Psalm 73. Psalm 73. The clock back there is not working
right, so Vicki will have to wink at me when we're about 30
minutes into it. So I won't get completely lost
in thought. I titled this message, The foolishness
of envying the foolish. The foolishness of envying the
foolish. What we see here in this chapter is a child of God, his inward
thoughts, and his inward thoughts God has
written on paper, He's not hid them. Aren't you glad God did
not hide the sins, faults of Abraham and David? Here it says
Asaph. Some say this is a psalm written
for Asaph. It says over my margin, it says
for Asaph. They say David wrote it and probably
dictated it to him. But here it says a psalm of Asaph. And the next 11 psalms, are said
to be Psalms of Asaph. And here God exposes, gives us
the inward thoughts of this believer. Henry called Asaph David's Mike
Bartram. He was a singer, a musician.
And he was very close to David. And let's look at this. We see
in verses 1 through 3, the inward warfare of a child of God. Now, for any child of God that
has been around for any amount of time, to say, I've never had
these kind of thoughts, I don't know about that. I tell you what,
when God puts you through a hard trial, You know, what's in us
comes out. You'd be surprised what's still
in there until God brings something along that brings these thoughts
to surface. And it's good for us to see this.
It's good for us to see what's still in us because it makes
us more dependent on Christ. It makes us run to Him more often. It makes us call upon Him more
often, and it makes us appreciate salvation by grace more and more. As we grow older, salvation by
grace becomes more and more amazing grace, not less. More and more. Now, he says in verse 1 here,
he says, And I know this, it's what he
said, I know this, I know this from experience, I know this
from observation, I know this by the Word of God, that God
is good to Israel. And then he defines the character
of the Israel he's talking about. Even to such as are of a clean
heart. You know, Paul said, not all
Israel are Israel, but those who are of a clean heart, a pure
heart, a heart that's born of God, it's a new heart. He says here, I know that truly
God's good to them. Has not God been good to us?
Has He not been good to us? Over the years, throughout our
whole life, God's been good to us. And he says, I know God is
good to Israel, those who have a pure heart. He loves them. He chose them. You and I didn't
choose Him. He chose us. Now, we do choose
Him. We do receive Him. But because
He first chose us. I chose you, He said. You didn't
choose me. I chose you. He loved them, chose them, redeemed
them, cares for them, mercy follows them all the days of their lives.
Mercy follows you everywhere you go. You are just encompassed
with the mercy of God. This is God's Israel, true Israel. This is how He treats His true
Israel. But we also see here in Asaph
that even as God's children, No matter how close they may
be to the Lord, how close they may draw near to God, they are
still sinful, sinful men and women. In this life, we are still
sinful men and women. And often we are perplexed, aren't
we? I know you are. I have been.
I have no idea what's going on. I thought this was the direction
I should go, and it hits a wall. Perplexed. Job said, he said,
I am full of confusion. I'm full of confusion. And then Asaph recognizes here
in verse 2, he recognizes that this way of thinking almost led
to a great fall. But as for me, he said, I know
God's good to Israel, but as for me, he said, I'm talking
about me personally. He's going to expose his own
heart here. My feet were almost gone. Quit. My steps had well and I slipped. He said, I recognize this way
of thinking almost led me to a great fall. We ought to guard our thoughts
against God. Our thoughts of God, guard them. Guard them. Our thoughts of God should listen.
Our thoughts of God should never have a question mark after them.
Should they? Should never have a question
mark, our thoughts of God. They should never have a question
mark after them. And one of the things we've got to be careful
of, as He is here, is all our falls usually start with a thought. They start with a thought. The
power of a thought, when it breaks out into an action, causes great
damage. Great damage. And he says in
verse 3, For I was envious at the foolish. And my first thought
in reading that, how foolish to envy the foolish. Think about
it. Who's the bigger fool now? Who's
the biggest fool, the foolish or the one envying the foolish?
He said, I was envious of the foolish. I don't think anybody here would
envy a man on death row, would you? That's the prosperity of the
wicked. They're on death row. They are under the condemnation
of God right now. Everyone who does not believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ right now is under condemnation. God's condemnation. That's real.
That's real. But notice here what he envied.
