The Shortsightedness of Envying the Wicked Psalm 73 November 22, 2015

Transcription

1 The Shortsightedness of Envying the Wicked Psalm 73 November 22, 2015 Introduction: Late last summer I had to make a reluctant admission that I m not the spring chicken I used to be. While I d like to think of myself as a very young 43-year-old man, my body is beginning to remind me that I m not a teenager anymore. The particular malady I had to acknowledge was that my eyesight isn t quite what it used to be. I had noticed reading at night had become more stressful on my eyes. I tried to brush it off at first but back in August when Karen picked up some reading glasses for herself at Wal-Mart, I thought I would try them on to see what they were like. Needless to say, it didn t take me long to realize the little bit of magnification they offered went a long way to helping me read better. Shortly thereafter I picked up my own pair of reading glasses that I now tend to use most of the time when reading a book. It seems my once perfect 20/20 vision has begun to make a slow decline with the passing years. Our eyesight often is not perfect. Many of us here wear glasses to correct various optical issues we have, whether it be near-sightedness, far-sightedness, or something else. Our glasses help us to see clearly what would otherwise be blurry or distorted. Well, what is true in regards to our physical eyesight can also be true when it comes to our spiritual eyesight. Sometimes we don t see things clearly when it comes to God. In particular, the psalm we will be looking at this morning deals with a form of spiritual shortsightedness, when we get so focused on what is close to us that we can t see properly what is at a distance. This is a problem the psalmist had and one that s easy for us to have as well. So this morning we re going to consider a particular way we can be spiritually shortsighted and find out how looking at life through the lens of God s Word can help correct our vision. To that end, please open your Bible with me to Psalm 73, which you can find on the bottom of pg. 485 in the pew Bible should you happen to be utilizing one of those. We ll begin this morning with the first of three points I d like to make during our time together 1. The reason for envy: the prosperity of the wicked (v. 1-15) I d invite you to follow along with me as I read just the first three verses of Psalm 73. Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Unlike most of the other Psalms we ve looked at over the past few weeks, this psalm is not written by David but rather by someone named Asaph. We don t know much 1

2 about him other than he was appointed by King David as a musician in the tabernacle. His name is attached to about a dozen psalms so it would seem he was a songwriter as well. Anyhow, Asaph begins by affirming an important theological truth: he says in v. 1, Truly God is good to Israel That s a good place to begin. We should both acknowledge that God is good and has been good to his people. But while we can easily give the right answer about God s goodness intellectually, it can become more difficult to do so when our intellectual knowledge conflicts with our experiential knowledge. In contrast to what Asaph regards to be true about God, his view is challenged by what he sees in the world around him. How does he identify his intellectual conflict in v. 2-3? He says, But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. The problem for Asaph is that the goodness of God seems to be lavished upon the wicked far more than it is on the righteous. He looks at their prosperity, their wealth, their success, and then considers his own estate, and compared to the arrogant, he s not doing so hot. His life looks significantly less blessed than theirs. This is a pretty realistic portrait of how we feel sometimes, isn t it? Why in the world does it seem that so often the wicked flourish and the righteous suffer? Why is it that good people who love Jesus seem to find themselves in difficult situations while those who deny God go on and live a trouble-free life for years on end? I can t imagine that any one of us haven t at times compared our situation to those who aren t Christians and think, Hey, what gives? Why are they living on easy street while I m dealing with one problem after another? Now look at how he describes the wicked in v. 4-9 For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. I get this. I look at certain actors and musicians and business owners and think: Why does God allow them to have it so good when they are so evil? Why does God let 2

