And now will you join me in prayer? Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. We thank thee that we can call the Our Father. You are master of the universe by your Word worlds were created. You hold history in your hand. And yet we turn to Thee as children and speak to Thee as Father. We are grateful that we can do that because of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, that through his death we have become members of the family of God through faith in him. And all of life has changed. The ultimate power in the universe is no longer vague and formless and unfamiliar. We can bow and call Thee, Father. We come, come this morning, our Father, to ask for this segment of thy family, the folks who come to worship in this place, to listen to the Word, to break bread, to taste the wine and to remember the death of Christ. There are some here who are going off to school this week. And we ask for protection upon them as they travel. Even more, we ask for spiritual protection as they are in the midst of the marketplace of ideas. And there are 10,000 voices calling for their allegiance. We pray that they will measure what they hear by the truth of your word. Deliver them from evil. There are others who are today in distant places, on vacation, traveling back home. We ask that you would give them the mercies of a good journey and refresh them physically and spiritually. There are others, our Father, who have been in our presence in Sundays gone by, who are today ill. We're grateful that sickness for us is not a hiatus, a break in the middle of life. But even in the midst of sickness, your spirit works. And in those difficult experiences, you teach us lessons of life that we can learn in no other way. And so we pray for our brethren who are ill that they may sense your presence in a special way for physicians who attend them, that you would give them wisdom and skill. We pray for our own awareness of those who are ill about us. And we pray for the opportunities that we have to minister to our brethren. Grant that we shall be conscious of those needs. There are others who are here this morning, Father, who have not expressed in any open way their need, but it is present. There are folks who are wrestling with some of life's problems. And we ask that somehow they may be given some insight to the answers. There are some battling with temptation. There are some here who are battling with the problem of sexual looseness so prevalent in our time. And they need a sense of your presence in their lives. There are others who do not have work and are looking for a position, and they need your direction there in this important place where they will spend their hours. There are others who feel pressures on their families, husband and wives who once loved each other deeply. But there has been an erosion and they feel it. And they are here this morning. And there are young people who do not understand their parents and parents who do not understand their children. And there is a gulf where there should be a bridge. We bring all of these to you and ask that somehow, Lord, through the ministry of your word and through this fellowship that we have with each other, that there may come insights to life that are prompted by your spirit. We shall be different this afternoon and next week because we've been here today. We come to ask you for our country. We are in the midst of a political campaign and frankly, Lord, we're a bit embarrassed by it all men on both sides promise things they cannot deliver. We're very much in danger of thinking of our political leaders as some kind of God. And that we come to feel that they shall fix it all. That if we put the right man in office, that that's all we need. And many of us have lived long enough to know that that is a bitter disillusionment. We pray for these leaders. The temptation in these days to do things that are sheer politics at the expense of principle. We find that they will lie to us. They will misrepresent the facts. We come to ask for these men, those in power, those out of power, who are seeking the power. They shall come to recognize that what is morally wrong will never be politically right. That it is righteousness which exalts a nation and sin is a reproach to any people. We ask you for this political campaign and our involvement in it. You called us to honor those who are in political office. So grant that we shall do it. Guard us from the political jokes that defame and malign. Help us, Lord, as Christians, to think clearly about issues and to seek what is best for our society and for those or involved in the decision. But now, Lord, we come back to this hour and pray for your direction upon us. Bless us as we sing again. That we shall sing in the power of the Spirit and as we speak and listen that it shall be done, conscious that this is your word and we are open before you. We ask these things in Jesus name.
None of us is much interested in a man with a secondhand faith that's been passed down to him along with his grandfather's watch. But all of us, I think, are interested in hearing from a man who has come to grips with God for himself. And all of us will sit up and listen to a man who has had a face to face encounter with the Almighty. For that reason, I think we shall give our eager attention to Asaph, the author of the 73rd Psalm.
I imagine that as Asaph stands before us, he is an old man. His hair is whitened with age, and his face is furrowed with care, and his body is stooped a bit by the weight of tithe. But as he begins Psalm 73, he does so with a bracing word of testimony. Surely he sings, God is good to Israel. God is good to those who are of a clean heart.
