Well, anticipating that with the weather there might be a smaller crowd, we talked yesterday on Saturday and decided to actually hold off on the Colossians series for a week. We don't want to lose steam with that. We want to make sure, especially as we now start working our way into a really significant theological portion of the letter, that as many folks are here and present as possible. So we're going to divert from Colossians this morning and spend some time in Psalm 73. So you can turn with me to Psalm 73. We're going to jump back to Colossians next week. We're going to turn to a psalm written by a man named Asaph.
And if you've read the Psalms, you're familiar with the Psalms, his name appears in those prescripts. So if you see before the psalm it says, "God is my strength and portion forever," sort of the title of it, and then "A Psalm of Asaph." Well, who is Asaph? Asaph.
He's sort of an ancient Israelite worship leader. He's one of the worship leaders of ancient Israel. In fact, in 2 Chronicles 29:30, it tells us he's compared with David. So you think of the prominence of David in the Psalter. He's listed side by side with King David as one of the prominent men of Israel who not just lead the nation in worship, writes songs for worship. And in that passage, it actually refers to him as a seer, which is another way of saying that he's a prophet. He has a prophetic gifting. And so the songs that he writes are inspired by the Spirit of God. So it's sort of a cool combination this morning. We're going to hear a psalm. We're going to consider this Psalm 73 that's sort of written by a combination of the Matt Redmond and the Isaiah of ancient Israel. This prophetic guy who's also a prominent, famous, well-known worship leader for the people. That's what we're going to look at.
Let's begin though with a word of prayer. Lord, it is incredible to consider the timelessness of your word, Lord, that you can inspire a man who lived thousands of years ago and who lived in a situation and a culture so completely different from ours. And yet, Father, your word stands and your word is true. And as we'll see this morning, Lord, we see that our hearts are so very similar to Asaph's. So Lord, we ask that you would address us with your word this morning. Open our hearts. Change us according to your truth. In your name, Jesus. Amen.
Well, Psalm 73 is a psalm that specifically deals with the issue of envy. You wouldn't get that necessarily from reading the prescript, right? It says, "God is my strength and portion forever." But the content of the psalm is this psalmist, the writer, struggling with his own envy. In the first half of the psalm, we're going to see how he self-diagnoses himself. It's a pretty helpful look at how do we wrestle with our hearts. How do we examine our hearts in the midst of temptation? And then the second half, after diagnosing his heart, he turns his attention to the remedy. So he diagnoses and he applies the remedy. And these two sides mirror each other. They build to a peak in the middle and then it resolves itself. Towards the conclusion. So we're going to work our way through each section of the psalm this morning. First, in verses 1 to 3, he states the problem.
Psalm 73, verse 1, he says this: 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. Asaph knows the truth. He states it clearly upfront in verse 1. And yet, even as he states the truth in verse 1, we see a problem. He's in the midst of temptation. He's in the throes of it. It's gripping at him. Verse 2 is this sad contrast between the truth of God and who He is and where the writer finds himself. God might be good and in favor of the pure in heart. He might be, but as for me, that signals that Asaph is in temptation up to his neck. Spurgeon, commenting on this Psalm, says, It's like reading a marathon of temptation. This isn't a guy who's having a bad morning. This is a guy who's writing and walking through a trial and temptation that has been gripping him. This is probably one of his besetting sins, this envy that he feels for the wicked around him who are prospering. Maybe envy isn't your besetting sin this morning. Maybe it is, but we've all got them, right? We've all got those things that if we're honest with ourselves, they're those issues, those thorns, those difficulties, those decrepit parts of our heart that we want so badly to kill, and yet they still cling. Well, he's going to show us as he deals with his own envy how to deal with our own hearts. It's a serious situation. Envy has so gripped his heart that he says his feet have almost stumbled. His steps have nearly slipped. Now you read that and you kind of think, well, maybe he's kind of at that point where he's in danger of envy, but he's not quite there yet. It's temptation, but it's not sin. Verse 3 says the opposite though. He was envious. He's already ensnared. How is he almost slipping? His envy's gotten so deep, so toxic, that he's at the point of nearly giving up on what he knows to be true: that God is good, that he acts on behalf of his people. And that's what sin does to us. It pushes hard against what we know in our hearts to be true. It gets even more serious when we grasp what He means by "pure in heart." He's not saying it's only those who never have a sinful thought. The pure in heart are those who strive to love God with all they are. It's that Deuteronomy 6:5, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your might." The contrast between verses 1 and 2 and 3 is that envy has begun to corrupt Asaph's heart. It's laid hold of him. He's now closer to the wicked people that he envies than he is to the pure-hearted person that he wants to be. You ever felt that way in your sin? Just the anguish of knowing You're in that position. It eats at him. He describes the problem in a nutshell. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
6 · Oswald reads Psalm 73:4-12, cataloging the apparent prosperity of the wicked: physical comfort, freedom from suffering, arrogance, impunity, increasing wealth, and public approval—even among God's people
So what's that prosperity? Look at verses 4 to 12. He says this, for they have no pangs until death. Their bodies are fat and sleek. They're 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, those are the wicked, always at ease. They increase in riches.
