We're in Psalm 73 tonight, if
you want to turn to Psalm 73. I want to begin. by reading through this psalm
with you, and then we will try to get through it. I suspect
we will have a second part to this psalm, so I'm not going
to worry if we don't get through the entire psalm tonight, but
this is a wonderful chapter. I'm always excited about getting
into these psalms. When I pick up a new chapter
and begin to read it, and the Lord begins to shine light on
it, it's very exciting. So in Psalm 73, we read these
words. In verse one, truly, God is good
to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for
me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there is no bands
in their death, but their strength is firm. 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. Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could
wish. They are corrupt and speak wickedly concerning oppression.
They speak loftily. They set their mouth against
the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. Therefore
his people return hither, and waters of a full cup are wrung
out to them. And they say, How does God know?
And is their knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are
the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches. Verily, I have cleansed my heart
in vain and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long
have I been plagued and chastened every morning. 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. Until I went into the sanctuary
of God, then understood I their end. Surely thou did set them
in slippery places. Thou castest them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation,
as in a moment? they are utterly consumed with
terrors. As a dream, when one awaketh,
so, O Lord, when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise their image.
Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So
foolish was I and ignorant. I was as 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.
For lo, they that are far off from thee, 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." Okay, so I want to look
at this psalm in kind of an overview way right now. I want you to
see at an overview level some of the lessons that are plainly
taught in this psalm. When we do that, I think that
we'll appreciate this psalm in detail more if we can see at
an overview at least what the psalmist is saying here and what
God is teaching his people through this psalm. The first thing to
note is that this psalm, like all of the psalms, are psalms
given by the Spirit of God. And the person writing this psalm
may be Asaph, it seems as if it is from the heading, the psalm
of Asaph, or maybe David, but it doesn't really matter because
it's inspired by the Spirit of God and therefore we know it's
written by God to his people. So that's the first thing. And
on that grounds, we go on to also notice this, that the psalmist
here, whether it was David or Asaph, is speaking about, in
the first verse, he's speaking about God's goodness. And this
is an overview of the psalm. The first verse is an overview
of the entire psalm. He says, truly, God is good to
Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. So, this verse
sets the tone of the entire psalm, because even though what follows
this verse may seem like there's a low, the psalmist dives down
into this low view of things, in this particular verse, this
first verse, he sets the truth in place that God is good to
Israel. And so the first lesson we learn
here is even though in the appearance of things to our outward senses,
to our inward senses, whatever our senses are of things, that
is an unreliable measure God is good to Israel, even to such
as are of a clean heart. That's the truth first declared. And that truth is going to hold
true forever, and certainly holds true for the entire psalm. But
it's important that we see that this is done, first of all, in
order to set the groundwork for those to whom this song is given,
and who sing it, so that they understand the psalm is teaching
this. God is good to Israel. Even though the psalmist is concerned
about what he sees and his experience and all that occurs in this psalm,
God is good to Israel. And that reminds us of what God
says in Romans chapter 8. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to those who are the
called according to his purpose. He foreknew them, He predestinated
them to be conformed to the image of His Son. He called them, He
justified them, and He glorified them. And nothing shall separate
them from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. So that's
what this psalm is saying here. Truly, God is good to Israel.
And that should be for our comfort. Come what may, come whatever
may come, God is good, and God is good to Israel. And of course,
Israel here doesn't mean the nation of Israel. And it doesn't
mean the psalm isn't written to a physical group of people,
but to a spiritual people. Those who are of a clean heart,
he says in verse one. Even to such as are of a clean
heart. So that's the first thing. The
first thing we learn in this psalm is under the inspiration
of God the Holy Spirit, this psalm is saying God is good to
Israel. no matter what the appearance
is. Now, the second lesson that we learn from this psalm may
be completely obvious, but it takes a while for it to sink
in for me. And that is that the psalmist is describing here in
the first verse the truth of God's goodness to his people.
