Psalm 73: The wicked contrasted with the righteous

Speaker: Thank you for downloading the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta. Today, David John Morata will be speaking on Psalm 73. You can follow along in the lecture notes at wednesdayintheword.com slash psalm73. Thanks for joining us. Speaker 2: We're going to be doing Psalm 73. The handout I just passed out has so many typos on it I'm embarrassed. I'll correct this before it gets on the internet. Part of it is the um the psalm is written by Asaph, who is a um one of the musician priests in David's court, and we actually know a lot about him. So I'm tempted to, at times in the handout, say he, and then I'm tempted, since it's written in the first person, to say I, and there's at least six places where I flip-flop back and forth between those two, and it reads really funny. Um Asaph was one of the chief people responsible for when the ark is taken up and David's dancing before it. You sort of all know that story. Well, Asaph is one of the chief people responsible for celebrating with music on the way up. And then later on, he's charged by David and given responsibility over all of the music to be in front of the Ark of the Covenant in celebration of God. And so Asaph is probably a pretty high person in terms of David's court. He's a musician, he's a priest, and if you want to know what musical instrument he played, he played the cymbals. So I'm not sure how much talent he needed to have, but he played the loud and clashing cymbals as opposed to the little dinky ones. So it's sort of interesting to see. I mean, if you want to read about uh Asaf and his life, it's um it's all there in 1 Chronicles 15 and 16, and and really it's kind of worth reading. It's it's kind of a fun thing. So this is one of the psalms that Asaf wrote. He was um pr fairly prolific, and this is a very, very personal psalm, a very personal account by him uh about a case in which um a time in his life in which he was tempted just to chuck the faith. So he's writing from a very personal perspective, saying, I just don't see that this Yahweh worship really gets me anything or works or is worth anything. Let's read it. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart, but as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped, for I was envious of the arrogant, as I saw the prosperity of the wicked, for there are no pains in their death, and their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace, the garment of violence covers them, their eye bulges from fatness, their imaginations of their heart run riot, they mock and wickedly speak of oppression, they speak from on high, they have set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue parades through the earth. Therefore his people return to this place, and waters of abundance are drunk by them, and they say, How does the God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High? Behold, these are the wicked, and always at ease they have increased in wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure, and washed my hands in innocence, for I have been stricken all day long, and chastened every morning. If I had said I will speak thus, behold, I should have betrayed the generation of thy children. When I pondered to understand this it was troublesome in my sight, until I came into the sanctuary of God, and then I perceived their end. Surely thou dost set them in slippery places, thou dost cast cast them down to destruction. How they are destroyed in a moment, they are utterly swept away by sudden terrors, like a dream when one awakens, O Lord when aroused that will despise their form. When my heart was embittered, I was pierced within, and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant, I was like a beast before thee. Nevertheless I am continually with thee. Thou hast taken a hold of my right hand, with thy counsel thou wilt guide me, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom at whom have I in heaven but thee, and besides thee I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. For behold, those who are far from thee will perish. Thou hast destroyed all those who are unfaithful to thee. But as for me, the nearness of my God is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all thy works. Okay. There's a lot to cover here. It's a long psalm. The first thing to notice is the Psalms divided in two parts. There's an even number of verses. Really, any time there's an even number of verses in the Psalms, you should just draw a line in the middle and just take a look and see if that's a good division place. In this case, it's a perfect division place because the first 14 verses sort of talk about Asaph's way down into despair and discouragement and lack of faith. And the last fourteen verses talk about his journey back, in which case he ends up in a place that's stronger really than where he began. So just, I mean, there's a lot of the rich theology that you can get out of the Psalms. One of them is this is the Christian life. It's three steps back and four steps forward, and that's sort of the process we make. And when you find yourself on that way down, the question is, okay, I get to understand I'm