Could we read together, please, this morning in
Psalm 73, Psalm 73.
Now, we all like testimony meetings.
When someone gives their testimony, well, this is
a testimony psalm, only it's a testimony of
a recovered saint.
And so I hope it will be encouraging,
strengthening, maybe preserving.
And I'm sure if we look at it
carefully, we'll see that it's relevant to each
one of us.
So let's read down through Psalm 73.
It's a psalm of Asaph.
And it's interesting that there are a number
of psalms given in order here, all by
Asaph.
He says, verse 1, Truly God is good
to Israel, even to such as are of
a clean heart.
But as for me, my feet were almost
gone, my steps had well nigh slipped.
For I was envious at the foolish when
I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no bands in their death,
but their strength is firm.
They are not in trouble as other men,
neither are they plagued like other men.
Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain.
Violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes stand out with fatness.
They have more than heart could wish.
They are corrupt and speak wickedly concerning oppression.
They speak loftily.
They set their mouth against the heavens and
their tongue walketh through the earth.
Therefore his people return hither, and waters of
a full cup are wrung out to them.
And they say, How doth God know?
And is there knowledge in the Most High?
Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in
the world.
They increase in riches.
Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain
and washed my hands in innocency.
For all the day long have I been
plagued and chastened every morning.
If I say I will speak thus, behold,
I should offend against the generation of my
children.
When I thought to know this, it was
too painful for me until I went into
the sanctuary of God.
Then understood I their end.
Surely Thou did set them in slippery places.
Thou castest them down into destruction.
How are they brought into desolation is in
a moment.
They are utterly consumed with terrors.
As a dream when one awaketh, so, O
Lord, when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise their
image.
Thus my heart was grieved, and I was
pricked in my reins.
So foolish was I and ignorant.
I was as a beast before Thee.
Nevertheless, I am continually with Thee.
Thou hast holden me by my right hand.
Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and
afterward receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
And there is none upon earth that I
desire beside Thee.
My flesh and my heart faileth, but God
is the strength of my heart and my
portion forever.
For lo, they that are far from Thee
shall perish.
Thou hast destroyed all them that go a
-whoring from Thee.
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 Thy works.
So if you just took the first verse
and the last verse, like some people like
to read books, they read the forward and
they read the last couple of pages and
they've got the book.
Well, this is the psalm.
God is good.
God is good to His people.
And then there's one important little qualification given
in verse 1.
Even to such as are of a clean
heart.
That's a very important condition in enjoying the
presence of God.
Enjoying the consciousness of God.
Enjoying the blessing of God in our lives.
When you come to the end of the
psalm, he says, it is good for me
to draw near to God.
God is good.
He's generous.
He's gracious.
He's faithful.
He's loving.
And it's good for me.
It's beneficial for me.
It's reality.
It's wise for me to draw near to
God.
Now that's what we are looking for in
coming together in the conference this weekend.
And we want to get to the center
of this psalm.
Because everything changed when he got into the
sanctuary of God.
And that's what our need is.
To get into the presence of God and
have everything brought into perspective based on His
presence.
Now, looking at this psalm, I mentioned it's
a testimony of a restored or a recovered
saint.
I think it would be fair to say
that we are living in a very cynical
age.
And a certain level of cynicism is justified.
Because everything is not as it's supposed to
be.
And I would say one of the messages
that this psalm gives us is that a
naive faith is going to be challenged.
And could be shattered.
We are going to have to struggle in
our faith.
Wrestling with the reality that we see in
this world.
The things that are not according to right
principles.
And they seem to be getting away with
it.
And that's really the problem that has stressed
him in this psalm.
So his testimony now is, God is good.
Now that's easy to say when everything is
good with you.
When your health is good, your family is
well, finances are fine.
And there's even spiritual blessing to enjoy.
But this is given in the context of
a man who is suffering.
Who has entered into harsh circumstances.
And it's not just a momentary shock.
It's something that has become chronic.
Whatever the condition is, he's been afflicted.
And in the same time, in the same
breath, his eyes are focusing upon the ungodly.
And if you take notice of verse 12,
Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in
the world.
From verse 4 down to verse 12 are
his observations.
What he sees.
What is impressing him as he looks around
him.
And one of the things that strikes me
as I look at this psalm, I mean,
how long ago was this written?