7 · Oswald summarizes the wicked's prosperity as appearing perfect in every dimension—career, relationships, reputation, wealth—and notes that the most galling aspect is that they get away with it
The summary could really be Lucky them, they have it so good. Their spouses are more attractive, their careers are more successful, they get every promotion, and they're slackers. Their reputation is constantly praised, even though their hearts are evil. Their wealth keeps increasing. The temptation to envy is seen in how perfect their lives appear. He's describing these lives that just seem so put together. Even their pride and arrogance seem attractive. Their necklaces, their garments. They seem carefree. They're utterly fearless even of God. They don't fear the Almighty. They have everything taken care of. And they're corrupt, verse 8. And in their arrogance, they even blaspheme against God. But worst of all, they get away with it. And they always have it easy. They get away with it and they have it easy and they always seem to be getting ahead in life. You ever experience that with people?
8 · Oswald explains the ancient cultural meaning of "eyes swell out through fatness"—in a subsistence economy, visible obesity was a status marker of wealth and abundance
Verse 7 says, "Their eyes swell out through fatness." It's a weird phrase. "Their eyes swell out through fatness." Most of us aren't wanting our eyes to swell out through fatness. We would maybe talk about the wicked saying, "Their lips are puffed up with Botox. They've got so much money they can make their lips beautiful." Well, Asaph says, They're so rich their eyes bulge out with fatness. That's because in the ancient world, only the rich people get to be obese. In the ancient world, they don't have McDonald's on the corner of the Jericho Road, right? There's no Wendy's, there's no pizza delivery guy. You've got to go out and tend your flocks and seek to bring produce out of out of the ground. And it's only the wealthy that have just this abundance of food and wine and drink and dates and figs that they can just eat to their heart's content. And so their eyes bulge out with fatness, and there's a sense of, man, they look like that because they've got it all. Morbidly fat, and he envies them.
9 · Oswald applies the ancient dynamic to modern culture, using the Oscars as a contemporary example of glamorous lives that conceal misery
You hear the twisted temptation though? Asaph is so jealous of their success, he's wishing his eyes would bulge out of his head. It's the person who's no longer mocking the woman with the crazy Botox lips, but now thinking, "I wish I could afford to do that to my lips." We're not that much different. It's like watching the Oscars, right? Right around the corner. You see all this fame and celebrity and this glamour and beautiful dresses and tuxedos and beautiful people. Cameras flashing, the paparazzi, it just looks incredible, looks so appealing. But think about it. These people are hounded by the media. Their marriages, we read again and again and again, are tales of infidelity. Serial divorces, trading in marriages like we trade in pairs of socks. Morbid materialism. and still thinking as we watch, "I wish my life was like that. Wouldn't that be something?" Really, you wish your body was so full of fat that your eyes would bulge out of your head. That's what you're seeing there. To make a literal analogy, you wish you were so wealthy that the collagen injections of your lips would bulge off your face. And many of us think that exact same way.
