Psalm 73 Yet God is Good

A Sermon

The Text

Psalm 73 A psalm of Asaph.

¹ God is indeed good to Israel, to the pure in heart.

² But as for me, my feet almost slipped; my steps nearly went astray.

³ For I envied the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴ They have an easy time until they die, and their bodies are well fed.

⁵ They are not in trouble like others; they are not afflicted like most people.

⁶ Therefore, pride is their necklace, and violence covers them like a garment.

⁷ Their eyes bulge out from fatness; the imaginations of their hearts run wild.

⁸ They mock, and they speak maliciously; they arrogantly threaten oppression.

⁹ They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues strut across the earth.

¹⁰ Therefore his people turn to them and drink in their overflowing words.

¹¹ The wicked say, “How can God know? Does the Most High know everything?”

¹² Look at them—the wicked! They are always at ease, and they increase their wealth.

¹³ Did I purify my heart and wash my hands in innocence for nothing?

¹⁴ For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning.

¹⁵ If I had decided to say these things aloud, I would have betrayed your people.

¹⁶ When I tried to understand all this, it seemed hopeless

¹⁷ until I entered God’s sanctuary. Then I understood their destiny.

¹⁸ Indeed, you put them in slippery places; you make them fall into ruin.

¹⁹ How suddenly they become a desolation! They come to an end, swept away by terrors.

²⁰ Like one waking from a dream, Lord, when arising, you will despise their image.

²¹ When I became embittered and my innermost being was wounded,

²² I was stupid and didn’t understand; I was an unthinking animal toward you.

²³ Yet I am always with you; you hold my right hand.

²⁴ You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me up in glory.

²⁵ Who do I have in heaven but you? And I desire nothing on earth but you.

²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever.

²⁷ Those far from you will certainly perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

²⁸ But as for me, God’s presence is my good. I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, so I can tell about all you do.

Pray

The Intro Yet God is good

First rodeo

Feedback from David

Don't miss the point of the sermon!

Yet God is good

1 God is indeed good to Israel, to the pure in heart.
Evil abounds and seems only to prosper, yet God is good.
I am tempted at all times to become a fool like them, yet God is good.
I was jealous of their prosperity, and lo, I am the stupid beast like them, yet God is good
He has given me the path of life
He will lead me to glory
Because God is so good, he's so good to me

This is God. Despite the world around us and despite ourselves, God is indeed good to his people whom he loved with an everlasting love

The world might be like this but God is still good to us

Wed night crew Conspiracies

Common thread: the prosperity of evil
You see it, I see it, and Asaph saw it
He saw things all around
Don't you know it wasn't just the enemies of God, like the Philistines over there?
Don't you know he had to see it in King David's court and in his own nation?
Asaph opened his eyes and saw wickedness

vv4-10 is total depravity

Easy to judge

All unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness
Evil abounds
Evil abounds and evil prospers
All of these things are true
But did you catch this one thing in verse 3? What did Asaph see?
Psalms 73:3 For I envied the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Be honest
We wish we lived in a world
that if you do bad things, bad things happen to you
And if you live good, good things happen to you
The world calls that karma
Put a Christian spin on it, and what do we get?
Prosperity gospel garbage

Truth be told: we do want evil to be punished -- that is a given

Yet, we make mistakes when we sin, when we do what is evil,
do we want full consequences or less than?
And not even when we have done good
When we are decent -- when we have done the bare-minimum good
we want all the honor and riches and accolades, thank-yous, and attaboys

But the fact of the matter is

Evil does prosper in this world

Have you ever asked yourself, 'why does evil prosper?'