The prosperity of the wicked. He envied their prosperity. You
know what this is saying? You know what he's saying right
here? He envied to be like them. He
envied to have what they had. He envied their prosperity. That's what he envied. You know,
you ask anybody out there on the street, who they envy the
most, it won't be a believer. It'll be somebody that's successful,
somebody that's made a lot of money, somebody that's got a
lot of fame, it won't be a believer. And here is a believer envying
an unbeliever, envying the prosperity of the wicked. You know, let
us never forget this, God said, I make rich, and I make poor. If you really ever understand
that, you will never envy a rich person again." God made him that
way. God gave them their riches, even
though they're not believers. He gave it to them. And so we don't envy them, but
He did here. And He says this, Well, the problem is, Asa, if
you're looking at the wrong people, or it might have been a person
he was looking at that had his attention. When I saw their prosperity,
I was envious. He says in verse 4 through 9,
here's what he's envious of. First of all, he said, there's
no pain or fear in their death. He said, when they come up to
die, they seem to be alright. They're not in trouble like other
men. They're not in trouble like you
and I get in trouble when God sends us trials. They don't seem
to have those trials and heartaches that we have. This is what's going on in His
heart. And because of this, there in
verse 6, because of this, they dress themselves with pride and
arrogance. They walk around so arrogant.
How can God allow that to keep going on? When you understand
the character of God, and you see what's going on, in your
mind, if you let it go, if you don't watch it, your mind starts
putting question marks. Why has God let this person go
carry on? And I said this not too long
ago. I said to Vicki, I said, it seems like the wicked mean
people can't die. And those whom I know have been
blessed, and believers that I know, I said, and they have died young. I know inner 40s, outstanding
believers, examples. But mean people just can't seem
to die. They just live on and on. I'm being honest. Sometimes being honest, you think,
wow, I can't believe he thought like that. Well, that's exactly
what he says here. We'll get to it. You'll see what
he says. They're dressed in pride and
arrogance. That's the way they live. They
live rich. There's no pain. There's no fear
in their death. They're crooked. They're violent
men. They're violent men. They have so much that their
eyes bug out, they say. Their eyes stick out with fatness. They're so rich that their eyes
bug out. They have more than heart could
desire. They can have anything they want. But here's the thing. What he is looking at and what
you and I look at when we think this way is the outward man. We can't see the heart. You take, for an example, you
take Robin Williams, the comedian, goofy as all get out. at the
top of his class as far as comedians and was successful in making
movies, and that man was total misery and ended up committing
suicide. How many of them have committed
suicide? What you're looking at, look,
what you're looking at is the outward, not the inward. And
I can go on and on with different examples of that. And he says
here, they are corrupt and they speak wickedly. That's their character. Every
thought and imagination is that they are corrupt and they speak
wickedly. And here's his thought now, why
is God letting him live? Why is He letting them prosper? We worship God. We read the Scriptures. We pray. We come here. We seek
to live a godly life. And they're in prosperity and
no bans in their death. Why does He let that go on? They set their mouths against
heaven. There's no fear of God and nothing
happens. Nothing happens. In verse 10, the portion here
is the portion of God's children. The portion of God's children
is a full cup of trials is wrung out to them. A full cup of trials. That's
what He's saying there in verse 10. Therefore His people return
hither, and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. They go on in prosperity. They
go on with no pains and fear of death. I mean, they have a
happy... Outwardly, they look like they have a happy life.
And outwardly, they look like they're just... I mean, they
just look like they've got the world by the tail on a downhill
drag. And he says, God's children,
they just seem to have trials all the times and heartaches
and disappointments. That's what seems to happen to
his children. And he's saying, this is confusing. This is confusing. They're ungodly, they mock, they
say in verse 11, they look at the godly, they say, does God
not know? Does He not know your trouble?
What's wrong? What's the problem? What's the problem? Thought you
were a Christian. What's the problem? Does He have
no knowledge of your trouble? Does God have no knowledge of
your heartaches? You weep and you cry through
a trial, and you ask God to remove it, and He does it, and you keep
going, and it's like, well, where's your God at? Where's He at? And sometimes,
even saints ask this question. Does God not know my trouble?
Does God not see? Does he not see? He says in verse 12, Behold,
the ungodly prosper in the world. The ones he was looking at at
that time, he said, they prosper. The ungodly prosper in the world. Well, listen, they do prosper
in the world for a little while. For a little while. And they only prosper in material
gain which only adds to their condemnation. It just adds to
their condemnation. Their prosperity is only in the
world, it's not in soul. Which would you rather have?
