Focus of the message this morning is from Psalm 73 and before we read that together let me pray. Lord we ask that you would take this word and with your Holy Spirit open this word to our hearts and you'd open our hearts to your word. And may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight. We ask this for the glory of Jesus, amen. If you're able, please, body or spirit, please stand for the reading of the scripture. Truly God is good to Israel, to those 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're 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 tongues strut 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 children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a worrisome 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 are they destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors? Like a dream when one awakes, Lord, when you rouse, 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 toward 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 have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart 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. May the Lord bless to us this his holy word. You may be seated. Oh yes, forgot about that. The grass withers and the flowers fade. The word of God will stand forever. Now you may be seated. It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. I was saying to somebody before, Preaching is like riding a bike, does it come back to you or not? It's like, I had the patterns of the last church I was in, I just forget. So speaking of the last church and some of the other churches I've pastored, I have a phrase that I've taught to the congregations that I really like, and it's this. God is great, God is good all the time. God is great. God is good all the time. I want you to say that with me. God is great. God is good all the time. Now, I like this saying. It's like a little catechism answer question or confession. It's a little summary of faith. It's not scripture, but it's a summary of scripture. And it addresses a lot of the things that we wrestle with as believers or even non-believers wrestle with. We have questions about God. And sometimes the question people have about God is, well, I'm going through such and such issue, but I really don't think God can fix this. I don't think he's able to handle it. The problem's too big, or it's too complicated, or whatever. And so people have that kind of failing of faith. I don't believe that. God is great. He really is great. He is the sovereign God. He's the blessed controller of all things. Nothing in this world moves apart from His hand. Everything happens according to His purposes. And I know that gets complicated along the way, and I won't delve into the details of that, but God is great. But the other place where people have questions about it is, well, is God really good? Does He care about us? I'm going through this terrible trial. It's an emotional thing. It's a spiritual battle. It's a physical battle I'm going through. It's a relational thing I'm going through. This is just a really painful, hard time. And the reason I'm going through this or the reason that there's evil and suffering in the world must be because even if God is able, He really doesn't care. or he's not good, or he wouldn't allow evil to come into the world, or I wouldn't be suffering these things personally, and so we have those kind of doubts. This little phrase puts together the truth of the character of God to help us along the way, that God is great, and God is good, and not only that, he is great and good all the time. There's never a moment that we're not under His sovereign care. And so going through hard times, this little phrase I think has been, has found to be very helpful. God is great. God is good all the time. Now, in Psalm 73, Asaph, who is the author of the Psalm, begins the psalm with the truth that God is good. He says, truly, verse one, God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. He gets the doctrine. He understands the goodness of God, that he's faithful to his promises. He acknowledges, in verse one, that he blesses those who are righteous, who are pure in heart. He pours out his favor on them. unspoken part is that God withholds his favor from those who are wicked, who rebel against God. But he knows God is good. He has right doctrine. And we OPC folks like right doctrine. However, there is a problem because in verse two, then the very next word that comes out of his mouth, but as for me, He's saying, look, I know the right doctrine, but this isn't working so well for me. There is a disconnect from what I believe that God is good and what I'm experiencing in my life. He is struggling with sin and temptation. And the problem is that he's not trusting in the truth that he believes. I have another little saying that defines faith. Faith is truth trusted. And here's where he's wrestling at. We can go astray in one of two ways. Faith is truth trusted. We cannot know the truth, and you see that all around us all the time. There are a lot of people who have abandoned God's word, and they don't believe in what the scripture has to say, and there's all kinds of other religious and personal views, and people have all kinds of views about what they think is right, and it's not, because it's not consistent with scripture, but that's what they believe. It's a falsehood, and they're really trusting in it. They're putting their life savings into it, they're putting their politics into it, they're putting their personal lives in it, their relationships into it, how they make decisions in their life. They're trusting this non-truth. We can go astray in that way, or where you and I as believers tend to go astray is we know the truth. God is good, but we have trouble trusting that God is