Well, good morning, everybody. It's good to see you all. I bring you greetings from Middleton Baptist Church. Thank you for praying for us and thank you for praying for Carrick tool. It's two weeks away from being a year since we planted Carrick to a Baptist.
So we thank God for his faithfulness to us and time flies and we're very glad that they're doing very well. We miss them, but we're very glad that they're doing well. So thank you for praying for them.
Our passage this morning is Psalm 73. Psalm 73, if you'd like to turn there in your Bibles. Psalm 73.
Psalm 73.
who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped,
for I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked, for they have no pangs
until death. Their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are. They are not
stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore, pride is their necklace. Violence covers them
as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness. Their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice. Loftily, they threaten oppression. They set their mouths
against the heavens and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore, his people turn
back to them and find no fault in them. And they say, how can God know? Is there knowledge
in the Most High? Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease. They increase in riches. All
in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long,
I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said, I will speak thus, I would have
betrayed the generation of your people. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed
to me a wearisome task. Until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I discerned their end. Truly,
you set them in slippery places. You make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors. Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord. When you rouse yourself,
you despise them as phantoms. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast towards you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you.
You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel. And afterward, you will receive me to glory.
Whom in heaven have I but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold,
those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
But for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
Let's pray for a moment.
I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you, the psalmist says.
Father, I pray that as we think and reflect on this psalm now in these next few moments,
that you would help us by your spirit to store up your word in our hearts,
that we might not sin against you.
Lord, where there is hardness of heart, I pray that you would bring tenderness and openness.
Where there is hopelessness, I pray you would bring hope.
Where there is sin, conviction,
and where there is coldness,
we pray you would bring warmth and fire.
I ask all these things and for your help in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Reading this psalm, when I was preparing,
reminded me of when we lived in the US.
It was a couple of years ago and it was during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A time of our lives I'm sure we're all keen to forget.
It was a strange time to be alive, wasn't it?
Do you remember how certain things were very hard to buy?
Like hand sanitizer suddenly was like more precious than gold.
Couldn't get a hold of it, at least where we were living.
Even toilet paper for a time had to be rationed out.
People were panicking in the shops.
It had to be rationed out so that they didn't sell out.
I remember as it all sort of kicked off and it was maximum panic,
I remember trying to get my hands on any sort of disinfectant spray that I could.
And one evening I was on Amazon and I found a tiny little bottle of Dettol fluid.
It was about that size.
Which, you know, would cost about three or four euro or three or four dollars.
And it was like fifteen dollars.
But I panicked.
And I bought it.
And I thought it was a good idea at the time.
I thought, I need this.
Who knows it's going to happen.
There's a lot of uncertainty here.
But as it turns out, we never used that bottle of Dettol even once.
It went under our kitchen sink into a little cabinet.
And it stayed there until we moved out about two years later.
Never even opened it.
And every now and again I would open the cupboard and see it there.
And just think, what was I thinking?
Paying all that money for a small little bottle of Dettol.
But of course, hindsight is twenty-twenty, isn't it?
You look back at the decisions you made.
And you think, how could I have gotten it so wrong?
Why did I think that was such a good idea?
What was I thinking?
Of course, that's a pretty harmless example.
But we all have times like this in our lives, don't we?
When we look back on a rash decision or some faulty reasoning and wonder,
what was I thinking?
How did I believe that?
Why did I do that?
How did I get so confused?
Sometimes things that make total sense in the moment
make no sense in hindsight.
And it's exactly this sort of realization,
this sort of what was I thinking, feeling,
that the psalmist is talking about here in our passage this morning.
Asaph, who wrote this psalm,
is looking back to the recent past,
back to a time when he was envious or jealous
of godless, wicked people.
A time when life as a believer didn't seem to make any sense at all.
I wonder if you ever felt like that.
But now, at the time of writing this psalm,
now with the benefit of hindsight,
he can see just how confused and wrongheaded he had become.
He looks back and says, so to speak,
what was I thinking?
Two quick things to note about this psalm,
just to give us some context.
The first is that this is what is referred to as a psalm of wisdom,
or a wisdom psalm.
The psalms have a huge variety.
There's different types.
There's psalms of praise, psalms of judgment, psalms of repentance,
royal psalms that speak of the coming king,
who will be fulfilled explicitly by Jesus.
And this psalm is generally agreed to be a psalm of wisdom.
In other words, it's written in order to make you and I wise people,
that we would avoid living unwisely in this world that God has created.
Second, a note about the author.
It's Asaph.
Asaph lived at the same time as King David.