Well, I don't know really when Asaph lived,
whether he was a contemporary of David or
not.
That's a logical connection.
And yet some of the context of Asaph's
psalms would seem to suggest a time of
devastation in Israel.
Jerusalem, the temple, and so on being spoken
of.
And so I'm not sure if it's a
different Asaph at a different time when God's
people are going through tremendous judgment and discipline
from the hand of God.
And the nations around are prospering.
So you can look at it in a
wider scale as well.
But here is a man who is a
man who has tried to be holy.
He's tried to live righteously.
And yet he's suffering.
Things are tough in his life.
And at the same time, he is observing
the prosperity of the ungodly.
And so that really is the summary of
it.
Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in
the world.
They increase in riches.
Now this is looking back at, you might
say, a recent time frame in his own
experience.
And sometimes, I'm sure you've all seen somebody
stumble and slip and you have a good
chuckle because they look silly and then they
recover themselves and no harm is done.
But it isn't always like that.
Sometimes people stumble and they hurt themselves badly.
And spiritually, it's the same reality.
He's looking back at a time when he
was almost gone.
And I think we all have been sobered.
As we look back, it may be our
own life, it may be someone close to
us who is not just almost gone, but
they've given up.
Their feet have slipped.
They have let go.
They have abandoned their hold on God.
And they have given up their confidence in
God.
That's what this psalm is wrestling with.
Hanging on to confidence in God when it
seems like God is not paying any attention
and things are not right.
And so his confession is, as for me,
my feet were almost gone.
My steps had well nigh slept.
Now at least he's able to look back
and analyze and recognize where he went wrong.
And where he went wrong was very simple.
He was looking at the wrong people.
And he was placing a value on the
wrong things.
His focus had become wrong.
And nearly always, that's when we get into
trouble, when our focus gets shifted to the
wrong people for the wrong reason.
Now, how much does prosperity matter to us
today?
Isn't it amazing how this was written so
many years ago and yet it could be
put right on our Truth and Tidings, April
edition.
This is so relevant to what matters to
our culture.
Prosperity.
Success in the now.
Being able to have power.
And we have been so exposed to the
abuse of power in our cultures where those
who have the riches, those who have the
authority, have managed to, out of the chaos
of the collapse of systems, protect themselves and
let everybody else suffer.
And everybody knows it's wrong.
And it engenders a bitterness, a sense of
injustice, and a cynicism towards everything that we
know.
And the problem is, ultimately, it gets directed
at God.
Somehow God always ends up getting blamed, doesn't
He?
When we become resentful, bitter, and cynical about
life.
And so, I'm not going to take the
time to go down through all of these
descriptions that we have, but as you see
the descriptions of these ungodly people, pride and
prosperity, arrogance against God, insolent attitude, contempt for
what is of God, and oppression of other
people.
And as He is observing this, it's disturbing
Him more and more and more.
What's His conclusion?
Well, you'd have to say His observations may
have been accurate.
Just as if you have eyes to see,
you can see it so clearly today.
His observations were accurate, but His conclusion was
completely wrong.
Here's what His conclusion is in verse 13.
Verily, I have cleansed My heart in vain.
I have washed My hands in innocency.
What is He saying?
I've been too naive.
I've assumed that the good guys win.
The bad guys get punished.
God always blesses those who are righteous and
He punishes those who are wicked.
And here I've been cleansing My heart.
I've been judging sin in My heart.
I have been restraining Myself from My own
desires.
I have been behaving Myself.
And what do I get for it?
That's the attitude.
That's the bitterness.
That's the breaking down of integrity that's happening
within His heart.
And the thing that has triggered this is
not only what He sees in the world
around Him, but it is because of His
own life experience.
And we can look at life around us,
and as I say, as long as we
are sort of in a normal range where
things are relatively comfortable and decent, we can
analyze it in a detached way.
But when we are suffering hardship, and it's
day by day by day, it seems so
unfair, so unjust.
And you notice the language that He uses
all day long?
And every morning?
Well, I'm not even sure if that was
realistic.
Because you know what happens?
When we start feeling sorry for ourselves, we
start getting absolute inner declarations.
It's every day.
It's all day.
Every morning.
It's always.
And you sometimes hear language like, you know,
things never turn out for us.
It just never turns out.
And this always goes wrong.
And so we get into this kind of
self-pitying frame.
