Afterimage. There's all sorts of things out there. Workout machines. Any part of your body that's a little bit flabby or in need of toning, there is a machine out there built just for it. And they've got pictures. Have you bought into those, Michael? And they've got before pictures and after pictures just to prove to you how effective their machines are. They've got photos of that. If you're a guy and you're losing hair, they've got a product out there for you and they've got some pictures of the before and after. If you're a woman and want to lose some hair, they've got products out there and they've got before and after pictures. They've got everything. If there's creams that can clear up your skin, melt away your cellulite, whiten your teeth, straighten your teeth, change your hair color, all with photos that prove beyond doubt. That they work. I even saw one just recently for a toe fungus cream, and I could have done without the before and after pictures, but there it was.
Well, this morning we're going to continue our Summer Psalms series with Psalm 73, and we're going to see that this psalm reads a little bit like some of those ads. The first half of this psalm paints a picture for us, or an image, of a man who was grappling with a nagging observation. Based on a wrong perspective that he had. In verse 17, we're going to see about a change, a radical change that came into his life. And then the last half of the psalm, we're going to see as he looks again back and makes observations with this new perspective. So we're going to see a before and after image of this man of God.
Let's pray. Father, we thank You that we can gather together this morning, another day to worship You. To spend in your presence, to spend in your house. And we come, Lord, asking your Holy Spirit to open our eyes and the eyes of our hearts to what you would speak to us through this Psalm. Lord, we want to see the world around us, the universe around us through your eyes and your eyes alone. So help us, Lord, now as we turn to your word. May it speak to us. May Your Holy Spirit change us through it, in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, this psalm was written by Asaph. Some of you may not be aware of who Asaph was. It's not typically who we think of when we think of psalms. We often think of King David. But Asaph was actually one of King David's chief musicians. He was one of the three that orchestrated much of the singing in the Israelite community, and over the course of time, he actually became the worship leader, if you will, for lack of better words, in Israel. And he also was a man who wrote a number of the songs that were sung in Israel, and we have quite a few of those that actually became books— or sorry, Psalms in the book of Psalms.
So we're going to look at one of his Psalms this morning, that's Psalm 73. And here we're going to find an experience that all of us have had at one time or another. We look around us and it seems like the bad guys are always winning. And the good guys are losing. We see the wicked prospering and the good suffering. People who don't know and love God, people who are not concerned with living life God's way, and those who live selfish, arrogant lives, they seem to be the ones who are enjoying life free of burdens. They seem to prosper. They seem to do well. Meanwhile, we look around and we see believers suffering and struggling.
At one time or another, who hasn't looked around and observed this and asked these questions? Said, 'What's wrong with this picture? Isn't God supposed to be good to His people? Are His promises sure and trustworthy? If so, then how do I understand the apparent success of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous?' The question, the age-old question is, 'Why do the wicked prosper?' That was Asaph's question this morning in Psalm 73.
6 · The pastor signals the first major movement of the sermon—examining Asaph's flawed perspective—while naming the nature of that flaw: man-centered and short-term rather than God-centered and eternal
So let's take a look and consider Asaph's observations based on his before picture. His perspective then was a man-centered short-term perspective. Let's take a look at that.
7 · The pastor reads the first half of Psalm 73, presenting Asaph's confession of near-spiritual collapse triggered by envy of the wicked's prosperity, his detailed catalog of their apparent blessings, and his conclusion that his own righteousness has been pointless
Let's start reading Psalm 73, beginning in verse 1. It says, '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 are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace, and 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 of the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said, 'I will speak thus,' I would have betrayed the generations of Your children.
8 · The pastor names the cultural context intensifying Asaph's struggle—our instant-gratification society makes waiting for the fruit of obedience particularly difficult
In Scripture, we read and see that we are encouraged to not grow weary in doing what is good, but the reality is that we do grow weary from time to time. This is especially true when we don't see an immediate benefit or fruit of our obedience. We live in a society and culture that's fast-paced. We want everything now. We know what we want and we want it now. We can grow weary in our desire to please God when we don't see it pay off for us immediately. It's especially true when we see those around us, unbelievers in particular, who seem to get everything that they want.