10 · Oswald reads Psalm 73:13-14 and interprets Asaph's lament: envy has progressed from "lucky them" to "poor me," leading Asaph to conclude that righteousness itself is pointless
And that often leads to what we see next. In verses 13 and 14, we see the pity of the situation. All in vain! Have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence? For all day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. Lucky them devolves into poor me. I have gotten the shaft in life by trying to live rightly. His envy has grown so toxic that now the worship pastor is convinced Righteousness is just a ripoff.
11 · Oswald identifies the theological conflict at the heart of envy: Asaph is torn between God's revealed truth (God is good and rewards righteousness) and the apparent reality of the world (the wicked prosper)
We see a tension of truths in conflict in Psalm 73. He's torn between the truth that the world is peddling and the truth that God tells him is the way to live. And he feels in his heart a tug both ways. Asaph believes that God is good, that He upholds the righteous, the pure in heart. He states it, but in verse 14, he bemoans the fact, the temptation that everything in the world seems to contradict that truth. The idolaters win wars. They defeat God's people in battle. The greedy get rich. The cruel go unpunished. What makes it so hard to fight is that that's exactly what often happens, right? We see that happening in the world. And so we can understand the temptation. He's assaulted by it. He's confronted by it.
12 · Oswald paraphrases Psalm 73:9-14 to show how envy progresses: it starts with envying prosperity, then tempts the believer to embrace the wicked's lifestyle, and finally leads to doubting God's moral authority
When the evil prosper and the culture gets hostile, this sort of envy gets deadly. It's not just that sin is rewarding people. The envy and subsequent self-pity push him to the unthinkable brink of thinking, you know what, maybe the sin itself is also good. Here's a paraphrase of verses 9 to 14. When I envy the wicked for their prosperity, it entices me to embrace their lifestyle. When they mock God, I start to turn my back on Him and convince myself sin isn't so bad. Who is God to say what's right or wrong? The bad people are doing better every day. Conclusion: you're a fool to keep believing and living like sin doesn't pay or that it's really evil. Sound familiar? That's the deadly poison of unchecked envy. It's truth in conflict. What's the accurate view? Is it God's view or the world's view?
13 · Oswald reads Psalm 73:15-17, the turning point of the psalm
And then the enormity of such insane talk finally begins to set in. We finally hit the turning point of the Psalm. He sees perspective in verses 15-17. If I had said, "I will speak thus," if I had really embraced this fully, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. 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.
14 · Oswald explains that Asaph's breakthrough comes when he realizes the corporate danger of his envy: if he had voiced it, he would have tempted the entire community to sin
Verse 15 is the start of the breakthrough. Asaph finally perceives just how sinful his thoughts have become. His temptation has brought him to the point that if he'd spoken these things, he'd have betrayed his people. He'd have pulled them into his sin. You sense the individual and corporate nature of sin. He gets it. He's feeling it there. If I had gone all the way into this, it wouldn't have just affected me. It would have affected generations of the people. My sin would have started infecting them. It would tempt the whole community. He sees finally the true danger, that envy is a secret murmuring. A secret murmuring against the sovereignty of God. Why has God given them that? How could God give them that? If God gives them that, is God just?
15 · Oswald uses a contemporary illustration to explain the futility of trying to kill envy by staring at the objects of envy
But fresh perspective comes to him. But where does he get it? Where does it say it comes? The fresh perspective comes, he finally stops the pity party at the mall, wandering around envying all the people who get to walk into, I have to go to like the Dollar General store, and they get to go to the Gucci store. He finally stops the pity party at the mall and heads back to the place that will rightly reorient his perspective. You don't kill envy by driving around the neighborhoods of wealthy people, right? You don't go sit in front of the elaborate estate of the Ponzi schemer in your car and think, "I wish I wasn't envious of this guy, but look, he's got 50 acres and they're beautifully manicured lawns that he doesn't even mow. I wish I wasn't envious of him." That's not how you kill it, right? And he realizes that.