Then He comes to a point in verse
15.
If I say, I will speak thus, behold,
I should offend, I will stumble the generation
of Thy children.
I have to thank God when at least
this restraint is upon our lips.
You know, sometimes we have this attitude, if
this is the way I really feel, I
might as well be honest and say it.
Don't.
What you say in a moment of bitterness
may never be able to be recovered.
And you may influence others and stumble others
to give up on God, to give up
on God's people, and to turn away in
despair.
And you may eventually get recovered.
And so, even though he's feeling this inside,
he restrains himself because he doesn't want to
harm.
At least he has this desire.
But as he internalizes it, verse 16, when
I thought to know this, it was too
painful for me.
Now we're getting into this overstressed agony of
inner turmoil that can bring you down to
a complete breakdown where you can't handle this
inner turmoil that's going on.
He says, it was too painful for me.
It was too much for me to cope
with.
It was destroying me until...
Until what?
Until God changed all the circumstances?
Until God judged the world around Him and
He could finally see that, yes, things are
right after all?
No.
He says, until I went into the sanctuary
of God.
And if there's one thing that I sense
I need more than anything else, it's the
renewed sense of God's presence and of consciously
enjoying God speaking to me.
It's too easy to let our spiritual life
become a form, something that we keep going
on with, and yet we're losing our inner
strength, our inner resolve, and our stability.
We must be in communion with God.
We must draw near to God.
We must have conscious dealings with God within
our own souls.
Now, the local assembly is intended to be
a place of sanctuary.
What is a sanctuary?
Well, in the natural sense, a sanctuary is
a safe place.
It's a place where you come to rest.
But this is God's sanctuary.
And there's more than just natural relief from
natural danger.
This is where we come to terms with
everything.
Where everything comes into perspective.
Because it is where the living God draws
us to Himself.
And as we get a glimpse of something
of God, it enables us to look at
everything differently.
Because that's the key to this psalm.
Nothing has changed.
When you come to the end of the
psalm, none of His circumstances have changed.
None of His afflictions have changed.
The people haven't changed.
But He's realized something.
He has gained an insight.
And that insight relates to the future as
you'll see in the end of verse 17,
the beginning of verse 18-20.
Then understood I their end.
And if you've ever had trouble being envious
of somebody or being intimidated by somebody or
by the world in general with their insolence,
their adamant disregard of God, their open contempt,
their boldness to speak against God, and it
kind of makes you shut down.
Well, you need this exact message.
You need to see their end.
And if you think of any person who
is not saved, no matter what they've got,
if they've got all that prosperity that maybe
you sort of secretly wish you had, just
visualize them.
Visualize them two minutes into eternity.
Two minutes into hell and the lake of
fire.
To see that pride, that arrogance dissolve into
abject terror as they come into the judgment
of God.
And all that they have achieved and all
the power and authority that they have gathered
to themselves, torn from them, and they're a
helpless prisoner of God's judgment.
In the despair of eternal judgment.
Why would you envy them?
Now, it may be that your trouble is
not envying the ungodly.
Maybe it's envying other Christians and you still
feel sorry for yourself.
Well, that's just as foolish.
Because every Christian and all that they are
is for your good.
1 Corinthians 3 at the end of the
chapter says whether it's Paul, whether it's Cephas,
whether it's the world, whether it's life, whether
it's death, it's all yours.
Because God has decreed blessing.
God has decreed your eternal blessing.
And He is making everything move towards your
ultimate good.
Now, if you look at this little section
from verse 18 to verse 20, there's some
very striking imagery here.
It says in verse 20, it says, As
a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord,
when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise their image.
You know, today, everything is image, isn't it?
Everything is image.
We need to be able to see through
that image of the world.
To see its sham.
To see its shallowness.
And to recognize God will deal with all
of that.
And it's all for nothing.
All for emptiness.
But, I don't want to be irreverent, but
it's Asaph that said it.
He said, Lord, you've been asleep.
He said, It's just like the Lord is
just gently dozing.
And then He's going to awaken.
And then He's going to deal with it.
This is really talking with the forbearance of
God.
God hates sin.
God hates injustice.
He hates wickedness.
But today, He is acting in forbearance.
He is long-suffering.
And it's important that we do not misunderstand
that forbearance for apathy and indifference.
Because, just as somebody wakes up and then
gets into action, so the moment will come
when God will judge the world.
