Let us turn again to God's Word
in Psalm 73, the Psalm in which we discover something of those
problems, those many problems that perplex believers. Asaph speaks here of those things
that he cannot explain, cannot understand, The prosperity of
the wicked is one such thing. He says in verse 3, I was envious
at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Verse 7, he speaks of how their
eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than hearts could
wish. And verse 12, Behold, these are
the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches. How perplexing that those who
know not God should be so favored, so blessed with a multitude of
the good things of this life. He speaks also, of course, of
the great pride of the wicked man. There in verses 5 and 6,
they are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued
like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them
about as a chain, violence covereth them as a garment. In verse 8 he says they speak
loftily. They set their mouth against
the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. Verse 11, they say, How doth
God know, and is their knowledge in the most high? These wicked
men, in all the prides of their hearts, setting themselves against
God. It is the evidence, is it not,
of the fall, when we think of our first parents there in the
garden of Eden and that temptation that came to Eve. Satan comes through the serpent
and remember the manner of the temptation that came, what was
said to her concerning the fruit of that tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. He says in the day that you eat
thereof you shall be as gods. Ye shall be as gods. Isn't this the pride of men? They want to be as gods. They
want to be like unto God himself. When we read of the church offices
in 1st Timothy chapter 3, we're told that those who are appointed
to that office not a novice, lest, being lifted up with pride,
they fall into the condemnation of the devil. Oh, pride! The
cursed pride that Spirit by God abhors. Do what we will. It haunts
us still. It keeps us from the Lord. We have those words concerning
Lucifer in the 14th chapter of the book of Isaiah. The reference
historically is of course to the King of Babylon. But how descriptive it is of
the Son of the Morning, Satan himself. How art thou fallen
from heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the Morning! How art thou cut
down to the earth, which did weaken the nations! For thou
hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt
my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the
mount of the congregation in the sight of the North. I will
ascend above the height of the clouds. I will be like the Most
High." Yes, it is descriptive of the King of Babylon, even
Nebuchadnezzar in his pride. But is it not also a description
of Satan? Satan himself prides that snare
of the devil. And here we see how Asaph, as
he looks about him and sees the wicked on every hand, it's not
only their prosperity, it's the pride of their heart that he
is witnessing. And how different, how different
to those proud men who oppose God, who can challenge God as
they do here in verse 11. How does God know, they ask?
Is their knowledge in the Most High? In contrast we have the
godly man. Asaph is the godly man. And what
does he say here in verse 22? So foolish was I and ignorant
I was as a beast before thee. And it's these words in particular
The words that we have in verse 22 that I want to center your
attention upon. In many ways it follows on from
what we were considering only last Thursday. Remember then
we looked at those similar words that we have in Proverbs chapter
13 and verses 2 and 3. The words of Agor, the son of
Jacob. Hagor being the gatherer, as
we said, J.K. the Harkener. It's still Solomon,
this book of Proverbs. It's the Proverbs of Solomon,
son of David, king in Israel, as we read at the beginning of
the book. And here he says in chapter 30, Surely I am more
brutish than any man. And have not the understanding
of a man, I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the
Holy." These are the words of the wise man. As we said on Thursday. How he is describing himself.
How he feels his own ignorance. Speaking of course of what he
is by nature. Speaking of his fallen nature.
By the grace of God. He was a man who also was a partaker
of the divine nature. He was one born again from above,
born of the Spirit of God, favoured with much wisdom. There he acknowledges what he
is by nature. And we see the same, I say, here
in the words of Asaph, the psalmist. So foolish was I and ignorant. I was as a beast before them."