Soul prosperity? Peace with God? Peace in the
heart? Forgiveness of sins? Or a million
dollars in the bank? And boy, here is the pinnacle
of his way of thinking. It's terrible. It's terrible
to think like this. In verse 13, Verily I have cleansed
my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence. Well,
that's an unchecked thought when it starts in that direction.
This is where it leads to. My faith has been in vain. My
life has been in vain. All of this is in vain. This is a child of God now. This
is a child of God. Oh, he said, truly I have cleansed
my heart in vain, washed my hands in innocence. My faith has done
me no good. Believing God and following Him
has brought me no good. It's brought me nothing but pain
and suffering and trials. That's all it's brought me. And
he says, it's all in vain. This is the great danger of such
thoughts because it leads to this. that God has failed. That God has failed. In that
verse, he's saying that God has failed. You let God try you hard enough.
Well, you don't have to let Him, but if He tries you hard enough,
you'd be surprised what comes up out of there. He says in verse 14, see? Every
day I'm chastened. Every day I'm troubled. You know,
I felt like my dad and mom whipped me all the time. I did. I felt
like, man, I must get more whipping than anybody on this earth. And
I'm telling you, it's because they loved me. Now I'm telling
you that now, but then, I didn't think that way then. They loved me. They discipline
me. And God disciplines those whom
He loves. He said He chastens those whom
He loves. And He's saying here in verse 14, I'm chastened and
troubled every day. I lost three jobs. I lost three
jobs. And I kept saying, every time
I'd lose a job, I said, why? Why? Why do I keep losing these
jobs? And it was going out of business.
They'd go out of bed, and I thought, why? It's like every time I felt
like I was getting right up here to where I was comfortable, bam,
the ladder got kicked out from under me. But you know what? It's brought me to this place. And I understand what I'm talking
about. I understand. He chastens us, He troubles us,
He takes from us, He gives to us. Now that I'm 65 years old
and I've been in this over 40 years, I would rather He take
from me and give me grace. Take my sins away. Take them
away and give me mercy. Now it's spiritual. It's the
spiritual things I want now in the rest of my life. It's the
spiritual things I want. I can live on bread. I don't have to have a full course
meal. I can live on just bread. But
my soul, the things that I need, I know, are spiritual. We shouldn't complain of the
chastening hand of God if we understood what it really is,
and what it really means, and who's behind it. And it says here in verse 15,
and this is what I say and I get to. I said, if I said, you know,
the things that we think... Look in verse 15. If I say, I
will speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation
of thy children, When I thought to know this, it was too painful
for me. Listen, let me paraphrase it. If I tell what I'm thinking,
I'll offend the children of God. If I tell what I'm thinking,
if I tell what's going on in my heart right now, whatever was
squeezing it out of me, whatever trial it was, if I was to speak
this out right now, I would offend the generation, I would offend
God's children. I would. How can a child of God
think like that? That's what they would say. How can he think like that? Well,
if you live long enough and you're a child of God, you'll find out. You will find out. And when I thought to know this,
it was too painful for me. When I thought how my thoughts
spoken would scandalize God's family, it was too painful for
me." In other words, if I tell it, it's too painful. I would
scandalize God's family. If I keep it to myself, it's
painful. Whether I tell it or keep it to myself, what's going
on right now is very painful, and my thoughts of God are painful. They're painful. Sometimes it's better to keep
our mouth shut and just pour out our hearts before God who
cares for us. It is. I know that, you know, there's
some people just, you know, I like to speak my mind. I haven't met
a village idiot yet that doesn't like to speak their mind. That's
not why I speak your mind, really. How arrogant is it of me to think
that me speaking my mind is something you ought to hear? Oh, this man's misery. Here's a believer that's in misery
right now. His thoughts of God. You know this by experience. You know that sometimes you have
thoughts of God and you know they're wrong. You know they're
wrong. But it's just like buzzards,
they won't go away. And you've got to struggle against
them. Most of our spiritual warfare,
most of the time, is inward. Most of it's inward. But notice here what happens.