good. Good. To be able to act on that, to live that out in our lives. And how do you know when that's happened? Well, we know God is good. Where do we see the lack of trust? We see it in our worry. We see it in our fears. We see it when we're grumbling and complaining and second-guessing what's happening in our lives. We see it when we're doubting. We see it when we're jealous and envious of other people. And that's exactly where Aesop is in this psalm. He says in verse three, here's the issue I'm dealing with, verse two, as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. Why? Verse three, for I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. His issue was envy. And we can relate to this because you can look around and you can see people who are Getting rich, and you know they're doing it because they're cheating, stealing, lying, being cruel to people, and they are very wealthy. And when they get wealthy, he says, he compares them, he says, you tend to get arrogant. He's looking around, and he sees this going on all around him, people doing well, being rich, and he's envious of them. And he makes some observations about these people and what happens to people when they're putting their treasure in their wealth and in the things that they have. So verses four through nine is kind of Asaph's portrait of what happens when the godless people prosper. He says, for they have no pangs until death, their bodies are fat and sleek. In other words, they have it easy. in their prosperity. They don't have any, in this life, until they get to death, they don't have anything to worry about. It seems like everything goes smooth for them. There is this kind of funny phrase in the ESV, their bodies are fat and sleek. That doesn't seem to go together, right? Fat and sleek. But what he's saying is they're well-fed, they're not hungry, they're not starving, they're not wondering where their next food is coming from. They're fat and sleek. That kind of means, like, they're firm. They're healthy people. So they have it good is the point of the verse four. They are not in trouble as others are. They're not stricken like the rest of mankind. Like, the reality is, you know, life is hard, right? We go through all these hard things, and we don't have unlimited resources. We have to make difficult decisions about, do we repair this? Do we buy that? Do we live here? Do we go there? Do the kids go to public school? Do they go to Christian school? What, are they homeschooled? What job do I take? We have all these struggles that we go through because we have limited resources. It's just hard all the time, at least it is for most people. But not so with these arrogant people who are rich. And so therefore, in verse six, their pride, or pride is their necklace, violence covers them as a garment. So the result of the prosperity is pride. because prosperity has the propensity to corrupt us and the power to do so when we get focused on the things. People begin to think, well, look how easy it is. This must be because of me. They think they're self-made people. Look how hard I've worked or what I've done or how devious and machievous I've been to get these resources. They think they're self-made. And then when you think that, you think you're better than other people. you start looking down on others who are not as successful or prosperous as you are. And then to keep control of your privileged position, people then tend to move to violence. to enforce them, to control people and the circumstances around them to maintain the prosperity that they have. Verse 7, their eyes swell out through fatness, their hearts overflow with follies. It's kind of what Paul says in John, the lust of the eyes. They begin to want more. You just want more things. And their hearts overflow with follies. You have this freedom with all this wealth, and so they just start doing stupid things. Frivolous things, frivolous entertainment. Money spent on things that have no real redeeming value and often are destructive in their character. They scoff and speak malice. Loftily, they threaten opposition. They become arrogant in pride, and then they become mean-spirited toward other people. And then that violence comes in, like they're bullying, they're threatening the opposition. In verse nine, then, they set their mouths against the heavens and their tongues strut through the earth. Eventually, they end up completely defying God. Now, we all know somebody fits into this category, personally, or you've seen people in public, in the news or media. You've seen people like this. I think this is a, a wonderful description, well maybe not wonderful, an accurate description of what we're dealing with in culture and society today with the global elite. The wealth and prosperity they have, the people who are pushing the global reset and pushing woke ideology on and stuff, they're pushing policies that will be hard on all the rest of us that will not affect them because they have all the money that they need. It will be protected. They don't have to worry about it. Defund the police, but you have thousands and thousands of dollars to have private security. That's why we see this around us all the time. Now, Asaph is wise. He's examining what's going on around him, and he comes to the conclusion that there's at least two different ways that people respond to these prosperous, arrogant people. And the first one is in verses 10 and 11, and it is the easy route. The easy route is to kiss up to these people and to go along with them. He says, therefore, his people turn back to them and find no fault in them. The people say, well, I'm afraid of these people and what they're going to do and the hard time I'm going to get. I don't want to be the object of their wrath. So they refrain from criticizing or challenging