really not moving in the right direction, but how can I get back to the place where I'm moving in the right direction again and end up in a stronger place? So this is sort of, you know, if you're if you're in one of those places where, yeah, I'm four steps back now, and I'm you know, I'm really discouraged and depressed, and I don't feel like I'm in the right place. Um, what I like about the Psalms is they give you a place to start and they give you the trail back, if you will. And this Psalm does that as well. So if you take a look at his steps backward, verses one through three, verse one is a summary of the entire Psalm, and so I'm gonna leave that sort of to the end and see why that makes sense out of the entire psalm. Verses two and three, he says, certainly we should expect God to be good to those who are pure in heart, but I almost lost my faith because I envied the wicked. So, as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped, for I was envious of the arrogant, and I saw the prosperity of the wicked. So I saw these good things that non-Christians have, they seem to have power, wealth, um, they get more sex, they get, you know, all these things that you can envy about the non-Christian lifestyle. They seem to have more fun, they seem to be uninhibited, they seem to do whatever they want, they seem to have no restraints, they seem to not do the dishes when it's their turn to do the dishes. All the different things that you can do if you don't care about morality and you kind of want to be able to do, the wicked do. And so it's just not fair. It's just not it's just not good. And then in verses four through nine, he sort of chronicles all of his complaints about the wicked, because the wicked seem to prosper in every way. So in verse 4, they die painlessly, not in the prime of life. They're healthy and prosperous. When it says their body is fat, that's a good thing. That's not an insult. In this day and age, if you had a little fat, that meant you were rich, you got enough to eat. So this is a sign of being healthier, not the way we would take it today. So don't try using that as a compliment on someone. Your body's fat. You're doing really good. In verse 5, they're not in trouble as other men. I love that. You know, they just they don't seem to get in trouble. They're not plagued like mankind. Um, part of it is when you're rich and you're wealthy, you can just get yourself out of a lot of jams that you can get into. And so these people are prosperous, they're rich, they don't seem to have the problems the rest of us have, they don't seem to be to be worried about it. Um then they flaunt their pride. Their pride is their necklace, um, and their garment of violence covers them, so they just take what they want. They're not fair, they're belligerent, they're um they're pushy, and so, and and they're they're proud of it. Then in verse seven, um, the outcome of this goes deep into their attitudes. Verse 7's hard to translate. I think the New American Standard has something different than the uh NIV. The New American Standard has their eye bulges from fatness. What does the NIV have? Speaker 1: From their callous hearts comes iniquity, the evil conceits of their minds. Speaker 2: Yeah. I I actually like the Numerican Standard. The Hebrews sort of um their eye goes forth from fatness. And I think it's more of the idea of a roving eye. Their eye goes forth looking for more abundance. So they're not even satisfied with what they have, they're always sort of on the prowl for even more stuff. So they're very materialistic in their origin or in their attitudes of what they're looking for, and they're just keeping score by how much stuff they can get. And then the imagination of their heart runs riot, they um they do they sort of do whatever they want in their thought life as well, and they have the means sometimes to actually be able to implement some of that. Then in verse 8, they mock and wickedly speak of oppression. They speak from on high, so they they have this attitude they're better than the rest of us, they're more important, they they get to do whatever they want, um, and they get to say whatever they want. So they're sort of immune from all of the morality that seems to plague those of us who are trying to follow God. They've set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue parades through the earth. So it sort of paints a very good picture. The wicked seem to prosper in every way, and they they seem to just be blatant in their immorality and their wickedness, and yet nothing comes of it. They just they have the good of everything. Then in verses 14, so to summarize, I nearly lost my faith in a good God, seeing the wicked's prosperity, because the wicked seems to prosper in every way. And then in verses 10 through 14, and keeping my heart pure passes unrewarded from God. So in verse 10, um, again, this is a little hard to understand in the Hebrew. Therefore, his people return to this place, and waters of abundance are drunk by them. I think the idea is that the people return to this philosophy and they just drink it in. They they swallow it completely, and they they go for materialism, and this is this is what this is what