Psalm 73

Good morning, Saylorville! If you brought a copy of Scripture with you this morning, you can find Psalm 73, the 73rd Psalm as we continue in our series, Real Council. And I love that last song we just sang! Don’t you? It’s sort of a… that song is an important song, because it’s a doctrinal song. It sort of combines the work of God from eternity past through the cross and resurrection and what we have to look forward to. Amen? — which does find itself in this message as well today. So let me just start with a word of prayer and we’ll get going in this. All right?

Our Father in heaven, thank You. Thank You for the Lord Jesus Christ, for Your great plan from eternity past, for the Church that you unleashed into this world to do your bidding, to preach Your truth, to see others come to know You. And then Lord, for Your Holy Spirit who comes to live within those who know You. Instruct us in His Word. And I pray even now as we deal with a most really insidious kind of a thing today that our hearts will be open to the truth and You would help us to find our way back to You. And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.

We are addressing today a sin that ironically no one has ever scheduled an appointment in our Counseling Center to get help on. It doesn’t mean we haven’t struggled with it, they just haven’t done that. And the probably, the reason for that as one writer put it, ‘it’s a sin that hides itself because it’s so humiliating.’ David dealt with it. The Apostle Paul dealt with it. James dealt with it, and Jesus in Mark’s gospel said it’s amongst the most defiling sins that can ever take place in your life. It’ll eat you from the inside out. This morning we’re gonna look at how Asaph dealt with it.

Now on the surface the 73rd Psalm… which by the way, has always drawn me. I am so drawn, like it draws me like a tractor beam, this Psalm. And on the surface, it looks like we’re dealing with theodicy. Theodicy is basically the vindication or the justification of a god who allows, in this case, ungodly people to prosper. And don’t you just hate it when ungodly people prosper? Doesn’t it just tick you off? Just admit it! You know it does! So that’s one way to look at this Psalm. Another way to look at it is it’s addressing one of the most hideous and insidious of sins. And we’re talking about the sin of envy. Envy is the resentment of someone else’s good fortune, but it’s coupled with the desire to have it yourself. And so while it’s a cousin to jealousy and covetousness, it’s much worse than jealousy and covetousness, because it includes not only the desire to possess what someone else has, but that they would cease from having it. So the modern slang we’ve had for years now is the acronym F.O.M.O. F-O-M-O — the fear of missing out. Right? You had it when you looked at your Facebook page just a little while ago, or Instagram, or whatever. But the bottom line is envy would add, not only do I not like missing out, I want You to miss out too. The late Tim Keller defined envy as:

“Envy is wanting somebody else’s life.” Tim Keller

When Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs, he said something very insightful. He said this. He said:

Proverbs 24:17-18

17 “Rejoice not when your enemy stumbles and neither let your heart be glad when he falls,

18 lest the LORD see it (as if He wouldn’t) and it displeases Him (Of course it would) And remove His wrath from Him.”

Have you ever read that? If you think about it, when you rejoice at someone else’s or like an enemy’s stumbling or a downfall, God removes His perfect retribution from that situation. So it doesn’t make any sense to rejoice over an enemy’s downfall. But why the command? Why would God command through Solomon don’t rejoice over your, you know, an enemy stumbling. Why? The reason He commands us that is because our human, sinful nature loves it! — and loves the thought of our enemies going down! Can I get an ‘Amen’ here? You know it’s true.

It’s like the guy who found this lamp and he rubbed it and a genie came out. And the genie thanked him for freeing him. He said, “For freeing me, I am going to give you anything your heart’s desire.” The guy says, “Anything?” The genie says, “Anything!” “No strings attached?” “Well, one. One condition. Whatever I give you, I’m going to give twice as much to your enemy.” So the guy got to thinking about it for a while. He said, “Okay, I’m ready. I’m ready.” The genie said, “What’ll it be?” He goes, “Scare me… Half to death.” (audience laughing) That’s envy.

