Part of a continuing series on selected Psalms.
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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
