So You Had a Bad Day! Psalm 73:1-28 (NKJV) Turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 73 if you would please! I want to preach a message to you this weekend that s entitled, So You Had A Bad Day! Here s the reality We re all going to have bad days here and there it s going to happen! Welcome to church! No, but really, Jesus Himself told us so These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. John 16:33 (NKJV) The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried. G.K. Chesterton So, you should be opened up to Psalm 73 here. And we re going to spend our time looking at a guy who was having a bad day, spiritually speaking! He had come upon a dark hour in his soul, so to speak And it s something that God has been teaching me a ton lately! All right, check out Psalm 73:1-28 with me please. Notice the personal pronouns; they are the clue to understanding this text! Verses 1 through 3: Me, My, I Verses 4 through 12: They, Their Verses 13 through 17: I Verses 18 through 28: You, Your Now, with the time we have remaining, I want to give you three principles that this text teaches us, which I believe will help us should we begin to understand them and fall back on them when we re having a bad day! 1
All right, here s the first and clearest thing that I have come to learn from this text 1. The lens we choose to look through determines the reality we ll see! Now by simply looking at me, you wouldn t know it, but I m actually legally blind! I found out I was pretty much blind by the age of nine. I couldn t even see clearly in front of me. Now, the doctors have told me that I wear contacts way too much and I need to switch between contacts and glasses. I have actually been impairing my eyesight by wearing contacts so much! That s a different reality all together! Listen, in essence, this same principle is played out here in our text with our friend, Asaph. I took a moment right before we jumped in to tell you that the personal pronouns were the clue in this text right? Let me ask What is the dominant personal pronoun in verses 1 through 3? Vs. 1-3 Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. What is the dominant personal pronoun in verses 4 through 12? Vs. 4-12 For there are no pangs in their death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride serves as their necklace; violence covers them like a garment. Their eyes bulge with abundance; they have more than heart could wish. They scoff and speak wickedly concerning oppression; they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walks through the earth. Therefore his people return here, and waters of a full cup are drained by them. And they say, How does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who are always at ease; they increase in riches. Considering all this, it s literally as if what Asaph wrote in verse one didn t even matter! 2
Look at his conclusion that was the outcome of his faulty lens. Look at verses 12 through 14 again. Vs. 12-14 Behold, these are the ungodly, who are always at ease; they increase in riches. Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence. For all day long I have been plagued, and chastened every morning. Literally, what Asaph knew about God seemingly didn t matter when he was only focusing on himself and others! It s almost as if God were absent! And I think this is a place where so many of us get to when things aren t going our way. We get defeated and lose our desire to fight when difficult situations arise. I read something the other day that I believe sheds some light on why this is so dangerous The way to heaven is ascending; we must be content to travel up hill, though it be hard, and tiresome, and contrary to the natural tendency and bias of our flesh, that tends downward to the earth. Jonathan Edwards But listen, the moment that everything changed for Asaph was the moment that he got his eyes off of the horizontal plain. He started looking vertically to God! 13-17 Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence. For all day long I have been plagued, and chastened every morning. If I had said, I will speak thus, behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of Your children. When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end. Here s what I believe we need to take away from observing this lens change in our text A. The circumstances around us are not worthy to be compared with the destiny before us! 3
Rely on the Spirit of God and allow Him to move! We need to remember that the lens we choose to look through determines the reality we ll see! All right, that s number one. Who s ready for point number two? You know, something I ve learned in my three and half years of preaching God s Word is that everything that happens in my life has the ability to make it into a sermon to get a laugh or illustrate something! Literally, I always have the thought, That d be an awesome sermon illustration! But I seriously believe that this was a concept that Asaph understood. What you re going through has the ability to affect more than just you! He knew that what he was dealing with had the possibility to impact more than just his life and his faith Let s look at 18 through 28 Vs. 18-28 Surely You set them in slippery places; you cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awakes, so, Lord, when You awake, you shall despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was vexed in my mind. I was so foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before you. Nevertheless I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish; You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry. But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all Your works. I was thinking about all this, and with where I m at in my life this is what I wrote down 2. How I face that dark hour that comes upon my soul may impact how someone else faces theirs! 4
We need to remember that what we re going through has the ability to affect more than just us! All right, our third and final point this weekend is this 3. Don t be a sucker! I ll explain When you took your lunch to school with you as a kid did you ever trade it with your friends? If you weren t this kid, then there was always a kid that would trade you something lame for the greatest thing in your lunch. For instance, you might have had a Snack Pack and the kid maybe had an apple. He would sucker you into trading snacks with him. He wanted the better snack and he d somehow convince you to trade with him. Once he got what he wanted, he probably thought Sucker! Well listen, that s exactly what it is that our enemy wants us to be like. He wants us to give away what s awesome, which is all of God s amazing gifts. He wants us to trade that for what we don t know. For instance, why bad things happen to good people or why godless people prosper. In our text, Asaph was frustrated when dealing with what he didn t know. He says this in verses 15 and 16. Eventually, he fell back to what he did know. He reminds himself of what he knows in verse 17. Here s the lesson B. Holding on to what we do know is the safest way to handle what we don t! Here s a recap of points 1. The lens we choose to look through determines the reality we ll see! 2. What you re going through has the ability to affect more than just you! 3. Don t be a sucker! 5