Now, lest you think that this is merely the meringue of testimony that does not have with it the solid food of experience, Asaph hastens on to assure us that he has not always felt this way. Now his feet are planted firmly on the table ground of faith. But as he looks back over the twisting, winding road he's taken to get where he is, he recognizes that there have been many difficult spots along the way. In fact, there was one place that was especially dangerous, for it seemed to the psalmist that he was about to lose his faith, about to go over the side, down into the chasm of despair. And so it's with a stab of terror in his heart, with a bit of a quiver in his voice, that the psalmist says in verse two. But as for me, my feet were almost gone. I almost lost my footing.
Now, even though this is a bit of spiritual biography out of a distant day, it's as up to date as this question plagued age in which you and I have been allowed to live. I certainly do not know you all, but I am certain that in a gathering of this size, there are some of you who will testify that this is for you a current experience. You find yourself wrestling with some of life's great problems, and to your dismay, the problems seem to be winning. Or perhaps for others, you will say that while this is not for you a current experience, it was true of you in some bygone day. Back then, you wrestled with some of the great questions of life, and you feel that the questions may have won. Unlike the psalmist who was able to keep his faith, you feel that you may have lost yours altogether.
Now, what was it that caused Asaph such difficulty? What was it that caused him to almost lose his faith? Well, apparently the psalmist tried to get the facts of faith to measure up to the facts of life, and he discovered, to his astonishment, that the facts of faith came off second best. You see, Asaph believed that God was a holy God. He also believed that God was all powerful. So it seemed to the psalmist that if God were both holy and powerful, that good people should always prosper and bad people should always fail. It seemed to him a matter of pure logic that if God were really righteous, and if he were indeed master of all that he surveyed, then good people should always get ahead and bad people should always go to the wall.
6 · Provides biblical examples (Job's friends, disciples in John 9) of the same flawed theology Asaph held
That kind of childish faith has been with us since the dawn of Tithe. It was the faith of the friends of Job who came to sympathize with him as he suffered on his ash heath. And finally, after watching him suffer, one of them blurted out the question, well, who ever suffered, being innocent? What he was saying, of course, is that great suffering must of necessity be the result of great sin. It was also the faith of the friends of Jesus in John chapter nine, when they came across that chap who had been born blind. And one of them said, well, now, who sinned? This man or his parents, that he should be born blind? What they were saying, of course, is that great tragedy must have necessitated be the result of great transgression.
7 · Uses a contemporary cultural reference (Sunday school lessons with predictable moralistic endings) to show how the prosperity theology persists in modern Christian education, making the problem immediate
This is also the faith of a great many of our Sunday school lessons. You know, the kind of lesson where Johnny Christian always wins and Peter Pagan always loses. For the good boy always scores the touchdown and the bad boy always fumbles the ball.
8 · Concedes partial truth in the prosperity theology (godliness does provide some advantages) but warns that absolutizing this principle leads to spiritual disaster
The reason that that kind of faith dies such a difficult death is that on the surface at least, there's a great deal of truth in it. The man who walks with God is better able to live up to life's requirements than the man who walks without it. But if you go out into life believing that good people always prosper as the world counts prosperity, you are destined to spend your life in slippery places, and you're in danger of losing your faith altogether.
9 · Develops the concrete situation that triggered Asaph's crisis: ungodly neighbors prospering visibly while he struggled
But what was it that brought this whole problem crashing home into Asaph's experience? Well, apparently the psalmist had some neighbors, some folks who lived down the road of peace. They were folks who had no time for God at all. They were not given to prayer. They did not come to the place of worship. But when Asaph looked at those folks, they were doing remarkably well. Their house stood high on the hill. The grain grew high in their field. Beautiful fences surrounded their land. The latest chariots were parked in their garage. And yet, when Asaph looked at himself, everything seemed to be going wrong. It seemed to the psalmist that every time his neighbor took a turn in the market, the market always went up. And when he took a turn in the market, the market always went down.
10 · Cites the psalmist's direct confession of envy, naming the sin that grew from the theological confusion
And so he tells us very clearly in verse three, I was envious at the foolish. I was envious when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
11 · Extends the exposition to cover the wicked's health, using contemporary scenarios (doctor visits, medical bills) to make the ancient envy vivid
But it wasn't just that his neighbors were wealthy. He also discovered that they were disgustingly healthy. Again, I don't know how it occurred, but perhaps one day as he was driving some of his children to the doctor's office, it occurred to the Psalmist that his neighbor never had to make that kind of trip. Or perhaps one evening while he was looking at a small pile of doctor bills there on his desk, it occurred to him that his neighbor never had to climb these paper mountains. And so he says in verse four, there are no cords in their death. That is, there are no cords that seem to be drawing them to the grave. Their strength is firm. They're not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men.