these people. And you just want to kind of slip in unnoticed. And so you get the benefits. You can go on without getting a hard time from these folks. And then verse 11, they say, how can God know? They're trying to convince themselves, well, I know what the Bible has to say, but maybe that's not completely right. Maybe it's smarter, I look at the circumstances, it's smarter to go along with these arrogant, rich people and the things that they're doing. And then they ask the question, is their knowledge in the Most High? Which sounds to me a lot like the Garden of Eden, when Satan comes and says, did God really say that? Does God really know what the right way is and what the way of blessing is? So that's one way. People respond. They just kind of kiss up, they go along and kind of go with the flow and become like these arrogant people. And Aesop's summary of that choice in verse 12 is, behold, these are the wicked, always at ease, they increase in riches. At least that's the way it appears. But there's another route that you can go. Instead of going along with the crowd, you can choose, instead of the easy way, the hard way. And he describes that in verses 13 to 16. All in vain, and this is the course that he's chosen, all in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. So Aesop has said, I want to be faithful to God. I don't want to be like these wicked people. I want to be an obedient man. I want to follow the word. That's what he does and what happens to him. What does he get for his faithfulness and obedience? Verse 14, for all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. Not the easy way, this is the hard way. He is stricken and rebuked every morning. Now, if you've been in the same position that Asaph at, you know what this is like. You go to work, and you're trying to be faithful, and you don't join in with the gossip that's at work. You don't join in with the profanity that is spoken in the workplace. You don't slack off on your hours. You keep accurate record. You work hard even though everybody's slacking off and everybody else maybe. And you get twice as much work done as everybody else who's just goofing off on the clock. And people give you a hard time because you're convicting them. Or maybe you experience this at school. You go to school and you don't participate in the swearing, you don't tell the kind of jokes they do, you don't smoke what they're smoking, you don't drink what they're drinking, you don't watch the movies that they're watching. And what do you get? Stricken and rebuked every morning. You're ostracized, made fun of, you're belittled by people, and you're just trying to be faithful. Same thing happens in your family. You're trying to walk in faith and those who don't believe, your non-believing family members give you a hard time. It's happening in the culture all around us. If you try to be faithful, follow the word, you will be criticized and canceled. That's the hard way. That's what Asaph was choosing to follow. Verse 15 said, if I had said I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. He's thinking, well, if I decided to go the other way and speak like the arrogant people, I realize I would have betrayed my children and my grandchildren and those people who are coming after me. Yielding to sin has generational consequences. So parents and grandparents, you know your children are watching you. And what you do and what you say is making an impact on them and you can choose to betray them by, if you choose, the easy way and not being faithful. And Christian, non-Christians are watching. Same thing. Oh, you say you're a Christian? Well, how come you do this? How come you do that? Well, you're just a hypocrite, or I guess it's not really true what you say you believe in. Why should I care about that? People are watching you, and it has a generational impact. In verse 16, Esau says, but when I thought how to understand this, He's trying to process this. He's trying to make sense of it. How do I make sense? How do I find justice? How do I find hope in this? He said, it seemed to me a worrisome task. No matter how much he tried to make sense of it, he could not. It just seemed too hard and fruitless and hopeless. Until, verse 17, until. What do we do as believers when we're going through this kind of struggle and this fight of faith and we know what's the right doctrine is and we're having trouble living that out? What do we do? How do we get out of our despair? How do we find hope to persevere? The answer is turning back to God and his character and his word. So there's a turning point in the Psalm, verse 17. Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I discerned their end. See, before he did that, he was wallowing in his misery and his his envy and his despair. The problem is he had taken his eyes off of God and he was only looking at the circumstances around him. And he was struggling. until he went into the sanctuary of God, he turns back to God, begins to renew a God-word focus, to go where he can hear God's word, know God's word, learn about God's character and the promises of God, and when he does that, he gets a divine perspective. Not just a human perspective, he begins to see things the way God sees things. It's kind of like when you're in a traffic jam. and you're stuck, and the traffic's going nowhere, and you're just sitting there, what's going on? But if you could be in a helicopter, and you fly up above, you'd be able to look down and see the whole mess, everything going on at once, and you'd know what's going on, and why the traffic has stopped, kind of thing. It's a different perspective when you're looking from above. And when we turn back to God, and we go to His Word, we're going, not just with human wisdom and perspective, we get God's