Sermon Tone Analysis

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.