It seems that they have accomplished their ill-gotten gains
But along the way, why does it seem they acquire so much power, fame, and money
In order to carry out their deeds

12 Look at them—the wicked! They are always at ease, and they increase their wealth.

The powerful, famous, and wealthy heathens
They have made a series of sin-filled choices
that have oppressed others
and raised them up
What they don't know is that
All power comes from God
All fame comes from God
All money comes from God
- Matthew 5:43-45 “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
- Job 25:3 ... Does his light not shine on everyone?
- Luke 6:35 For he is gracious to the ungrateful and evil.
- Acts 14:16-18 In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own way, although he did not leave himself without a witness, since he did what is good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.” Even though they said these things, they barely stopped the crowds from sacrificing to them.
If our paychecks come from God
Why is it any different for unbelievers?
Are they not image-bearers of God as well?
When it comes to God's mercies and common grace for all mankind, there is no difference in who gets what from God
The air we breath, our health, and lives come from God

The only difference between believers and unbelievers

His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ
Listen
With no repentance
No turning away
No gratefulness
Without the salvation of Christ, they would fall into eternal damnation, the wrath of Christ
Without God, unbelievers live for this world
Because of this, here on earth, this is the best it's ever gonna be for them

For the unbeliever, earth is their heaven

And those who do not believe in God
They are desperate
They gotta get all they can
All the power, fame, and wealth
and they got to hold on to it for literally dear life

Let me remind you, little children

Because we have the Christ,
everything on this earth is the worst its ever going to get for us
for so many of us -who have been through the worst pain and trauma
This is our hell on earth
We cannot imagine what heaven and being in the physical presence of God is going to be like
- Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.
Do not think heaven is just slightly better than earth
- Ahh, this is a tad bit more comfortable
In heaven, with God, it is not like:
- Like we moved up from a motel to a 5-star penthouse suite.
- Eating dinners from a vending machine to room service: the steak, the lobster, and a decently priced bottle of wine
- From bedbugs to turn-down service with mints on the pillow
NO!
To think of heaven like that is comparing apples to apples
To be in heaven means that we are in the sight- presence of the Almighty God
We will be perfectly perfect in the actual, real perfection of our great God and Savior
We will spend eternity with God
Earth has no comparison
No more cancer
No more disease
No more unresolved conflict
No more trauma
No more misunderstandings
No more guilt
No more grief
No more hurt
No more pain
No more misunderstandings
No more conflicts--all conflicts will actually be resolved
No more sin
Every tear -from sadness, loss, frustration, confusion, anger -wiped clean from our faces by the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ, once and for
In heaven, with God
And to quote Psalm 16:11
- Since God has not sent us to hell and he has not allowed us to see decay of our bodies and souls
- Our hearts will be finally glad
- Our whole being finally rejoices
- Our whole body will finally be at perfect rest
- Because he has given us the Christ
- we get to be with him
- with endless joy
- and boundless, endless pleasures forevermore

Despite ourselves, God is good to us

Psalm 73:2–3 But as for me, my feet almost slipped; my steps nearly went astray. For I envied the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Did Asaph want what evil has?
- "He didn't envy their sin"
- But he did covet what they had in their possession: fame, power & wealth
Verses 4-12
They have the easy life
They are seemingly not afflicted
They are full of pride
They are allowed to be destructive with zero care whether people get hurt or not
They speak blasphemies against God
They speak trash against
And yet they still BREATH God's air

Going back to our wishing for our version of "karma" trash prosperity gospel

Imagine if God worked like that
- Like a capricious, wicked God that does things without rhyme or reason
Then, when we did something that this "God" didn't like
We would be struck dead
That might be okay for our enemies
But what about us?
Who were born sinners and sinned against God
We were once enemies of God, the Bible says
- Boom! Drop to the floor
And if God operated like that, we would perish
We know God is not like that
Because he gave his Son, Jesus Christ
and we have His Word- His Holy Scriptures
The fact that we can read Psalm 73, and I am preaching Psalm 73, and you are hearing me preach Psalm 73
is proof that God doesn't instantly drop us because of our sin
Take a look a closer look
- 3 For I envied the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
There are two sins in this passage
The wicked and Asaph's envy

Comparison is the thief of joy envy & jealousy are evil, come from within, and defile a person

If God were not so good and merciful to his people, we would instantly die from the moment we sinned,
- we would not have had Psalm 73
- -because Asaph wouldn't have lived long enough to write it

Caution What's a little jealousy? Being envious doesn't hurt anyone, right? It's a harmless sin, right?