But then he talks about himself in verses 2 through verse 14. And in this view, he's actually
confessing. He's confessing his wrong views. And you can see what happened
here is that he relapsed in unbelief. He began to compare his situation
to the situation of others. In fact, he began to look at
the ungodly, the foolish, the wicked, as they're called in
the psalm. And when he did that, by comparing himself to others,
you're always going to do wrong. You're either going to elevate
yourself above them or you're going to elevate them above yourself
in a way that gives credit for their betterment to something
God finds in them or to their outward circumstances. And so
the psalm is really a confession. The first half of the psalm is
really a confession of sin. And then the second half is the
recovery that God has done. He learned these things, the
truth, when it says in verse 17, until I went into the sanctuary
of God. He learned the truth then, and then he has a completely
different outlook. So we can see here that believers,
because this man was a believer, believers can fall into this
relapse of unbelief. And yet, here's the lesson, God
always holds them up. He does not let his people fall.
He will recover them. And here's another lesson. Since
this is a confession of sin and the recovery from it, this sin
was a sin of unbelief, he looked out with his physical senses,
he observed by the appearance of things, these people seemed
to be doing far better than he. And he noticed that the ungodly
in the world prospered, but God's people languished. They suffered
many things. And so this was the perception
of sight. And so he was going on with this
false view, a view of unbelief, because he had taken his eyes
off of the word of God, the truth of God concerning Christ. And
because he had done that, and we see his recovery, we see God's
grace to recover this man, but we also see how God turned, once
again, God turned the evil into good. In spite of our sin, because
of God's grace, he saves us for his glory and for our salvation. And that's perhaps the third
lesson that we see in this psalm. So again, God is good to Israel. The Israel of God he's talking
about are those of a clean heart. And even though to all appearances
it seems that God is not good, He is. And there's no doubting
this because God says so and the rest of scripture testifies
to it. And the second thing is that
even though this man was a believer, he fell into this sin of unbelief,
which is striking to us, isn't it? It's surprising that a believer
would fall into the sin of unbelief. It shows that believers are not
immune to unbelief. In fact, unbelief is with us.
And that's why we hear so many cries in scripture, Lord, I believe,
help my unbelief, or increase our faith. Those things are confessions
of our need for the Lord Jesus Christ to uphold us in faith.
That's what Christ prayed for Peter. Remember Jesus told Peter
that before the cock crows twice, you will deny me thrice. But I have prayed for your faith.
Remember? And so this is what we need.
We need the Lord to uphold our faith. And so even though we're
believers, we may fall into this problem of unbelief by looking
at things through our physical senses, our perception of things
instead of God's word alone. And then the other lesson that
I just mentioned is that God turns this sin for our good because
he uses it as an instruction to us for our comfort so that
we would understand that even though it seems like the wicked
prosper, even though we ourselves fall into unbelief, and yet the
Lord turns it for good in the case of this psalm to instruct
us to always look to Christ, to stand on God's word and not
by what we observe in our physical senses. Those are very simple
but very important lessons here. So this anchor given in verse
one of the truth at the very outset helps us immensely. And
then this confession, it teaches us here the confession of the
sin of the psalmist here in his unbelief is showing us that he
had a clean heart, didn't he? A clean heart confesses sin,
because a clean heart sees that my acceptance before God is not
by me removing my sin or by me fulfilling God's righteousness,
but that has to come from God. He has to provide it, and that
is what He did in Christ, and He gives it to us freely. Therefore,
we can confess our sin, can't we? If we know that we have access
to God by the blood of Jesus, then we can confess our sins.
openly, and that is the evidence of a clean heart. Okay, so that's
an overview here, is that these things we see at the very outset.
