Ps 73
Series: First Psalms
Title: The Great Equilizer
Text: Psalm 73
The Congress has been working all week to come up with the terms for a $700 billion bailout to banks and other financial institutions. Now I am no economist and so I am not equipped to comment on the pro’s and con’s of such a plan. I am an observer of people, however, and what I thought was interesting was how quickly after the idea was first launched that there was such an enormous outcry from the public. People were up in arms about the government putting together a bailout that would allow executives of these companies to walk away from the mess they helped create with some kind of golden parachute. It isn’t fair. One report I heard said the executives were not interested in a golden parachute, just the chance to keep their jobs. No wonder . . .
I did some research and discovered that according to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research organization, in 2007 the total compensation of chief executives in large American corporations was estimated to be 275 times that of the salary of the average worker.
Wall Street CEO’s have been the top tier of the corporate pay range, and their executives earn eight-figure salaries (that’s tens of millions of dollars per year), and that does not account for their bonuses. Henry Paulson, the present U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, used to work for the investment firm, Goldman Sachs. In 2005 he was the highest paid CEO on Wall Street, reaping $38.3 million in salary, stock and options. In the first half of 2006 he was given an $18.7 million dollar bonus on top of his salary. He accumulated 3.23 million shares of his company’s common stock valued at $492 million and some restricted shares worth another $75.2 million.
It wasn’t a big surprise then that at the beginning of the week Paulson said, ``In terms of the compensation issue, there's a lot of things that need to be done there, but I would respectfully submit that we can't do those as quickly as it takes to get this system up and running . . .'' He went on to say, ``People in this country understand pay for performance, for success -- that's the American dream. No one understands pay for failure.''
By week’s end, however, the outcry had become so loud, and the opponents of the idea so vocal, he promised there would be some kind of salary cap for CEO’s of the companies getting bailed out.
But even that strikes many people as unfairr. Why should CEO’s draw enormous salaries and bonuses for years, while jeopardizing our entire financial system, and then when their greed catches up with them get bailed out on the backs of the taxpayers that didn’t make the mess in the first place? Hey, when the little Mom and Pop supermarket goes under, you notice that the government doesn’t rush in to bail them out. Mom and Pop are on their own – and good luck to ya’. . . don’t forget to pay your taxes.
One of the teachers at school sent around a little math lesson this week. If we took just the $85 billion for the bail out of AIG, the insurance giant, and divided it equally among the roughly 200 million adults in the country we each would get $425,000. After paying taxes we each would have $297,500 in our pocket. Imagine what we could do with that kind of money. Some of us could pay off our mortgage and end the housing mess. We could sock it away for our kids’ college, and end the need for government student loans. There are a hundred things we could do with that money that would spur on the economy. But trust me, that will never happen. The money will go to the CEO’s and their companies, not to us or our struggling businesses.
It is unfair, but then no one ever said that life was going to be fair. What happens though to those who have faith in God, is that they run head on into a huge question. Why do people who do bad things prosper? Why doesn’t God reward those who do the right things, work hard to support their families, and yes, even pay their taxes? Why is the inequality so obvious and why are the wrong people getting the blessings of God?
Have you ever felt like this?
This morning we are continuing our series in the Psalms; a series titled First Psalms because we are looking at the first Psalm in each of the five books of Psalms. We have made our way to the third book and it begins with Psalm 73.
The first week we saw the importance of planting ourselves in the Word of God. Last week we saw how sometimes we have big questions, like “why do so many bad things happen to me”? It is hard to reconcile a God who loves me with the difficulties we face, and sometimes not just an isolated difficulty, but wave after wave of difficulties.
Today the tables are turned. Instead of wondering why bad things happen to us, the Psalmist wants to know why such good things happen to others, and especially to those who don’t deserve them. In all fairness, we think we should get the best treatment by God because we, at least, are trying to do the right things, compared with those other people. We should be bailed out, not them. Well, the Lord does lead the Psalmist to an understanding, and one that will help us all keep the correct perspective when it looks like the wrong people are prospering.
To see how the Lord leads the Psalmist to this perspective we need to see the problem clearly before we can gain the correct perspective. I don’t have the time this morning to walk us through verse by verse. Let me just show you the problem the Psalmist sees, and then show you the perspective he gained.
I. The problem – the wicked prosper.
The basic issue the Psalmist is struggling with is the fact that as he looks around, the wicked seem to be the ones who are prospering. Perhaps the best way to get the overall picture is for me to show you a list. It summarizes the inequities the Psalmist has noted. Of interest is that he begins the Psalm by stating a principle about life as we believe it to be – if you do the right things you will succeed.