Hear the word of the Lord on the sin of envy and jealousy within a person

Proverbs 14:30 A tranquil heart is life to the body, but jealousy is rottenness to the bones.
James 3:16 For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice.
Ecclesiastes 4:4 I saw that all labor and all skillful work is due to one person’s jealousy of another. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
Galatians 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Proverbs 23:17–18 Don’t let your heart envy sinners; instead, always fear the Lord. For then you will have a future, and your hope will not be dashed.
Mark 7:20–23 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”

Because of the word of God, I am fully convinced that Asaph saw the wickedness around him and was in deep despair. Yet by God's tenderest mercies, he saw his own wickedness and repented

Psalms 73:3 For I envied the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Psalms 73:2 But as for me, my feet almost slipped; my steps nearly went astray.
Psalms 73:15 If I had decided to say these things aloud, I would have betrayed your people.

Here is your apt: God is so good to us

He is merciful and kind
His steadfast love never comes to an end
God has saved us
And he alone grant us repentance
to turn our eyes back onto his Son, Jesus Christ

God does not instantly drop the wicked and the sinner

Yet God does strike us, his people, whom he loved before the foundation of the world, right to our hearts--rips our stone-cold hearts out and gives us new hearts with his Spirit

Asaph had the gospel

inasmuch as the OT has revealed it to him
he knew it truly but not fully
In his repentance, Asaph had the grace of God
He was still waiting for the Messiah

Church, we have the gospel of Christ

Because we have the fullness of Christ who is our Messiah
Because of that
We have more than the grace of God in our sin and in our repentance
We have grace upon grace

This is the gospel of Christ: God has not struck you dead in your sins; God has struck you and pierced you in the heart Acts 2:36

People of God, God has given you his only begotten Son!

You believe in his Son
The Triune God dwells in you
Therefore God has commanded you and me to be content in having everything in his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Do not fall for the shiny new thing--something not the gospel and someone not God

Paul preaches the gospel on Mars Hill in Acts 17
The audience moans and groans
- "tell us something we don't know"

Saints as sinners began with the wandering eye looking for something new because they are comparing what others have and what we don't have

"There has got to be something new other than the power of God in salvation for those who believe -there has to be some new thing"
There is nothing new
There is no new presence, no new promise, no new power, nothing new under the Son
One, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever
Two, thank God He is unchanging because you and I keep doing the old, wicked, and sinful things

You and I sin every day of every week

You and I are never perfect in thought, word, and deed

Even the most type A hardcore people
Can appear on the outside
Do right things
Say the right things
But what absolutely levels the playing field
Are the thoughts inside our heads and hearts
No way we would show those to another human
Yet God knows our thoughts perfectly

EVERY SINFUL THOUGHT - EVEN WHEN WE ARE JEALOUS, ENVY and COVET WHAT OTHERS HAVE

He has already taken an account of our sins
and instead of striking us dead where we stand
and sending us all to hell

What did he do?

He sent his only begotten Son
He speaks perfectly, he does perfectly, and he thinks and feels perfectly
And he did it to glorify his Father
and to save you from your sins
The Father gave us his Son
So that Christ could take away your sinful inner being
And give you His perfect righteousness

He could have struck us dead

Instead, God was merciful and kind and abounding in steadfast love
and struck us and pierced to our hearts
took out our old, sin-filled hearts
gave us his heart
gave us new desires for him
and made his home in us
And one day
by the power of the Spirit within us
We will come all the way home to heaven
to finally be with God forever and ever

When was Asaph's mind and heart changed?

