William Shakespeare once called envy the green sickness. Francis Bacon said of envy that it was so persistent and tenacious and relentless that it took no holidays, never took time off. And a well-known English poet of yesteryear once described the devilish nature of envy as, and I quote, a coat that comes hissing hot from hell. See, envy is such an integral part of the human experience. It's just so common to all of us that there is no end to the many things that have been said and written about envy. Because, you know what? Everybody's been infected by it. Everybody. It's a terrible green sickness to have. Who hasn't envied and resented what others have and resented others for what they have and we don't? More money. fame, health, better looks, good job, a better home, nicer clothes, newer things, and on and on it goes. It's envy. In fact, envy is such a pervasive sin that it can even wiggle its way into the closest of human relationships, which is marriage. I recently read about the very successful playwright Samuel Beckett, whose plays and novels won him great acclaim in the mid-1900s. But Beckett's wife, Suzanne, who was a very accomplished pianist herself, was quite envious of her husband's fame. The story is told that when a telegram arrived from a friend one day, Suzanne opened it, she read it, she turned pale, and she said, this is a catastrophe. What does it say? asked her husband. It says that you've just won the Nobel Prize for Literature. That is envy. Listen, envy can destroy relationships, it can turn very good things into catastrophes, at least in the eyes of people, and it can turn us all into very petty, trivial people. But with all that's been written about envy, all that's been said about envy over the years, it's very interesting that there's very little that's been written or said about how to address it, about how to overcome it, about how to dodge this vice that is so determined to grip us that it knows no holidays. There's a very simple reason why very little has been said or written about envy from the standpoint of overcoming it is because most people, even most Christians, don't know how to overcome it. They don't know how to deal with envy. They don't know how to have victory over envy. And they don't know how to deal with it. Why? Because they are not familiar with Psalm 73, which is the focus of our study this morning. See, it's in this psalm, Psalm 73, where we get the most extensive teaching in all the Word of God about how believers are to work through this issue of being envious and jealous of others, especially the success of unbelievers. Let me read to you right now the whole psalm. It's a psalm that says of Asaph, Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped, For I was envious of the arrogance, as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death, and their body is fat. They're not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore, pride is their necklace. The garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulges from fatness. The imaginations of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression. They speak from on high. They have set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue parades through the earth. therefore his people return to this place and waters of abundance are drunk by them they say how does God know and is their knowledge with the most high behold these are the wicked and always at ease they have increased in wealth surely in vain I've kept my heart pure and wash my hands in innocence for I've been stricken all day long and chastened every morning if I had said I will speak thus behold I would have betrayed the generation of your children when I pondered to understand this it was troublesome in my sight until I came into the sanctuary of God then I perceived their end surely you set them in slippery places you cast them down to destruction how they are destroyed in a moment they are utterly swept away by sudden terrors like a dream when one awakens oh Lord when aroused you will despise their form When my heart was embittered and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant. I was like a beast before you. Nevertheless, I am constantly with you. You've taken hold of my right hand. With your counsel, you'll guide me and afterward receive me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And besides you, I desire nothing on earth. 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 will perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good. I've made the Lord my refuge, that I may tell of all your works." Now, as you can see from just this very cursory reading of Psalm 73, it reveals the struggle of a man A man that the heading above it, if you look at it, the heading above it identifies him as a man named Asaph. Now, I realize it may be unnecessary to say this, but at the risk of sounding silly, I'm going to say it anyway. I want you to know that Asaph is not to be confused with the similar sounding name of Aesop. with a P. Aesop was an ancient storyteller credited with being the author of many children's fables. That's not this man. This man is Aesop. He didn't write fables, he wrote truth. He was a man of truth, God's truth. Who was he? Well, according to 1 Chronicles 15 and 16, Asaph was a Jewish man from the tribe of Levi. And he lived during the time of King David. He was a contemporary of David's. And he actually was appointed by David to be one of the chief musicians in charge of Israel's worship. Eventually, he fathered an entire line of musicians who ministered in the temple in Jerusalem. Meaning