12 · Exposes the wicked's pride as the natural fruit of their prosperity
But not only was his neighbor wealthy and healthy, he also found that his neighbors were quite proud. Life was going well and they were quite haughty about it. In fact, he says, pride compasses them about as a change. In the same way a woman might wear a beautiful locket, in the same way a man might dangle a Phi Beta Kappa key from his watch. Father, this man wore his pride.
13 · Dramatizes the neighbor's pride through imagined dialogue and the vivid detail of expensive suits worn with swagger
If you asked him the secret of his success, he was glad to tell you he was a self made man. And just the way he said it, you knew he thought he'd done a rather good job. There were times when Asaph's neighbor wore his four hundred dollar silk suits with such a disgusting swagger. And that Asap could have wished that those suits would turn to burlap. The man's houses would turn to barns.
14 · Connects pride to violence, showing the ethical degeneration that accompanies prosperity without God
Being a proud man, he was also a violent man. In fact, he says that violence covers them as a garment.
15 · Uses a geometry metaphor to illustrate the wicked's ruthless pragmatism — they take the shortest path to their goals regardless of who gets hurt
You can understand this. Here are folks who had learned their geometry lesson well. They had learned that the shortest distance between two points was a straight line. And once these folks knew where they wanted to go, they got there. It didn't bother them whom they had to crawl over in order to have their way.
16 · Imagines confrontation between Asaph and his neighbors, giving voice to their dismissive attitude toward religion and their preference for present gain over eternal reward
There were times, I'm sure, when A$AP went to his neighbors, when he told them that this kind of life was not the kind of life they were designed to live. When he urged them to join him at the place of worship, they would listen to him and say, look, Asa, you want to be religious, that's fine and good, but we've got other things to do with our time. If you want to go to the sanctuary, that's splendid. Look, as far as we're concerned, we'll just take the cash and let the credit go. So the psalmist says in verse eight, they are corrupt. They speak wickedly concerning oppression, they speak loftily. They. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
17 · Deepens the crisis by showing that Asaph's suffering was not unique — many believers shared his burden
But perhaps the psalmist could have stood up to the problem if it had been his own. But he discovered that when he looked at God's people, that many of God's people were suffering as he was, that many of them were singing the songs of Zion. In a minor key, he says in verse 10. Therefore his people return hither, and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. That little phrase, his people, is used, as far as I can tell, in every other context in the Old Testament to refer to the people of God. Evidently, the psalmist sees God's people coming back again and again to the temple. And yet as they do, he sees that they bear a cup of grief. He finds that they are plagued with problems. He finds that they do not have life in a bag. He finds that they have problems too.
18 · Exposes the creeping cynicism among God's people through imagined private conversations where they question God's knowledge and justice
And he discovered that when he talked to them, these people of faith, that they had begun to get a bit weary about it all. In the private conversations over coffee, when the preacher wasn't there, there was a cynicism that had crept in. Well, they said to him in verse 11, Asaph, how does God know? Is there knowledge with the most high? Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world. They are the ones who increase in riches.
19 · Expands the cynical believers' argument through contemporary phrasing, then pivots to a sharp prophetic rebuke of the cliche 'a man's got to live
You've heard that melody before, haven't you? Many different verses to the same old lyrics. What they were saying was, asap. Look, a man's got a lid. And this is a rough, tough, competitive old world we live in. And we're as religious as the next fellow, you understand? But look, if you want to play the game, your neighbor's got the game plan. He's the one who knows how to score. If you want to get ahead, you better take a page from his book. Because after all, a man's got to live. By the way, if you ever hear anybody introduce his remarks with that little cliche, a man's got to live, put it down that that man's in the process of selling his soul and selling it for bargain basement rates. Because that's a lie, isn't it? That's a lie spawned in the pit of hell. A man doesn't have to live. A man has to die. A man has to meet God. But there have been thousands of people throughout the centuries who have gone to death as an eloquent testimony that there are things in life infinitely more important than just being alive.
20 · Uses political success as a contemporary illustration of the same pragmatic idolatry that infected ancient Israel
But although the men who said this are now buried by the dead dust of 3,000 years, the philosophy is still pretty much alive. All of us say that we admire the man who would rather be right than president, but all of us have a way of standing up and taking off our hats and cheering for the man who gets to be president, whether he's right or wrong, just as long as he's out ahead, just as long as he's leading the pack.