How did he turn his sight from what the wicked were doing,
being jealous of that
to not being jealous -not being envious -not wanting the prosperity of the wicked?
What changed his mind?
What caused him to repent?
The correct answer is God
- But how?
- Psalms 73:16-17 When I tried to understand all this, it seemed hopeless until I entered God’s sanctuary. Then I understood their destiny.

When I try to wrap my brain around it, I go headlong into despair and hopelessness because it does not make sense

Yet, when I step into the sanctuary of God, then it all makes sense--in other words...

In his mercy, when God grants me repentance
I repent and turn to God
When I set my mind on the things of God
and turn my eyes and my heart towards the Lord
And see and dwell on what God has done for me

Dear church, how do we turn our eyes towards God--what is going to snap us out of this funk of hopelessness and despair?

When I hear the gospel of God
- Romans 10:17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.
When do I hear the gospel of God
- in this church, every Lord's day
When I hear of what God has done for me
That God has given me the Christ
and God has given eternal life with him forevermore
Now I don't have to focus on the wicked
I don't have to compare myself to no one else
not in real life
and certainly not to the fake lives on social media
But focus on the source of all good, which is Christ our Lord

And Asaph knew, you know, and I know and believe this gospel

So when you see the unbelievers -the wicked, the unsaved, the lost?
Pray for them
God says, pray for them
Pray that Christ saves them --
Because there is no other name by which we are saved
Why pray for them?
Psalms 73:27 Those far from you will certainly perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

Without Christ

They will fall into ruin--
Instead of being rescued into the mercies of Christ
they will fall into the wrath of the Almighty Christ

Since we have the Christ, this is the command of God to us: be content in the love of God that can only be found in Christ Jesus our Lord

Why does God commands us to be content in his Son?
Look at the inner turmoil of Asaph
13 Did I purify my heart and wash my hands in innocence for nothing?
14 For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning.
Psalms 73:21-22 When I became embittered
- and my innermost being was wounded,
- I was stupid and didn’t understand;
- I was an unthinking animal (ignorant beast) toward you.
- In other words, because of my sin, I am no wiser nor smarter than livestock

What did Jesus call his people? His sheep, his little lambs (John 6, 21)

Romans 8 in the ESV: "We are being afflicted all day long"
- Paul quotes Zechariah that we are "sheep to be slaughtered"
Do you know anything about sheep?
I have a beloved pastor who went to college and seminary on that big farmer 4H money
He loves to share in his sermons, "You can get sheep to run into the side of the barn"
Christ is the good shepherd, and we are his sheep
We are his sheep because we are so easily led astray
We ain't that smart nor wise
If we were so smart and so wise, why do we keep being "led astray by various passions and pleasures", "disobedient", and "deceived"? Titus 3:3
Why do we keep getting distracted by new and shiny things
Why do we keep falling for sins of jealousy and envy?
We will fight our wandering hearts that is trying to find something other than the Christ that is found in his gospel
Something as old and ordinary as the gospel can't be all there is
- Give me something more
- I know, Instagram
- I know, Facebook
- I know, Twitter
- I know, Pinterest
- I know, Fox News
Proves the point: all the intelligence and all the wisdom and knowledge in the world does not save us
We have gotten more information and we have fallen more into depravity
Whatever can save us is not out there in the world--it definitely is not on the Internet

What or who can save us? Christ is all-smart, all-wise, and all-good--has saved us because he is indeed good to us because he loves us

Remember, God alone is good

Psalms 73:1 God is indeed good to Israel, to the pure in heart.

God has appeared to save us

Titus 3:4-7 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us —not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy — through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life

God has us forever, no matter what

Psalms 73:23-26 Yet I am always with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me up in glory. Who do I have in heaven but you? And I desire nothing on earth but you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever.

What do we preach every Sunday?

