I'd like for us tonight to look in
Psalm 73.
Psalm 73, and
we'll read the entire psalm.
Truly God is good to Israel, even to
such as are of a clean heart.
But as for me, my step was almost
gone, my steps had almost slipped.
Why, I was envious of the foolish when
I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no pains in their death,
but their strength is firm.
They're not in trouble as other men, neither
are they plagued with other men.
Therefore pride compasses them about like a chain.
Violence covers them like 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 here and waters of
a full cup are wrung out to them.
And they say, how does God know and
is their 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 innocence.
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 thy
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 as in
the 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 soul was grieved and I was
pricked in my heart.
So foolish was I and ignorant, I was
like a beast before thee.
Nevertheless, I am continually with thee.
Thou hast helped 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 fail, 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 those that play the
harlot departing 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.
When you read this psalm, and along with
Psalm 37, which gives us almost a verbatim
warning, it says, fret not thyself because of
evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers
of iniquity.
For they shall soon be cut down like
the grass and wither like the green earth.
Very often when you look at a passage
like this, I feel like that we think
perhaps it has stronger application to one group
than perhaps another.
And in reading this for a number of
years, I said this has real special meaning
to young people.
They are the ones that are threatened by
the thing that is exposed here.
Until one day, a dear old man that
professed to be a Christian, I believe he
was, he called me and said there was
something he wanted to talk about, so I
went by to see him one day.
And you know, he confessed to me that
this was his problem.
He was 84 years old, 84 years old.
We read this psalm together, and he said,
that's it, that's it, that's my problem.
He said, I've been doing that for years,
and it brought a lot of misery into
his life because he entertained thoughts.
It let his heart go a-wandering after
things that brought no joy and brought no
satisfaction to him.
Now, there is indeed a remedy for all
this, but I'd like for us to think
about this man.
It's a psalm of Asaph, possibly a man
that he had a role in the ministry
that went on in the Temple, perhaps concerned
itself with music.
He may have been a musician or director
of choral music or something like that.
But he was at a point, as far
as service was concerned, that he could make
an observation of what was going on.
No doubt he had made many judgments concerning
what he had seen.
And out of all of this, he takes
pen in hand, and of course, under the
guidance and the direction of the Spirit of
God, he writes down what was on his
heart.
It took a pretty courageous man to do
that.
I don't know if I would confess to
all that he has and expose to you
what I've had on my heart that indeed
is so unwholesome, and not only write it
down but sign my name into it.
That's it.
That's what I've been doing.
Not long ago, I assume this was in
jest, but I entered a room where there
were some brethren, and they said, Oh, come
on in.
We're having a good time confessing our sins.
And one brother said, Well, wait, I want
to go get my tape recorder.
I want to put this on tape.
Well, there must have been some ulterior motive.
They were going to use it for some
purpose other than what would be right.
But we are told in the word of
God that when we have confidence in each
other and there's a right kind of spirit
between us, that indeed the confessing of our
sins, one to another.
Many of the great revival movements that have
taken place in the past, this was one
of the things that preceded some of these
movements.
Men were just shook by the Spirit of
God.
God's people were brought down on their knees,
and there was a confession of sin.
Indeed, you do have to have confidence in
that person that sometimes you unburden your heart
to.
Confidentiality, I think, you're willing to tell it
to him because you know the only one
he's going to tell it to is the
Lord.
And you can do that safely.
But you be very careful who you tell
all of the things that are in your
heart.
You'll find that sometimes there's not confidentiality, and
there may be those that wouldn't know how
to handle something that was intended for the
purpose of restoration, for just prayer fellowship.
But in this case, this man makes an
admission that when I read about it, I
have to say, I thank God for Asaph,
and I thank God that he wrote these
things down, because we're not prone to sometimes
expose our weaknesses and especially write it down
and then sign our names.
The question is, have you ever envied anyone,
especially the children of this world, those that
are of this world?
Do you ever take a look at those
people that are in the world that are
just prospering and it just seems to have
everything in its way?
As one brother said, he said one time
to the Lord after some observation that he
made, he said, Lord, it just doesn't seem
fair.
It just doesn't seem fair.
Well, you know, we have to commit ourselves
completely into his wonderful care.
And the Apostle Paul says that we brought
nothing into the world, we're not going to
take anything out.
So shouldn't we be content with just the
necessities of life?
God provides everything we need, our clothing, our
food, our shelter, and so many innumerable benefits
are ours just from being members of the
family of God.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not
want.
Do we believe that?
Do we accept that?
You see, we have to come to grips
with these things.