And there are other lessons too that I would like to point out
as we go through this. I guess one of the lessons here
that we can see in this psalm is that in the psalm here, Asaph,
or David, whoever the psalmist was, is writing about what he
observes is the prosperity of the wicked. He says, I was envious,
in verse 3, I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity
of the wicked. Now this, I think, is a very
pivotal statement in this psalm, a very pivotal verse, the prosperity
of the wicked. He obviously is discerning the
prosperity of the wicked by what he sees. He looks out and he
sees people. And when he looks at those people,
he sees their lives. And there's two things that he
sees. One is that they seem to be successful. And the other
one is that they don't seem to have many problems. And he considers
that in comparison to himself, and he realizes he doesn't have
like they do. And he also is experiencing all
kinds of trouble. So I want you to think about
this now, because whenever the Lord talks about prosperity versus
poverty in Scripture, We naturally think, well, that means someone
has a lot of money in the bank, or they have a lot of food in
the barn, or they have a big house, or whatever they have. And we look at other people who
have more than us. Somebody won the lottery. They
just got $100 million, some unbelievable amount of money. And we wonder,
man, why couldn't I win the lottery? Well, in my case, because I don't
play the lottery, but even so, if the Lord wanted me to have
it, I'd have it. But that's not true riches, is
it? Remember in 1 Timothy 6, He says,
the love of money is the root of all evil. And I was thinking
the other day, I don't know if I told you or you all or I told
my daughter or whoever I was talking to, I thought, isn't
it interesting that the children of these rich men that we know
in the world, you know, pick the rich people in the world
that you know about, and their children. I bet those children
have no lack. I bet they don't have to think
about, well, who's going to pay for my college, or what about
if I fall in hard times and I lose my job, or whatever it is. They
don't have to worry about that, do they? Because their parents
are so wealthy. They're not going to let their
kids suffer. They're going to come to their rescue if they
fall into financial ruin. So they don't have to worry,
do they? Is that riches? Would it be better to be financially
positioned so that you could give your kids all that? Or would
it be better to teach them contentment with godliness? According to
Scripture, contentment with godliness is great gain, but the love of
money is the root of all evil. So what makes us rich in God's
esteem is not the possession of things. And I think that that's
essential that we understand this as we understand this psalm.
To understand this psalm, we have to understand what God is
talking about when he's talking about these things called prosperity
and poverty. And so, at an overview level
now, think about this psalm in this light. One, we naturally
think, well, I looked out and I saw my neighbor, he had his
job, he had his cars, he had his home, he was always able
to pay his bills. But here I am, I've lost my job,
I lost my car. broke down, and my house is failing,
and I don't have any money to repair it. Why is he doing so
well? He's an unbeliever. I trust the
Lord, and here I am suffering." We begin to think about it that
way, then we think of this prosperity in verse 3 as being a physical
prosperity. But then there's another way
to look at it. And this, I think, is the better way to consider
this psalm. Even though superficially, it's
natural for us to look at somebody and envy their possessions or
covet what they have. God hasn't given it to us. Gave
it to them. Therefore, now we're off into
covetous land. We're completely off the rails.
When we strive, we're trying to figure out how we can get
the things that we want, and our life is consumed with this
pursuit of money, or whatever money buys. But that is a problem,
that is a problem. You can't love, you can't serve
two masters, Jesus said. If you trust in money, or if
you love money, then you cannot serve God. And so we have to
understand that at a physical level. Money's a problem with
us. Covetousness is a problem. But really, I think that on a
spiritual level, what is more troubling? What's more troubling
to a believer Is physical poverty more troubling than spiritual
poverty? Is this sense of not having any
righteousness before God more troubling to a believer? Or is
it not having enough money? You see, if we begin to think
about it in spiritual terms, what we see is that it's natural
for men of the world who are listening to and believing the
false doctrines of idolaters, really, And we see them comfortable
when they die. They don't seem to be troubled. They say, well, all is good with
me and God. I'm gonna appear before Christ. I'll tell him
about all that I've done and he'll let me into heaven. And
they're just as at ease as could be. So there's this natural tendency
for the believer to say, why am I constantly troubled internally
by fears and doubts and crying out to the Lord? Lord, save me. And I see the poverty of my own
faith in so many things. And then I see others who don't,
they seem to be immune to this internal warfare. I'm shaken
by that. I might be shaken by that because
I'm beginning to live by sight and not by faith. I'm beginning
to trust what I see and can observe about my own self instead of
what I know to be true from the gospel concerning Christ. Now,
building on this, we also know that when the Lord talks about
true riches, he talks about spiritual things. He doesn't talk about
physical things. He says in Matthew chapter 5,
blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is, remember what
it says, the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven? Are you
kidding? The kingdom of heaven is ours,
the poor in spirit, the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that
mourn, they shall be comforted. Is there anything more in this
world, more valuable than the comfort of God, which is in Christ
Jesus, our Lord? Blessed are they that, the poor
in spirit, they that mourn. Blessed are they that, blessed
are the meek. And the meek are those who, they're
lowly. In their mind, they've been made
low. and they don't take confidence
in themselves. They look to Christ, and their
highest privilege, their highest delight comes in submission to
Christ. And so we could go down all the
list of things. Blessed are the pure in heart. What is a pure
heart? A pure heart is a heart God gives, a heart that knows
myself to be a great sinner, and a heart that knows Christ
is everything. God told Abraham in Genesis 15,
verse one, he said, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward. The Lord is my portion, you see.