perspective, and that changes everything. What did he realize when he did that? Verse 18, truly you set them in slippery places. You make them fall to ruin. How are they destroyed? How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors. Like a dream when one awakes, oh Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. He realized God is great, God is good all the time. He's watching, he knows what's going on. He hasn't lost control of these things. He does care, He's still sovereign, and in His timing, He will work all things together, and He will bring justice. You may not see it when we want to see it, but He will bring justice. That's His promise. Life is not fair. You've got to get that down. You've got to teach that to your kids. Life is not fair. We live in a fallen world, but God is just. He is not going to ignore the wickedness of those who rebel against him. They will fall. They will find judgment at some point, if not when it comes to eternity. Verses 21 and 22, Asaph does a little self-assessment. He realizes when he was struggling in his temptation and he was just looking at people and not thinking about God, he realized something was happening to his heart. He says, When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in my heart, I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast toward you. He was becoming like the wicked he was criticizing. He was kind of like giving up on God, he kind of let his grip go on God, and he was becoming just like those he was criticizing. But then he says, okay, now, if I'm focusing on God, I realize there's a foundation for hope. And that's how he finishes out the psalm, the rest of it. Verse 23, nevertheless, I am continually with you, you hold my right hand. Asaph was unfaithful, But God was faithful. We often times say, well, faith is holding on to God, gotta hold on to God. You know what, we're never gonna be able to do that perfectly, but the good news is, God is holding on to us. We're gonna let go of the grip, it's gonna slip. We need to give ourselves a break sometimes to realize that we're gonna slip and fall and not be so hard on ourselves, because we know what to do, go back to the word, go back to the character and promises of God. Nevertheless, I am continuing with you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel and afterward you will receive me to glory. God is going to be the one who's going to get us back on track. Ultimately, He will fulfill His promises and our salvation. We do not have to worry about or fear about that. Verse 25, Whom have I in heaven but you? There is nothing on earth that I desire beside you. Here's the reality check that Asaph got. The reality check is, where's your treasure? Is your treasure on what's going on? Is it the things here in this world and the possessions and you're comparing yourself to other people? Or is God your treasure? God's saying, am I your treasure? Is Christ our treasure? There's the real hope that we have. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Let me paraphrase that verse. God is great, God is good, all the time. Say it with me. God is great, God is good, all the time. And here's the conclusion. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish. See, God is just. In his time, 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." How do we get out of this despair that we have? We recognize the worry, the doubt, the fears, the envy they have. We're not trusting in the truth of God's Word, that He's great and that He's good all the time. You go back to the word, you go back to scripture, and you remind yourselves of who God is and what his promises are. Don't focus on your circumstance. Focus on the Lord and his word and his truth. Now Asaph found that to be a powerful, healing truth and help for his life. And if he found that in his day, how much more do you and I as Christians on this side of the cross have reason for hope? Because we know, based on the cross, that God is great. He has conquered sin, Satan, and death. We know that He cares because in His love, while we were yet His enemies, He died on the cross to forgive our sins, to take that burden and the wrath away from us, give to us the righteousness of Christ and the gift of eternal life. Nothing can separate us from His hand. That's our hope. That's where we find our treasure, how much more confidence that we have now in this confirmation of God's goodness. The cross confirms this all the more for us. But the reality is, it's still a fight for faith. We can know the truth, but we're not trusting it. So when you find yourself in the worry and the despair and the doubt and the fear and the envy and those things, preach to yourself. Say, Lord, okay, I'm slipping, I'm not trusting this. I need to trust in this Word of God, His character, and His promises. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you do know us, you know our strengths, and you know our weaknesses, you know our failings. We don't understand it, we wish it was different, but your design is that we are not perfect yet, even as believers, and that you know that we're still in the process of being sanctified, that we stumble and fall, and we're so grateful that you've given us the answers and the solution that we need for hope and healing, and to be able to walk in strength and faith through your word and through the and for the gift of your Holy Spirit. Lord, take this word and the example of Asaph this morning in Psalm 73 and let it be a reminder of the reality we see around us and the weakness we see within us and that our hope and our life and our faith is in you. You're the one who holds on to us. You're just, you're good, you're great all the time, Father. Let that be our hope and our strength. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.