his descendants, his physical descendants, many of them became musicians and they worked in the temple. But Aesop was more than a gifted musician. He actually wrote a number of God-inspired Psalms. He's the author of Psalm 50. He's the author of Psalm 73 through 83, with the most well-known of them being 73, our study this morning. And the reason Psalm 73 is so well-known is because, as I've already mentioned, it deals with the issue that every single one of us can relate to, that all of us at one time or another have struggled with and that is the sin of envy, jealousy, resenting others. Now, understand this, Asaph's envy is not the typical kind of greedy covetousness that abounds in our world. I want what you have, I'm covetous about that. It's not exactly like that. You see, his envy involves a view of God that because he, Asaph, was a believer, he felt that God should reward him with a very good and very comfortable life, and that likewise the wicked, because of their wickedness, should be punished with trouble. But as Asaph looked around, he saw just the opposite taking place in his world. From his perspective, he saw those who were very wicked, not just unbelievers, but very wicked people, he saw them prospering. He saw them being successful. he saw them getting whatever they wanted but he is a believer who is trying to live a righteous life he had all kinds of troubles and he didn't see this in the wicked and what it did it led him to being envious of the wicked but it also led him to having some serious doubts about God's goodness and God's justice Here's the way one Bible teacher explained what was really bugging Asaph and how his struggle not only forms the background of Psalm 73, but it also tells us how relevant this Psalm really is. He writes this, what he saw, meaning what Asaph saw, and what bothered him so much was that the wicked seemed to do very well in this world, much better than the godly. This is not what we should expect in a moral universe directed by a sovereign God. If God is in control of things, the plans of the wicked should flounder. They should even be punished openly. The godly alone should prosper. But that's not what Aesop saw. And it's not what we see either. We see scoundrels getting rich. Utterly degenerate persons, like particularly vile rock musicians or movie stars, are well paid and sought after. Even criminals. get rich selling their crime stories now that's really that kind of stuff is what was bothering Asaph he saw the wicked of his day doing well and he wasn't doing well that's his problem and he became envious of what they had and he didn't have but it's important to understand that his his envy really grew and was rooted out of the problem he had with God this is a spiritual problem In essence, Aesop's real problem was that he thought God was wrong in the way that he was treating rebellious, unsaved people, and wrong in the way that he was treating him, a man of virtue, who desired to obey God. But listen very closely because here's the glory, the importance, the significance of Psalm 73 and the reason why it's so relevant for us to study and understand. See, unlike secular writers who can only describe, only speak of envy and bemoan it as a fact of life, they do nothing more. They have absolutely no answers for us. They just state it as a fact. There's no way they know how to deal with this. But that's not true of Asaph. That's not true of God who inspired Asaph. Asaph gives us a solution to the sin of envy. He gives us a solution connected to that, to troubling theological doubts we have concerning God's goodness. And he does it by telling us from his own experience, his own journey, his own odyssey, of how he came to have a complete turnaround in his thinking that's what this psalm is about and that's significant because Esau's struggle was so intense it was so serious this is not a minor issue this is major so major that it shook him to the point that he almost abandoned his faith almost walked away and said I give up all these things I believed about God I just chuck it away I'm walking away notice what he tells us about the severity of his struggle the crisis that he was in first he tells us how close he came to just turning his back on the Lord and walking away notice verse 2 but as for me my feet came close to stumbling my steps had almost slipped what he's telling us is that he almost fell in his spiritual life, meaning that he came very close to forsaking the Lord, just walking away, saying I've had it. And the reason for such a close call with his faith was that from his perspective, as I said, the wicked were living prosperous, successful lives. Verses 3 through 5 tell us this. For I, meaning for, let me explain why I almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogance as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death, their body is fat, they're not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Now what he's describing is how he perceived the evil people of his day. He saw them living basically carefree lives, without the burdens that are common to others. He says they died relatively painless deaths. They enjoyed fairly good health. And they didn't suffer all the troubles that other people normally go through. Now, in addition, it seemed to him that the wicked were able to do whatever they wanted to do without any consequences for their actions, no restraints. Notice verse 11. They say, and I take it that he means here in context, the people who follow them say this, but this is also their thoughts as well. How does God know? Is