If God is my inheritance, if the Lord is for me, who can be
against me? What do I lack? If I have Christ,
I have all things. So if we understand it that way,
then we see such a beauty in this psalm, that the Lord is
talking here about this natural inclination of his people, like
the psalmist, to fall into this self-introspective consideration
of ourselves and find nothing in ourselves that we're utterly
bankrupt, spiritually bankrupt in ourselves, but then we're
taught by the Lord himself that our portion, our reward, all
of our life, faith and everything is given to us, every spiritual
and heavenly blessing is given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we see that, Then we
see, oh, I understand now. Now this is what God teaches
His people. He teaches them in Christ that
Christ is all, and what could we have more than Him? If God
is for us, who can be against us? The ungodly The wicked, the
foolish, as it calls them in this psalm, those are they who
appear in judgment before Christ, and they stand upon their own
righteousness, and at that time, everything that they trusted
in is knocked out from under them, and they have the greatest
terror and the greatest woe. But to the believer, everything
is knocked out from under us and ourselves, and we're standing
upon Christ the rock. and standing upon him, our house
will not fall, even in judgment. Because the Lord says, no weapon
that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every enemy that
comes against you will be utterly failed, because their righteousness
is of me. I'm going to read that actual
verse to you in Isaiah 54, because I didn't quote it correctly.
Isaiah 54 verse 17, no weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment.
These slanderers, these accusers, which are ministers of Satan,
they shall be condemned, thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord. This is their inheritance. He
says, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. There
you go. What do we want? Righteousness.
What do we have? Righteousness. Where do we get
it? The Lord gives it. Whose is it? It's ours. But who
produced it? Christ. You see, this is riches. This is riches beyond our wildest
imagination. And so when we look at the psalm
in this way, I think it helps us. All right, so let's go back
here and look at some of the details of this psalm. Reading
verse one again, truly God is good to Israel, even to such
as are of a clean heart. Again, Israel is defined right
here in this verse, isn't it? Those who have a clean heart.
In Romans chapter two and verse 28 through 29, the apostle Paul
says, he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that
circumcision which is outward in the flesh. So it's not outwardness.
But he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is
of the heart, not in the letter, but in the spirit. So we see
that the true Israel of God are those whose hearts have been
made clean. God alone gives us a clean heart. In Psalm 51, verse 10, David
prayed, Lord, create in me a clean heart, O God. created me a clean
heart, O God." It has to be created. It has to be given. We can't
produce it. We can't work it up. We can't
make our heart clean. The Lord has to give it to us.
And a clean heart is a new creature in Christ Jesus. Is it 1 Corinthians? I think no, it's 2 Corinthians
5.17. Let me read that to you. This is an important principle that we need to have
firmly in our grasp in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17. Let me get there. He says, if
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed
away. Behold, all things are become
new. Okay, so what do we have If we
are the Lord's people, a clean heart. How did we get it? The
Lord gave it to us. He created it. Created me a clean
heart. If we're in Christ Jesus, we're
a new creation. God has created us in Christ.
This is something we were not before. We couldn't produce this. We can't make ourselves new creatures. God has to create us. He creates
it out of our nothingness. Creation is always a work of
God out of nothing. Out of the empty void darkness
of ourselves, the Lord created His light in us. He commanded
the light of the gospel to shine in our hearts. And so again,
we also see in Ephesians chapter 2 the same creation taking place. Ephesians 2, it says, we are
His workmanship. That means we're the work. We're
the work of God. He created us. He says, we are
His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God has before ordained that we should walk in them. Where
do our good works come from? From God's predestinated will,
from His work in us, because He created us. We're His workmanship. And when he's done, he's going
to look at his work, and he's going to say, very good. And
he's going to receive us into glory. So that's the truth here,
is that God creates that new heart in us, that clean heart.
