Making ‘Psense’ of Psalms—Psalm 73: Perspective

Part of a continuing series on selected Psalms.

Side by side: article about oppressive poverty,
and ads for homes costing millions

The contrast between the “have’s” and the “have-nots” was sharply drawn in the real estate ad adjacent to a recent Seattle Times newspaper article about impoverished garment workers in Bangladesh.  The article told about a destitute woman who lived in a shed the size of a parking space, and who once earned less than $100 a month for sewing up to 12 hours a day. She could no longer work, injured in a 2012 fire that killed more than a hundred co-workers. A year and a half later, another fire took more than 1,100 lives when a garment factory collapsed. Next to that article: eleven descriptions of luxury residences in western Washington, listed for sale from $3.1 million to $18.6 million. One ran like this: “Treasured western panorama. Glass walls to view, great gallery heights. 9,790 square feet. Contemporary! Superb dock. $10,885,000.” For half that price you could get: “Villa shining: European coastal autograph, endless breathtaking ‘scapes. Aperitifs on the loggia; whispers of Sausalito on the shores; recreating the spontaneity of romance. Deep water dock; seaplane adaptable.” 

Similar disparities bothered Asaph, a significant worship leader in King David’s time, giving us Psalm 73. He wrestled with the age-old question of why the ungodly can be healthy and wealthy, while good people suffer. Could he honestly lead praise to God when he was questioning God’s ways? His spiritual search still speaks to us.

UPWARD LOOK (v. 1)
Verse 1 is like a microphone check as Asaph looks upward to Heaven: “Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.” By “pure in heart” he meant people who are committed to God, as opposed to the “unfaithful” of verse 27. Asaph really wanted to believe that God honors those who follow Him. He grew up taught the covenant God gave Moses, that He would prosper those who honored Him. But as Asaph looked at real life, he had some problems and questions, reminiscent of the Bible’s Job.

THE OUTWARD LOOK (vv. 2-12)
As Asaph looked around, he saw the wealthy getting along quite well without God.  They seemed immune to disease and disaster. They were arrogant, big talkers, even conceited. Their popularity meant people turned to them as examples of how to live (v. 10). For me, that sounds like today’s pop magazines’ polls for “athlete of the year,” “most beautiful,” or “sexiest man alive.” It’s like our awards shows of the entertainment industry, focusing on glitz and glamour, not goodness and morality. Asaph saw people who felt they didn’t need God (v. 11), “free of care” as they went on “amassing wealth” (v. 12).

AN INWARD LOOK (vv. 13-16)
Asaph looked inward and wondered if his efforts to live in purity were really worth it. He knew he needed to be a spiritual leader in his family (v. 15), yet the whole scenario was getting more oppressive for him. Then he had an “aha’ moment: “I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.”

Remember that Asaph’s job made the sanctuary his second home. Like people who’ve grown up in the church, faith can get “old hat” when the world presents us with what seems like a better alternative. But something happened as Asaph wrestled with his questions. Was it the awareness that all this worship system was ordained by the God who had miraculously rescued a whole nation from oppressive slavery? Was it the stark reality of a blood sacrifice for sins? Was it stories of the “glory” over the ark of the covenant, hidden behind a thick curtain? Was it truly engaging in worship, even as he led it? Was it a heightened God-consciousness and rediscovery that God cannot be put in a box? Whatever it was, he found the answer to his question.

A GOD-WARD LOOK (vv. 18-20)
Instead of seeing the ungodly as folks who get all the breaks in life, he saw them as God sees them: living on slippery ground. What they experienced now wouldn’t matter in eternity, when all their riches and influence would be as trash without faith in the God who created them. Note that God does allow some godly people to have wealth and influence, usually because He sees they are good stewards for kingdom work. But we’re not to set our hearts on riches or influence.

THE REPENTANT LOOK (vv. 21-22)
Asaph realizes his spiritual doubts were wrong.  They caused his heart and spirit to go awry, and he was like a “brute beast” before God when he went down the path of thinking God was unjust.  The book of Job tells how Job came to a similar conclusion as he wrestled with pain and loss. He finally confessed that God’s ways were beyond his understanding, but God was still righteous and good.

Magnificent skies, like this in eastern Washington,
remind me to look UP, to God's higher purposes.

THE UPWARD LOOK (vv. 23-26)
The heart of Psalm 73 rests in this section. The respected Bible teacher James Montgomery Boice called this “the very apogee of his [Asaph’s] testimony… filled with some of the finest expressions of true spirituality in all the Bible.  They deserve to be memorized by every true Christian.” (1) The vibrancy of this passage struck me one spring morning nearly forty years ago, when I was studying at a Bible college. I’d gone to see a friend who lived in a house with several other women, including one whose fiance had just retracted his marriage proposal. How I ached for this lovely, broken young woman. Coming in their house, I noticed her in a rocker at the top of the stairs, reading her Bible. After I expressed my sadness for her heartbreak, she held up her Bible and said, “God has comforted me with this.”  She then quoted Psalm 73:25: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

CONCLUSION—THE CORRECTED OUTLOOK (vv. 27-28)
Asaph comes back to the truth that a judgment day will come. Those who don’t follow God--no matter how wealthy, accomplished or popular they were—“will perish.” Some of the greatest Christian leaders have struggled like Asaph, including Billy Graham. As a young, rising preacher, he went through some doubts about the faith. Shortly before a crusade in Los Angeles, he went to Forest Home, a camp in the mountains above Los Angeles. There he met with Henrietta Mears, the director of Christian education at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. She encouraged him to go out in the woods alone to listen to God.  There in the forests, Graham resolved his doubts about the faith. He went down into Los Angeles for widely-attended evangelistic meetings that led to his future role as evangelist to the world. His spiritual turning point resonates with the conclusion of Psalm 73:
But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.”

Psalm 73 reminds us that God is completely adequate for anything we face in life. Whether we are lonely, despaired, frustrated, disappointed, or sorrowful, He is able to supply all our needs. The rich and the famous are that only for a season. “Heaven and earth will pass away,” Jesus said, “but my words will never pass away” (Matt. 24:35).

Another who lived in material poverty but spiritual riches was David Brainerd, a missionary to native Americans in Delaware in the early 1700s. He died young, at 29, from the intensity and deprivations of his mission work. But words in his diary still speak, like that written in April 1742, when he was only 24: “Retired early for secret devotions, and in prayer God poured such ineffable comforts into my soul, that I could do nothing for some time but say over and over, ‘O my Saviour! O my Saviour! Whom have I but Three? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.”
 
(1) James Montgomery Boice, Psalms, Volume 2 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), p. 614.
(2) Oswald J. Smith Litt.D., compiler/editor, David Brainerd: His Message for Today (London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott Ltd., 1949), p. 32.

Next: Psalm 84