there knowledge with the Most High? They felt as if God didn't even see their sin. Why? Because they were never punished for anything. They got away with whatever they wanted to do. In fact, far from being punished, these people actually prospered. Verse 12, Behold, these are the wicked, Asaph says, and always at ease. They have increased in wealth. He's saying that their lives were very comfortable because they were wealthy, they could afford all the luxuries of life at that time. now this is what is bothering the man this is his crisis of faith because while the wicked were prospering he wasn't he's a believer in the Lord but he's filled with all kinds of troubles notice what he tells us in verses 13 and 14 surely in vain I've kept my heart pure and wash my hands in innocence, for I've been stricken all day long and chastened every morning." See, this is Aesop's real problem. He's a believer. He's trying to honor the Lord. He's trying to keep his heart pure. He's trying to obey God. He's trying to stay out of trouble. But unlike these godly people who seem to be prospering, he's experiencing all kinds of woes. All kinds of problems. So much so, that it actually felt to him as if God is punishing him all day. It left him wondering, what's the point of trying to be godly? Of trying to live a life of virtue? What good does it do me to remain pure and obedient when all I get from my efforts are trouble and pain? That's what he's dealing with. That's what's going on in his heart. That's why he's almost walked away from it all. Now listen closely. Asaph is one of the most transparent, honest, and genuine men you will ever meet on the pages of scripture. And we can be very thankful for that. Why? Because What he is describing about himself is what we have all felt at times in our lives, doubts as to whether God is really good, as to whether God is really just, as to whether God is really wise and knows what he's doing. Who among us hasn't had his faith about God's goodness challenged? Who hasn't had honest doubts about God? When we've been forced to face some crisis in our lives, perhaps the death of a child, How could you do that, God? Financial ruin, the loss of a marriage, some other devastating event. These are the kinds of experiences that leave us wondering how God can be good when he lets these types of devastations happen to us, his children. While unbelievers, who we know to be wicked and arrogant, men and women who couldn't care less about God, they seem to be doing just fine. Trouble doesn't touch them like us. Well, that's what Aesop is thinking. That's what's going on in his mind. If God is good, as his word says he is, and he rewards obedience and punishes wickedness, then why do I see so many wicked people flourishing while I'm suffering so much? Where is God's justice? Why do these evil men get away with so many things and seem to be exempt from the troubles that are so common to everybody else? Folks, that's Asaph. In essence, what Asaph is wondering is this, is it really pay to be a believer? Is it really pay to be a follower of the Lord? In other words, if God seems to bless the wicked, he punishes him, then why should I continue following the Lord? What good does it do me? Folks, it's this very thought of Asaph that makes this psalm so important, so significant, so relevant to us, because it exposes a basic sin that we all fall into at times, being unhappy with the way God is treating us. If you're honest, you'd have to say, yeah. that's many a times questioning why other people especially unbelievers seem to be doing so much better than we are wondering where God's goodness is when life is so hard for us that's exactly what Aesop's thinking but it was wrong and it was unbiblical that's why he wrote this psalm Why is this psalm here? He's not just getting this off his chest. He wrote in order to teach us how to think properly. He wrote it to teach us how to think biblically so that we don't come as close as he did to walking away from the Lord and abandoning it all. That's why he wrote this, to teach us. You see, in Psalm 73, Aesop doesn't simply tell us of his theological dilemma and his personal envy, he tells us how he came through this crisis of faith by taking us on this journey with him so that we can learn how his thinking was changed as he moved from erroneous thinking about God, unbelievers, and believers, to correct thinking about all of them. And the way he does this is he divides the psalm into three basic sections. He first tells us about his flawed thinking. And he does it by honestly revealing his troubling thoughts. A very humble man, a very sincere man, a very transparent, honest man. His flawed thinking. Second, he tells us how his flawed thinking was corrected concerning unbelievers. So that he came to have just this brand new perspective on the unsaved. And third, he finishes the psalm by telling us his new and correct thinking about how God treats believers. That's how the psalm unfolds. So we begin our study this morning, and we'll only go so far, but we'll begin our study of this magnificent psalm where Asaph begins it by telling us about, number one, his flawed thinking. He starts off by saying, surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. Now, he begins by making this very strong, notice it's a strong declaration about God, he declares that God is good to Israel, to those in Israel who have a pure heart. He means that God is good to those in Israel who are believers, who are faithful to him, who are devoted to him. we would say God is good to his children. That's in essence