We have to be able to appropriate that
wonderful divine truth, that promise that's made in
the Word of God.
Obviously, this man, in a position where he
could observe other people, familiar with the history
of the children of Israel, he found himself
in a position where he was envious and
horror of horrors, he was envious of evil
people, people that had no claim upon God,
people that were people of the world.
They didn't even acknowledge God and give place
to God in their lives, yet they prospered.
This baffled him, caused him great concern.
But we'll see as we read the psalm
and look at it a little further, there
was a day of awakening, a day of
understanding.
The same thing will apply for us.
Truly, God is good to Israel.
This man could reflect upon the heritage that
was his, perhaps, as an Israelite, as a
child of God.
He could think of Israel, he could think
of the deliverance that was theirs, the day
that they were liberated and set free out
of their bondage in Egypt.
He could remember all of the good things
that God did for them.
That's just one occasion in which one could
reflect upon and think about how good God
had been to them.
Indeed, truly, God is good to Israel, even
to such as are of a clean heart.
And when I think about the conditional atmosphere
that must be set sometimes if we are
to appropriate and to truly appreciate divine blessing,
it does require that we be in touch
with the Lord, because sometimes there can be
so many things that could be pointed out
to us.
Indeed, God has been good to you, and
all the while you've been murmuring, you've been
complaining, you haven't lifted your heart heavenward and
given thanks unto the Lord.
Had you been in the right condition of
heart, you would have known that the Lord
is good to you.
I think we can say, in a sense,
there may have been just a little wavering
on his part.
He had forgotten just how good God had
been to Israel and especially to him.
He says, because as I reflected, as I
looked upon these things that troubled me so
much, things that had been entertained in the
heart, I'm so thankful that all of the
crazy things that have ever gone through my
mind and all the things that have been
entertained there, I thank God that most of
them stayed there.
They never got beyond that point.
I'm thankful for that.
You know, some of the harebrained ideas that
sometimes people have, and I believe it is
God's protective care that sometimes he shields us
from making foolish statements and doing foolish things.
In this instance, the man is confessing something
that he thought about.
His thought life is written down here on
the page.
And he says, but as for me, my
feet were almost gone.
He hadn't taken that step in the direction
of folly.
He hadn't taken that step, but yes, he
had almost slipped.
You know, but God had been there.
He had looked upon it as God's protective
care over him.
Oh indeed, the Lord has been good to
me.
For I was envious of the foolish when
I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
It's a sin to be envious of someone
else.
It's a sin to be jealous.
It's a sin to be covetous.
Now, God knows what we need.
And if in faith we commit ourselves into
his care, we know that he's going to
provide everything that we need.
But here's temptation.
There's a temptation to think that we deserve
something better than we're getting.
I am persuaded that we're all getting better
than we deserve.
And when someone very frequently asks me, well,
how are you getting along?
Well, I'm getting along just great.
At least I'm not going to get what
I deserve.
And I make a reference to the fact
that if I got what I deserved, he
knows well what I would get.
But there is a desire to have all
in this world that is so appealing to
the flesh, the carnal man, admired as such
a parade of things today.
And that's why I said that I think
that this has a special meaning, a special
warning to young people.
I really sympathize with young people that live
in this world we live in today.
I say very often to my wife and
to others, I don't know how I would
have fared with all of the things that
are put before young people today.
Looks like Satan is just so busy.
And these things are attractive.
They are allurements.
And they appeal to the flesh.
And indeed, many young people respond to them.
They no longer resist.
And they fall victim, they fall prey, to
these things that Satan uses, and uses indeed
to such a great advantage, to spore human
life, and to sometimes wreck human life, and
cause so much misery, because people were looking
upon something that they didn't need to make
them happy, didn't need to bring fulfillment into
their lives.
But they thought they did.
They were deceived.
They were deceived by the master deceiver.
There's no question about it.
The master deceiver was very busy, and he
had worked on Asaph, and he had caused
him to look afield and to see all
of the things that God seemingly had bestowed
so lavishly upon the ungodly.
And they were prospering.
At least they had many things perhaps that
he thought he should have.
And why don't I have them?
I've honored the Lord in my life.
I try to give place to God in
my life, and yet life for me is
a struggle.
Material things don't come to me very easy.
All of these things he could have thought
about in his life.
As we think about this, and we make
some observation about the good fortune of those
that are estranged from God, I know for
a fact that we could spend our time
a lot better.
And I've mentioned young people, but they look
at some of these people that they idolize.
There are people of this world.
There are men and women of this world.