they're looking for satisfaction. And then in 11 they say, God doesn't know. He doesn't know what's going on, he doesn't care. You know, maybe there's a God that you worship, but he's not involved in everyday aspects of life. Uh you pray to him, but he doesn't hear you. You know, you've got to go out and take what you want for yourself. That's really what it's all about. It's about your own power, because God really doesn't know what's going on, and if he you know, if he did, he wouldn't care. So he's just he's just above all that. So that's their their sort of philosophy. Uh behold, these are the wicked, and always at ease they have increased uh their wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure. I have washed my hands in innocence. You know, do you ever do you ever feel like that life doesn't really seem to have the happy endings that you see in the movies? You know, the evil stepsister tries on the glass slipper, and it fits. And she and she gets the prince, you know, or Luke trusts the force and and he's zipping down, and they blow him out of the sky, and the Death Star destroys the planet anyway. You know, it's just we we feel uneasy about those kinds of endings, and yet we see them in life all the time. We see that the wicked seem to prosper, and God's people seem to get the short end of the stick, and doing good, what does it seem to get you? Well, it doesn't get you anything. You just end up being everybody's servant and and having to take uh take it and not dish it back, and and somebody yells at you at the office and you take it nicely, and then everyone views you as a dish towel, so then the coffee boy's yelling at you at the office, too, and he thinks he thinks he can push you around. You you sort of get this idea that you know where where's goodness in life? It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't, you know, it it doesn't pay. It just seems to be all wrong. And and unfortunately, you're halfway through you know we're halfway through the psalm and you're thinking, yeah, gosh, yeah. I can see where Ace Hap's coming from. You know, he's got it right. Why am I sitting in this thing? You know, and if you got up and walked out now, you know, I'd say, hey, wait, wait, come back. There's another half of the psalm going on here. You know, there's there's something else at at stake. And yet we all hit those periods where we just get discouraged by life, and life's sort of pressures and and stuff is pulling us down. Speaker 5: My partner sums it up saying, no good deed goes on. Yeah, exactly. Speaker 2: Yep. No good deed comes. And then in lawyers, you know, you can sort of see that. Yeah. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence, for I have been stricken all day long and chastened every morning. I think that's a clue. ASAF's going through something very personal in his life as well. And we're not quite sure what ASAF's particular circumstances were. You know, maybe he was getting older, maybe he was beginning to have some disease in his life. We're really not sure. We don't know exactly what his particular circumstances were. Maybe it was financial, maybe it was just every single one seemed to be picking on him, maybe, you know, we're not quite sure exactly what's going on in ASAF's life. And I actually like it that way because then it fits our circumstances. Because whatever's going on in his life, um, you know, it's generalized in this psalm. He's saying, hey, this is, you know, this is what you can see when you look around, and whatever's going on in your life, you can just put it in and you can read and pray this psalm, and you don't have to say, oh yes, and I my left leg hurts, you know, or whatever it is that's that's bothering ASAF about life that he seems to think is unfair. He feels like he's being chastened, you know, you don't have that in there that suddenly brings you out of the psalm again. And again, that's one of the purposes of the psalm, is most of the psalms are written generally enough so that as you read through them, um you get sucked into participation in God's people's story. And you become part of God's people as you do that, and then you also learn from the way God's people responded in faith, you learn to respond in faith as you go back that way. So I uh that's sort of one of the beauties of the Psalms. And that's why, as I'm writing through my notes, sometimes I say I because I feel akin to this psalm. When I feel like this is my life, I go back to this psalm and I go back to the second half of it to try to bring myself back out of it. I only read the second half of the psalm because I know the first half. You know, that's that's sort of the one you that's sort of the part that you that you that you experience. And when you when you see, when you recognize the first half, then you go back and you pick up on the second half and you see if you can could bring that journey back out with ASAF as well. So, three steps back. The next half of the psalm is really the road back to God. And it's interesting because sometimes it says stuff that um that I don't think I would have thought of, but is actually uh is actually very, I think, important. So, in verse 15, he says, if I had