what he's saying. God is good to those who have trusted Christ as their Savior and become children of God. That's the spirit of this verse. Now, listen to this because what is so fascinating about this statement is that this man wasn't always convinced of what he's just written. That's the very thing that was bothering him. Is God really good? As he looked around, I told you, he saw very little evidence of God's goodness to his people. Great deal of evidence of God being good to the wicked. He didn't always believe God was good to Israel. So, what this means then is that Aesop, brilliantly, is beginning this psalm on a note of his conclusion. It starts off by his conclusion. His conclusion that he finally came to after all of his struggling, In other words, after struggling with all of these doubts concerning the way God was treating him, he at last had come to the settled conviction that he had been wrong in his thinking about God. Far from thinking that he had been mistreated by God, he now sees that God was actually good to him. And he's good to all of his children, all in Israel who have a pure heart towards him. Now, this was his conclusion, this is his proposition. This is where he starts with the conclusion. It's his proposition he's setting forth in the psalm that God is good to his people. And what he wants us to do now that he's made this proposition is take us on, as I told you, this little journey with him so that we can see how he arrived at his conclusion after his thinking had been so flawed and erroneous prior to this. So beginning with verse 2 and actually going all the way to verse 15, Asaph tells us about how he used to look at God, how he used to look at the wicked, and how what he saw shook his faith so deeply that he nearly fell away from the Lord. Verses 2 and 3 again. But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped, for I was envious of the arrogance as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Now we've already noted this, but let me just reiterate. He's telling us that he wasn't always confident in God being good. It's not where his thinking was. In fact, his doubt of God's goodness almost caused him to abandon his faith in the Lord altogether. He tells us that his feet came close to stumbling, that his steps had almost slipped. That's simply a way of telling us that he just came very close to falling away from the Lord. Very close to falling, walking away, saying that's it. And the reason, as we said, for such spiritual shakiness is because he was envious of the prosperity of the wicked. It was their prosperity that caused him to doubt God's goodness and almost caused him to walk away from the Lord. Now before we look at Aesop's perception of the wicked, I want to just stop here for a moment and I want to point out to you something that I think will help you greatly when you are tempted to have doubts about God. I want you to notice what Aesop tells us about himself. He tells us in verse 3 that he was envious of the arrogant when he saw their prosperity now folks that is a very significant thing that he tells us about himself because it indicates that what he's about to tell us concerning the prosperity of the wicked is going to be, note this, it's going to be exaggerated it's going to be a distortion of reality You see, envy is a sin. It's in the same camp of coveting, jealousy, wanting what others have, not being content and satisfied with what God gives you. And once you fall under the power of envy, you also fall under the power of self-pity. You feel sorry for yourself. You're a victim. You think that you're just getting a bad shake in life and along with that you begin to be resentful of others. Now Esau is a classic case of envy and self-pity. And you can see this in the way he describes the prosperity of the wicked. Notice what he says about them because you know what, he gets some things right but not everything. He doesn't have it all right because his envy has blinded him to the whole truth. so that his perspective, it's distorted and only partially right, which means it's partially wrong. Notice what he says about the prosperity of the wicked. Verses 4 through 12, and we don't really need to belabor the point here, we don't need to go into a whole lot of depth of explaining it. But let me just read it to you. He says, there are no pains in their death. Their body is fat. They're not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore, pride is their necklace. The garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulges from fatness. The imaginations of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression. They speak from on high. They've set their mouth against the heavens. Their tongue parades through the earth. Therefore, as people return to this place and waters of abundance are drunk by them, They say, how does God know? Is their knowledge with the Most High? Behold, these are the wicked. They're always at ease. They have increased in wealth. Now, it would appear that his description of their arrogance that he starts off with or at least when he says in verse 6, he speaks of their arrogance starting in verse 6, that he's very accurate about that. He's got it right because that's what the rest of scripture affirms about the unsaved. What he's saying is in line with what the rest of the Bible says. He says that they are extremely proud and they show their pride by wearing it like a woman wears a necklace for all to see. That is to say they don't hide their pride, they display it. They put it on display in the way that they speak, and mock the