21 · Applies the illustration by naming the congregation's complicity in the pragmatic worldview
We find ourselves falling in line. We find that unconsciously we take our cues of these men around us.
22 · Exposes Asaph's conclusion that serving God is worthless since it brings suffering rather than blessing
And Asaph tells us in verse 13, verily I have cleansed my heart in vain. I have washed my hands in innocency for all the day long I have been plagued, I've been chastened every morning. The psalmist is simply saying is it doesn't pay to serve God here I have tried to live with a heart pure to God. I have kept my hands and my actions clean before him, and everything seems to be going wrong. When I get up this morning, it's worse than yesterday morning. It seems that each day brings greater struggles than the day before. Here I am wrestling with life, and my neighbor doesn't know these problems. It just doesn't pay to serve God.
23 · Commends Asaph's wisdom in not broadcasting his doubts, recognizing their potential to infect others
But Asaph demonstrates that while he was wrestling with the problem, he was also a man of wisdom, because he shows us quite clearly that he knew when to keep his mouth shut. He says in verse 15, if I say I will speak this way, behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. You see, the psalmist recognized that doubt can be like a contagious disease, and to express your doubts to just anyone can be like a disease sweeping through the congregation. That those doubts that may be so much a part of your struggle at this moment may better be faced alone than to express them to just anybody and to discover that you have hurt other people by the problems you're wrestling with.
24 · Shows that silence did not resolve Asaph's struggle — the problem remained painfully unresolved despite his wisdom in not spreading it
And yet the psalmist, knowing that he could not talk about it, still had not solved his problem. He said, when I thought to know this, it was too painful for me.
25 · Robinson steps out of exposition into personal testimony, confessing his own struggles with doubt in contrast to his father's seemingly unshakable faith
If there are a group of people that I envy, it's those folks that I have known whose faith always seems to be going up and up like the General Motors stock report. I had a father that way in his better days, at least when I was young and I looked at his life, it seemed to me that there were never any clouds in his sky. It seemed to me that his faith was just one sunshine experience that he could just trust God, and that the problems and questions of life never really seemed to bother. I must confess that that's not been true for me. I spent hours of my life wrestling with questions. I have found myself with the dark sky of doubt on top of me. There have been times when I've wondered if I could hold on to my faith.
26 · Applies the personal testimony directly to listeners who have experienced similar doubt, using the vivid metaphor of living 'on the sloping back of a question mark' to name their experience
And if you've ever been there, if you have ever spent an hour of your life on the sloping back of a question mark, and you can understand how the psalmist felt when he said, when I thought to know this, it was too painful for me.
27 · Pivots from problem to solution
But Asaph found an answer. He began the psalm by saying, God is good to Israel. God is good to those who are of a clean heart. So where did he find the answer to his question about the prosperity of the wicked and the poverty of the righteous? Where did he go to find a solution? And the answer to that question is so absurdly simple that if I did not find it etched clearly here on the pages of the Word of God, I would be embarrassed to give it to you.
28 · Declares the turning point: Asaph found his answer in corporate worship at the sanctuary
But Asaph found the answer to his question when he went to church. But he says in verse 17, when I thought to know this, it was too painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I understood their end.
29 · Bridges the testamental gap by acknowledging differences between temple and church while asserting continuity
I am well aware that there was a great difference, and is a great difference between the sanctuary of the Old Testament and the church in the New. But I am also very aware that while there are great differences, there were also similarities. I'm sure that there were times then, as there are now, when the people came and contributed little and the preacher even less. I'm sure there were times when the sheep came hungry and went away unfaithful. Sure, there were times when the music was not what it could be or should be. There were times when the congregation lacked the spiritual vitality. And yet, in spite of all of that, Asaph said that he found the answer to his question when he went into the sanctuary of God.
30 · Names the cultural devaluation of corporate worship in the 1970s and confesses that even Christians are tempted to agree with the individualistic spirituality of the age
Now, churchgoing has fallen into some difficult days in the 1970s, hasn't it? For a great many folks, it's a kind of prelude to the football game on Sunday afternoon, or a kind of poor substitute for gout on a rainy Sunday morning. Even those of us who are Christians find ourselves nodding in agreement when our next door neighbor says to us that he can worship God just as well out in the park as he can in a stuffy, crowded sanctuary on a Sunday morning. We find ourselves agreeing when folks tell us that they get more from studying God in nature than they do listening to a preacher.