And they glamorize sin, and they participate in
so many things that a young person looks
and says, Surely, while that strong man that's
a star athlete, and he does all of
those things, and in fact he advertises, he
publicizes these things as being good for me.
And they want them.
And in many cases, they get them.
I think Paul, when he tells us, If
you then be risen with Christ, you seek
those things which are above.
You fasten your affection, your mind, your heart,
let it be centered upon the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that sits
at the right hand of God, your Savior,
your Redeemer.
And you be reminded that everything that you
need in this life, God will surely provide.
The writer of Proverbs has something to say
about envy.
He says, Envy is like rottenness of the
bones.
And there's some dread diseases in this world,
and one of them, of course, is leukemia.
One of them is that disease that attacks
the very source of life itself within the
human body, the marrow of the bones.
And here he says, Envy can be likened
unto rottenness of the bones.
It just gets right down to the very
depth of man's being, and it's destructive.
It'll consume you.
It'll make life miserable for you.
It'll cause so much heartache and dissatisfaction in
your life.
The writer of Proverbs says, Let not thine
heart envy poor sinners.
Isn't that a tragic thing?
To look out on someone, and he's living
just for this life.
He says, I want to eat, drink, and
be merry.
I want to get everything I can out
of this life.
I want to live it with all the
gusto that I can possibly sum up within
my being.
I'll take my chances when I die.
I'll meet with God one day, I suppose,
at the end of the road, and we'll
settle up then.
And you know, everything just seems to go
so beautiful for him in life.
Oh, he has the very best of everything.
And you look at him, and you have
to admit, all of that flamboyant spirit that
he demonstrates, all of that confidence and everything
that he seems to demonstrate about life itself,
he has a hold of everything.
We find ourselves just a little bit envying
that person.
And here is an individual that unless God
changes the course of his life, he's going
down into the lake of fire that burned
it forever and ever.
And God forbid that I would ever envy
one of those in this life, of the
ungodly, and certainly none of God's people, talking
this afternoon about those indeed that prosper in
this world.
We're to rejoice with them.
When I see someone that possesses spiritual gift
and is able to edify and build up
God's people and indeed provides that which is
wholesome and good for the people of God,
it should cause us to rejoice and thank
God's voice and not be envious, not be
jealous in one thought that we have about
that individual.
Indeed, that's a reflection upon our immaturity as
believers in the Lord Jesus.
The psalmist also says, a courageous man indeed
is one that learns to confess his sin
and to forsake it.
And I believe that this man Asaph, he
demonstrated that sort of courage when he indeed
confessed his sin.
This earthly prosperity, and when we think about
it in terms of the threat that it
represents, it does tend to turn one's face
away from God rather than towards the source
of all true blessing.
But I'm reminded that man without God is
not admired by others that sometimes submit to
that lure, if you want to think of
it in that term, that inducement to admire
them, drinking in all that they do, making
idols out of those that indeed have had
more than perhaps their share.
Certainly they've had an abundance of the things
of this life.
And to think that there are those that
have an admiration for them, there's always a
threat.
And this, in itself, will bother you.
It does me.
When I see someone, and I know that
young people, in many instances, they put that
person on a pedestal.
And I say, in a sense, that person's
not worthy of that admiration.
He's not worthy of that devotion, loyalty, whatever
it is they have for them, because we
are reminded that all flesh goes away of
the grass.
It's like the vapor that rises in the
air and it soon disappears.
You see, to have one's eyes fixed upon
those things that are temporal in this life
and not be able to see beyond and
understand that there are those things that have
spiritual value, they are eternal.
They are the things that bring eternal happiness
and joy to the hearts of men.
And yet men are tripped.
They are stumbled.
They are deceived in this life by those
things that appeal to the flesh.
In these verses, as Asaph looks at this
list of things, and he sees that confidence,
that pride, that arrogance, all that is demonstrated
by those that are so corrupt and so
wicked, even they set their mouths against heaven,
says Asaph.
Their tongues walketh through the earth.
Well, they're not shy for one moment about
speaking out against those things that you count
as being holy and dear.
They have no respect for the Lord.
They don't give any place in their lives.
They don't even give him credit for creating
them and maintaining their life day by day.
There is no ignorance concerning the very fact
that he carries within his power their very
life.
He looks at all of this and he
says, indeed, it's a mystery to me how
that they can prosper, how that they can
increase.
He says, there's a serious thought that comes
to my mind.
Is the position that I've taken and the
stance that I've taken in this life, is
it the wrong one?
Have I made a mistake somewhere along the
line?
Now, honestly, I wouldn't have wanted to make
that statement.