He's sitting here, I mean, he's musing over this, and he said,
I know God's good to Israel. I know He's good to them, they're
of a clean heart. But my feet, he said, well, they're
about gone, because here's how I was thinking of God. These
are my thoughts. These are my thoughts, and this
is how I was thinking. Until I went into the sanctuary of
God, until light burst in. Miserable were my thoughts until
light burst in. I went to the sanctuary of God."
I think Spurgeon is right on this. Now, many of them said
this is when he went to the worship service. We can come here and
we read the Word of God, hear the Word preached, and it gets
us focused. But I think Spurgeon had it right
when he said this, He said whenever he went in his mind, by faith,
and we know that to do that, the Spirit of God enables us
to do it. This is not without the Spirit
of God. But when he in his mind, by faith, he lifted himself up
into heaven in thought. You see, he quit looking at the
prosperity of the wicked. He quit looking at them. And
he began to look at God. His mind, His faith, His heart
entered into the sanctuary of God. Where's God? In heaven. I looked up to God and I began
to think of who He is. I began to think of His purpose.
I began to set my mind and my thoughts upon God Almighty. And
when I did that, I understood their end. I understood I understood,
first of all, they have an end. They're going to die. They're
going to die. They die just like we do. The graveyard is full of them
as well as people like us. They have an end. And secondly,
they all must stand before God. And how are they going to do
that? How are they going to stand before God? Now he's thinking
right. Now he's thinking right. His
mind is now lifted up to heaven, his heart is on God, his thoughts
are on God, and now he's having some understanding of their end,
and what a blessing he has in Christ. And they've got to stand before
God, and who can do that? Listen to Nahum. I'm going to
read Nahum to you. I'm going to start in verse 2 and read
to verse 6. Listen to this. Nahum. God is jealous, and the
Lord revengeth. The Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies. The Lord
is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit
the wicked. The Lord hath His way in the
whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His
feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and dryeth up the
rivers. Bashan languisheth, Carmel, and
the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at Him, and
the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence. Yea,
the world and all that dwell therein, who can stand before
His indignation? and who can abide the fierceness
of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are thrown down by him." Who can stand before
God? When he looked into heaven and
he looked at God, they can't stand before God. He saw their
end. He saw the brevity of their life.
And he saw that they were on a slippery slope sliding down
into hell. That's what he saw. And now the envy has stopped.
If you want to stop envy, just look at God. Look at Christ. Look what you have in Him. You'll
not envy another person on this earth. God, He said in verse 18, has
sent them in slippery places. All their prosperity, you know
what their prosperity is like? It's like a slicky slide. You
know, you ever hear, you hear kids going down Slicky Slide?
Wee! You know, they're hollering and hooping and all, but boy,
they hit the ground. That's not fun. Here they are
enjoying their life, enjoying everything, just, and then they drop off into hell.
I was trying to think of that song. I heard his song some time
ago. I probably shouldn't even...
This is where I get messed up when I start trying to remember
something. He's this guy, this country song. He heard he had
cancer. He only had a certain time to
die. I don't know if you remember the song. And what did he do?
You know what he did? He went out and rode a bull named
Fu Manchu and went skydiving. Remember all that? Yeah, he didn't
call upon God. He didn't call upon Christ. He
went and rode a stupid bull, and went skydiving. I mean, what
he did, he's just like, I'm living now. No, you're not. You're not
living until Christ gives you life. Here's a slicky slide for them.
They are marked for destruction. They die, he said in verse 19,
they die in a moment. They die unexpectedly. Do you
think Kobe Bryant thought about dying the day he got on that
plane? You think Payne Stewart thought about dying several years
ago when that plane lost compression and he died in that plane? Now,
I'm not going to say I know their hearts. I'm not going to. I mean,
I have my own idea, but. You think they thought they was
going to be rich? I mean, wealthy. and gone in
a moment, in a second. I don't know why people think
that they're just not going to die as they get old. You're going
to die when God says, that's it. I don't care what age you
are. It doesn't matter what age. Age
is nothing to God. They die in a moment, they go
to the doctor, and they find out the ride is over. They die in a moment. That's
what he says there in verse 19. How are they brought into desolation
as in a moment? They are utterly consumed with
terrors. They drop into hell. They drop
off into destruction. Health doesn't keep me alive.