31 · Tells a simple story of a father proposing a picnic instead of church, met by his daughter's wise rejoinder: 'but we won't, will we?' The punchline exposes the gap between good-sounding excuses and actual practice
A father woke up one beautiful Sunday morning. It looked like a Sunday designed for picnics. And so he said to his wife, honey, I want you to pack a picnic basket and just fill it with good things, and the family will go out and we'll spend the Sunday together out in the park. He went in to awaken his teenage daughter, who had been in the habit of attending church and rather enjoyed doing it. And when he told her the good news about the family picnic, she wasn't quite as excited as she should have been. He realized what was going through her mind. And he said to her, listen, listen. We can worship God just as well out in the park as we can in church. And she said, but we won't, will we?
32 · Delivers the theological punch: excuses for skipping corporate worship are 'reasons that sound good' but not 'good, sound reasons
And we don't, do we? There's a world of difference between good, sound reasons and reasons that sound good. And the reality is that throughout history, God has had a way of meeting with his people when his people have met together to meet with him. That God is at a way of breaking through when people have met in the sanctuary of God.
33 · Critiques common but inadequate reasons for churchgoing drawn from advertising slogans: family cohesion, national security, and friendliness
Perhaps one of the reasons that we do not find this experience of hearing the word of God together or worshiping God together, perhaps the reason we do not find it meaningful is that we go to church for all kinds of wrong reasons. I appreciate the businessmen in our community who sponsor that page in the Saturday paper urging people to worship in church on Sunday. I do not say that as a sop. I do not say it in order to say something else. I mean that I'm delighted that I live in a community where there are businessmen willing to put out some hard cash to at least stress in a small way the spiritual values of life. But occasionally, when I read those ads, they disturbed me a bit. There was one a while ago where you had the father and the mother and the two children on their way to church, and the church was in a distance. And underneath it said worship in church this week, the family that prays together stays together. As I read between the lines, they're saying that if your home is coming apart at the seams, maybe if you go to church, you'll find some glue that will keep it together. Or there was another one they had downtown on a billboard. And there you had the church in the distance and the same ideal family. Father, mother, two children, zero population. And on the side, what you had was a rocket. And underneath it said, worship in church this week, our nation's first line of defense. You wonder about that. It Seems to me that what they're saying is, that is, until we're absolutely sure that we're ahead of the Russians in the missile race, we better hedge the bet a bit and stay on the good side of God. Well, there's another one that you get that sometimes in the front of a folder that says, this is a friendly church.
34 · Qualifies the critique: friendliness in church is good and necessary, but it becomes a problem when social connection displaces divine encounter
Don't misunderstand me. I believe that any church in which the spirit of God is working, there must be the spirit of love. There's a sad commentary of people come within the gates of this place and do not feel warmth and friendship and concern. But there is a problem of having a friendly church. And the problem is that we can go to church to meet our friends and come away and not have met God. There is a way in which we can get involved in senseless chatter before the worship begins and then when the service is over, go back to talking about ball games again. And in the midst of it all, we drive the vision of God from our eyes and the sound of the word of God from our ears.
35 · Robinson stakes his pastoral credibility on the claim that God actually breaks through in corporate worship in ways that private devotions and media cannot replicate
I say to you with utter sincerity that I would not give 10 cents of my money, 10 minutes of my time to this church or any church if I did not think there was a chance on a given Sunday morning or evening that God would break through and that God would speak to the needs of my heart and life. There, in the sanctuary of God, Asaph got his answer. And there is no substitute for that ministry of the Spirit that God has when his people are met together. Private devotions will not take the place of that. Listening to tapes will not take the place of that. There is a need to meet together with God's people and allow God to break through and speak as he did long ago. God and God spoke to Asaph in the sanctuary of God. Asaph received the long range view.