The way he says it is, “Surely God . . . is good to those who are pure in heart.” This is what we believe. This is how we think it works. This is what seems “fair” to us. Quickly the Psalmist says in essence, “but this ‘ain’t’ the way it is working.” In fact, he speaks of the struggle he has had with the way things are. He says “my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped.” He wasn’t on sure footing when he believed one thing to be true, and saw the other taking place in real life. He admits he is envious; he wants all of what appears to be going so well for the wicked; benefits that do not require him to be good. Think of it; it’s having your cake and eating it too. You get the best of this world, and you don’t have to even attempt to live for God. The great discrepancy created great dissonance for him. Something here had to give. Either his understanding of God was going to have to change, or his grasp on the way things really work in real life had to change.
So he lists his evidence that things are not as they should be.
v. 3 – He sees the arrogant living out their lives in pride and prosperity
v. 4 – He sees the wicked have no pain in their deaths (they live long and die in
their sleep)
v. 4 – He notices that the wicked are always fat – a sign of high living.
v. 5 – He sees that they do not face the troubles that other men do; they are not
plagued with hardships like others are
v. 6 - They wear pride like a necklace – to be seen and admired
v. 6 – they engage in violence and get away with it (exploiting others)
v. 7 – Their eyes bulge from fatness. They are self-indulgent.
v. 7 – whatever they can imagine to do, they do it without fear of consequence or
expense
v. 8 – They mock those they oppress; they speak as if they are superior to everyone
else
v. 9 – they have a mouth set against heaven – they blaspheme God, and ridicule his
plans
v. 9 – their tongues parade around the earth – and are not stopped. They are given
more influence than they deserve.
The incongruity of all of this is almost too much for the author of this Psalm, Asaph, to take. Why are these people, who are engaged in every gross sin imaginable, getting away with it? Why doesn’t God do something to stop them, and set things straight. Their ability to get away with sin just isn’t fair. They get blessed while doing evil, while those who do good, have a tough go of it.
I remember thinking this way one Sunday last December when I opened up the newspaper and saw this cover. Jack Nicholson, the academy award winning actor, appeared on the cover of Parade magazine on Dec 5, 2007 and scrawled across the page in huge letters was the quote, “I make my own rules.” When I saw those words, I actually cringed. I was shocked at the audacity of such a comment. I couldn’t believe the pride that dripped from the headline. But then I read the article, I thought about it, and did some more research and have decided it actually does accurately reflect Nicholson’s life. Let me give you just a couple of illustrations.
First, his biographers point out that Nicholson boasts of having had at least 2,000 sex partners. He has 6 children from 5 different women, and instead of this being something shameful, he flaunts it as part of his bad boy image. He is self-indulgent and proud.
Second, we know that Nicholson has been a successful actor. He has been nominated for an Academy Award 12 times. He has won three Academy awards; twice for best actor, and once for best supporting actor – which ties him for the most awards given to a male. Interestingly enough, movie producers have discovered that if they want Jack in their movie, they will have to work his filming schedule around the L.A. Laker’s home game schedule since he refuses to miss a game and hasn’t for 25 years now. By the way his seat runs him about $2000 per game. Here is a guy who thinks he is a hot commodity, and is. He is self-centered. He considers himself superior to others He uses people. He wears pride like a necklace. And he sseems to be impervious to the difficulties that others face, others who seek to follow the Lord and live holy, pure, and humble lives. How can this be?
The Psalmist understands this problem, we understand it. And it even gets worse.
There is more.
v. 10 – they are never alone – they attract adherents to their erroneous ways
v. 11 – they cast doubt on the omniscience of God – they seem to think that God
must not really know everything because, after all, they are getting away
with everything.
v. 12 – though wicked they continue to increase in their wealth
Here is the Psalmist’s problem summed up: In verse 13 he wonders aloud if he hasn’t kept his way pure for nothing; if all his efforts to be good, have not actually been worthless (vain).
Can you relate to his question? If not, just look around.
Are the good or the evil prospering? The shrewd and lazy brown-noser at work gets the promotion. The self-centered crook gets elected to office. The CEO’s, not the government workers whose wages have been cut get bailed out. The calloused, conscienceless athlete kills his wife and gets away with it, only to write a book about how he did it to make a few more million. Come on!