righteous in the way that they blaspheme God instead of their arrogance being a turn-off to others Aesop tells us in verses 10 and 11 that their boastful talk actually makes them popular with other people so that many as many individuals drink up the waters of their conceited talk that flows from their mouths in other words Others are soaking up all that their foolish big talk conveys. They're hearing from the arrogant rebels and they're soaking it up. And they justify, people who soak this up and hang on their every word, they justify following the nonsense coming from these wicked people by arguing that if these boasters were doing something wrong, if they were, then why, if God even sees any of this, doesn't He punish them? can't be doing anything wrong look at their prosperity now as I said Esau seems to be absolutely correct in his description of the pride of these wicked people because this is what the rest of scripture teaches about them ungodly people are characterized by oppressing the righteous, and boasting, and blaspheming God, to them nothing is sacred. And you know that, you know people like this. Arrogant words also draw many followers, who just as I said, they hang on their every word, the words that just drop from their lips, because these people appear to be confident, and successful, and effective in life. These are the successful businessmen and businesswomen, the wealthy tycoons, the assertive and productive leaders in society. However, when we look at Aesop's description, not of their boastfulness, which I think he got right, but of how good that they have it in life, which is really what's bothering him. We see outright errors in his thinking, outright misconceptions. Notice once again what he says about them, verses 4 and 5. There are no pains in their death, and their body is fat. They're not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Now think about this for a moment. How Aesop is describing these people is just a distortion. It's not true. He doesn't have reality. Correct. Because in his mind, these people have absolutely no problems at all. Folks, that's not true. He says they die painless deaths. Nobody dies a painless death. They don't suffer from illness like other people do. Yes, they do. Nor do they have the typical adversities that everybody else has. That's not true. They do. Listen, folks, nobody has it this good. Nobody. Everybody, unsaved and saved alike, have the routine troubles of life. No one is exempt from a life without suffering. But that's how Asaph sees it. He sees these extremely wicked people as having everything, even dying, and it's a pleasure. His envy has blinded him to reality so that all he can see is how good he thinks they have it. And he's just wrong. He's wrong, and I think this is a great warning to us that while it's okay to have honest doubts about God, it's not okay to be stubbornly in unbelief towards Him, but it's okay to have honest doubts and to think, to wrestle with theological truths, like the prosperity of ungodly people, but it's not okay to let our doubts lead us to a place of envying others, because envy will only lead to more and more sin, which leads to foolish thinking, which leads then to faulty conclusions. People who are envious, people who are jealous of others, are not thinking straight. They're not thinking clearly. Scripture specifically warns us against envying wicked people. Psalm 37.1 says, do not fret because of evil doers, be not envious toward wrongdoers. Proverbs 23.17, do not let your heart envy sinners. It's easy to see the wisdom in all this by the many problems that the Bible tells us have been caused by the sin of envy. Let me remind you of a few. For example, it's because of envy that Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery. Why? Well, their father Jacob foolishly favored Joseph over his other sons, but these brothers wrongly concluded that just getting rid of Joseph would solve their sin of resentment. And perhaps their thinking, perhaps their thinking was, well now father's gonna love us more. They were wrong, it didn't work like that. It was Saul's envy of David's popularity with the people of Israel that led him, it led Saul to mistakenly conclude that David wanted to take his kingdom from him. He tried to murder David. It was all about envy and jealousy. In the New Testament we read in the book of Acts on a couple of occasions persecution of Christians occurred because of the envy and the jealousy on the part of the unsaved Jewish community. Why? Because the apostles were drawing larger crowds than they were in their synagogues. So what did they go to do? They went to kill them. Listen, envy never leads to anything good. In Aesop's case, it led to an exaggerated perception of how good the unsaved people around him had it. And that, in turn, just clouded his thinking about God and God's goodness. Listen, we know this is the case. This is not speculation. We know this is the case and I'll show you why. Because later in this psalm, when Esau comes to his senses and his thinking is correct, he tells us about his poor thinking prior to this. Notice verses 21 and 22. When my heart was embittered, it's not embittered now, But when my heart was embittered and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant. I was like a beast before you." Here he tells us that his heart had been bitter and his thinking was senseless, ignorant, like a dumb animal, he says, with no understanding. In fact, Aesop's thinking was so distorted and his faith in God was so shaky that he makes this really foolish conclusion about