said, I will speak thus, behold, I should have betrayed the generation of thy children. So the first thing he recognizes is he's in a position of leadership. He's the head person in David's court designed to do the the Yahweh worship in music, and he's running all of the other priests. So the first thing is even people in leadership feel this way. And when people in leadership feel this way, they have an added responsibility. So when you have a bad day and you're in leadership, you don't get up in front and you say, you know, I just don't think God's worth it. You know, that that kind of leadership position adds a piece of responsibility. You see it in the New Testament, let not many of you become teachers because you incur a stricter judgment. Um there's there's there's something there that when you have a bad day, you don't just spout off at the mouth. And let's face it, if you're preaching every week in Sunday mornings, and then you have a bad day one week, you still have to fulfill your responsibilities and you still have to be very careful. Now, it doesn't mean not being open, not being transparent, not saying, certainly Asaph wrote the first half of the psalm, but then he wrote the second half. He was careful to put it back into context. And so part of it is when you're having a bad day, you need to make sure you have both halves of the psalm. You need to say, you know, I get discouraged too, but I know God is still good. He's still there. You need to balance what you say. Now, I don't know anyone who is not in a position of leadership. For someone, someone looks to you, someone admires you, someone uh is going to be watching what you do and saying, okay, this is what Christians are like, this is what people who follow God are like, this is what they are thinking about, this is the way they handle hard times. And so it just sort of has that added responsibility. So, you know, if you're not uh the person in charge of loud clashing symbols, you're still a parent, a wife, a worker, you still have people who are watching what you're doing, and the first sort of step of this is when you're in that kind of a funk, you need to make sure that you don't mislead the current generation, or the next generation, or who's ever looking up to you, or who's ever dealing with you. So if I had said, I will speak thus, behold, I should have betrayed the generation of thy children, that's the first thing he recognizes is that this is a situation that that requires him to be at least a little careful in the way he handles it. And then this in verse 16, when I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight. So the next thing is he recognized the importance of his choice, and then he's troubled by the philosophy he sees around him. So sometimes you look out and you see the world's philosophy, and you think, yeah, that would be really fun. But then you think about it, you think, I can't see how that's going to bring real fulfillment. I can't see how that's going, and you're just- it bothers you. So sin has that aspect of being enticing. Um, righteousness has that aspect that when you think about it, you start thinking, yeah, but I just wouldn't want to be in that situation. I wouldn't want to be someone who thumbed my nose at God and was rich. Or I wouldn't-I it just doesn't seem to me right that the rich prosper, or it doesn't seem it things bother you. And when things bother you, um, it's that's good. It's good to take a look at that and ask the question, well, I should be bothered by that, and I should be bothered by my own reaction, and I should be bothered by the fact I'm three steps back, and I'm not satisfied there, so I'm going to try to figure out how to get out of that situation. So the apathy about the whole thing is the worst thing. It's much better to be bothered by it, to be struggling with it, and to be engaging it, than it is just to sit back and say, yeah, you know, that's the way things are, and I guess I'm just going to live in that kind of a society, and I'm going to swim in the water, and I'm not going to be aware of the fact that the water and the culture around me is completely against God. I'm just going to be comfortable with it and won't let it bother me, sort of idea. It should bother us. We should feel a disconnect with the culture around us if the culture around us is headed in the wrong direction. So he recognizes the importance of his choice, and then he's troubled by the place in which he's at. And then in 17 he says, until I came into the sanctuary of God, and this is the most intriguing verse in the entire Psalm. First of all, Asaph put him in a place put himself in a place where he could meet God. He put himself in a place where God could be engaged in his life. Now, the truth is he probably was in that place because, hey, I'm the head person taking care of Yahweh's but when he went into the sanctuary, he said, I until I came into the sanctuary of God, and then something changed for him. Now, this is another one of those cases. He doesn't tell us exactly what going into the sanctuary of God changed for him. And it's very intriguing to think about. And it's very intriguing to sort of think about what is because remember, the