36 · Develops the concept of 'the long range view' using Walter Lippmann's observation about what separates humans from animals — the capacity for historical memory and future anticipation
But he says in verse 17, I went into the sanctuary of God, and then I understood their end. Walter Lippman, the noted newspaper columnist, said some time ago that the thing that separates men from animals is that men are able to take the long view of the past and the longer view of the future. And on that issue, I think Mr. Lippman was right on it. Men are able to take the long view of the past. You and I are bound by a thousand cords to history. We have received a debt from a man like Aristotle or Quintilian or Cicero or Newton that we may not even be conscious of, but they have contributed to our lives. Even this morning we are reading the words of a man who lived almost 3,000 years ago. And we are conscious of tomorrow. We are conscious of lunch and this afternoon and next week. And we are conscious of the inevitabilities of life. And we take out insurance policy. We have a longer view of the future. Your dog doesn't have that. There was never a time in the life of your dog when your dog's mother took it aside and said, now, Kerr, let me tell you what all of us dogs have learned since our first ancestor wagged his tail in the Garden of Eden. Your dog starts as fresh with his ignorance today. Has all the dogs in history. He has no relationship to the history of dogs. And your dog has no relationship to the future. Oh, now and then, if he's particularly industrious, he may bury a bone under the living room rug. But actually it has no real anticipation of the future. That bowl of food you set before it this morning, that was its entire life. That's the whole dimension of its vision. And the thing that separates men from the animals is that man is able to take the long view of the past and the longer view of the future. And in the sanctuary of God, Asaph got the long range view of life.
37 · First corrective from the eternal perspective: the wicked's prosperity is temporary, not permanent
He tells us, for example, in verses 18 to 22, the bear and the sanctuary. With a long range view of life, he discovered that he had greatly overestimated the prosperity of his ungodly neighbor. He says in verse 18, surely thou didst set them in slippery places. Thou castest them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation? As in a moment. Now, I'm sure that when Asaph looked at his neighbor's wealth, it must have seemed to him to be very, very permanent. Must have seemed that that house would stand on that hill forever, and that that bank account must have been written in concrete and steel. It seemed that that wealth that he envied and all of that prosperity was really very, very permanent. But there in the sanctuary of God, when he saw life from the long range point of view, he discovered that it was part of the passing. In a moment they are brought into desolation. That can happen, can it? Those stocks and bonds that are doing so well today can in a moment change. And you can be ruined. That bank account that you seem to feel is so permanent can in just a short time be eaten away by the forces of inflation. And what seem to be permanent is really part of the passing. Or even if you keep it, there can be the stopping of the heart. And instead of it being taken from you, you're taken from it in a Moment, all of that is gone. Alexander the Great sat one time on a small hill overlooking a panorama of his wealth that had been captured in battle. And as he looked at that display of magnificence, one of his lieutenants standing by his side said to him, sir, what more could you ask? Alexander is said to have replied, but it doesn't last. It doesn't last.
38 · Second corrective: the wicked's prosperity doesn't satisfy
But Asaph not only discovered that he had overestimated the prosperity and that the prosperity didn't last, but he also discovered at the end of verse 19 that. That it really didn't satisfy. These folks who seem to be doing so well, he says, are utterly consumed by terrorists. Now, I don't know that Asap would have gotten that on his own. Perhaps one night when his neighbor threw a wild party and he stayed up till 2 or 3 in the morning, unable to get to sleep because of the laughter, it might have seemed to him that if his neighbor was miserable, miserable, it was a kind of happy misery he was enjoying. But in the sanctuary of God, he saw things in a different way. There is no peace, says my God to the wicked. The ungodly man is like a troubled sea who casts up his mire upon the shore. He's like turbulent waves tossed back and forth. Down deep inside there is no peace. The testimony of men through the centuries has borne it out. Sigmund Freud unscrewed the tops of men's hearts and looked inside and came to the conclusion that he had never met a man who was not terribly afraid.
39 · Contemporary illustration of wealth without peace: Jackie Gleason's confession that beneath all his success lay fear of missing heaven
A few years ago, Jackie Gleason, one of the highest paid comedians the world has ever known, told about his rise from the slums of the great cities to the penthouses above Park Avenue. He told about his lavish wardrobe, his taste in food. And yet, in the middle of it all, Jackie Gleason had one single sentence that let it out where he said, but there is one thing of which I am desperately afraid, and that is I may never make heaven.
40 · Third corrective: the wicked face coming judgment
But not only did the wealth not satisfy, but. But his neighbor was headed for judgment. He says in verse 20, as a dream, when one awakens so, O Lord, when thou awakenest, thou shalt despise their image. You understand the picture. Don't you remember last night? Or was it last week? You had that dream and you woke up in the morning fighting the battle of mind over mattress. And you came to the table, you said, said, oh, what a dream I had last night. Somebody said, well, what did you dream? You say, I can't remember that dream that seemed so real. That moved you so deeply in your sleep. When you awoke, it was gone. And this man whose name was on the society pages, this man who was the envy of everyone in the community, this name that was known to everyone in town, this man who spoke seem to be so permanent in people's minds when God moved against them. It would be like a dream in the morning is gone and it is forgotten.