his own pursuit of godly living verses 13 and 14 surely in vain I've kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence for I've been stricken all day long and chastened every morning now listen what Aesop is saying is that all that he was doing in his efforts to be godly and live a life of purity and live a life of obedience to the Lord he's saying, you know what, it's a waste of time it's a waste of time because it doesn't pay since all day long I'm suffering so much so it feels as if God is punishing me so what he's saying in essence is, what good does it do me? How do I benefit in following God when all I get from Him is suffering and pain? It just doesn't pay to be righteous. What kind of suffering Aesop was referring to? He doesn't tell us. Maybe it was physical. Maybe it was financial. Maybe it had something to do with his family. But whatever was going on in his life, his conclusion was that obedience to God did not pay. Because all he got for his efforts were bad circumstances. Now, have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt that obeying God wasn't worth it? that living a moral life and trying to honor Jesus Christ is just a waste of time because God only rewards you with adversity, suffering. If that's what you have thought, then you are as wrong as Aesop for two reasons. Reason number one, because God's word never promises that believers are going to live a life free from adversity. Jesus said, in the world you will have trouble. That's a fact. In the world you have trouble. And we do. We have all the problems that non-Christians have. Physical problems, sickness, disease, difficult circumstances, the pain of losing someone to death, people conflicts, misunderstandings, on and on we can go. Everybody has that. Believers and unbelievers alike. But on top of all of these troubles, Christians have more. We have troubles that the unsaved know nothing about. Troubles, for example, of satanic oppression, temptations, persecutions, battles with the world, battles with our own flesh. So, it's absolutely wrong to think that once you become a believer in Christ, you'll be free from all adversity. God promises you a life free of trouble. That's just not true. Secondly, though, Aesop was wrong because he reduced his obedience to God to getting something from God. In other words, his motivation for obeying and serving the Lord was to get something out of God, as if God owed him a life free of trouble, a life free of pain, because he was so virtuous. Listen, that's absolutely wrong. We don't obey God because of what we can get out of Him, then why do we obey Him? Because He's worthy of our obedience. That's why. He's worthy of our obedience. He's worthy of our worship. He's worthy of our adoration. He's worthy of our service. Worthy is the Lamb to receive all glory and power and honor. It's not about us getting something from Him. We are to honor the Lord regardless of what adversity He brings into our lives. Aesop's erroneous thinking was precisely the argument that Satan used in the book of Job. He used it against Job. He urged God to let him, the devil, attack Job. He told the Lord that the only reason Job followed him was because he took such good care of him. But listen, he said, but let me at him God. If Job's possessions are destroyed, and then later he said if his health is gone he's gonna stop fearing you in fact he'll curse you to your face stop blessing him and he'll walk away from you and really that's the whole point of the the book of Job to show that this is not the case that God's children don't follow the Lord because he gives them things and blesses them with possessions and good health they follow him because he is worthy to be followed even when he takes those things away. Listen, consider the Apostle Paul's life. Has anybody, any Christian ever suffered like Paul did? Yet he never walked away from God. In fact, the passion of his life was ending well. He wanted to finish his course and well. In his letter to the Corinthians, his second letter, Paul sadly was forced to defend himself as an apostle. He even reluctantly boasts about his apostleship, because he's forced to do it. There were false teachers who were trying to sway the Corinthians to follow them. They claim to be true apostles. They said Paul was a fake, a phony apostle. So part of Paul's defense is to explain his suffering. It authenticated His ministry, it gave him genuineness. Listen to Paul's suffering. Some of the things. 2 Corinthians 11 starting at verse 22. He said, Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I speak as if insane. I'm more so. in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, this is what Paul went through, beaten times without number, often in danger of death, five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a day and a night I've spent in the deep, I've been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren. I've been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there's the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who's weak without my being weak? Who's led into sin without my intense concern? Listen, nobody suffered like Paul. Persecution, false teachers. criticisms from not only unbelievers but from Christians, hunger, sleep deprivation, hatred by the unsaved and on and on it goes and finally what happens at the end of his life? He's executed at the hands of the Roman government and yet Paul did not stop serving the Lord Paul didn't say like Aesop did, doesn't pay to serve you. Why should I do that? You know how Paul ended? His last letter is 2nd