One test of whether or not you’re envious is how you respond internally when someone you either dislike or you resent suffers a misfortune. Just let that sink in for a little bit. How do you respond to that internally? — and not just enemies, — friends. The late liberal intellect, Gore Vidal said,

“Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.” Gore Vidal

Well, there’s an honest remark.

Back about 30 some years ago in my very first pastorate and the only other pastorate I had, I led one of the most… one of the darkest individuals to this day I’ve ever met in my life, to Christ. He was heavily involved in drugs and thievery, and he tried to take the life of his wife and child, — and he went to prison for it. So I met him, post-prison, and led him to Christ. But he, the morass that he was into was so deep, we were constantly having to prop him up. He was sincere and for a time we wondered if he was genuinely born again, but sure enough there was a little fruit and a little fruit. But he had no filter! He would just say the most awful thing sometimes. And then he’d come around and say something like, ‘Okay, you can say’… And okay, God must be working in his life.’ And a couple years later, my wife died. And when my wife died, I mean, this outpouring of love and sympathy for me was coming from everywhere, and certainly within the church I was pastoring, but not a word from this dude, not one word from this dude. And about a month later, there was a guy’s fun night. And we were all together. I was little more than a walking shell, but I was there. And he walked up to me and he said, “Hey, Pastor, when Nina died, my first thought was, “Now you can see how I feel.”” Well, at least he was being honest. And I got to thinking if he doesn’t represent others who think like that.

Envy literally inverts the command in Romans 12, verse 15, where it says:

Romans 12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”

… and turns it into,

‘Rejoice over those who weep, and weep with those who rejoice.’

No wonder Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian of the early revivals in the 1700s said:

“Never underestimate the spiritual power of Envy.” Jonathan Edwards

And speaking of power, the early church fathers viewed envy as a gateway sin, and rightly so. So it’s envy that caused Cain to murder his brother Abel. It was envy that caused the brothers of Joseph to sell him into slavery. And even if you think about it, at the cusp of Jesus’ death… Remember, He’s on trial. He’s been scourged. It’s an awful scene and He’s in front of Pilate. And so Pilate gets clever because he doesn’t really want to kill Jesus. So he’s used to releasing himself prisoner. Right? So, ‘Hey, why don’t I release Barabbas?’ Well, this notorious insurrectionist, there’s no way they’re gonna wanna release him. But, No! Sure enough, they… ‘Give us Jesus! release Barabbas! Crucify Jesus!’ And in the middle of all that, there is this line: (Pilate) knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered Jesus up.

So envy kills! It kills. And Asaph, David’s choir director, had temporarily succumbed to envy. And so he tells us in Psalm 73 the first couple of verses,

Psalm 73:1-16 (ESV)

1“Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.“

So he sets the record straight right out of the shoot. He’s actually telling us in the… this is all in the rear view mirror now, and he’s saying, ‘God is good.’ He’s acknowledging He’s good, but he’s about to get real. I mean really real! And I’ll be honest. I’ve never heard anybody get this real about their envy. He is back from the abyss of envy, and he even says things, he’s… verse two:

2“But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.

3 For I was” (what?) “envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”

(I was almost… I was nearly. And when he says, you know, ‘God’s good to those who are pure in heart’ in the first verse, and in as much as acknowledging his heart was not that pure. And so, [Psalm 73] verses 4 through 16, I’m actually gonna read these verses from the NLT. It’s a little more lucid, and I’ll put it up here for you. Here’s how he describes his struggle.

Psalms 73:4-16

4 “They seem to live such painless lives. their bodies are so healthy and strong.

5 They don’t have trouble like other people, and they’re not plagued with problems like everyone else.

6 They wear pride like a jeweled necklace and clothe themselves with cruelty.

7 These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for.

8 They scoff and speak only evil. In their pride, they seek to crush others.

9 They boast against the very heavens and their words strut throughout the earth.

10 And so the people are dismayed and confused, drinking in all their words. What does God know, they ask?

11 Does the most high even know what’s happening?

12 Look at these wicked people enjoying a life of ease while their riches multiply.

13 Did I keep my heart pure for nothing? Did I keep myself innocent for no reason?

14 I get nothing but trouble all day long. Every morning brings me pain.

15 If I had really spoken this way to others, I would have been a traitor to your people.

16 So I tried to understand why the wicked prosper, but what a difficult task it is.”

So envy, for those of you who would care to admit that you struggle with it, know this. Envy is a killer, and it kills several things. So the negative: It kills your spiritual vision. So look at all, there’s just a plethora of first person pronouns as he talks about “me, me, me, I,I,I,” throughout this Psalm. If you skip down to verse 13:

Psalm 73:13 (ESV)

13 “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.