41 · Asaph's confession of beastlike ignorance is explained: he had been living with an animal's temporal horizon, seeing only the present
So the psalmist says in verse 21. My heart was grieved, I was pricked in my innermost being. So foolish was I, and ignorant I was, as a beast before thee. Why does the psalmist call himself a beast? Because the thing that separates men from the animals is that man is able to take the long view of the past and the longer view of the future. When Asaph looked at his neighbor, he was looking at him only in the here and now. And that viewpoint that he had taken was no different than the viewpoint of the swine in the field, the cow in the shed, the dog at his feet. That was the viewpoint of animals with no view of the past or of the future. He had made a tragic mistake because he had lost the long range view.
42 · Structural pivot from the wicked's false prosperity to the believer's true prosperity
Not only did the psalmist in the sanctuary in the long range view discover that he had overestimated the prosperity of his neighbor, but he discovered that he had underestimated his own prosperity.
43 · First element of the believer's true prosperity: the continual presence of God
For example, he says in verse 23, nevertheless, I am continually with thee. Those of you who know God personally through faith in Jesus Christ will know what I mean when I say that even greater than knowing that your sin is forgiven, it is to know the personal presence of Christ in your daily life. To know that in every occasion of life, in every circumstance that you face, there is the real presence of God's Spirit and of God's Son. In sunshine and in shadow, in sickness and in health and poverty and in wealth. When things go well and when things go wrong, there is the reality that Jesus Christ is ever with you.
44 · Second element: divine security
What is more, there is the security of knowing that he holds you by his right hand. You see, the psalmist was afraid that he was going to slip. But in the sanctuary he discovered that it was not so much a matter of his hold on God as God's hold on him. And God had him by the right hand.
45 · Personal story of Robinson catching his son Torrey when he slipped on ice, illustrating God's secure grip on believers
Several years ago, when our son Torrey was just a small boy, we went out trick or treating on Halloween. It's a great day. Being a Scotchman by heredity, he had learned that if he could get out and hit a whole lot of different houses, he'd get More candy. And so off we went. It was a rainy day in Dallas. In fact, it had gotten very cold and there had been a frost on the ground. As we were going down the street, headed to the next appointment, he suddenly came to a slick spot and his feet went out from under him. But I had him, and he went through the air like the young man on the flying trapeze. And I put him down. He did the most natural thing in the world for a small boy, began to cry when he realized he wasn't hurt. And then for the rest of the evening, wherever he went, he was looking for that slick spot to turn them into a kind of miniature skating rink. He had learned something about his dad's right hand. Blessed is the man who's discovered that about his God.
46 · Brief application returning to the metaphor of life's slippery places
But there are slippery places all through life, difficult and dangerous. But the God whose presence is ever with us is a God who holds us by the right hand.
47 · Third element: divine guidance
What is more, he says, thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. Here is a man who's not feverishly Turning on the 6 o' clock news to get some guidance as to how to handle his day. Here's a man who is not dependent on the latest newspaper prophet to tell him how to live in his tomorrow. He knew that the God who was with him was a God who would guide him.
48 · Robinson validates the claim through direct testimony to the congregation's own experience
And there are people in this audience this morning who know that they're not out in the lunatic friends. They're folks just like you in the world of business or in the world of medicine or their students or their housewives. But they have known that they have come to crucial places in their lives where they have needed the counsel and the direction of God. And God has given them the direction that they've needed.
49 · Fourth element: future glory
And afterwards he says, thou shalt receive me to glory. His neighbor was headed for judgment. But the future of the Psalms was as bright as the promises of God.
50 · Asaph's doxological climax from verses 25-26, followed by Robinson's distillation of the lesson: having God is sufficient wealth, lacking God is total poverty
So when they came to the closing hymn that day, Asaph Sang in verses 25 and 26, whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon the earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. The psalmist learned in the long ago is what God's people have learned through the centuries. And that is, that if you have everything else in life and do not have God, you are indescribably poor. And if you had nothing else in life but you had him, you would be indescribable, wealthy.