We have failed every week
We have sinned every week
So we come to church every week
We need to remember every week
that God has saved us every week

We have no one in heaven but the Lord

And since we have these new hearts by God, with new desires by God
Who or what else on earth can we desire but God?
All rhetorial questions
No one else
Nothing else
We are called to be content in Christ because all we have is Christ
Everything that is good in this world comes from Christ, the all-high
Be content in Christ
Hebrews & Romans says: "As children of God, we are co-heirs with Christ who has inherited everything"
We have the Christ. We have everything.
Puritan prayer: "In Christ, you have given us so much that heaven and earth could give me no more."

Listen, you and I are going to fail

We are going to sin in every thought, word, and deed
Christian never forget
That despite our wickedness and our sin
God is so good to us
And he saved us
And he has conformed us
and he will conform us
to look like his only begotten Son

NEVER EVER FORGET - DESPITE ALL OF YOUR FAILURES AND SINS AND WICKEDNESS

You are a new creature in Christ
God is the strength of your heart
God is your portion and strength
You have everything you need because you have Christ
Forevermore

Need something to do--rest in Christ alone

Let me make a deal with you
When we start resting in Christ alone and doing it well
When we get to a place where we don't need the gospel
Then the elders will preach something else
- simple as that
You wouldn't take that deal, why?
because we know we don't rest in Christ well at all
Not on this side of heaven
Hear the word of the Lord for us:
- Psalms 73:28 But as for me, God’s presence is my good. I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, so I can tell about all you do.
The last verse of the psalm
- God is my good
- God is my refuge
- We must preach the good news of what God has done for us

RTC: rest in the perfection of Christ alone

Because you are continuously in his presence
Because you belong to him
and God belongs to you
God is now your refuge
What do you do when you are in refuge?
You rest!

RTC, we are never going to stop telling you, "rest in Christ"

That is the gospel of Christ
If you think are going to change our minds about preaching this gospel, think again
If we do change our minds, you should run for the hills.
Because I know we are terrible at resting in Christ
Because I know we sin all the time
So never forget Christ is our rest
Never forget that Christ is our good, our presence; he is the strength of our heart and our portion forevermore.

Pray My God, be our rest, our comfort, our refuge, our strength, and our portion. Because you are God, and we have been saved by your Son, you have commanded that we insist on the gospel so that we will believe God and devote ourselves to the good works you have prepared for us to do. I pray that we would tell each other and remind each other of the gospel of Christ--what you have done for us in him--our only, only loveliest Savior, Jesus Christ. (Psalm 73:28; Titus 3:8)

⚔️

We are now going to partake of the Lord’s Supper together.
This Table is medicine for the sick, sustenance for the weak, and a reminder for the forgetful.
We come to this Table as sinners to the Savior of sinners.
We come worthily to the Table when we come as the unworthy to the Savior who invites us and makes us worthy in Himself.
If you’re coming in agreement with God concerning your sin, and Christ is your only hope for righteousness, forgiveness, and eternal life.
And if you’re a baptized member of a church that preaches the gospel of God’s free grace in Christ.
And you aren’t under the discipline of this or any such body—We invite you in the Name of Jesus Christ to come to this Table.
To come & receive all Christ holds out to you by faith.
Come with joy, in gospel faith, bringing all your needs and weaknesses to Christ, and receive His perfect sufficiency set before you at this Table.
However, if you don’t meet that description, we warn you in the Name of Jesus Christ not to come.
But know this!—you’re absolutely free to partake of the Lord where you’re seated. His invitation’s freely offered to every sinner & it’s unchanging—“Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.

Bibliography

Greidanus, Sidney. Preaching Christ from Psalms: Foundations for Expository Sermons in the Christian Year.
Robertson, O. Palmer. The Flow of the Psalms: Discovering Their Structure and Theology.
Dickson, David. A commentary on the psalms.
Plumer, William S. Psalms: a critical and expository commentary with doctrinal and practical remarks.
Spurgeon, Charles. The treasury of David: Psalms 56-87.
Longman, Tremper III. How to Read the Psalms.
Harmon, Allan. Psalms: A Mentor Commentary.
Hamilton, James M. Psalms.
Calvin, John. Commentary on the Book of Psalms.

Theologicus