9 · The pastor articulates a critical theological diagnostic: the root problem is evaluating God's goodness by the standard of temporal happiness rather than by His eternal purposes
Another contributing factor is how we interpret God's goodness to us. Do we evaluate God's goodness to us based on our level of present temporal and personal happiness? Does our view of happiness have to do with things that are physical, external, and immediate? If so, it's going to be hard for us to look at God and imagine that he could be good and not give us the good life.
10 · The pastor begins close exposition of verse 1, noting Asaph's opening affirmation of God's goodness as an ironic prelude to his confession of near-collapse
So let's look at Asaph's confession here and some insights into his thoughts before he had his encounter with God. He's confessing that he had a nearly disastrous stumble and fall. That he experienced due to the way he was perceiving the wicked around him. If you note how he begins it, it's interesting how he begins. He says, 'Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.' He makes a statement of absolute truth about God. Truly God is good.
11 · The pastor exposes the rhetorical pattern of verses 1-2—doctrinal affirmation followed by existential doubt—and connects it to the congregation's own experience of knowing truth while struggling to trust it
Have you ever heard someone say something like that? If someone's going through a difficult time and they come to you and they say, 'I know that God is good.' But what comes after that? 'But.' The word 'but.' They begin, 'I know that God is good, but...' 'I know that God is sovereign, but...' 'I know that God loves me, but...' And Asaph begins the same way. 'I know that God is good to Israel.' He's reminding himself. He's speaking truth to himself. 'I know that God is good to Israel.' I know that God is good to those who are pure in heart. But here it is, Asaph, the worship leader in Israel. 'But as for me,' Asaph then makes a confession, a startling confession, this man of God, the worship leader. 'But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled and my steps had nearly slipped.'
12 · The pastor expounds verse 3, diagnosing Asaph's problem as diverted gaze—shifting attention from God to the prosperity of the wicked
Asaph arouses our curiosity. Why the 'but,' Asaph? What's wrong? And he goes and continues in verse 3, says, 'I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.' Asaph saw something going on around him. He was distracted by something that he saw. His gaze had been diverted away from God to something around him. What he saw was that the wicked people, some of the wicked people around him were prospering and he became envious of that. Trouble always begins when we take our eyes off of God. And place them on something else. When God isn't our complete focus and the complete object of our attention, we get distracted. Our gaze gets diverted, and when that happens, trouble can't be far away. Asaph is confessing to us the failure of a wrong perspective. And what is this perspective? What's a wrong perspective look like?
13 · The pastor identifies the first characteristic of Asaph's wrong perspective: temporal myopia—being consumed with present circumstances rather than eternal realities
First of all, it's isolated on the present. Asaph became consumed with the here and now. In verse 3, he tells us he was envious of the arrogant and their prosperity. And in verses 4-12, he begins to describe for us, which is— and he uses an interesting word. These are what the prosperous look like. This is what prosperity looks like to Asaph from his before perspective.
14 · The pastor begins detailed exposition of Asaph's catalog of the wicked's prosperity, starting with their apparent freedom from pain and suffering
Verse 4 says, 'For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.' What's a pang? I had to look that word up. It's not one that I use every day. Pang is just some sharp pain. It can be a physical or mental or emotional anguish of some kind. So Asaph saw the people around him. To him, they looked healthy and beautiful.
15 · The pastor continues cataloging Asaph's observations through verses 5-7, showing how the wicked appear to escape consequences, indulge every desire without restraint, and experience unhindered self-gratification
Verse 5, 'They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.' It appears to Asaph that the prosperous never get in trouble or suffer in any way. Verse 6. Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. The prosperous, as Asaph observing, were violent, they were proud, they were arrogant. Their eyes swell out, verse 7, through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. These were individuals who withheld nothing from themselves. They indulged in anything and everything. They showed no self-control. There was plenty of entertainment. They see and do whatever they wanted to.