Well, let us look for a while at these words, Psalm 73 and
verse 22. First of all, does he not confess
his own ignorance? Previously, having spoken of
the ungodly, and their pride and their prosperity. He says
at verse 16, When I thought to know this, it was too painful
for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then understood
I their end. Only as he comes where God is,
can he understand that that was so perplexing to him. He has
no knowledge of these things himself. He cannot understand. He cannot unravel such a riddle
as we find in the former part of this psalm. It was too painful
for him, he couldn't know it. But then, in the sanctuary, as
he comes before God, as he enters into God's presence, as he pleads
and prays to God, then he understands something of the mystery of God's
ways. Now look at the words that I've
announced as our text. And I remind you of what I said
only last Thursday, because we did make some reference to this
verse, that whilst in our authorised version the text stands as a
simile, it is not really that. The little word, as, is in italics,
and do you know why? It simply indicates that that
word has been introduced in the translation. Literally, he says, I was a beast
before the... not making a comparison, not
likening himself to a beast, but declaring just what he feels
himself to be. So foolish was I and ignorant,
I was a beast before them. He didn't know, he was so ignorant,
so brutish. Going in another of the Psalms,
the Psalm that we just sang from in the metrical version, Psalm
92, we have that word, a brutish man knoweth not, neither doth
a fool understand. Our God must be the one who causes
us to see and to feel what we are by nature. We are ignorant
of our own real state and condition unless God himself is pleased
to deal with us and to show us ourselves. And doesn't God do
that in his word when we come to the mirror of his word as
James speaks? We see ourselves as in a glass,
the foolish man goeth his way, and forgeteth what manner of
man he was. Or just see ourselves, and to
see what we are as those who are fallen and sinful creatures. Gary, remember that word that
we have in the book of Ecclesiastes, there in chapter 3 and verse
18. I said in mine heart concerning
the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them,
and that they might see that they themselves are beasts."
God has to manifest it to them. That's what the preacher Solomon
is saying, that God might manifest them and that they might serve.
that they themselves are beasts. It is the Lord God Himself and
only the Lord God who is able to do that, to teach us the sad
truth concerning ourselves, so that we fear it, and we have
to come and acknowledge and confess the same before God. And this
was very much part and parcel, of course, of the ministry that
was exercised by the Apostle. Oh yes, his great burden is to
preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now, in the
course of his ministry, he also seeks to remind men of something
of what they are by nature. And so he writes to the Corinthians.
It is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will
bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the
wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God, he says
later, hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound
the wise. Here is the purpose of God, you
see. All the wisdom of the world, all the knowledge of the world
is as nothing. It pleased God in His own wisdom
that the world by its wisdom should know nothing of Him. It
is God Himself who has to deal with us and reveal these things
to us and show us what we are. And that should be part of our
concern when we come to the Word of God. and we read the Word
of God and meditate in the Word of God that we might understand
all the truths concerning ourselves. We have to learn to do it. It's
a truth there on the page of Holy Scripture that by nature
we are those who are dead in trespasses and in sins. We are
those who are in a state of alienation. By our natural birth we are only
enemies of God. We see it on the page of scripture,
but we have to have these things brought home into our very souls,
do we not? We have to learn the doctrine,
and we have to learn it in our experience. As we said previously,
all those great doctrines of grace that we delight to speak
of, when we think of the canons of Dort and that little acrostic,
a little mnemonic that helps us to remember the five points
of thought. Total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, the perseverance
of the saints. And we can shut it off our tongues
quite easily. But all do we know it and feel
it. And have to confess what we are
by nature because God himself has taught us what the doctrine
of total depravity really means. It doesn't mean that we've got
to be sunk in wicked practices. We've not got to be completely
debauched to understand the doctrine and not God show it us in our
very souls. This was Aesop's experience I
contend when he acknowledges here in the text, so foolish
was I and ignorant. I was as a beast before them. We sang it just now in the hymn.
New life from him we must receive before for sin we rightly grieve. We never really grieve over our
sin, over any sense of our sin, until we have that new life.