I wouldn't want anyone to ever know if
I had doubted that I'd taken the wrong
step.
The day that I entrusted myself into those
pierced hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, all
that I am, all that I shall ever
be, into his holy care, thank God I've
never doubted that that indeed is the best
decision, the wisest decision, that any man ever
made.
And to be aware that we were included
in that wonderful, divine, sovereign plan and will
of God, it ought to thrill our souls.
And to have one thought, one alien thought,
to that concept, that that's the best thing
that could ever happen to any human being,
indeed I would be ashamed to admit it.
But Asaph says, you know, I began to
wonder.
Living for the Lord, being a witness for
God, thinking about what he has done for
us, and maintaining a position in this life
of holiness and respect and reverence for God.
Is it worth it all?
Because they seem to be getting the better
end of the deal.
But then you get to that point in
this psalm where he makes an admission and
what he's saying is, this has caused me
so much concern.
This is a painful experience I've been through.
There's been a struggle going on within my
soul.
And I've got to get it resolved.
Well, he says, I went into the sanctuary
of God and then I understood it all.
I'll tell you what, you want to get
your mind straightened out concerning how you should
live in this life and your whole attitude
toward life itself, get into the presence of
God.
Get into the presence of God.
I'll tell you, it'll straighten your thinking out,
brethren.
Get down over the book and say, Lord,
your dear child needs enlightenment.
He needs some relief.
He needs to know more perfectly some of
these things that mean happiness and joy and
satisfaction in this life.
And all you've got to do, brothers, is
claim them one by one, the promises that
he'll reveal to you.
At the very close of this psalm, a
statement, indeed, that thrills me every time I
read it because it is so true.
For it is good for me to draw
near to God.
It is good for me.
A wholesome pursuit in this life is to
seek more and more of the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ for your life.
You can't get too much of him.
He will delight and fill your soul.
You'll find satisfaction there that indeed, in the
words of the songwriter, turn your eyes upon
Jesus, look full in his wonderful face.
The things of this earth, they will grow
strangely dim in the light of his glory
and his grace.
That's the key, brothers.
And Asaph looks at all this and he
says, When I went into the sanctuary of
God, when I reacquainted myself with the holiness
of my God, the greatness of my God,
he is a holy God, he is a
righteous God, he is a just God.
That's something we need to do every day,
isn't it?
We can't afford to feed upon the manna
that's grown sane.
We have to gather it.
It was there fresh every day.
And they had to go get it.
And we have to get it, brothers.
You can't feed on that which was a
blessing in the past.
You've got to keep the mind, you've got
to keep the soul refreshed continually from the
only source of refreshment, and that's the Lord
himself.
And indeed he will refresh the soul.
He will bring back into our lives that
which will make our lives a refreshment for
others.
He's not a stagnant God.
He dispenses that which is wholesome and good
and indeed makes our lives full and complete.
And Asaph, in the presence of God, understood
the end.
Why, he said, surely thou set them in
slippery places after that visit into the presence
of God, into that holy place, alone with
God.
And God no doubt revealed in a fresh
and a new way that indeed these dear
souls had walked through this life and they
walk in dry places and what little satisfaction
they draw from those pleasures, even the sensual
pleasures of this life.
It's only for a season.
And then an encounter with God, an encounter
with God.
And if you've ever had a bad dream,
a nightmare, and you wake up and you
thank God that it was a nightmare, it
was a painful experience, it was unpleasant.
But those that go down, the ungodly that
perish, that nightmare will never end for them.
It's not just a bad dream.
Brother, this is life.
This is real.
There's reality to this.
And Asaph was reacquainted with what's going to
happen to those regardless of what they experience
in this life.
They may have a great best of everything
in this life, but listen, if they die
without knowing the person of Jesus Christ, our
Lord, and that living experience of salvation, they're
going down.
They're going down to experience the judgment and
the wrath of God upon their souls.
They're going to be separated from God eternally.
And how dare anyone that has experienced the
sovereign grace of God in his soul ever
envy anyone in this life regardless of what
he has?
Let each one of us be sure within
our souls that we don't entertain those thoughts.
But if we do entertain those thoughts, let
us hasten into his presence, and he will
cure us of such unwholesome thinking.
Asaph said, the whole experience was a very
foolish experience.
It was just ignorance on my part to
ever entertain thoughts like this.
And there's a warning here again.
Those that get away from the Lord just
a little, and you know, you only turn
your back upon the Lord and get away
from the Lord just a little step at
a time.
And in this case, this man gives us
a running account of the fact that his
steps had almost left, but praise God, God
delivered him.