And so verse 21 down, you have His
recovery as He grasps this reality.
All this that is so impressing Me.
All this that seems so desirable that others
are getting without God.
And I'm being left out.
It's just temporary.
Fleeting.
And He says, Thus My heart was grieved.
I was pricked in My reins.
So foolish was I and ignorant.
I was just like an animal that doesn't
understand.
But then from verse 23 down, I want
to just draw attention quickly to these principles
that are given to us here.
He says, Nevertheless, I am continually with Thee.
Now, He could have said, Nevertheless, you are
continually with Me.
Because He's really getting a renewed sense of
the presence of God.
But He has just been confessing.
He says, I've been like a senseless animal.
Like someone without a brain in my head.
I've been like a fool.
Yet, I'm continually with You.
And Your right hand is holding me.
What an understanding!
You know, I don't know how you are,
but sometimes when I look back and think
of some of the thoughts, some of the
attitudes, some of the things that I have
let wear me down, I've been acting as
if God hasn't been there.
I've been acting as if God doesn't exist.
And all the while, He's been continually with
me.
And not only just with me, but His
right hand.
He's been holding me by my right hand.
Well, that's a beautiful picture of a father
with his child.
And all the while that he's been sort
of stumbling and grumbling and feeling sorry for
himself, the eternal God has been tenderly holding
on, protecting him, preserving him.
What a beautiful picture to grasp of the
care of our God to us.
And this leads to a renewal of his
desire for God.
So I want to just give you a
series of expressions here of just what has
renewed.
First of all, renewed consciousness of God's presence
and His preservation.
Verse 24, Thou shalt guide me with Thy
counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
And do you know what?
That's enough.
This is what he is coming to realize.
This is enough.
You will guide me with Your counsel.
And afterward, receive me to glory, to perfection,
to eternal blessedness, to richness that nobody in
this world has ever experienced, to a quality
of life that no one has ever achieved
here in this world, in this age.
Afterward, receive me to glory.
A renewed confidence of God's help for the
present and the wonderful hope for the future.
Then, verse 25, as he thinks about the
future, he comes back to the present.
He says, Whom have I in heaven but
Thee?
And there is none upon earth that I
desire beside Thee.
You know, it has been well said that
a restored saint is just like a newly
saved saint.
It might be worth getting restored.
Do you remember the joy, that thrill of
God's salvation, of the consciousness of God, of
just reveling in God?
And then somehow, we begin to let it
grow stale, and we let the presence of
the eternal God become commonplace, and we lose
our consciousness of God.
But he says, Whom have I in heaven
but Thee?
Even in the realm of the eternal and
the perfect, it's only God that really matters
to him now.
And there is none upon earth that I
desire beside Thee.
Now I wonder if we can honestly say
that today.
Maybe you can look at this latter part
of the psalm and just use it to
measure, am I really close to God?
Does He really matter supremely to me?
Or is my desire completely distracted from God?
There's actually nobody else that is worthy of
the place of supreme desire and affection in
our hearts.
That's what belongs to God.
My heart supremely.
There is none upon earth that I desire
beside Thee.
My flesh and my heart faileth.
Nothing has changed in His infirmities, in His
hardships.
But now He's recognizing a strength, a resource.
God is the strength of my heart.
And then He looks again briefly at those
around Him.
And He says, Lo, they that are far
from Thee shall perish.
Thou hast destroyed all them that go a
-whoring from Thee, 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 Thy works.
So we have a renewed desire for God,
love's devotion.
Nothing else really matters.
A renewed strength in God for present affliction.
A renewed fear of sin.
One of the things that I sense that
we are struggling with, and I'm including myself
in this, we are losing our fear of
sin.
We are losing our abhorrence of sin.
It is being paraded and pushed into our
consciousness from the world around us so powerfully
today.
And all of the media just presents this
immoral, corrupted atmosphere around us.
It's easy to lose our fear and abhorrence
of sin.
But a renewed closeness to God will in
turn create again a sensitivity to the horror,
the terribleness of evil in all its forms.
A renewed confidence in God and a renewed
commitment to declare Him.
May God grant to us that this conference
will be a true experience of the sanctuary
of God.
That we will hear the voice of God.
Our eyes will be opened once again.
We will be able to put things in
perspective.
And we will love Him as He is
worthy of.