It is God who must come to us and deal with us, and quicken
us, and show us these things. Verily, verily, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. We cannot
see, we cannot understand it. Without there being that new
birth, that communication, of spiritual life because we are
those who in our very natures are dead, dead in trespasses
and in sins. The words of the Apostle when
he writes to the Colossians concerning the new man. The new man, it's
another name for the divine nature. Peter says we're partakers of
the divine nature. What is that? It's that new nature
that is communicated where there is the great work of regeneration,
when the sinner is born again, when he's born from above. He is then given a new heart,
is he not? the promise of the new covenant,
a new heart also I will give thee, a new spirit I will put
within thee, I will take away the stony heart out of thy flesh,
I will give thee a heart of flesh. And when Paul writes to the Colossians
concerning these things, in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 10, he says
to those believers how they have put on the new man, which is
renewed in knowledge. after the image of Him that created
Him. It's the restoration of the image
of God in the soul of that man. He is renewed in knowledge, it
says, after the image of Him that created Him. When God created
Adam and created Eve, He created man and woman in His own image,
after His own likeness. and what happens in the fall
where Eve embraces the devil's lie and then gives to her husband
being also part out of the forbidden fruit and they are both transgressors
they now bear the image of satan they are fallen creatures now
that image of God has been disfigured and marred but you see when God
comes again and visits the soul and the sinner is born again
why? then he has a new nature the
image is restored after the image of him that created him it's
there in the new man and what is it? it's a renewal
in knowledge It's a renewal in knowledge. Put on the new man
which is renewed in knowledge. Then we have a right knowledge
of ourselves. This is a contrast, you see,
between the characters that are spoken of here in the psalm. The ungodly, the wicked man,
in all of his earthly prosperity, in all the pride of his heart,
And then the man who knows God, Asaph the son, the man who has a clean heart.
Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean
heart. And here is the confession of
a man with a clean heart. So foolish was I and ignorant. I was as a beast. before them. You see, where there
is the renewal of the divine image in man, there is this confession. This confession of sinful ignorance. Isn't that what Asaph is really
saying? This is the mark. This is the
mark of a man who has a new nature. We see it time and again. We see it in the language of
the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7. He says, I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. For to will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. And he goes on to cry, O wretched
man that I am. You shall deliver me from the
body of this death. It's all nature. It's fallen
nature. And this is what Asaph is speaking
of. So foolish was I and ignorant.
I was hazardous. I was a beast. I was a beast
before. Surely, I am more brutish than
any man. and have not the understanding
of a man." That's the confession as we saw on Thursday of wise
Solomon. And it's the same here with Asa.
And look at the language that he uses. We're not only to observe
that it's simply a statement of fact that we have another
simile, but also the word beast. Dr. Gill makes the observation
that the word is really a plural noun. I was beast before them. I was beast. Gil says it's superlative. He really feels what he is, so
base. He's not really a man. He's less
than a man. That's when he is in his fallen
nature, as a sinner. All the depths of that fall,
you see. When we consider what man was when he came pristine
from the hand of his Creator, the noblest of all the works
of creation. And now God declares it to be
very good. But oh, friends, the awful depth
of man's fall into sin. He's just like a beast. And we
have the exhortation therefore in another Psalm, Psalm 32, Be
ye not as a horse or as a mule that hath no understanding, whose
mouth must be howled in by bit and bridle, lest it come near
unto them. Oh, don't be brutish, don't be
so ignorant, don't act as if you have no capacity to reason,
to think, to understand. You know, in a sense, man is
worse than the beast. It's offensive to beasts to compare
sinful man with such creatures. Look at the language of the prophet
Isaiah as he speaks to Israel there in the opening chapter
of his book. He tells us the ox knoweth his
owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know,
my people doth not consider. There were some beasts. This
is the people, the ancient people of God, the typical people of
God that he's speaking to. Israel. Israel does not know. My people does not consider. Oh, what a mercy when God brings
us to consider, to think, to examine ourselves and to see
what we are. He confesses then here His sinful
ignorance. His sinful ignorance. I was as a beast before the essence
so foolish was I so ignorant in fact the margin says that
ignorant means literally I knew not I didn't know anything I
didn't know anything so foolish was I and I knew not I was a
beast before them well let us turn in the second place to consider
out here is not only confessing and acknowledging his sinful
ignorance, but also Isa is speaking here of his inability. And it's sinful inability. It's
sinful inability. As sinners we have no ability
to know anything. No ability to know. Paul says not that we are sufficient
of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. What is he saying? We cannot
even fashion a right thought when it comes to the things of
God left to ourselves. Left to ourselves, we cannot
even think a right thought in respect to God and the Word of
God and the ways of God. Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. Our sufficiency
is of God. Now he is speaking as an apostle
and he is acknowledging, is he not, that he is altogether dependent
upon God in the exercise of his ministry, what he knows, what
he teaches. He says again that the natural
man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, Because they
are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned. That is man's natural mind, you
see. Here is the awful depth of man's fall. He is ignorant, he is unable.