God enlightened him.
And we need to issue warnings.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said over and over
in the scriptures, Whoa!
Whoa!
And this is a word of alarm.
It's like a sounding alarm.
We live in a world in which materialism
has just gripped the hearts of men and
women.
And it's a very affluent society in which
we live.
Honestly, I don't like to hear what they
call poor talk today.
People that talk about, well, I could have
a little more.
Listen, most of the people that I know,
they got more than they ever had before.
What saddens me is that some of them
are still complaining.
And they're still seeking after more and more
of this world.
And it doesn't satisfy them.
You don't have to be very clever to
understand or very intelligent.
Just the, almost the slightest observation will reveal
things do not satisfy the human heart.
It seems once they've gotten hold of one
of those desires, the heart reaches out for
more.
It asks for more.
And in this case, Asaph says that's indeed
a foolish experience.
It's just ignorance on the part of the
one that entertains thoughts such as this.
And then his last thoughts concerning those that
he'd entertained these thoughts is that they shall
perish.
And you know, there's going to be a
day of reckoning and each one of us
shall appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
We shall stand before the Lord.
And you know, to go through this life
and constantly be in turmoil in one's soul
and have envy and jealousy that's unconfessed because
you didn't think that you got everything that
you deserved in this life.
You couldn't say with a psalmist the lions
indeed have fallen unto me in pleasant places.
You always thought that you deserved a little
more.
Let us take a lesson from this.
Let us be reminded that the wicked, they're
going to perish regardless of what they have
in this life.
Regardless of what their attitude is toward God.
When they boast, they may defy God.
Indeed they have the rebel spirit within their
soul.
And they have no place for God.
They give no honor to God.
They give no respect to God.
Yet they shall perish.
But for me, it's so good to draw
near to God.
Why put my trust in the Lord God
that I may declare all thy works and
to out of the fullness of our hearts
and souls to be able to share and
tell others what our great God has done
for us.
Never a murmur.
Never any note of dissatisfaction with what God
has done for me.
Listen.
God knows what's best for every one of
us.
And God will not withhold from any one
of us anything that would indeed be beneficial
to us in our Christian experience.
God knows what's best for us.
Are we committed?
Are we willing to trust Him with confidence
that He knows what's best for us?
And can we in that confidence ever say,
the guiding hand that supplies all of my
needs relieves me of all care and all
worry, all of the fretting that I see
going on in the world.
I'm delivered.
I'm liberated.
I don't have to worry about those things.
My Heavenly Father, He takes care of them.
And I'll never be guilty I'll never be
guilty of entertaining thoughts that were so unwholesome
as these that Asaph has penned for us.
And if you never entertain those thoughts, there'll
never be the danger that you'll take that
step that indeed would bring reproach upon your
testimony and perhaps destroy your Christian witness because
indeed all sin starts with a thought.
Things that are entertained in the mind then
it has a way of getting its grip
upon you.
And then all of the sad consequences and
all of the sorrow and all of the
tears that have been shed all the sin
that come into the life of a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, let God's people be a people that
seek after holiness in the inner man.
People that revere the God that they've entrusted
with the care of their soul and believe
that He knows what is best and He'll
always provide what is best for us in
this life.
But it is good for me to draw
near to God.
Shall we pray?
Our Father in Heaven, we do bow in
Thy presence and thank Thee for a wonderful
time that we've experienced today with our dear
people.
And the Lord to be assembled even this
day around the table and to have the
privilege of remembering the Savior who loved us
and died for us.
Indeed that privilege to us, we prize it.
We thank Thee for every precious thought that's
been in our hearts today concerning Him.
We thank Thee that You've been able to
garrison these hearts and minds and ours about
and that many of those foreign thoughts, those
alien thoughts, those things that would indeed grieve
us that You've even spared us for so
much of this.
We do pray that Thy people wherever they're
found, that the warning that's been issued in
the Word, this warning not to lust after
the things in this world, but to walk
in the Spirit and fulfill not the lust
of the flesh and to indeed let that
heart have a single purpose and that to
enthrone the blessed Son of God, our Lord
Jesus Christ, enthrone Him in our hearts.
And indeed He will provide all that we
need.
We can do all things through Christ who
strengthens us.
O Lord, look upon Thy people and favor
them with a consciousness of Thy presence.
And grant, we pray Thee, as they lift
their hearts heavenward, as they meditate and think
upon Thy word, there will be that ample
reward of seeing Your glory and having You
fill and provide all that satisfies the longing
heart, the heart that longs after Thee.
These things we ask again in the wonderful
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks.
Amen.