51 · Narrative summary of Asaph's transformation
And so when the service was over, Everything had changed. The psalmist had come to the temple that morning feeling sorry for himself and envious of his neighbor. But he left feeling sorry for his neighbor and enriched by what he had. He came feeling that his neighbor was rich and he was poor. He left recognizing that by his faith he had been rich and his neighbor was a poor. I say everything had changed. Oh, the house was still up there on the hill, and the chariots were still in the garage and the grain was still high in the field. But asap had changed because there, in the sanctuary of God, he had seen things from the point of view of eternity.
52 · Final exposition from verses 27-28, reading Asaph's closing testimony
For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. But it is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare all thy works.
53 · Extended narrative illustration of William Gladstone interrogating a young man's life plan with repeated 'What then?' questioning, exposing the omission of eternal perspective
William Gladstone was undoubtedly one of Great Britain's four greatest prime ministers. He was not only a brilliant statesman, but he was also a devout Christian. One day, a young man came to Gladstone to talk about his future. And as the two sat across the desk from each other, Gladstone asked the young man what he proposed to do. And he said that he was thinking of going to the university, Cambridge or Oxford, to get a good education. Gladstone said, well, that's good. Man needs a good foundation. I think that's wise. What then? The young man said, well, sir, I thought that when I graduated from college, I could get a job in one of the law firms and there get some practical experience because there are things I'll learn there that I'll never learn in school. Gladstone said, that's wise. That's very wise. That's splendid. What then? The young man said, well, what I'd really like to do is serve in government. And I think if I do well in law, that perhaps one day I can stand for a seat in Commons and I can then be involved in the governing of the world through the government of Great Britain. Gladstone said, I appreciate that we need men in government who are here because they are dedicated to a corporation cause. That's splendid. What then? Fenland said, well, sir, I thought if I did well with my party, that perhaps sometime along the way they might choose me to be prime minister. To sit where you sit and be able to make an impact that way. Gladstone said, well, somebody has to sit here. It's good. If you're going to aim that, you aim high. That's. That's good. What then? Boy said, well, sir, I've been keeping a diary. I suspect that if I'm able to do these things, I could write my memoirs and pass on to other folks like myself the lessons that I have learned along the way. Gladstone said, that's good. That can be a real help to folks. I think that's wise. What then? I said, well, sir, like any man, I guess it'll come time for me to die. Gladstone said, yes, whether all of your goals are achieved, no matter where you sit, ultimately we are reduced to that. What then? Boy said, well, I've been so busy making my plans that I haven't had much time for religion. I do plan to get around to it, but I haven't really thought about that. That's, you know, just not been in my thinking. William Gladstone stood up and said, young man, you'd better get right home, get down by the side of your bed and open up your Bible and think life through to its very end.
54 · Final application driving home the sermon's ultimate lesson: only those with eternal perspective through faith in Christ can live meaningfully in the present
It's only the man that's done that, the man who through faith in Jesus Christ has been joined to the timeless life of God, who is able really to live meaningfully today. It is only the man who senses that he has been made for the eternities and through faith in Christ has come to eternal life who is able to live meaningfully in the here and now. For it is only the man of faith who can see the problems, the tormenting problems of life and face them triumphantly because he lives his life from the long range point of view.
55 · Closing prayer applying the sermon's lesson to the congregation's immediate concerns, confessing entanglement in temporal trivia and asking for refocused eternal perspective
Shall we pray, Father? We get caught in the trivia. What bothers us most is what should concern us least. We're concerned about the job tomorrow, concerned about the assignments we have to get in. Concerned about the clients we have to see or the patients we have to treat. Concerned about the cleaning of the house or the planning for vacation. While all of these things are important, we recognize that all too often we live only for the here and now. We live as though we were not made for the eternities. We come to ask, Lord, that as a result of being here under your word this morning, that we shall refocus and see life from a divine perspective. And undoubtedly, Lord, there are four friends who are here this morning with whom your spirit has been working, who have never really come to the place where they have put their trust and confidence in Jesus Christ to forgive their sins and to bring them into a relationship with the eternal God. We ask that in this moment, this day they shall make that decision. And now go in peace. May the spirit of God be the energizing power in your life. May the purpose of God be what you will for yourself and for your family. May the love of God be the perfume of your experience. And may the hope of God be the song of your heart. For Jesus sake, we ask it. Amen.