But, and let me go to one more verse in Ephesians chapter four
and verse 22, he says, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Now
the spirit of your mind means the way you think. But it doesn't
just mean everybody has the spirit, their mind, in their mind they
think spiritual thoughts. What he's saying here is that
when the Lord saves us, he gives us a spiritual mind. Remember in First Corinthians
chapter two, He says, no one knows the things of God but the
Spirit of God, and He has to reveal them to us. God reveals
the things of God to us by His Spirit. And then also in 1 Corinthians
2, He says, the natural man does not receive the things of the
Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him. But the spiritual man
does. In fact, he says the Spirit of
God is given to us in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12, that we might know
the things which are freely given to us of God. So it's by the
Spirit of God that we have this mind that can receive spiritual
things. We can know spiritual things.
In the last verse of 1 Corinthians 2, he says we have the mind of
Christ. So this tells us that by the
Spirit of God, Christ dwells in us. Christ is in us, and we
have his mind. We see things that God has revealed
from his word, and we understand them. in the truth of them, and
this is especially true concerning the things of Christ. And so
he says here in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 22, put off concerning
the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according
to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your
mind. So we have an old man were to put him off, be renewed in
the spirit of your mind. So there's this renewal constantly
happening. And that you put on, verse 24,
Ephesians 4.24, that you put on the new man. which after God is created, notice,
in righteousness and true holiness. So we have something in us. We
can't put our hands on it. We can't touch it. I don't think
it has any mass to it. It's the spirit of God in us,
dwelling in us. And this spirit that God has
put in us has created in us a new spirit. A spirit that's called
a new man. It's a new creation, it's God's
work, and it is created in righteousness and true holiness. And yet, at
the same time, what else do we have? We have an old man, and
we have a mind that is called the flesh. And this flesh is
what we are naturally. And Paul sums it up in Romans
7 when he says, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So here we have this warfare
going on because a Christian is a person with these two natures.
And so when we look at Psalm 73, we see this. He says, truly
God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. They have a new nature. And it
is the new nature. that understands and confesses
its old nature. And this is very key. Blessed
are the pure in heart. What do the pure in heart do?
Well, they're poor in spirit. They mourn. They're meek. They hunger and thirst after
righteousness. They're peacemakers. They're merciful. And they're
persecuted for that righteousness that they hunger and thirst after,
which they find in Christ alone. Because when they find their
righteousness in Christ alone, what do they confess? The only
righteousness there is, is Christ's righteousness. And I have none
of my own. All I have is what is Christ's.
And that completely takes away all trust of false religion.
And when false religion, people who hold a false religion hear
that, they don't like it. It angers them, and they persecute
you for that righteousness sake. So this is the results of a clean
heart, you see. The pure heart God gives to us
is this heart that Jesus describes in Matthew 5 in the Beatitudes.
We're given this pure heart. It makes us pour in spirit. It
makes us mourn over our sin and the sinful unbelief that we have. It makes us ashamed of that.
It makes us meek. It makes us merciful. It makes
us hunger and thirst for Christ's righteousness. And it makes us
to be peacemakers because we declare to this world and to
one another that Christ is our peace. And so that causes persecution. And it's all for Christ's sake,
isn't it? Okay, so the Israel of God are
the clean, the pure in heart. And they got that heart from
the Lord himself. And this comes to them by grace. So we can see right away, this
is a word of grace. This psalm is a word of grace.
It's a word of grace to God's people, the Israel of God. They're
not all Israel, which are of Israel. Remember Romans chapter
nine? Those who are born in Israel, they're not all the true Israel.
But the children of the promise, the children of God's eternal
election in Christ, that promise, the promise God gave to Christ,
and he told Abraham of his promise to Christ, those are the children
of promise. They are the children of God.