16 · Oswald identifies verse 17 as the center of the psalm's structure and message: Asaph's perspective is reoriented not by private reflection but by entering the sanctuary—the place of corporate worship where God's word and presence clarify reality
Verse 17 is the center of the psalm. It's the great turning point of perspective. Where does he go to get perspective? He goes into the sanctuary of God. You see what's happening? He realizes, when I've been left to myself for 16 verses, 14, 15 verses, this envy has been building and it's been consuming me. It's just, it's growing and it's spreading in my heart. And then he finally realizes, nearly overwhelmed, almost slipping, that the sanctuary, the place of corporate worship, the place where God dwells in the midst of his worshiping people, will get his head back on straight. In the place where God's people sing and pray and hear the word proclaimed about his character Asaph finally stops navel-gazing. He sees God accurately again through the help of God's people, through the help of God's Word brought to bear upon the assembly. It helps him to see the wicked with clarity.
17 · Oswald reads Psalm 73:18-22 and explains the first remedy: Asaph sees God's providence
And then the remedy takes the form of 3 weighty realizations. He's kind of had the moment, and now the remedy starts to unfold. First, he sees the providence. 18-22, "Truly, you set them in slippery places. You make them fall to ruin." This secret murmuring against God's sovereignty is replaced by the perspective of God's providence. Not just that he's sovereign, but that he's for his people. How they are destroyed in a moment, verse 19 says, swept away utterly by terrors like a dream when one awakes. Oh 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 to you. The poor me of verses 13 to 14 turns into stupid me. What was I thinking? D'oh! He remembers God still reigns, God still rules. Instead of feeling like he's about to slip and fall, he remembers God's swift judgment. It's the wicked who will ultimately lose their footing, and it's not just This impersonal sort of history is going to end up in this spot. This is personal. Derek Kidner comments on this and he says, "This is a personal rejection." He's thinking of personal wicked people and realizing and remembering the wicked will receive the personal dismissal of God, the eternal dismissal of "I never knew you." And so he realizes it.
18 · Oswald uses Pompeii as a historical illustration of sudden judgment
There's a movie coming out, I saw the previews a few weeks ago. We went to a movie called The Monuments Men. It's actually a really enjoyable movie, but preview of the movie, they have a movie coming out called Pompeii, right? I don't know if you've seen it, it actually doesn't look like that great a movie. But it shows this remarkable moment in history. There's this massive Roman city just filled with power and opulence and all the trappings of Roman society. It's sort of this crown jewel. Maybe it's like the Miami Beach of Rome. It's built on the coast and there's wealth and there's just these people who just live decadent, wonderful lives. And all of a sudden, the volcano erupts. And you see archaeologically, if you've ever seen pictures of what happened in the city, it's preserved in these of ashen fossilized people huddled in their homes. There's one of what they think is a mother covering a child. In a moment, Pompeii is gone. The wealthy are no better off than their slaves. When the volcano erupts, their mansions and their chariots can't protect them. Their silks and their dates and every conceivable material convenience vanish as the ash falls. As Asaph says, "Before the judgment of the Lord, the wicked are phantoms." That estate of the Ponzi schemer, It seems so lush and beautiful and real and tangible. Asaph tells us, reminds us, it's a phantom. It's dust.
19 · Oswald retells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16) to illustrate the reversal of fortunes in eternity
Like Asaph, we never put envy to death if we stare at the present prosperity of the wicked. To kill this sort of envy, we need to remember the future and the God who controls it. You remember Luke 16? The parable of the rich man and Lazarus? There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, who feasted sumptuously every day. He's got the bulging fat eyes, right? You kind of just picture this really obese guy laying on a couch and somebody just feeding grapes into his mouth. That's what I picture with the bulging fat guy. That's what's happening here. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores. Not a pleasant scene. Who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. You think there's a guy who might be tempted with envy? Lord, why do the wicked prosper. I seek you, Lord, and I got dogs licking the sores of my legs. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. And the rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner. Bad things. But now he is comforted here, and you are in your anguish.