14 For all day long I’ve been stricken and rebuked every morning.

15 If I had said “I will speak thus,” I would have…”

He just goes on and on. Envy serves up in your life like… it creates a sort of spiritual myopia, basically the inability to see beyond your own nose. The self-centeredness in your life becomes grotesque, and everybody sees it except you! — and don’t be pointing to anybody right now! Okay? But it’ll kill your spiritual vision.

And it’ll kill your faith. Envy Kills. It’ll kill your faith. Look at verse 13 where he says, “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.” He’s losing his faith, and how many have deconstructed from the faith when they saw others succeed while they themselves stay on the struggle bus? When you envy, it kills your faith. It doesn’t just kill your faith, it kills other people’s faith. In fact, verse 15 out of the message translation says this. He says:

Psalm 73:15, ‘If I would have given in and talked like this, I would have betrayed your dear children.’

Think about this for just a moment. Who is following you right now? Who’s following you? If you’re a parent, you have kids following you, but you don’t have to be a parent to have somebody following you. And what do they see in your life when you struggle? And if there’s envy, they will see that. They’ll always look for the weakest link in your life, those following you who are struggling themselves. And you can kill their faith.

When my wife, as I mentioned earlier, when my wife died, on the morning that she died, I read Psalm 69, not because I came to the Word of God with bells on. I just knew I needed to hear from God. And I started reading it. It says:

Psalm 69:1,3

1“Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.

3 I am weary from my crying out;”

It was basically describing me. And then in the sixth verse of Psalm 69, it says this. Now listen to this. The psalmist says:

Psalm 69:6, “‘Let not those who trust in you become ashamed because of me.” (And then he repeats himself) “Let not those who hope in you become ashamed because of me.“

You know what he was saying? ‘God, I know that my reaction to these circumstances could kill somebody else’s faith.’ — And that’s how God challenged me in the moment. And he’s challenging you as well. So instead we need to be more like Job who said,

Job 13:15, “Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him.”

Amen! So it’s a killer, Envy. It’ll kill your joy. Verse 16.

Psalm 73:16, “But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task…”

His joy has been sucked right out of him, which is what happens when you struggle with envy. Your joy just takes a hike.

The church fathers… they saw envy as an assault on the character of God, and the reason they saw it this way is because when you envy others, you question God’s right to give gifts as He sees necessary. So gifts, when we talk about gifts, there’s lots of lists of gifts in the New Testament. We’ll give you Ephesians chapter 4, 1 Peter chapter 4, Romans chapter 12 and 1 Corinthians chapter 12… all give lists of gifts. And guess what? I’ve got news for you. Nobody has them all. Right? That’s why we need one another. Amen? And that’s why we should rejoice over one another and one another’s gifts. What if everybody only had my gift? What a repulsive place this would be? And that wasn’t even supposed to be funny! But the truth is, I mean, we need one… Only Jesus had all the gifts. Amen? So we ought to rejoice.

And listen, first Corinthians 12 says that the Holy Spirit gives gifts, and then it says…

1 Corinthians 12:11, “All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually… as He wills.”

Have you ever read that? So it’s God who wills the gifts that you are given. If you envy, you struggle rejoicing over God’s sovereign distribution of those gifts. Instead of rejoicing over another’s gifts and using yours, you wish you had theirs. That’s a JOY killer! — And in the end, it kills your view of God. Eugene Peterson, as only he can write in his Message translation, puts 11 through 14 like this.