And in 1 Chronicles 6, we read that King David put Asaph, along with others,
in charge of the service of the psalm in the temple.
So he was, you might say, a worship leader.
He was the chief music leader in the temple.
And in 1 Chronicles 25, verse 2, it also says that he prophesied
under the direction of the king.
So Asaph isn't just some random guy who managed to get one of his writings
into the Bible.
He's someone deeply involved in the religious life of Israel.
He's a friend of the king.
He's the worship leader at the temple.
And he prophesies.
And knowing all this about Asaph will help us understand
the crisis of faith that he is having here in these verses.
Okay, so to begin with,
he begins by stating up front his final conclusion.
So he begins at the end, as it were.
Here's what I now know to be true.
Truly, God is good to Israel and to those who are pure in heart.
But as you move into verse 2, he moves back in time.
He says, it wasn't always like this.
And from verse 2 all the way down to verse 16,
he's reflecting on this time, which I think was pretty recent,
when he was having a crisis of faith,
and he doubted God's goodness toward his people.
Maybe you're here this morning,
and you wouldn't express it in such explicit terms,
but you're doubting if God is good.
He puts it this way.
As for me, my feet had almost stumbled.
My steps had nearly slipped.
Because I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
He's looking at the world around him
and seeing people who want nothing to do with God,
and they're having a great life.
He says they're prospering.
The word there is the word shalom.
It's this idea of wholeness and peacefulness.
Everything is as it's meant to be.
So they are living the shalom life,
even though they are rejecting God.
And Asaph essentially is looking out at this
and saying, what gives?
Why do the wicked seem to have such a great life?
And this really troubles him.
He cannot stop thinking about it.
Do you ever get that?
Like some problem that starts to annoy you in your head.
It doesn't go away.
It just goes, it warms its way deeper and deeper
into your thoughts.
And it consumes him.
It's all that he can think of.
In verses 4 to 12, he goes into great detail
about both their prosperity and their wickedness.
First in verse 4 to 7,
their prosperity says they have no pangs,
no pain until death.
And their bodies are fat and sleek.
So while the rest of us are working hard
just trying to keep ends, make ends meet,
these guys have so much food, they're fat.
They've got such an abundance.
And they have great health.
They live pain-free lives right up to the day they die.
In verse 5, they're not in trouble as others are.
They're not stricken like the rest of mankind.
It's as if the curses of the fall
and all the brokenness of this world
just skips over them.
everything's easy for them,
at least as Asaph sees it.
Their whole life just looks like
one continuous Instagram story.
In fact, life is going so well for them,
they are openly proud.
Verse 6,
therefore pride is their necklace
and violence covers them as a garment.
They're smug.
They feel free to be violent towards other people.
That's their prosperity.
And then he, from verse 8,
recounts their wickedness.
He says,
they scoff and speak with malice
and loftily they threaten oppression.
It seems that the people that Asaph has in mind here
are people with power
and influence.
Because when you have power,
you can threaten oppression, can't you?
Like a bad landlord
who puts up the rent
year after year
and when their tenants ask for a break,
they just say,
if you don't like it,
you can get out
and they'll find someone else who can pay.
Or like a bad business owner
who mistreats their staff
and doesn't pay them
their full wages.
When you have power,
you can be a jerk
and get away with it, can't you?
Their speech also shows their wickedness.
It says,
they set their mouths against the heavens.
They speak blasphemous things
and speak against heaven where God is
as if there's no one up there.
And their tongues struck through the earth.
This confident,
imagine,
look at that imagery of their tongue,
their speech,
walking around like they're the boss.
They can say whatever they want,
whenever and wherever they want.
And all of this,
their great wickedness
and their seemingly great prosperity,
Asaph says,
has a terrible effect on God's people.
Look at verse 10.
He says,
therefore,
his people,
that is God's people,
turn back to them.
They turn to the wicked
and find no fault in them.
So God's people look at these people
and say,
there's nothing wrong there, is there?
They seem to be just living the good life.
And they're deceived.
They think,
well, I guess living like that is fine.
In other words,
sin looks safe.
It looks advantageous.
And it looks like the only way
to really get ahead in this life.
You ever feel like that?
The way of this world
does not flow in the way of righteousness.
It flows in the way of sin.
And Asaph is saying,
it sure would be nice to swim
along with the current for once.
The wicked say,
verse 11,
how can God know?
Is there knowledge of the Most High?
This is peak arrogance.
God does not see what's going on.
That's what they're saying.
You think God's watching all of us?
God's not watching all of us.
We can do whatever we want.
And it's a might makes right kind of world.
We see that in the news all the time,
don't we, with politicians?
If you can get away with it, do it.