sanctuary of God at this point is the ark in a tent. That's what it is. And he goes in there and There's all of these things that um there's all of these things that that he could have seen there. So there's the ark, the ark contains the Ten Commandments, they contain Aaron's rod that budded, there's the mercy seat, it's got the angels, there's the incense and the showbread, and there's all of these different things which are pictures of what God is like. And if you've ever sort of done a study of what the temple is, it's rich in its imagery about what God is like, and it's rich in its imagery, especially about God's sovereignty and his complete dominion over the world. So when he goes into the sanctuary of God, he sees all of this, and he's reminded of all of the sort of his teaching up until this point, of what God is like, what the history of salvation is, and it changes something for him. So by putting himself in a situation where God and God's truth can speak into his life, he is, and again, this isn't even like studying in the Bible, this is just the imagery within the tabernacle itself, he's changed. And he says, ah, that was sort of a wake-up call. I sort of understand it better at this point. So one of the things that I take from this is when I'm in this kind of a funk, quite often I'm my personality is one that sort of withdraws and says, okay, I'll just go be by myself, I'm just in this funk. When in fact what we need to do is to be able to put ourselves in places where God can speak to us, put ourselves in places where we can encounter God. Sometimes that's going to a psalm like this and reading through it because God's word is a rich method. Sometimes it's other believers. You go to trusted friends and you say, I'm I'm really discouraged, I want help. But it's some, it's somehow it's at points like that that people who withdraw, withdraw from that situation, do much worse than people who actually actively go out, rail their fist at God, and say, How come you're doing this? I want to know, and listen to God in the scriptures to try to figure out what's going on. So the act of faith is the one that says, Who else will we turn to? I will come back to you. And I will I will encounter you and try to figure out with you why I'm so discouraged about my life's circumstances, I'm so discouraged about I seem to get punished for trying to do what's right and and talk to you about that. So until I came into the sanctuary of God, and then I perceived their end. So by putting himself in a place where he where God can meet him, um, seeing God, he sees more clearly the circumstances of the first half of the Psalm. So in 18 through 20, um, Asaph now sees in verse 18, surely thou dost set them in slippery places, thou dost cast them down to destruction. So the first thing is that God upholds morality. We live in a moral universe, and whether you think that God upholds morality because he does it supernaturally every day, or you think that God upholds morality because he built morality into the fabric of the universe, it doesn't really matter. God upholds morality and we live in a moral universe. Sin leads to death, righteousness leads to life. That's true even for the people who seem to have it all. Um all you have to do if you think the people who have it all are happy is just look at the divorce rate among the people who have it all, and you realize, well, they don't have long-term lasting relationships, so that's at least a clue they don't have it all. And then you look at, you know, sort of, can money really buy happiness? And you think of it through the people who have it all, and then you think, no, it really doesn't even buy happiness either. Um, so there are clues that you can see that it doesn't, it doesn't work and it's not ultimately fulfilling. And sometimes that veneer that we get, you know, from a distance view just needs to be pierced enough times so that we begin to realize, okay, money doesn't buy happiness. There are more important things. Their doom is unexpected, sudden, and complete, how they are destroyed in a moment, they are utterly swept away by sudden terrors. And then, like a dream, when one awakens, O Lord, when aroused, thou wilt despise their form. So the idea is that prosperity, their prosperity may last for the night, but uh judgment comes in the morning, and God will not find them acceptable. So God has a very um uh God is a God who will not accept people who do not want him in their lives. And so judgment is an interesting thing. I used to think that judgment, you know, when I was really young, I used to think judgment was kind of a little harsh, you know. You know, you you'd you'd sort of wail on all these people. And then something C. S. Lewis wrote made me realize, um, well, C. S. Lewis wrote something to this effect. He said, um, well, what would you want God to do? Would you want God to forgive them and reach out? Well, he's done that. Would you want God to try to woo them with his love? Well, he's done that. You know, would you want God just to finally just leave them alone? Well, ultimately, that's what judgment is. Ultimately, judgment is God simply saying, Hey, I've tried everything, you don't want me in