[based on Psalm 73:11-14]

‘What’s going on here? Is God out to lunch? Nobody’s tending the store. The wicked get by with everything. They have it made, piling up riches. I have been stupid to play by the rules. And what has it gotten me? A long run of bad luck, that’s what — a slap in the face every time I walk out the door.’

When you succumb to envy, you end up acting like a deist. A deist is somebody who may or may not believe in God, but He [God] really doesn’t care. He’s not personal. He’s not transcendent. He is transcendent, but He’s not close. He’s not imminent. He doesn’t know about your life. He’s not involved. He doesn’t care. — And what happens is a fog begins to descend on your outlook, on your view of God, a spiritual fog, and you start to think the worst.

In the epic battle of 1815 known as the Battle of Waterloo… the Duke of Wellington versus Napoleon… Britain versus France. In those days, I mean literally, the face of Europe was hanging in the balance, and in those days you couldn’t send a text out. You couldn’t make a phone call. You couldn’t send an email. You know how they communicated with one another? It was called through semaphore. Semaphore in the day would be flags and at night it would be fires. And for miles and miles and miles from the battle to the country there would be semaphores going out communicating with the people back home how things were going. While the battle of Waterloo was going on at the pitch, at the height of the battle, semaphores were going from Waterloo, that’s the area of Belgium, into Britain and the semaphore that came out was “Wellington defeated,” and suddenly a fog came in and they couldn’t read it anymore. That’s all they saw. Wellington defeated, and they thought ‘Our hero, the Duke of all, he’s been defeated. We’ve lost!’ — and a funk came over the entire nation of Britain. And when the fog lifted, the semaphore read, “Wellington defeated… the enemy”!

See, that’s what happens when you succumb to envy. You just don’t see straight. You certainly don’t see God. And so Asaph was in a fog of his own doing.

So here’s the question. How do we clear up the fog in our lives? — and the answer is found in verse 17, where he testifies…

Psalm 73:17, “… until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.”

Envy kills. The sanctuary is where envy goes to die, and it’s where you need to go to live in the sanctuary of God. There’s all kinds of restoration that will take place in your life. Your sanity will be restored. Now why do I put it like this? — because if you think about it, envy is a form of insanity. I mean, this is why I look down to verse 28, he says,

Psalm 73:28, “But for me, it is good to be (what?) near God;”

That’s what you are in the sanctuary. C.S. Lewis famously said that…

“The first two words that come out of our mouths when we get to heaven will be, ‘Of course!'”

C.S. Lewis

I love that! — But I believe you don’t have to wait till heaven to say that. You don’t have to wait till heaven to have some clarity to have the fog lifted. No! You don’t get to see everything. No… you do have to trust. “We walk by faith, not by sight.” [2 Corinthians 5:7] Amen! — But you will see much clearer. It’s salvation from envy, from that constant horizontal stare, you go vertical to the sanctuary. And the Hebrew word sanctuary means exactly what you think it means. It means “holy place.” That’s why right here in this room, people say, ‘We’re going to be going to the auditorium.’ I hate that expression, auditorium! You know what? An auditorium is where you go for entertainment! Did you come to be entertained? Go like this. Unless you did, shame on you! You came to a sanctuary to a holy place where we worship the living God! But we’ve got to go beyond here. So the holy place, when we go into the sanctuary of God, that’s where we worship, that’s where we pray, that’s where the sanity is restored, that’s where we see God in His sovereignty, and His power, and His wisdom, and His providence, and His good gifts, and His holiness and His mercy. And we get the long view. We might not know what that long view is, but we trust Him with it, and it settles our mind and brings about a kind of sanity.

In the sanctuary of God, your vision is restored, and not just the vision of your destiny but the destiny of the damned! Look at verse 18.

Psalm 73:18-20; 28

18 “Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.“

19 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!

20 Like a dream when one awakes…”

verse 27,

28 “For behold, those who are far from You shall (what?) perish;”

When you get into the sanctuary of God, your vision is restored and not just the vision of your destiny, but you see the destiny of the damned, where some of you are going right now as it is, as you stand, where you sit, you are a damned individual. The wrath of God abides on you! You have not repented of your sin. You have not gone into the sanctuary where Jesus tore back the veil, gone to God, believed in His death and resurrection, and trusted Him as your Savior! That’s where you need to go!