20 · Oswald makes a theological claim about envy's demonic origin: envy fashions us after Satan, who envied God and then Adam and Eve
Envy is spiritual suicide. It fashions us after its author, Satan, the archetypal envier. He envies after God. I want to be like God. I want to be God. And so he falls. And then he envies after Adam and Eve, after the paradise they live in. He might hate God, but he knows there's blessing in His presence. He envies the paradise and he envies the fact that they bear the image. He wanted to be God and was cast out. And now here God creates Adam, Eve, male and female. To bear his image in the world. And so in his twistedness, he convinces them to corrupt exactly what makes them so unique and so special. Envy is demonic. When Asaph realizes God's control of the situation, he indicts himself. I was brutish. I was a meathead. I was ignorant like a beast.
21 · Oswald reads Psalm 73:23-26 and explains the second remedy: Asaph sees his portion—God Himself
And then he goes to the portion, verses 23 to 26. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterwards 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 may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.' That's the part you recognize, right? That's the part that people maybe come to the participation mic and read for folks during worship. But it's in the context of those preceding verses. Slipping and stumbling and being gripped by his sin, all of a sudden perspective dawns on him and he realizes the portion— they have this phantom prosperity. Yeah, they're doing well. They cheat and they scheme and their businesses blow up as they cut ethical corners. And I'm on the brink of bankruptcy. Ah, ah, but you will receive me to glory. Lucky them, they have it so good, turns into rich me, I have it so good. Now, he doesn't say that a single thing has changed about his circumstances, does he? From what we read in Psalm 73, it appears his life is exactly the same. Everything about his life that prior to this was causing him just to sit there and pine and in frustration, just anger and just being so pushed into temptation because they have what he wants and he doesn't have. Everything's going against him. The circumstances are probably exactly the same. Everything is going against him. They're still prospering. He's still having difficulties. The dogs are still licking his sores like poor Lazarus. But he remembers, even with all of that being the case, he has more than the wicked. Envy had done what envy does. It blinded him to the wealth he already possessed in God. Listen to how wealthy we find ourselves. First, we're at peace with God. As verse 23 reminds us, we are continually with Him. Second, we're in His grasp. He holds our hand. Third, we have the promise of future guidance. And finally, ultimately afterward, He says He'll receive us to glory. Now if you're scoring that at home, That's security in the present, it's security in the future, it's security for all eternity. It's heavenly and earthly wealth of the real kind. It's a rock and inheritance that doesn't end with this life. Envy isn't just spiritual suicide, it's spiritual baloney. You don't get anything back for what you put in. For all the longing and lusting and obsessing and complaining, you don't get any satisfaction. You just get more longing and lusting and obsessing and complaining. You'll be as empty as you started. And besides that, as truth triumphs in his vision, he's reminded He doesn't want tons of stuff and reputation. He doesn't want swag and bling. He wants His portion. A portion that remains when the outwardly, His flesh, and the inwardly, His heart, this life is at an end. He wants God. Think of our Colossians series. Remember Paul's location? Where is he writing from? He's writing from a Roman prison. He's penning this letter to this church from a Roman prison, and we're about to enter into a section where he starts praying for the church in Colossae. What does Paul say he's praying for them about? I'll pray that you'll escape the flames. I'll pray that you'll escape the difficulties. I pray that you'll escape the plundering of your property. I pray that you will escape the shame of being imprisoned. I pray that you will escape the hardship of having all of your friends abandon you like they're going to do to me. Not what Paul prays for. He prays that they would be filled with the knowledge of Christ. He prays that they would be filled with the knowledge of their portion.