3 them get away with it? It doesn t matter what generation we re from, we all have people who we can point to and say, Look at how the wicked prosper. For older generations, you have Huge Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine. The guy is a multi-millionaire. He lives in a huge mansion, owns yachts and planes and sports cars. He s lived a life surrounded by beautiful women, of whom he s made intimate acquaintances with countless numbers of them. He s lived a long life with good health well into his eighties. Yet he does not love God or serve him in any way. He s wicked and yet he has prospered in a way that most men could only dream of. Or to give our attention to a member of a younger generation, I can t think of a person who has so gone so far off the tracks from where she once was as Miley Cyrus. She shed her squeaky-clean Disney image for unabashed hedonism. I won t even begin to describe her antics over the past few years but it s enough to say that nothing she does, no matter how immoral, how outrageous, has dented her popularity. She s far more rich and famous now than she ever was when she was a good girl. It s as if the worse she gets, the richer and more famous she becomes. Those are just two of countless examples of people who don t love God, who have actively, repeated, and unabashedly sinned against God with not even the slightest shred of repentance, and yet have continued year after year to live a successful and prosperous life. From the looks of it, it almost seems as if God is blessing them for their wickedness, or at least isn t lifting a finger to prevent the flood of wine, wealth, and woman that has been poured into their laps. Then once you turn off the TV and return to the daily affairs of your life, you find that things aren t quite as charmed for you. Money continues to be tight: just when you think you re getting a bit ahead your car breaks down and so now you need to pay the mechanic. Your boss doesn t like you at work and the promotion you hoped to get went to someone else instead. You avoid drugs and alcohol and smoking but your health goes south on you. You try to make friends with your neighbors but they give you the cold shoulder. You do your best to raise you kids in a godly home and still they go off and make sinful decisions, much to the grief of you and your spouse. It doesn t seem you ever get a break. You attempt to live in a godly manner but it doesn t get you any further ahead in life. It s as if being a Christian takes you one step forward but then two steps back while wicked and ungodly people sprint ahead as they indulge in whatever they want without any negative consequences. The danger of doing this, of comparing the prosperity of the wicked with the suffering and hardships of the righteous, is it can cause you to doubt the goodness of God. Asaph says in v. 2, But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped which means he was ready to throw in the towel and call it quits on following God. It s not difficult to see why. If wickedness leads to prosperity and righteousness leads to suffering, maybe God isn t all he s cracked up to be. Or maybe he doesn t really exist at all. He begins to think, Perhaps I should stop all this selfdenial stuff and eat, drink, and be merry while I still can. 3

4 Look with me at Asaph s reflections on how the prosperity of the wicked has raised doubt in his mind in v , Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. And they say, How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said, I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. Did you notice how he s questioning the omniscience of God in v. 11? He s saying perhaps God doesn t know what is happening (or otherwise he would step in and deal with it) and thus maybe God really isn t God. Maybe he isn t worthy of worship. Maybe following him isn t worth it. If so, what he says in v. 13 makes sense: All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. If righteous living is of no gain, if God rewards the wicked and makes the righteous suffer, then why bother? It s foolish to put up with suffering and self-denial when wickedness has so many rewards attached to it. Sometimes God s silence towards the wicked can tempt us to think like Asaph did. No lightning bolts fall from the sky and kill them. The ground doesn t open up below their feet and swallow them. They seem to just get richer and more famous and enjoy more desires of the flesh without consequence year after year and we wonder, When are you going to stop this God? Why do I suffer for being righteous and these wicked men and woman continue to prosper? But while Asaph s thinking is understandable, it is also incredibly short-sighted. He s not seeing things correctly and neither are we if we re envious of the wicked. We re focused only on what is near to us in the here and now, but we re not seeing the bigger picture: we re not looking at what is much further ahead down the road. Asaph needs to put on some spiritual glasses to correct his near-sightedness. So let s see what happens when he does by moving on now to our second point, which is 2. The cure for envy: the destiny of the wicked (v ) Asaph is a dangerous place and so are we if we begin to doubt the knowledge and goodness of God and grow envious of the wicked. Thankfully there is a cure for our envy and short-sightedness. Look back in your Bibles once again and follow along as I read v , 4

5 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. Here s the problem: Asaph was only thinking about this life, about the 70 or 80 or 90 or so years we live on this earth. He was being short-sighted because he had forgot about eternity. This life isn t all there is. What does he say in v. 17? He s troubled by the great prosperity of the wicked Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. He was looking only at this life, not the end and what comes after it. Their end refers to their eternal state, to what God will do with them after they die and face him in judgment. Once he began to see the larger picture, then he could discern things properly. We must remember that while God s judgment may be delayed, it is not forgotten. God will deal with sin, but in this life he often shows kindness and patience towards the wicked. Let me remind you of 2 Peter 3:9 where it says, The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. There s a reason why God hasn t zapped Hugh Hefner with a lightning bolt or caused a sinkhole to suddenly open up under Miley Cyrus bedroom and swallow her up while she sleeps. He is being patient. He is being kind. He is being merciful. God doesn t give to the wicked what they deserve as soon as they earn if. If he did, where would any of us be? The prosperity of the wicked is not a sign of God s blessing or approval. It s a sign of God s gracious patience towards sinners. But he will fulfill his promises, both to the righteous and to the wicked. God promises to bless those who trust in him, who forsake sin and trust in Christ, with the gift of eternal life. God will fulfill that promise. And as sure as God has promised to punish sin and judge the wicked, he ll do so. We might think he s slow from our perspective, but what is an 80-year life span to a God for whom a thousand years is like a day? In time, God will keep his promises to bless the righteous and condemn the wicked, but in the meantime he is being gracious to all the Hugh Hefners and Miley Cyrus of the world by delaying judgment, giving them time to repent. God s apparent inaction is not to be confused with his approval: they are not the same. We are short-sighted if we think that way. The just and righteous end of the wicked will come to them, either by redemption through faith in Christ who takes their punishment for them or they will receive God s wrath themselves, poured out on them for all eternity in hell. 5