16 · The pastor completes the catalog of the wicked's prosperity through verses 8-11, escalating to their ultimate arrogance: mocking God Himself and denying His knowledge or accountability
Verse 8 and 9, 'They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues struck to the earth.' Prosperous, as Asaph was observing, were reckless with their use of their tongues. They didn't withhold. They were just whatever, speak whatever's on your mind. Verse 10, 'Therefore His people turn back to them and find no fault.' Again, the prosperous didn't seem to ever get in trouble. There was no fault in what they were doing. They weren't held accountable for what they did or their actions. And finally, in verse 11, he says, or they say, 'How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?' Now the prosperous people are mocking God. God can't see us. God's not going to hold us accountable. God's not aware of what we do.
17 · The pastor synthesizes Asaph's observations with Romans 1:25, diagnosing the fundamental spiritual problem: exchanging worship of the Creator for worship of created things
So Asaph is evaluating the wicked around him based on what is created rather than on the Creator. He's evaluating them based on their present personal happiness, on that which is visible to them. His confession here goes right to the heart of what our struggle with sin is. In Romans 1:25, it says, 'They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.' The key word in this passage here is 'exchanged.' How easy is it for us to exchange God for for his creation. And in doing so, we're tempted to define the abundant life, the prosperous life, as a happy present experience of created things. Whether that includes physical health, friendships, family, financial success, emotional well-being, whatever it may be, our focus has shifted from God the Creator to that which he created. We exchange the giver for the gift.
18 · The pastor counters Asaph's perspective with 2 Peter 1:3-4, establishing God's true redemptive purpose: not distributing created gifts but transforming our hearts and delivering us from bondage to sinful desires
But if that's not what life is about, if it's not about collecting gifts from God, you know, collecting the created things, what is it about? 2 Peter 1:3, it says, 'His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises.' 'So that through them they may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.' So the chief good that God is doing in our lives is to deliver us from our bondage to our own sinful desires. God is at work to radically change our hearts. He wants to change how we live and the fruit that we bear. This is redemptive work. This is good work. And that's the work that He is doing. And He's given us everything we need to live that kind of godly life in the midst of the situations that we find ourselves in.
19 · The pastor articulates a controlling theological principle: God's purposes are redemptive, eternal, and spiritual, and evaluating life by temporal, individual, and physical standards puts us at cross purposes with God
We need to remember that God's focus for us is going to be redemptive. It's going to be eternal. It's going to be spiritual. And to the degree that we are looking around and evaluating life based on temporal, individual, and physical things, we are at cross purposes with God. Are we looking at the world and evaluating their success or prosperity with the same way that God looks at them and evaluates them?
20 · The pastor expounds verse 12 as Asaph's summary of his envious observations—the wicked have wealth, ease, health, and apparent freedom from consequences
We come to verse 12, and Asaph is now ready to summarize his observations of the wicked. He says, 'Behold, look, these are the wicked. They are always at ease, and they increase in riches.' This is how Asaph sees the world around him. The wicked have the good life. They have the material possessions. They are the wealthy, prosperous, and healthy ones. They live a life of ease. They live in sin with no consequences. They indulge themselves in whatever they want and whenever they want, and they don't ever get in trouble for it. They are content with their circumstances, and Asaph finds himself envious of them. And he finds himself jealous of what they have and the good life that they seem to have.
21 · The pastor turns Asaph's envy into direct application by asking listeners to identify what they believe would make life good or complete
So let's think about that for a second and apply it to our own lives. Think about this statement and fill in the blank. 'It would be good if I had...' What would you fill that in? What would it be that you would fill in that blank with? Or, 'My life would be complete if I just had...' Think about that for a second. What would you do to fill in the blanks of those two statements? The wicked had the good life according to Asaph. This is what he sees, and it's a perspective that he had that was based on the present or isolated to the present.