And so they are the true Israel of God. Okay, he says in verse
two, but as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well
nigh slipped, for I was envious at the foolish. And here he begins
his sad confession. Now, there's something here that
he's confessing and it's called envy, E-N-V-Y, envy. And this is something that I
myself have struggled with over many years. Envy. It's just so
sick to realize that when we envy something, isn't it? It's
sick for many reasons. One reason is that if God hasn't
given it to me, why am I coveting this? And why do I despise somebody
else because the Lord is promoting them above me, or someone is
giving them honor more than me, or they're given better treatment
than me? Why do I complain about that?
on a very simple level, that's shameful, isn't it? And yet you
find these seeds of envy in ourselves because it arises up as soon
as we see something going on that we didn't get part of. We have this proud sense of entitlement
And if we don't get what we think we're entitled to get, we begin
to complain. And we accuse God of wrongdoing,
in our minds at least, and we begin to despise others because
they're being treated well. Envy is a horrible, horrible
problem. Remember, it was for envy that
Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery. They envied him. And
it was for envy that they crucified Christ, the Lord of glory. There
was nothing wrong with him. He stooped so low? How could
they envy someone who was so humble, so meek and lowly? But
they did, because that's the natural heart of man, is to envy.
So that's the first thing I see about this. I was envious at
the foolish, he says. But here's the other surprising
thing about this. in his confession is that he
details his sin when he talks about it. He describes it in
detail in a despicable way. It's a shameful thing because
who does he envy? The foolish? He goes on to describe
their situation. These are those that the Lord
has put in slippery places, he says. Through their pride, they're
ensnared, and they're brought into destruction by their own
foolishness. Why would I envy anybody like
that? I should pity them, not envy
them. And besides, the riches they
have are going to be burnt up. And the things that they think
are riches, their self-righteousness, it's going to be exposed as filthy
rags in the day of judgment. Why would I envy them? You see,
you can really feel now the shame that he's admitting here in himself,
that he would say this. In verse 22, he says, so foolish
was I and ignorant. I was as a beast before thee. I was worse than a person. I was an animal in this envy,
you see. There's never a reason to envy,
and yet we do, don't we? Because we feel the results of
this old nature in us. And our new nature recognizes
that, and this man's new nature, this clean heart in this man
enabled him to confess these things to the Lord. And he does
it for our instruction, doesn't he? He says in verse four, there
are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm. And
the word bands here means constraints. They're not constrained in their
death. They don't feel the pain and
the stress that comes through death. They're free. They seem
like everything's easy for them. I mean, you can point out a lot
of people who fear death and they're terrified of death, and
I would admit there are, but there are a lot of people who,
especially religious people, you talk to them and they seem
to be without conscience when it comes to claiming that their
works are good works and that God is going to accept them freely
because of what they've done or because of what they've given
or because of anything about themselves. So why would we envy
them? But yet he says they don't seem
to be in any kind of trouble and their strength is firm Verse
five, they are not in trouble as other men, neither are they
plagued like other men. And on a physical level, we could
see this. He gets to go to bed every night.
He gets up in the morning well rested. He's got all that heart
could wish. And here I am in poverty. Now
on a physical level, Christians often are not in poverty, but
they're also not often rich. They have enough, but they rarely
have such an abundance as the rich of this world have. More
commonly, they have nothing, or very little. They have enough.
David said, I haven't seen the righteous begging bread. The
Lord takes care of them. But on the other hand, they find
trouble, don't they? They find trouble, and they feel
plagued. Solomon said, if a man who understands
the plague of his own heart prays toward this temple, which is
where God dwells, which is where Christ is, God in Christ, if
he prays to the Lord Jesus Christ, And where all of God's people
join together and meet with Him in that place, in Christ, by
faith, we go to God in Christ. We pray to Him in Christ. Solomon said, if anyone prays
toward this temple, then hear in heaven and forgive. And so
he understood the plague of his heart. God's people are plagued
in heart. They feel it. They feel the weight
of their sin, the guilt of it, the corruptions of it. They feel
the pain of their own unbelief. They feel the shame of their
wicked thoughts, their envy, whatever it is. Pride and envy,
entitlement, it rears its ugly head up. And so he goes on talking
about the ungodly. He says in verse 6, therefore
pride compasseth them, it surrounds them. about as a chain. It's like a chain that holds
them in a prison. Their pride. Their pride is so
big that they're enslaved by their own pride. Violence covers
them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness.