If you can get it, take it.
And whoever has the biggest hammer
gets to push everybody else around.
Let's see where that ends.
Finally, in verse 12,
Asaph summarizes what he's seeing.
He says,
Behold, look,
these are the wicked.
Always at ease,
they increase in riches.
Friends, can you see Asaph's dilemma here?
Can you relate to what he's feeling?
How do I reconcile the wickedness
of these people
with their abundant prosperity?
Why is life so good
for those who reject God?
This dilemma causes Asaph
to question his own life choices.
Look at verse 13.
He says,
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
What's he saying there?
He's essentially saying this.
Why do I bother?
Why am I striving
to follow after the Lord
and live a life
that is pleasing to him?
Why have I spent
all of this effort
fighting temptation and sin
to keep myself clean?
I mean, look where that's gotten me.
Verse 14, he says,
All the day long
I have been stricken
and rebuked
every morning.
I think Asaph here
is referring to a physical illness
in his body
that he has been stricken
with ill health
and also there is this rebuke
which I think is God's discipline
in his life.
Like we read in Hebrews chapter 12,
God disciplines his people,
God disciplines us
for our good
that we may share
in his holiness.
For the moment,
it says,
all discipline seems painful
rather than pleasant,
but later
it yields
the peaceful fruit
of righteousness
to those who have been
trained by it.
God disciplines us
not to punish us.
Christ has taken
all of our punishment
on the cross.
God disciplines us
rather to purify us
that we might share
in his holiness.
Asaph knows the pain
of physical suffering
as well as the discomfort
of God's rebuke
and he's starting
to resent it.
Here I am, Lord,
serving in your temple
day after day,
putting in all this hard work,
striving to keep my heart
and my hands clean
from sin
and instead of prosperity,
instead of shalom,
I have a body
that is breaking down
and from you,
rebuke.
And meanwhile,
the wicked walk around
like they own the place.
And their lives
are just going
fabulously.
It's like Asaph
is driving along.
If you think of life
like a journey,
he's driving along
in his car,
but it's a real old
banger of a car.
You know,
when you start driving,
you always,
it's kind of like tradition,
you start off,
your first car is terrible.
It's like he's been driving
for many years
and he's still got
that first car
that's just about
hanging in there.
You know,
the dash is full of lights.
It's sputtering out
smoke and leaking oil.
And as he's driving
along slowly,
he hears the sound
of a sports car
driving up behind him
and he looks in the
rear view mirror
and he sees this
brand new jet black
Porsche just gliding
along in the fast lane.
And as this beautiful
Porsche just whizzes
by him,
he sees the driver
and says,
I know that guy.
That's that wicked man
who lives down the road
from me,
who does whatever
he wants,
who rejects God
and is evil.
And as that car
just glides off
into the sunset
ahead of him,
he thinks,
why does he get
that car
and this is mine?
I should be driving
the Porsche.
He should have
this banger.
This is not fair.
Why is my life
so rough
and his so smooth?
Have you ever
thought like this
as a Christian?
Maybe just quietly
to yourself
as you lie in bed
you ask yourself,
what's the point?
This is so hard.
Following Christ
in this world,
swimming against
the stream,
fighting
outwardly
and inwardly
sin and temptation
day after day
after day
while those
who ignore God
seem to have
it so easy.
For any of you
ever been tempted
to think like this?
You look over
the fence
at your non-Christian
neighbor and say,
man,
the grass really
does look
a bit greener
over there.
I think if we're
honest,
we've all thought
things like that
in the past.
Maybe you're thinking
of right now
when we've envied
those who
reject God
like Asaph
did here.
And it's no
exaggeration to say
that Asaph
is having a crisis
of faith here.
This is no small
thing.
He's thinking
of throwing in the
towel and walking
away and just
saying,
I can't do
this anymore.
He even
considers in
verse 14
what would
happen if he
were to walk
away.
He said,
if I had spoken
out like that,
if I had just
come out and
said,
there is no
God,
just do
whatever you
want.
He realizes
I would have
betrayed the
generation of
your people.
In other words,
if I were to
just say that,
I'd have been
a traitor to
your people.
I'm not going
to do that,
but that doesn't
solve his
problem.
He says in
verse 16,
but when I
thought how to
understand this,
it seemed to
me a wearisome
task.
I cannot make
heads or tails
of what's going
on here.
I love the
honesty of this
psalm.
There's no
plastic religion
in the Bible.
It's real
people dealing
with real
life, following
the real
God.
The turning
point of this
psalm, the
hinge of it
all, is in
verse 17.