Feel the Psalmist’s anger, his hopelessness, his doubts. He is the one being tortured by all of this each day. He is the one troubled by it constantly. Troubled, that is, until he came into the presence of God. For in the presence of God, things became clear. It was there that he caught a new perspective.
II. The perspective – the wicked will perish and the Lord is my portion
As the Psalmist drew near to God with his question of “what’s going on here?”, God met him. He will do the same for you and me if we just approach him, and let him know what is really going on in our heart, or in our mind.
No longer clouded by his focus on the repeated demonstrations of the wicked prospering in life all around him, the Psalmist gets a longer-range view – he gets a glimpse into the future. And what he sees is that as much as the wicked appear to be in a good place, they are actually on a slippery slope. The Psalmist’s feet might have been close to stumbling, and he might have slipped into the sin of envy, but the feet of the wicked on that slippery place will land them in the place of destruction – the great equalizer.
I know it is very unpopular to talk about the place of destruction. The “h” word, “hell,” is not popular fare from most pulpits. We want a gospel that only speaks of good news – good news for everyone. We only want to hear of blessings, and joy and salvation. We only want to hear how everyone is “in”, not that some are “out.”
This perspective is rampant in what is being called the Emergent Church. One of their writers tried to sum up their doctrine of hell with this explanation, ‘the Jews during the intertestamental period wove together the mythological views of the Mesopotamian, the Egyptian, the Zoroastrian and Persian religions and created hell. When Jesus came on the scene the Pharisees were using hell as a club to keep the people in line. Through the threat of hell the Pharisees could motivate sinners to stop sinning and then perhaps God would send the Messiah along with His kingdom. Jesus takes the Pharisees’ club and turns it on them. Jesus didn’t really believe in or endorse hell . . . ”
But friends, that is simply not what the Bible teaches. The only way we can appreciate the blessedness of eternity with God is to contemplate eternity without Him. The Bible does give us good news, and the good news for the Psalmist is that it is worth it to follow God, contrary to the way it appears all around him. It might look like the wicked are prospering, but in actuality, one day their decision to live apart from the presence of God and his blessings will lead them to destruction. You will see them sliding down a slippery slope to hell; the place of eternal destruction. As the Psalmist writes, the place where they will be destroyed in a moment and utterly swept away by sudden terrors. When the Lord is aroused, He will despise their wicked form.
We understand that this is NOT what God wants for anyone, but he will honor their desire to be near him, or to exist apart from him.
The Psalmist has had an “ah-ha” moment. He recognizes by focusing just on the blessings the wicked seem to be receiving in the present he didn’t have the whole picture. In fact, in vs. 22 he compares himself with some dumb beast; some senseless and ignorant animal. He hadn’t been thinking clearly. He had been dull of thinking. Like an animal that only cares about the present, so had been the focus of the Psalmist. Now he takes the long view, and suddenly things become clear.
He now gives another list, this time a list of the blessings that he has in God; blessings that he had forgotten the value of before.
In vs. 23 – he realizes that he has the blessing of God’s continual presence
Vs. 23 – the blessing of God’s stabilizing right hand holding his
Vs. 24 – the blessing of God’s wise counsel only a request away
Vs. 24 – the assurance of being with God in glory – in that place where His radiant beauty will ever shine. He is going to heaven.
Look at the Psalmist’s change in heart. He had been envious before, tempted by everything the wicked seemed to be gaining, but now he recognizes the value of having just the Lord. God was enough for him. He needed nothing else, in fact, he “desire(d) nothing on earth.” (v. 25)
To him it didn’t matter what would happen now – his flesh might fail – he might become ill or an invalid. His heart might fail - his mind might go, his emotions might get out of whack, or his life go sideways, but it is enough to remember that God is his strength and his portion forever. The wicked will one day perish. All who are unfaithful to God will be destroyed. But for him, the nearness of God is his best “good”. (v. 28) He has decided to make God his refuge not the pleasures, the pursuits, or the perqs of this world – and it isn’t selfish on his part. Look at the twist right at the end. He doesn’t end the Psalm by gloating in his blessings. He is thrilled at the prospect of telling others about the works of God.
Do you see the twist? What is different from a wicked, arrogant person living for all they can get while ignoring God, and a Christian living for all the blessings they will get from God? Not much. We don’t, however, get for the sake of getting. It is not about us. We get, for the sake of passing it on. We get, so that others will be swept not into destruction, but into the advancing kingdom of God.