They're so smug in their self-righteousness that their eyes are popping out.
It's graphic, isn't it? They have more than heart could
wish. Remember the Pharisee prayed in Luke 18, God, I thank Thee
I'm not like other men are. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I have. I'm not an extortioner like that
publican over there. You see, he was fat. He shined. His eyes were poking out. He
had so much. It's kind of humorous, isn't
it? But it's sick. It's sad. Verse 8, they are corrupt
and speak wickedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily.
It's like they're sitting on their little throne. They think
it's a big throne, but they're sitting on their little throne,
and they're condemning others. They're oppressing others. That's
what the scribes and Pharisees did, didn't they, in Jesus' day? And why did they do that? Because
they considered themselves to be righteous, and they considered
everyone else to be sinners. So you can see the prosperity
in view here in this Psalm, can't you? It's this prosperity of
wicked self-righteousness. and the poverty that a believer
feels because he sees himself. That's the first blessing God
gives to us, is to know something about the poverty of our own
selves in spirit, causing us to mourn, and making us meek
and lowly, and hungering and thirsting for righteousness,
which causes us then to be merciful to others because we receive
mercy. All right, so I don't want to overstay our welcome
here. I want you to consider these
things as you look in this psalm, as we look towards the end of
it, towards verse 17. Notice he says, until I went
into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end. What
is the sanctuary of God? Well, it's where God is. It's
where God dwells. Where does God dwell? Well, He
dwells among His people. how he dwells in Christ. Remember his name, Emmanuel,
God with us? That's the name of Jesus, isn't
it? He's God with us. Christ in you, the hope of glory,
the sanctuary of God, is his people. He's in us. He's with
us. And so The Sanctuary of God really
is God incarnate in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh,
God manifest in the flesh, God with us, and Christ in you, the
hope of glory. All these things speak of the
Sanctuary of God. Remember Jesus said in John 6,
56, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me
and I in him. That's the Sanctuary of God.
Now, what this verse is saying then is that this man, the psalmist,
is confessing his sin of envy as he looked upon taking his
eyes off of God's revelation of Christ and looking upon the
wicked of the world in their false religion and in their prosperity
in this world, and he began to covet them. He began to envy
them, covet what they have, and envy them. Until, what? Until he saw Christ and his cross. That's what this verse is talking
about. Until he went back to the cross and saw his Savior
there, then understood I their end. And remember Pharaoh, God
said, I've raised you up to show my power in you. That's exactly
what's going to happen here. He says in verse 18, surely thou
did set them in slippery places, thou castest them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation,
as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors. He says
in verse 20, as a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when
thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. You know what a
dream is? When you wake up in the morning
and you go, man, I hate that dream. Why did I have that dream?
That's what he's saying here. Lord, when the Lord in our understanding,
awakes, he doesn't ever sleep, but if he comes to that point
of judgment, and that will happen on the last day, all these who
trust in their own riches, who trust in their own righteousness,
will stand before Christ, and they will be in terror when they
hear him say, depart from me, because they were in the broad
way. They were in the way of their own righteousness. They
weren't in the way of Christ. And so that's what he's talking
about here. So you can see the rest of this psalm and we'll
go over that next time. All right. Let's let's conclude
it tonight and we'll start there next week. Let's pray. Father,
thank you for your word concerning your son, concerning all of your
grace and your righteousness and your justice. and your truth
and your compassion and your mercy and grace to sinners. Thank
you for him. Thank you for your goodness.
You're always good. You're good to your people. And
even though it may seem to our limited sense and the appearance
of things, help us, Lord, give us that sight that pierces through
the clouds of darkness and reaches into the holiest, where the anchor
of our soul, the Lord Jesus Christ is, and help us to bring help
from Him in this world, this wilderness as we are passing
through. Feed us with the manna from heaven,
the water of life and the bread of life, the Lord Jesus Christ
crucified for us. and help us to endure to the
end, hold our faith up, cause us to look to Christ, expecting
and hoping in Him because of His blood and His righteousness
and not because of anything in ourselves. Help us not to envy
and covet anything in this world, but to find all of our portion
in Christ our Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.