I'm thankful for health. Health does not keep me alive. It is God who keeps me alive. It is God who keeps every human
being on this earth alive. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. God
gives natural life, and He'll call that life away. in a moment, in an unsuspecting
moment. And when this happens, they're
gone, and they're gone forever, and they're gone from the mind
of God. They're gone. The place thereof
shall know them no more. I tell you what, you can break
your leg and go to the hospital and come back. But you can't die and come back. You can't do that. And now he comes to his senses.
In verses 21 and 22. Thus, he says, my heart was grieved
and I was pricked in my reign. So foolish was I, ignorant, I
was like a beast before they, how could I think like this? He said, my heart was grieved
for thinking like this. I was pricked in my reins, and
that word means kidneys. Reins means kidneys. They used
to believe this is where the emotions came from. And he says,
I was just devastated and convicted that I, a child of God, would
actually think like this. That I would think that I cleansed
my hands in innocency? That this is all in vain? What
was I thinking? Oh, this way of thinking of God
was foolish on my part. I was not any better than a beast. Nevertheless, oh, the mercy of
God. The mercy, the mercy, the mercy
of God. Nevertheless. Even when I was
in this state, this state of mind, and even though I was thinking
such horrible thoughts of God, and I was so envious at the wicked,
nevertheless, I'm continually with Him. I'm still His. He still has me hugged up by
His side. I'm still His. I'm still His
child. I'm His child when my mind is thinking upon Him and
when my mind is thinking upon something else. That doesn't
change my relationship to God. My relationship to God in Christ
is secure. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, not even our thoughts
like this. Nevertheless, I'm continually
with thee. Thou hast holden or strengthened me. You've held
me by my right hand. You've kept me walking." It's
like this, here he is groveling around and thinking such hard
thoughts of God, and God Almighty has him by the hand, leading
him along while he's thinking like that. It's like a father
whose child is grumbling and complaining, but they've got
them by the hand, just leading them to the house. Oh, nevertheless, I'm continually
with you and you hold my right hand, you never let me go. Sometimes
I let Him go. Sometimes I don't, in my thoughts,
in the way I think. But He never lets me go. He's
a covenant God. God never breaks a covenant. And listen to this, Thou shalt
guide me with Thy counsel. What do you think is going on
right now? Through this experience of Asaph, God is guiding us with
His counsel through this experience, and had it written down for us
for this hour. You guide me with Your counsel,
Your gospel, Your word, and afterward, You receive me to glory. This
wretch, this wretched human being, this wretched sinner, Can you
believe that God received me to glory? He's going to take
me home. Can you believe that? Oh, now his thoughts are right.
Who have I in heaven but thee? There's none upon earth I desire
beside thee. That's not what you started out
saying. Oh, how fickle we are. But I
have to say this, though. Verse 25 is the heart of every
child of God. We have our ups and downs, and
there's times that sin raises its ugly head, but I tell you
what, our desire is to be with the Lord. Our desire is to know
Him more and more in this life, and to be with Him forever and
ever. There's no one on this earth
I desire beside Thee, and there's no one in heaven. Over the years,
we'll have loved ones go to heaven, right? But that's not the ones we really
want to see. We want to see Him. But I don't want to die and go
to heaven so I can see Henry. That's my goal, is to see Him. No, it's to see Christ. I'll
see Him and Scott and all these other men, Abraham, Isaiah. And
I look forward to being able to actually talk to them and
see them. I've read about them. But it's Christ we desire. It's
Christ that we desire and love, and He's the one we want to see. And my flesh and my heart, they
fail. They fail. Oh, do they ever. Day by day, they fail. But God's
the strength of my heart. We are kept by the power of God
through faith. He's the strength of my heart
and my portion forever. For lo, they that are far off
from thee shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them
that go whoring from thee. But it's good for me to draw
near to God. It'll keep me from thinking like that. It's good
to draw near to God every day. Every day. Draw near to Him.
I put my trust in the Lord God. Now He's thinking right. Now
he's thinking right. That I may declare all thy works. Can a believer get in such a
mess mentally? Yes, they can. If the trial's
hot enough. And it doesn't have to be on
you personally. It could be on your family, be on your children
or grandchildren. You know, that's tough. That's tougher than it being
on yourself. I can say from experience, it's easier to have it on myself
than it is on your children or your grandchildren. The foolishness of envying the
foolish. Look what we have in Christ.
All right.