Timothy. Here's what he said to Timothy, 2nd Timothy 4, 6 through 8. I'm already being poured out as a drink offering. Time of my departure has come. I fought the good fight. I finished the course. I've kept the faith. In the future, and notice that, in the future, has laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing now Paul understood that his reward was awaiting him it wasn't on earth God didn't promise him a great life in this world he did promise him a crown of righteousness not on earth but in heaven it would be rewarded to him on that day frankly his life on earth had been horrible physically, harm, very difficult. Yet Paul never felt like God had mistreated him or his pursuit of obedience was a waste of time. His afflictions never made him consider walking away from the Lord. But that was exactly what Aesop was thinking and he was so wrong. However, to the man's credit, Aesop's credit, He kept these thoughts to himself. While he was going through it, he kept it to himself. He never shared them with anyone while he was going through this crisis. And he tells us why in verse 15. If I had said, I'll speak thus, behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. Aesop knows that if he verbalized these thoughts, if he expressed his thinking to others in Israel, he would have damaged their faith. Listen, he's a leader. People look up to him. He would have been a stumbling block to others. He was a spiritual leader in the nation. If he as a leader had told them that he was doubting God, and he had these feelings of bitterness, and feelings of being mistreated by the Lord, and he had been thinking about just walking away from his faith, do you realize what that would have done to the people who look to him as an example? So he very wisely kept these thoughts to himself. They say, but he's sharing it here. Yeah, but this is after he comes through this crisis and he's going to tell us why. It doesn't mean at this point that he's resolved anything in his mind. He's still struggling with his doubts, his doubts about God, his envy of the wicked. But these struggles would continue until something very special happened to him that completely changed his thinking and brought him back to full confidence in God. What was it that happened? Well, you're gonna have to come back next time we study Psalm 73 to find out. But what have you learned today? What do you take away from today? You've learned that believers are not immune to being envious of others. And that to fall into the sin of envy is to lose a sense of reality, see yourself as a victim, to distort things. It's a distortion of what's true, an exaggeration of the way things really are. You've also learned that you aren't to obey God for what you get out of Him. You obey Him because He's worthy of your obedience. You serve Him because He's worthy of your service. You worship Him because He's worthy of your worship. You've also been reminded that believers suffer regardless of how spiritual they are, regardless of how mature they are, and that suffering is no reason to doubt God's goodness. God is good. He's good. And we need to trust Him. We need to trust Him that in His wisdom, God knows what is best for you. He makes no mistakes. If He brings suffering into your life, He brings it for a reason. All things work together for good to those who know the Lord. Therefore we trust him regardless of how much adversity we go through now if you don't know Christ is your Savior and You first need to be aware of the fact that God is good. God is good. It's so good that he sent his son to die for sinners just like you and in his goodness and in his compassion he invites you to to come to him to repent of your sin turn away from you being the center of your life turn to him and trust him to be your savior believe that his death on the cross was for you trust him in doing so he not only will forgive your sin He will declare you righteous in His sight, and you will begin to enter into a fellowship and a relationship with the most wonderful person in the universe. I urge you to do that. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this magnificent psalm. It has helped so many people in years past. I pray it'll help us as well. Lord, I pray for any here who are struggling right now with envy. I pray that this will be a wake-up call to them, that they'll just stop it. and they'll recognize that it's sinful, it's wrong, and it leads to a distortion of reality. Thinking things that are just not true, even though there might be some truth, it's never the whole truth. I pray that you'll deliver them from a sense of feeling like they're victims, that everybody else has it better than they do, and feeling sorry for themselves. Lord, turn their eyes from themselves, from other people, to you. And Lord, I pray that you'll help us. May this be a great reminder to all who know you, to serve you and love you, not for what we get out of you, but for who you are. It's the greatest privilege in life to even know you. Lord, for those who are going through some deep suffering now, may your word encourage them that you are good, even when they can't see your goodness. Help them to trust you. And I pray for those who don't know you, Lord. I pray that they'll be convicted of their sin, convicted of their need to turn from their sin and trust Christ. Only you can open their hearts to the gospel. I pray they might understand and see what the cross is about, and that you would transform their hearts, Lord. Bring regeneration as you draw them to yourself. We pray this all in Jesus' name, amen.