6 It s a perspective we all must keep because it s easy to lose sight of the big picture. Asaph speaks for all of us here who have felt the frustration of seeing the wicked go unpunished and the doubt that creeps in the backdoor of our hearts when our lives are so much less charmed than theirs. Yes, the wicked may for a time live in such a way that they enjoy worldly pleasures without consequence, but a day of reckoning will come. Hedonistic pleasure for a hundred years at best is a poor trade for future eternal suffering in hell. Thus, we dare not envy the wicked, because their end is not worth the fleeting pleasures they enjoy in the here and now. So then, having been cured of his shortsightedness by seeing what lies down the road ahead for those who pursue wickedness, let s turn our attention to how Asaph then responds to his reflections of his envy towards the wicked. So our third point is 3. The result of his reflections: treasure and trust God (v ) First, look back in your Bibles at v He writes this about himself, When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. I like how Asaph views himself after wandering down the road of doubt and jealousy. He refers to himself as brutish and ignorant and that his behavior towards God was like a beast, a wild animal. Animals live in the present. They don t reflect on the past or anticipate the far future. They are concerned about today, about what is before them right now. Asaph was being like an ignorant animal where all he could focus on was the present. That s what we re like where we get so caught up in our present circumstances that we forget how God has worked in the past and fail to remember his promises for our future. Don t be like an ignorant beast and live only for today. If you do that, you will indeed be envious of the wicked because right now in this moment they often enjoying life far more than you. But if you act like a man or woman created in the image of God who can understand and reflect on God s promises, you ll find nothing to be jealous of because you know what the future holds. You know that when the sun sets on their lives, they will enter into an eternal night of God s wrath that had been in his mercy delayed out of kindness but no longer. They will receive in full what their sins have earned for them. So then, casting off his moment of brutish ignorance, Asaph says this starting at v. 23, Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? 6

7 And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Asaph returns to reflecting on the goodness of God. He reminds himself that even when life isn t full of prosperity, God is still with him, to counsel him and guide him. He remembers at the end of v. 24 what the end of those who follow God is when he says, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Yes, the road of righteousness may be marked with difficulty and trials. Yes, to follow Christ one must deny himself and take up his cross. Yes, in the short term people may hate you and persecute you and you may suffer loss as a result of traveling the narrow road. But in the end it leads to glory, to eternal life, where the righteous are received into the kingdom of God to share in his glory forever and ever. So he asks, Who have in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. God has once again become the center of his affections. He sees that this life isn t about the wine, wealth, and women that the wicked so eagerly pursue. The wicked may get those lesser things but miss out on the greatest thing to gain: to be known and loved by God. If God is our greatest treasure, then missing out on the world s pleasures are but a trifle. One needs not be jealous of those devouring a Happy Meal when you ve been invited to feast at the banquet of the King of Kings! And so if God is our greatest desire, we need not be jealous of sin because we will see it for what it is: lesser pleasures gained at the loss of the greatest pleasure of knowing and loving God. Conclusion So then, let s conclude with the words Asaph concludes with in v Please look there with me as I read, For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. 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. It s foolish to be envious of the wicked, no matter how much fun they seem to have, no matter how much wealth they acquire, no matter how large their mansion, how fast their cars, how lavish their vacations because in the end, those who are far from you shall perish says Asaph. Don t be shortsighted my friends. I know it s easy to imagine that you are missing out on the good life as the world defines it, but as someone once said, What does it profit a man to gain a fortune but lose his soul? Don t miss eternal joy for fleeting temporal pleasures. Don t even let the slightest bit of jealously come over you when you hear about the lifestyles of the rich and famous. All of those things will rot. You have one thing and one thing only to seek, to treasure and to thirst for: God. 7

8 May Asaph s words be your words in v. 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. That s where the good life is to be found, both here and in heaven. God is our reward, so seek him. Draw close to him. Find refuge and strength in him. Delight in him and then go and gladly tell others of his wonderful works. When it comes to the wicked, we have nothing to be jealous of because if we are in Christ, we already have a treasure whose worth exceeds all else on earth or in heaven. Let s go to him now in prayer. This sermon was addressed originally to the people at Grace Fellowship of Waterloo, IA by Pastor Rob Borkowitz. Copyright