Unable to do anything for himself, anything to help himself. He
is in such a condition. He is altogether alienated from
the life of God. The carnal mind, remember those
words of Romans 8, 7, the carnal mind is enmity against God, it
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And sometimes, when we try to
quote verses from memory, we do misquote. It's good to try
to memorize the words of God, to store our minds with Holy
Scripture, but sometimes we misquote, and I've done that many a time,
and then maybe someone just points out that you're not quite quoting
the verse properly. And I think that with regards
to that verse there in Romans 8-7, the carnal mind is enmity
against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither can
be. But it doesn't say that, does
it? It says more than that. It says neither indeed can do. The statement is so strong, you
see. Neither indeed can. It's an impossibility. It's impossible for the natural
mind of man to be anything but the enemy
of God. It doesn't say the carnal mind
is an enemy. It said it's enmity. Enmity personified. This is why, you see, the sinner
has to be born again. This is why he has to have new
life. It has to be that life of God
that's brought into the soul of the man who is dead in trespasses
and in sins. All his inability and his enmity,
it is sinful. He's culpable. for what he is. We can't excuse ourselves. It's
no good saying, well, I can't help it. It's the way I was born. Why blame me? If what you say
is true, this is the way people might reason with us, if what
you say is true concerning what the Bible says with regards to
Adam and Eve and their fall in the Garden of Eden, and have
all their offspring partake of that fallen nature, well, we
can't help it. We are what we are because of
what they did all those many, many centuries ago. But we're culpable before God. Our ignorance, our enmity, our
inability, In all of these things we are blind worthy and we are
deserving only of the wrath of God. What are we to do? Well we must come surely before
God and we must acknowledge what we are and confess what we are
and seek that God himself would forgive us for these things. Again, in the language of the
Psalm, Psalm 69 and verse 5, O God, Thou knowest my foolishness,
and my sins are not hid from them. God knows. And we are to acknowledge that
God knows, that we cannot hide these things, we come and we
acknowledge these things. Isn't this what the wise man
is doing in those familiar words of Ecclesiastes, Lo, this only
have I found. that God made man upright, but
they have sought out many inventions. God is not the author of sin,
you see. That's what Solomon is saying. God made man upright.
They sought out many inventions. Because Adam who sinned, who
transgressed, God is not the author of his sin. God is not
the author of our sin or our inability. and we're to come
friends and we're to acknowledge it and when we come like that
are we not those who are really confessing that God himself must
come and he must work every good work within our hearts and if
God is not pleased to come and work such works within us we're
lost because we cannot do it of ourselves We need to know
that sovereign work, those gracious operations of the Holy Spirit,
the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe. That Paul speaks of there in
Ephesians chapter 1. Not just the power of God, neither
simply the greatness of that power, Paul says we need the
exceeding greatness of his power. And it's according to the working
of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised
him from the dead. Paul, it's that resurrection
life, you see, that we need to come into our souls. And we have to confess it, we
have to acknowledge it. And this really is what Aesop is doing.
He is owning and acknowledging what he is of himself. So foolish
and ignorant. I was amazed before them. Undone. Unable to help himself. Unable
to save himself in any sense. He needed God to come and to
work every good work in his heart. And that's what God does, that's
what God does. Isaiah says, Thou also has brought
all our works in us. O Lord our God, other lords beside
Thee have had dominion over us, but by Thee only will we make
mention of Thy Name. Or to make mention of that Name
and we can only do it by God. By Thee only will we make mention
of Thy name. To acknowledge that name, you
see, is to acknowledge that God is God and that salvation is
of the Lord. That's what it means to declare that name of God. By
Thee only will we make mention of Thy name. We need God to come
and work all our works in us. The man, says John the Baptist,
can receive nothing except it is given him from heaven. It all comes from heaven, it
all comes from God. No man can come to Him except
the Father which hath sent me. Draw him, says the Lord Jesus
Christ. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and he that
cometh to me I shall in no wise cast out. Lord, you come, you
see, here is the test. Is there that desire to come,
and to call, and to cry, and to acknowledge what we are as
we come to Christ? He that cometh to me says, Christ,
I will in no wise cast out, but who comes? All that the Father
giveth me. No man can come except the Father do the same. It's
all the work of God and yet what does the poor weak sinner have
to do? He has to call and cry and seek
and has that assurance that those who ask receive and those who
seek shall find. Remember the language of good
John Newton in the hymn 278, O could I but believe, he says,
then all would easy be, I would, but can not, Lord, relieve, my
help must come from thee. My help must come from thee.