This problem
vexes Asaph
until, he
says,
until I
went to the
sanctuary of
God.
Then I
discerned their
end.
That is the
end of the
wicked.
His breakthrough
comes when he
goes to this
specific place,
the sanctuary,
that place where
God is worshipped
and praised as
the creator and
judge of this
world.
And it is there
in that holy
place where he
encounters God
in a fresh
way.
It is there
that he is
reminded of the
truth.
and his
perspective on
life is
corrected.
And he sees
things as they
really are.
Brothers and
sisters, you
know when we
need to come to
church every
week?
One of the
reasons is
because we
need to have
our eyesight
corrected at
least once a
week.
You know that
thing, I
should have
gone to
Specsavers,
that ad
campaign,
of all the
silly things
that people
do because
they never
went to
Specsavers and
got their
eyesight checked.
Think of
church as
Specsavers.
You go to
see things as
they really
are.
In a world
that screams
at you,
that there's
nothing special
about you,
and that it's
just,
might makes
right.
every Sunday
we gather
together as
God's people,
we open
our Bibles,
and we
hear,
thus saith
the Lord.
That's true
north.
That's 20-20
vision.
That is
wisdom that
will never
let you
down.
That's what
happens to
Asaph here in
verse 19.
Now that he
is inside the
temple looking
out as it
were, he
considers the
wicked again,
and he
draws this
sobering
conclusion in
verses 19
and 20.
How they
are destroyed
in a moment,
swept away
utterly by
terrors,
like a
dream when
one awakes,
O Lord.
You rouse
yourself.
You despise
them as
phantoms.
It would
be a
mistake to
read these
words of
Asaph and
think that
he's
gloating.
As if
he's happy
or in
some twisted
way excited
about the
fact that
God in
a moment
will bring
judgment upon
the wicked.
He's not
doing that.
No,
Asaph's
words here
are words
of somber
realization.
He's not
gloating.
He's
realizing
realizing that
whatever
prosperity the
wicked have
now, in
the end, it
will all
disappear in
a moment
and they
will be
judged by
God
himself.
self.
This is a
sobering
truth.
God is
not indifferent
to the
evil of
this world.
Asaph
remembers the
day is
coming when
God, in
his righteous,
perfectly
appropriate
anger, will
come with
his perfect
justice and
put an end
to the
wicked.
And now
that he
sees that
that's where
wickedness
ends, that
that's the
final destination
of those who
reject God,
now he
sees his
own situation
in a
completely
different light.
He goes,
if you think
back to the
car analogy,
he realizes
the most
important thing
is not how
easy your
journey through
this life
is.
What matters
is what
path you're
on and
where you
end up
in the
end.
Jesus
himself
taught us
in the
Sermon on
the Mount,
there are
only two
paths that
you can
take through
this life.
He says,
the gate
is wide
and the
way is
easy,
that leads
to destruction
and those
who enter
through it
are many.
But the
gate is
narrow and
the way
is hard
that leads
to life.
And those
who find
it are
few.
Fred,
let me
ask you
this
morning,
what path
are you
on?
Are you
on the
narrow and
hard path
of Jesus
that leads
to life?
Or are
you on the
easy,
well-lit,
comfortable,
broad,
freshly
tarmacadam
road that
leads straight
to hell?
Can you
see that
it is
infinitely
better to
plod
painfully
through this
life following
Jesus than
it is to
ignore him
and glide
smoothly to
destruction?
There are
only two
paths in
this life.
Christian,
Jesus told
us this way
is narrow
and hard.
No false
advertising from
Jesus.
He never
said this was
going to be
easy.
It's always
been like
this for
God's
people in
this world.
And just
like Asaph
here, let
us not
lose our
right
perspective
on life.
So whereas
before when
Asaph was
focused on
the here
and now
and sort
of throwing
himself a
bit of a
pity party,
he was
filled with
envy of
the wicked.
Now he
can see all
the way down
to the end
of the road
and he
sees a
fork in
the road
where the
one lane
leads to
eternal joy
and the
other leads
to sudden
judgment.
And now
his old
banger of
a car,
his difficult
life,
seems like
a noble
chariot and
that black
Porsche just
looks like
a hearse.
Friend,
let me ask
you again,
what path
are you
on?
Are you
following
Jesus or
someone or
something else?
Where will
you end up
when your
life's journey
comes to an
end?
And don't
think you
have more
time because
judgment comes
suddenly.
And tomorrow
is promised
to no man
or no woman.
Are you
trusting in
Jesus and
following him?
Have you
come to him
for forgiveness
or eternal
life?
Jesus is
the one
who has
been cast
off from
God for
us.