22 · The pastor identifies the second characteristic of Asaph's wrong perspective: self-centered comparison that leads to the conclusion that godliness is pointless
Secondly, the man-centered perspective that Asaph has is fueled by a self-centered comparison. He's just described his observations of the wicked. Now he starts to talk about himself and the conclusions he comes to. Verse 13, 'All in vain, all in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.' We all come to conclusions like this about ourselves from time to time and our situations, and for whatever reason, we assume them to be true. Asaph has done just that here. In vain, he cries, I've tried to please God and be obedient to Him. But what's the point of being godly? What's the value of living a godly life? Why be a Christian? What's the benefit of being a Christian? What have I received as a benefit of my faith and obedience?
23 · The pastor makes explicit Asaph's unstated syllogism—if God is good, He will bless the righteous, but since the wicked are blessed, God must not be good
So Asaph's logic goes something like this: God, if He is good, will bless the righteous and punish the wicked. But I see that the wicked have been blessed by God while the righteous have suffered. Therefore, God is not good. What is it that you expect from God when you serve Him faithfully, when you worship Him, when you love Him, when you pray without ceasing? Feasting, when you give of your finances generously and joyfully, when you love your neighbors and your enemies, when you share with the poor, when you open your home to hospitality, when we're faithful to confess our sins, when we live ethically and morally and honor those in authority over us, what do you expect from God in return for that?
24 · The pastor lists concrete temporal hopes believers often attach to obedience—job, spouse, children, health—and names them as good but insufficient
Are you hoping for a better job, a better relationship with your spouse, or maybe just a spouse? Perhaps you're hoping for children, or if you already have them, you're hoping for children who won't embarrass you at the restaurant. Perhaps you're hoping for an end to some physical pain or suffering or some sort of illness. All good things. But if that's what we're hoping for out of our obedience to God, I think maybe we're aiming too low. Perhaps God is at work in your life for something much deeper and much grander.
25 · The pastor articulates the fundamental theological contrast: we focus on immediate results while God focuses on the process of making us good
We tend to focus on good immediate results, but God focuses on the process of making us good. We're tempted to judge His faithfulness as Asaph has done here on the basis of how many of our desires He grants us in this life. But God is working to free us as we read in that passage just a minute ago out of 1 Peter. He's working to free us from our bondage to the desires of a sinful nature. God wants us to free us from the desires for things so that our desire will be for Him alone.
26 · The Paul Tripp quotation functions as authoritative theological support for the sermon's central claim: trials are not evidence of God's abandonment but the delivery system of His sanctifying love
Take a look at this quote from Paul Tripp. Writing about Psalm 73, he says this. He says, 'The process of trial and suffering is no indication that God has forsaken His promises to us and is therefore not good. Rather, the process of trials, loss, and suffering that He ordains for us demonstrates His unshakable, faithful redeeming love. He loves us enough that even in the face of us not getting it over and over again, He will not forsake the work of His hands until that work is complete. These experiences preach, these experiences should preach to us His goodness, for they are the delivery system of His sanctifying work, which is in fact the good work that He is doing. God is relentlessly committed to this good work. It's only because we are committed to something else that we find it so difficult to call good a God who administers such a plan.'
