because He is worthy of our worship and service regardless of what He allows to come to our lives. Satan encourages us to adopt a commercial view of the life of faith and to serve God for what we get out of it (Job 1–2).
WORSHIPING: Seeing the Big Picture (vv. 15–22)
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.
Thankfully, Asaph was drawn by God to consider the consequences of his attitude. How would the younger believers in the land respond if one of the three sanctuary worship leaders turned his back on Jehovah, the covenants, and the faith? To abandon the faith would mean undermining all that he had taught and sung at the sanctuary!
The more he pondered the problem, the more his heart was pained (see vv. 21–22), So he decided to go to the sanctuary and spend time with the Lord in worship. There he would be with other people, hear the Word and the songs of praise, and be a part of the worshiping community. After all, Jehovah isn’t a problem to wrestle with but a gracious Person to love and worship—especially when you are perplexed by what he is doing. God is awesome in His sanctuary (68:35, niv), and when we commune with Him, we see the things of this world in their right perspective.
Asaph did get a new perspective on the problem when he considered, not the circumstances around him but the destiny before him. He realized that what he saw in the lives of the prosperous, ungodly people was not a true picture but only pretense: “you will despise them as fantasies” (v. 20, niv). In New Testament language, “the world is passing away, and the lust of it …” (1 John 2:17, nkjv). Although God can and does give success and wealth to dedicated believers, worldly success and prosperity belong to the transient dream world of unbelievers, a dream that one day will become a nightmare. (See Luke 12:16–21.) Asaph was humbled before the Lord and regained his spiritual balance.
OVERCOMING: Rejoicing over God’s Goodness (vv. 23–28)
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.
The psalm opened with “Truly God is good to Israel,” but Asaph wasn’t sure what the word “good” really meant. (See Matt. 19:16–17.) Is the “good life” one of wealth and authority, pomp and pleasure? Surely not! The contrast is striking between Asaph’s picture of the godless life in verses 4–12 and the godly life in verses 23–28. The ungodly impress each other and attract admirers, but they don’t have God’s presence with them. The Lord upholds the righteous but casts down the wicked (v. 18). The righteous are guided by God’s truth (v. 24) but the ungodly are deluded by their own fantasies. The destiny of the true believers is glory (v. 24), but the destiny of the unbelievers is destruction (vv. 19, 27). “Those who are far from You shall perish” (amp). The ungodly have everything they want except God, and the godly have in God all that they want or need. He is their portion forever (see 16:2). The possessions of the ungodly are but idols that take the place of the Lord, and idolatry is harlotry (Ex. 34:15–16; 1 Chron. 5:25). Even death cannot separate God’s people from His blessing, for the spirit goes to heaven to be with the Lord, and the body waits in the earth for resurrection (vv. 25–26; 2 Cor. 5:1–8; 1 Thess. 4:13–18).
When the worship service ended and Asaph had gotten his feet firmly grounded on the faith, he left the sanctuary and told everybody what he had learned. He had drawn near to God, he had trusted God, and now he was ready to declare God’s works. “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37, nkjv).