Jesus is
the one
who has
suffered
in our
place.
And if we
trust in
him,
we will
have eternal
life.
And I
plead with you
this morning,
listen to the
wisdom that
Asaph imparts
to us here.
do not
think because
you have a
prosperous
life now
that that's
a sign that
you're okay
with God
and that
you'll be
prosperous in
eternal life.
We live in a
very wealthy
part of the
world, a
very comfortable,
easy place to
live.
And that is
surely a
blessing from
God, but
it is not a
sign in and
of itself that
you have peace
with God.
The only way to
know you have
peace with God
is through
faith in his
son Jesus
Christ, the
righteous one
who died in
the place of
sinners like
you and
me.
If you turn
to Jesus in
simple faith
this morning,
he will save
you.
He will not
hesitate.
And he will
put you on
that narrow,
difficult path
that leads
to eternal
life.
Jesus says,
follow me.
If you're not
a Christian,
then wisdom
compels you to
turn to Jesus
today before
it's too
late.
For those of
us who are
Christians,
let's let the
wisdom of
this psalm
correct and
calibrate our
perspective on
life.
Ask yourself,
have I lost
the true
perspective on
things?
Are there
times, even
in this past
week, where I
have sinfully
grumbled
about how
hard it is
to follow
Jesus and
how unfair
it is that
others prosper
instead of
me?
It's not
wrong to be
weary.
I'm not
criticizing that,
to be weary in
the Christian
life, but to
grumble out of
unbelief.
in verse 21
to 22, Asaph
looks back on
his own sinful
grumbling and
he is ashamed.
He said,
when my heart
was grieved
and my spirit
embittered, I
was senseless
and ignorant.
I was a
brute towards
you.
In other
words, what
was I
thinking?
Having an
attitude like
that towards
God.
But it
doesn't end
there.
He also sees
that throughout
it all, God
never left
him, even
when he was a
brute.
Thank God
that God
never leaves
us, even
in our worst
moments.
Nevertheless, I
am continually
with you.
You hold my
right hand.
You guide me
with your
counsel and
afterward,
you will
receive me
into glory.
Asaph's new
perspective shifts
his focus from
envying the
wicked to
praising God.
Whom have I
in heaven but
you?
He asks,
and there
is nothing I
desire in
heaven besides
you.
My flesh and
my heart may
fail, but God
is the strength
of my heart and
my portion
forever.
So he's
saying, my
physical health
may give
way, my
heart may
wobble and
fall, but
God is
enough for
me.
Christian, don't
lose your
perspective on
life.
However tough
life is for
you now and
however you
may feel day
to day, fix
your mind
on these
truths that
Christ will
never leave
you nor
forsake you.
He will
strengthen your
heart day
by day by
his spirit and
through his
word and he
will continually
guide you
along that
narrow,
difficult path
and afterwards
it will lead
to glory.
in the end,
the narrow and
hard path of
Jesus leads
to Jesus.
Christian, that's
where you're
going.
So don't
lose your
perspective on
life.
Asaph concludes
in verses 27
to 28 by
distilling his
experience and
the wisdom he
has gained
through his
crisis of
faith.
And I'm
simply going to
end by reading
these words.
For behold,
he says,
look, this is
the wisdom I
want to impart
to you.
Behold, those
who are far
from you
shall perish.
You put an
end to everyone
who is unfaithful
to you.
But for me,
it is good
to be near
God.
I have made
the Lord God
my refuge
that I may
tell of all
your works.
Let's pray.
Father, I
pray that
this
psalm that we
have now
reflected upon
would bear
much fruit
in all of
our lives.
Whether in
someone coming
to trust in
Jesus for the
first time,
or for many
of us to be
renewed in
our trust in
you as we
continue to
follow you
along the
narrow and
hard path
that leads
to life.
Jesus, thank
you that on
the cross you
took away all
of our sins,
all of our
punishment,
and that you
secured all
the grace that
is necessary
to keep us
until we are
with you
face to face
eternally
in the joy
of heaven.
Holy Spirit,
I pray that
you would take
this word and
plan to deepen
our hearts
and our minds
and help us
to keep going
ahead with a
true perspective.
Help us,
Lord, not to
envy the wicked,
but to realize
where that
wickedness ends
and to tell
others about
Jesus that they
may leave the
broad path and
follow Jesus
instead.
We ask all of
this in the name
of Christ,
our Lord,
who is the
head of the
church.
Amen.
We're going
to stand
in response
and sing
in response
to God's
word and sing
in Christ
alone and
afterwards,
Jonathan will
come up
to lead the
Lord's
supper.
Thank you
Thank you.