27 · The pastor offers a personal story illustrating transactional thinking about spiritual disciplines—the 'God bill' metaphor
How often do we find ourselves in Asaph's shoes, thinking the same way, coming to the same conclusions? How often do we fall in that same train of thought? It's a common temptation to all of us to think that if we do good things for God, he has to somehow repay us immediately. And intangible, visible ways. How many of you like me, and I wouldn't even attempt to guess the number of times, when I get up in the morning, I have my quiet time, I have my prayer time, and when I'm finished, I close my Bible, I get up, and I think, 'This is going to be a good day. I just paid my God bill. I'm good to go for the rest of the day.' And then there's other days when I go into the morning or afternoon and it's not going well, and I think back I forgot to have my quiet time this morning. I forgot to pray. I forgot to pay the God bill this morning. I'm looking for immediate responses from God, and I'm evaluating His goodness to me based on my experiences that I experienced throughout the day. If I get up and pray, it's going to be a good day. If I don't pray, if I sin, watch out, retribution is coming from God.
28 · The pastor constructs two hypothetical scenarios—the faithful single watching others marry and the obedient teenager punished for one lapse—to illustrate how obedience without immediate reward tempts us to Asaph's despair
There may be some singles here this morning, and you're committed to and convicted about your relationships with the opposite sex and what those should look like. You're committed to not playing the dating game and not giving your heart away prematurely to someone who's only going to bring hurt and disappointment and sadness to you and bad memories. You decide you're only going to go pursue relationships that you believe God has initiated and that could result in marriage. But then as the years go by, what do you notice? All of your friends getting married, even those at school or at work, the non-Christians who date anybody and everybody, they always seem to find the perfect partner. Has your waiting been in vain? Has your trusting of God been in vain? Teenagers, you obey your parents, you honor them and seek to please them, you get up and make your bed, you help with the dishes, you help with the cooking, you help take care of the your siblings. You're responsible. You're not out partying on weekends. You're home on time most of the time. You're doing your studies. You're studious. You're getting good grades. You don't participate in all the other wrong things that your peers are participating in. Then one day you come home just a few minutes late and you get in trouble for it. Of all the things, Mom and Dad, I could have been doing, I just got home a few minutes late. And you wonder, What's the point? Why do I do all those other things?
29 · The pastor diagnoses the root problem in all the illustrations: self-centeredness
These situations and hundreds of others, I can think and apply this to our lives, hundreds of other situations is where this psalm hits our hearts. All these situations though begin with one thing. They focus on me. It's all about me. I did this. I did that. I'm gonna do this. See what I did. Me, me, me. I, I, I. And there's the problem. Anytime we place ourselves at the center of the universe and try to interpret everything that's going on around us based on us, trouble is going to ensue. And if we place ourselves at the center of the universe and worst of all, try to evaluate God and His goodness based on my experiences and my circumstances, then we are in a very dangerous place.
30 · The pastor identifies the third characteristic of Asaph's wrong perspective: it results in sin—envy, arrogance, anger, bitterness, resentment
It's easy in all the circumstances we find ourselves in. To be disappointed and disillusioned. And that's where Asaph found himself as he was writing these words. His feet almost slipped and he almost fell. This perspective, third and lastly, results in sin. Asaph seems to be sinning all for himself in these passages or in these verses. He confesses envy and jealousy in verse 3. And it's certainly arrogant. He was confessing that he was watching the arrogant and jealous of them, but he's confessing basically it's arrogant of him to think that he has kept his heart clean. He said, 'In vain I have kept my heart clean.' I mean, who of us can honestly say, 'I have kept my heart clean'? So Asaph is confessing his own arrogance in his statements. We can't imagine saying something like that. It's impossible for us to keep our hearts clean. Did he not just read what he wrote? When I read that, I think, 'All in vain have I kept my heart clean.' Well, Asaph, just look at the previous 10. 10 verses. There seems to be anger, bitterness, and resentment in his words as well. And it's the same thing that we do from time to time. We're all tempted to look at our situations and our circumstances and look around us and to try to interpret what's going on in our lives and our circumstances. How often do we do the same thing in our hearts? We look around and see the wicked, the non-Christians, we see them prospering. And we become envious and jealous of them. That's why this psalm, I believe, is here for us.