If you’ve watched any of the news recently, you’ve seen fires. Fires all over the country, especially out west! But I’ve noticed an expression that’s been used in all of, every one of these news reports has been really interesting to me. When they talk about the property in these fires, they always say, ‘… and there was total loss.’ You ever notice when a tornado goes through, you know, wipe the home out, but people are picking stuff up, and they’re finding their birth records and their wedding pictures. You don’t see that in a fire. Have you ever seen a fire just consume half a house and just stop? No! This is the reason why Solomon said in Proverbs 30 verse 16,

Proverbs 30:16 “Sheol, the barren womb, the land never satisfied with water, and the fire that never says, “Enough.”

Fire never says enough, Why? — because it’s all consuming. That’s why. And this is why Paul said to Timothy,

1 Timothy 6:7, ‘You brought nothing into this world and it is certain you can carry nothing out.’

That’s why you never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul. Just doesn’t happen.

George Mason, the great statesman, said:

“We came equals into this world, and equals we shall go out of it.” George Mason

So why would you envy someone who is destined for total loss? Envy kills —but when you go to the sanctuary, it gets killed… and you get restored. Your sanity is restored, your vision is restored and your expectation of glory is restored!   Look at verse 24. I love this! I just love this! It’s one of my favorite verses in the Old Testament!

Psalm 73:24, “You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will receive me to glory.”

… Restoration of expectation. Like the Apostle Paul said to the Philippians:

Philippians 1:20-21

20 ‘… according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing will I be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so even now, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death,

21 for to me to live is Christ to die is gain.’

That is a man of right, godly, glorious expectation. And when you go to the sanctuary, it’s restored.

Charles Wesley was the song of the… one of the songs of the great awakening is singer, or writer, John Wesley. The brothers, beginning of the Methodist movement in the 1700s. Charles was a hymn writer. He wrote almost 7,000 hymns, including a couple of your favorites, like, “O, for a Thousand Tongues to sing,” and my favorite Christmas song, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing… glory to the newborn King.” He wrote that. He was on his deathbed, literally dying on his deathbed, 81 years old, and he called for his wife, and she came and he asked for… Psalm 73… — And she read to him;

Psalm 73:25-26

25 “Whom have I in heaven but you? And on earth I have no one beside you.

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

And he told her to grab a pen, because he was such a prolific writer, and to take dictation, and here’s what he said. He said:

“In age and feebleness extreme, Who shall a worthless (sinful) worm redeem.

Jesus, my only hope thou art,

Strength of my failing flesh and heart.

O could I catch a smile from thee, And drop into Eternity.” Charles Wesley

And that’s exactly what he did!

Every one of you are going to drop into eternity one of these days. And just as I said that in the first service, somebody over here dropped… literally dropped! They’re fine, but it made for a great illustration! So when you drop, will you drop into everlasting loss, total loss, or inexpressible joy? What you do with Jesus Christ will determine that because envy kills, but the cross of Jesus kills envy, and you find it… in the sanctuary. Will you pray with me?

Our Father in heaven, as we prepare for the Lord’s table, we thank You. Thank You that Jesus died for our envy, all of our sins, but what a Savior! And if we would acknowledge the jealousy, the covetousness, the evil thinking when we think of others, friends and foe alike, we would repent and should repent. I pray for those in this room who are on the cusp of eternity. And I pray for those who are in this prayer right now, and you would say it’s time for me to receive Jesus. It’s time for me to be saved. I need to seek forgiveness. I believe Jesus died for me and tore back the veil, opened the way to heaven. I believe He rose again and I believe it with all my heart. Is that you? Can you say that to Him right now… from your heart? If you do, you’ll be saved. And for those of us who do know You Lord, but are in a funk, envy, this insidious sin has just… keeps creeping its way in. Help us to be humble, find the sanctuary and find restoration, sanity, vision… and You. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.