22 · Oswald synthesizes the psalm's message: Psalm 73 shows how perverted desire (envy) is transformed into godly desire (contentment in God)
Psalm 73 provides a powerful remedy for turning our envy into godly desire. Desire is all over the psalm, the beginning and the end. But desire perverted in the beginning becomes righteous, turning a bitter, pouting heart And that's what he's doing, he's pouting, right? You think of like little kids when they pout. We do it as adults too. And that's what he's doing in this psalm. But that pouting heart turns into one that's consumed with and content with God. Let the wicked prosper at work in their courts of public opinion, in the courts of human justice. Let them prosper. We know in the end God is going to receive us. God is going to welcome us into glory. I love how Thomas Watson puts this: The wicked go through a pleasant way to execution. The godly go through a foul way To coronation. See how happy all the saints are at death. They go to a kingdom. They shall see God's face, which shines 10,000 times brighter than the sun in its meridian glory. The godly at death shall be installed into their honor and have the royal crown set upon their head. They have in the kingdom of heaven the quintessence of all delights. They shall lie in Christ's bosom, that bed of spices. There is such a pleasant variety in the happiness of heaven. That's a sweet— there's such a pleasant variety in that. Don't get the idea that heaven is going to be this mundane, same sort of thing I'm enjoying day after day after day. No, there's a variety of pleasant happinesses in heaven, an infinite variety of things we will enjoy in God's presence. Presence, that after millions of years it will be as fresh and desirable as the first hour's enjoyment. In the kingdom of heaven the saints are crowned with all those perfections which they are capable of. The desires of the glorified saints are infinitely satisfied. Psalm 73 is about desire, corrupted desire turned to godly desire, and Watson is right. You put your desires upon God and now that in eternity, in the hope of glory, all of those desires are going to be satisfied infinitely. The emptiness and the bottomlessness of envy, longing and pining and grumbling, that just gets you more pining and longing and grumbling. In heaven, it's the opposite. It's joy and it's satisfaction and it's love. It's flourishing and it just gets more joyful and more satisfying. There's more flourishing. There is nothing absent, Watson says, which they could wish might be enjoyed. You can't, there's not even a possibility of envy. You have everything. There is nothing present which they could wish might be removed.
23 · Oswald reads Psalm 73:27-28 and identifies the third remedy: the privilege of nearness to God
Which leads him to his conclusion of the privilege, verses 27 to 28. For behold, those who were 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 your works. The truth stated in verse 1, God is good, becomes truth affirmed, truth really believed. God is good. Yes, it is good. It is good to be near God. That's the third greatest remedy. Seeing his bitterness for the ugly poison it is, he decides to draw near to God his refuge. The Psalms come full circle. It's not just about what God can do for a person. More importantly, it's what God can be to a person. If we keep our hearts steadied on truth, we navigate just the vagaries and the temptations of a fallen world. Circumstances, who prospers and suffers here and now, aren't nearly as important as our attitudes. What you believe, the purity of your heart, controls whether you live in truth, whether you experience God's goodness, or get overwhelmed by life and deceived into thinking that experience teaches that God isn't good.
24 · Oswald makes a redemptive-historical move, connecting Asaph's remedy to the cross of Christ
And that experience of God's goodness is nowhere more profound than at the cross. The sweet convergence of God's just answer to wickedness and His provision of His own Son as the portion. Come together at Calvary. When we feel assaulted by all the injustice, the cross reminds us no one, not a single person in human history, not Asaph, not Lazarus with dogs licking his wounds, no one, not me, not you, has felt injustice more acutely than Jesus. And we stand under the shadow of the cross We're reminded exactly how God ordained to bring us near. Verse 27, Asaph says, "For behold, those who are far from You shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to You." Newsflash. Dave read it for communion. That was once all of us. We were once far off. We were once enemies, rebels set against God, doing as we pleased. But not anymore. We're reminded in the cross the remedy of how God brings us near. Our refuge from God's wrath is under Christ's trembling, dislocated shoulders as they bear that wrath. You know why envy is poison? Because the envious have no awareness. They have no joy for God's greatest work. It's only when we draw near and remember why we can draw near, when we sense just how personally God is our refuge, that we're truly able to proclaim all His works. And that's a great privilege. No one finds real pleasure, real delight, lasting contentment, infinite, eternal, inexhaustible satisfaction in God except for those who sit at Calvary's hill. That's the place where the Spirit teaches us the love of God for us in Christ. You, me, we should perish as the wicked. But we will prosper as the righteous because the righteous one is shredded on our behalf. That's the refuge where every truth proclaimed becomes truth vindicated, becomes truth experienced like a wine from prepared for our souls. It's here where we are kept closest to God and closest to delight.
25 · Oswald quotes Isaiah 61:10 as a doxological response, showing the righteous rejoicing in God's salvation—a picture of the satisfied soul Asaph becomes at the end of Psalm 73
Isaiah 61:10: I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exalt in God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.