31 · The pastor signals the sermon's major hinge—the turn from 'before' to 'after
But what's amazing about this psalm is that it doesn't end here. We're just halfway through it. This is the before picture of Asaph, and we're going to see in just a second that his questioning, his mind is going to be completely and wonderfully shifted. Something happens to Asaph, something happens that totally and completely changes him. What happens to Asaph? He encounters God. He encounters God in His sanctuary, and the after picture of Asaph now begins to emerge. As we read here, we'll see Asaph now, the after picture is a God-centered eternal perspective.
32 · The pastor reads the second half of Psalm 73 in full, presenting Asaph's transformed perspective following his encounter with God in the sanctuary
So let's continue through the Psalm, continuing at verse 16. 'But when I thought how to understand this,' so he was trying to understand what he had just written, all the observations about the wicked and his conclusions about them. He says, '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.' Remember just a minute ago, he was confessing that he was about to slip and fall. Now the tables have been turned. And it's the wicked who are on a slippery place. You make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors, like a dream when one wakes, 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 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 into glory. Whom have I in heaven 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 might tell of all Your works.
33 · The pastor identifies verse 17 and the single word 'until' as the psalm's pivot point where everything changes
Verse 17, we find a pivot point in this Psalm. We find one word that changes everything. Asaph's perspective was wrong. It was centered on the here and now. It was centered on man. It was on himself, and it resulted in envy, jealousy, and questions about God. In verse 17, we come to this word, 'until.' Something happened to Asaph to bring a radical change. 'Until I encountered God in his sanctuary.' And this radical reorienting of Asaph's perspective can be seen in 3 ways.
34 · The pastor articulates the first dimension of Asaph's transformed perspective: awareness of the wicked's eternal destiny
The first one is an awareness of the destiny of the wicked. Asaph enters God's sanctuary and comes away with a new perspective, an eternal perspective. It's impossible to make biblical sense of what's going on around us and in our lives without this kind of perspective. Having an eternal perspective is critical for us to evaluate what's going on around us. Asaph begins to consider now the eternal destiny of the prosperous, the wicked, and to look at life from this vantage point. Without this perspective, we tend to look at our stash of goods, compare them to the huge pile of goods that our neighbors may have, and we can become discouraged. How different our understanding of this picture becomes, though, when we realize that what the wicked have is in the process of rotting, rusting, and fading away, while what we've been given, what we have, is an inheritance that will never fade.
35 · The pastor expounds Asaph's first metaphor for the wicked's destiny—the slippery slope—with an everyday illustration of watching someone walk on ice
Asaph enters the sanctuary of God, and now he's able to discern the end of the wicked. He sees something completely different, something that he had missed, totally missed earlier. Divine perspective always transforms us, it always changes us, and when we see things the way God sees it, it always changes our perspective as well. Asaph now describes the wicked this way. First, he says that the ungodly are like people standing on a slippery slope. Slope. They may be standing right now, but the path they are on is a slippery one and they will go down. Have you ever watched someone try to cross a sheet of ice or a patch of ice? They get out there and they walk gingerly, but as you're watching them, you know what's going to happen. You know that they're going to slip and fall. And sure enough, they do, and it's never a surprise to us. It's that, 'I knew that you were going to slip. I knew that you were going to fall on that ice.' And that's the kind of slope that the wicked find themselves on.
36 · The pastor expounds Asaph's second metaphor—the wicked's prosperity as a dream that seems real but vanishes upon waking
Secondly, he compares the life of the wicked to a dream or a fantasy. When we're dreaming, in the midst of that dream, doesn't it seem like real life to you? You know, I wake up in the morning, I don't remember a lot of my dreams, but occasionally I remember one, and it seemed very real at the time. But eventually we wake up and the dream is over. The prosperity of the believer, as Asaph now is viewing them through this eternal perspective, is a the same way. It's only a dream. It seems like real life. It seems like reality. It seems like it's permanent. But in a flash, it's going to be over, and the lasting eternal realities of life are going to close in on them.