your life, so I'm not in your life. And whether or not the gates of hell are locked from the outside, it's very clear they're locked from the inside. And so they the the that hell is really just God backing off and saying, You don't want my goodness, you don't want my my life, you don't want what I have to offer, I'm not going to give you what I have to offer. And that's a very sad thing because God is the source of all life. And righteousness only comes from God, and righteousness is the source of all of all life. So everything that's good about the world, if God withdraws that, that's hell. Hell is simply where God is not. And where God is not, if you've thumbed your nose at God and say, hey, stay out of my life, well, ultimately he honors that, and he stays out of your life. So um so the fact that judgment at times seems harsh is because going the way without God is harsh. Um, it may have prosperity for a night, but in the morning it disappoints because there's um there's nothing good to it. Verses so ASAP's response is to see things from God's perspective, and his change in perspective changes his evaluation of the wicked. Then in verses 21 through 26, uh. He says, When my heart was embittered and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant. I was like a beast before thee. So when his mind and emotions were envious and bitter, and he had all that turmoil inside of his life, he couldn't seem to do anything, his mind was so focused on this problem and bitterness and envy that he it was like he was a beast who didn't even have the ability to see that God was there or not. So, I mean, a cow does not know whether or not there's a God, and that's what he was like. So he was so concerned with the pasture, the grass, the cow next to him, you know, that he he just that was his world, that was all he could do. And I think it's good to know that when emotions, when emotions are sucking us and we're in turmoil and life seems out of control and we're spinning, we're not seeing things clearly. And I think it helps sometimes to know you're not seeing things clearly, that you're just angry and frustrated and everything else is going on, because that sort of helps you say, okay, the first thing I need to do is I need to go back to God, and I need to get my perception straightened out, and when I'm so caught up in this, I can't see what's right, I can't see what's going on, now I need to take a step back from that. So he was blind to the reality of God like an animal. Then in verse 23, nevertheless, I am continually with thee, and thou hast taken hold of my right hand, so God is always there, and God is always the one who reaches out to us. So, I mean, we often think, yes, I searched for God and I finally found him, you know, he couldn't hide from me, you know, sort of attitude, or I found my way back to God. In truth, God is the one who's right there with us. He's the one who reaches out his hand and takes ours, he's the one who leads us back. So when we're like that senseless beast, if it were up to us to find God, we wouldn't find him. Um, and sort of the first thing is if God hasn't revealed himself in the scriptures and in person in Jesus, we would never know what he was like. Because that's how transcendent he is. And yet, the kind of God we have is not only transcendent, he's personal. And he takes us by the hand and he leads us back to himself. Nevertheless, I am continually with thee. Thou hast taken hold of my right hand. With thy counsel, thou wilt guide me, and afterward receive me to glory. So God is the one who guides us, and then God is the one who, in the end, will take us to glory. I think this is the second psalm that I've uh that I've taught. The psalm last week as well had a clear message of resurrection and sovereignty. So here's God. God is the one initiating, God is the one bringing us back to Him, and then God is the one who's accepting us into glory. Speaker 4: It reminds me when one of the times Paige Brown was teaching last year, she taught about that print a lot of people buy from the Christian bookstore called Footprints in the Sand. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 4: Where you have these there are these two sets of footprints, and then there's the one set, and the person says, Why did you leave me, God? And he says, No, it was then that I carried you. She said, Doesn't that sound nice? And he said, Yeah, that's nice. And she's like, It's just totally untrue. Speaker 2: There were never two such has always carried you. That's right. Speaker 4: Always. Speaker 2: Yeah, God's always the one. It reminds me of uh also of the pastor who was leaving for a trip and prayed, and and God, please take care of my wife while I'm gone. And the wife turned him and said, Who do you think takes care of me while you're here? So arrogance. And that is what we're like. We sort of think we have everything under control and and we're all and we're all okay. Yeah. Verse 25, whom have I in heaven but thee? And besides thee I desire nothing on earth. So there's nothing anywhere more important or more reliable than God. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever. So our flesh, our mind will fail, but God is the strength of our hope. God is the one that we can rely on. So it changes his perception of God. And then in verses 27 and 28, uh can have this trust and assurance, because Yahweh is God who upholds the righteous and makes the paths of the wicked perish. So it's a little bit of a summary on the entire Psalm. For behold, those who are far from thee will perish. Thou hast destroyed all those who are unfaithful to thee. But as for me, the nearness of my God is my good, and I have made the Lord my refuge, that I may tell of all thy works. So being far from God leads to death, because God is the source of all life. And Asaph values the nearness of God and trusts Yahweh as Lord. Now rather than keeping his thoughts to himself, Asaph can surely proclaim his new understanding back in verse one surely God is good to Israel to those who are pure in heart. So again, he can come back to his summary statement: God is good to Israel to those who are pure in heart, to those who are following him. Okay. Questions or application. unknown: Yeah. Speaker 6: Sorry, but I'm afraid I could formulate this very well. But like, you know, as we go through here, the people that, you know, have the material riches and everything along those lines that are thumbing their nose with God, the I I guess I read the implication of that, is that God has not given them those things, that they've sought and gotten those things on their own. But yet, if the Christian were to receive those things, we would attribute to having received those from God. Like in this case, is has God given them those, I was sort of dealing with has God given those people those riches and not given it to the people who actually worship him? Like is all even the good, quote unquote, that they've received, is that still from God too? And then but then they're still thumbing their nose at him, or have they somehow managed to achieve that on their own? Whereas the Christian would say, well, I haven't achieved it on my own, God has given it to them. Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good question. Um I I I would probably believe in God's sovereignty enough to say that God has allowed them to have good things, even if they got it by poor means. Just like Jesus says to Pontius Pilate, um, you don't have authority over me except that God's given it to you. Clearly, Pontius Pilate wasn't doing the right thing with it. He probably didn't get it by the right means, and yet it's still sort of sovereign and from God's hand. I think the thing that bothers Christians a lot is the fact that sometimes God seems purposefully to keep the very thing that we want the most from us. And I've seen this in Christians' lives enough to think that it's actually a piece of the character of God, that if you want something with all of your heart and you're really obsessed by it and consumed with it, God will keep it away from you until you come to the point where you put it and you lay it at the cross's feet and you say, I would rather have God than have that thing I want so much. And then God turns around and gives it to you even better than you wanted. And I've seen that happen enough that I think that's actually the way God works. Is he He wants He wants our hearts right before He's willing to give us the thing He wants to give us and the thing we want. So He He tends to work with us on a very personal way that way, that is just circumstantially sovereign. So there's a sense in which the quickest way to get what you want from God is to give it back to Him and let Him know that you're okay without it. And if you just do that in the first place, then God wouldn't have to spend so long delaying giving it to you, which it sounds really bizarre when you say it that way. Oh, I see. I can manipulate God just by, you know. Um but really that's that's the way that's the way God works, is He really does want us to value Him among everything else. And then He will give us the desires of our heart by making I mean part of it sometimes He makes the desires of our heart into what He's going to give us anyway, and sometimes the desires of our heart good. They're good desires, but they just need to be in under His sovereignty and under His Lordship. So, great question. Speaker 5: Kind of wondering if you take it that next step. Um you're talking about earlier that sometimes if you say, I don't want God, and he just pulls back, you'd say, we have these desires of our hearts, we go after them. If we're kind of trying to balance that with we want that, but we also want God, he would hold things back from us just to get that balance right. But if we said, I just want that and I don't care about God, he'll be like, fine. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 5: Have what you want. See how far that takes you. Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a that's another uh another great, great analogy uh or s or s or observation. I have uh someone I know, and all she wanted to do was to get married. And she wanted that, and she didn't particularly want God. And God gave her the marriage that would drive her to God. Um it's it's sort of sad, it's sort of sad to say, but but gave her the guy she wanted and everything else, but it it was a marriage that wasn't um centered in godliness, and it wasn't centered in both of you trying to draw closer to God so you're drawing closer to each other. And it ended with uh a kid and divorce, uh, but it also ended with her in a much better place spiritually than she was before the experience, because God had sort of given her all the things that she thought she wanted, they didn't satisfy, they didn't fulfill. Now she's got a kid and she's trying to figure out how to raise him right, and they're you know, going back to church because she realizes that there's that's how to raise him right, and then you know, to get him involved in Sunday school. And I will tell you how many times at Trinity we're doing new member interviews uh this week and and for the next three weeks. It's a delightful time to do new member interviews. But I will tell you how many times there's parents with kids and they want the kids to have a religious education. They take them to Trinity because we've got a great uh kids program. They need to go sit somewhere while their kids are in Sunday school and they go sit in the service, and after about a year they realize, gosh, this Christianity thing is personal. It's not just this, it's not just an abstract religion, and it starts soaking into their heart, and after about a year they're in a new membership class, so uh because they've become Christians. So almost all of the new uh the members who are joining because uh they've become Christians, um, I'd say about 80, 90 percent, it's because they decided to bring their kids into our into our youth program and go through that. And it makes sense, you know. First of all, it makes sense it takes a year because you have to hear the gospel about 50 times before it soaks in, and you begin to realize what's going on with this Christianity stuff. And second of all, it also makes sense because all parents have this idea that I need to raise my kids and they need to understand something about religion and God, and so that's often the the hook that brings them to Trinity. So, yeah, God can give us sort of exactly what we want, and then that can be a method he uses to drive us to it to him, because it doesn't fulfill sometimes. Yeah, good. Speaker 1: I think that ties in too with always praying if your will be done. Yeah. Your will be done. And whatever your God doesn't ever tell us not to ask for anything. Speaker 2: Right. Speaker 1: Okay, but if we always include that we're only asking for that if it really is your will, then then you can feel comfortable, whether you get it or not, that it was uh tied in with what God really wanted for you. Speaker 2: Okay, let me close and go ahead. Speaker 3: It seems like until the eternity point of the psalm is when it's in the sanctuary and thinking about God. And I really think when we think more about eternity, it makes more sense what life is here or why why we're here, what we're supposed to be doing here. It's not I mean we we so often think that eternity or heaven is just later. Speaker 2: Right. Speaker 3: But it's not we have to have it now to be able to understand why. Speaker 2: Yeah. And and and this is one another one of those Psalms from Psalm 1 where there's two paths. You're living for this world and what it has to offer, or you're living for more eternal principles and and and goodness. Yeah. unknown: Okay. Speaker 7: Yeah, the application that I think I see here is that Asa focuses in verses one through fourteen, it was either on the wicked first, then he focuses on himself, and then he focuses on the unrewardingness of what he's doing. And then he gets into the sanctuary and realizes I shouldn't be thinking about others, I shouldn't be thinking about the wicked or myself. I should be focusing on God. When he focuses on God and spends time with God, then the application to me is the more we spend time with God, the more our vision and the more of our focus is clear, and we can see things from a different perspective. And then that's when in 18 through 20, you know, ASAP's change in perspective, changes his evaluation of the wicked, that changes the way he thinks about others, changes the way he thinks about himself, and God makes it clear. So my application would probably be that if we are having any kind of um false uh conceptions about what's going on around us, it's probably because we're not sitting out of time with God being in a sanctuary. Speaker 2: Yep. That's great. Good stuff. Let me close in prayer. God, we thank you that you are a sovereign God who comes down to take us by the right hand and lead us and teach us. Uh, we pray that when we're in the midst of tough situations and discouraged and jaded about what uh what life has to offer, that you would uh bring this to mind in order that we might turn to you uh quicker, that we might have our hearts and minds renewed quicker, that we might have our perspective changed. Just thank you for the many ways that you've taken us from three steps back to four steps forward in our own lives and given us uh a taste of what your kingdom is about, so that we want what you want. We pray that you'd be at work in our hearts and minds this week. In Jesus' name. Amen.