Lord, I believe, says that man in the gospel, help thou mine
unbelief. Now look at the language here,
of Asaph in the psalm in the text he says so foolish was I
and ignorant I was as a beast I was a beast before thee nevertheless
I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by my right hand
thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive
me to glory whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon
earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
Oh friends, what a nevertheless! What a nevertheless is this that
follows the word of the text. Nevertheless, in spite of all
that I am, my folly, my sinful ignorance, my sinful inability
to do anything for myself, nevertheless. Oh, thank God that we have such
words in Holy Scripture, the neverthelesses of the Word of
God. And we have them many, many a
time, do we not, here in the book of Psalms. In Psalm 106,
verse 7, Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt, They
remembered not the multitude of thy mercies, but provoked
him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless, he saved them
for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to
be known." Look at the contrast. They understood not. They remembered
not. They provoked him. Nevertheless,
he saved them. Why? for his namesake, that his
power, his mighty power might be made known. All thank God
for these neverthelesss. And we have it, I say, here in
this 73rd Psalm in the experience of Asa. Nevertheless, he says,
I am continually whistling. Thou hast holden me by my right
hand. What we have here is not a two-fold
promise. It is the promise, you see, of
God's presence. I am continually with thee, he
says. I am continually with thee. Verse 25, Whom have I in heaven
but thee? There is none upon earth that
I desire besides thee. One of the great blessings of
heaven, of course, is the very presence of God. That's what
makes heaven heaven, is it not? God's presence. God there revealing
himself in him, who is the image of the invisible God, even the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. And so, in the Revelation, when
John speaks of heaven, he speaks of the new heaven, the new earth.
The first heaven, the first earth were passed away, there was no
more sea, he says. I, John, saw the holy city, the
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people,
and God Himself shall be with them and be their God. Here is heaven, you see. Behold
the tabernacle of God, is with men. God is pleased to dwell
with men. This was the glory of Israel,
was it not, in the Old Testament. What was the glory of the tabernacle? We read of it there in Exodus
chapter 25. And what does God say concerning
the tabernacle? and concerning the Holy of Holies
and the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat upon the top of
it. He said there He would come and
commune with Israel. He would sit enthroned in the
midst. God is in the midst of her. Oh,
what a promise is this! What a promise is this! Nevertheless,
says Asaph, I am continually is with God. Why? Because God
is first with him. No man is able to be beforehand
with God. God is first with Asaph, and
Asaph therefore is with God. Here is the promise of that very
presence of God. But more than that, more than
that, a twofold promise I said, here we also have promise of
God's thou hast holden me by my right
hand, he says. All God takes hold of his people. And God preserves his people.
That is the promise, is it not? Again, in Isaiah, we have so
many fear nots, do we not? And there in Isaiah 41, And verse
10, fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I
am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. Verse 13, for I the Lord thy
God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I
will help thee. And now this man, Asaph, needed
God's presence, needed God's help, needed to know more and
more of the power of God. When he is brought to see and
to acknowledge and confess what he was, how foolish was I and
ignorant I was as a beast. I was a beast before thee, he
says. All the believers Is he not one
who feels these things? He feels his father, feels his
ignorance, feels his inability, feels his sin. Do we feel these
things? Do we confess these things? Do
we acknowledge our complete and our utter dependence upon the
Lord in all these ways? And we have that great word,
do we not, concerning those who are in this Gospel? Why? In Isaiah
35 and verse 8, the wayfaring men, it says, those fools shall
not err therein. Oh, we do not err, friends, when
we look to God, and when we acknowledge what we are of ourselves, and
that all our salvation, all our wisdom, must come only from God
Himself. even the Lord Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,
that he that glorieth might glory in the Lord. May the Lord bless
his word to us, for his name's sake. Amen.