You can take out your Bibles and we'll turn them to Psalm 73. Psalm 73, it's a Psalm of a guy named Asaph. And the title of today's sermon is called, You Hold Me by the Right Hand. But before we get started, let's read scripture. We'll read Psalm 73, the verse 24 verses. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

But as for me, my feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man. They are not plagued by human ills.

Therefore, pride is their necklace. They clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity. The evil conceits of their minds know no limits. They scoff and speak with malice. In their arrogance, they threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore, their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. They say, how can God know? How does the Most High have knowledge? This is what the wicked are like. Always carefree, they increase in wealth.

Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure. In vain I have washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued, I have been punished every morning. And if I said I will speak thus, I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all of this, it was oppressive to me. till I entered the sanctuary of God.

Then I understood their final destiny. Surely you place them on slippery ground, you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors as a dream when one awakes. So when you arise, oh Lord, you will despise them as fantasies. When my heart was grieved, And my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant.

I was a brute beast before you. Yet I am always with you. You hold me by the right hand. You guide me with your counsel. And afterward, you will take me into glory. So this is, An interesting psalm. It says things that most of us don't expect to hear, most of the world doesn't expect to hear in the Bible, especially in verse 21 and 22. And this is Asaph, again, who wrote this. And a little background on him. He was appointed by David as a spiritual leader. So this isn't just some guy. He literally led worship services under David.

And he writes in verse 21 through 22, when my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you. This is not someone who's polished. This isn't someone who presents himself in a polished way to the congregation. This isn't someone who has it all together. This is not someone who feels spiritually sharp. It's someone who's off.

It's someone whose heart is in the midst of a battle. Asaph wasn't just any believer. He was, again, a worship leader in Israel. He was appointed under David, responsible for leading the people of God in worship. A spiritual leader, and even he says, my heart was embittered. This means this struggle is not a sign that something has gone uniquely wrong for Asaph. or for anybody, any of God's people. You ever been in a position where you feel like your heart has been embittered? Or you're looking at things in a way that you shouldn't? Or you feel anger in your heart towards the world or towards anything?

It isn't a sign that you're lost. It isn't a sign that you're unique even. This is part of our life. And that matters. Even mature believers, quote unquote, or leaders, find themselves in a place where they feel off, where their heart doesn't match the truth that they know to be. And not just off, embittered. I mean, that's a word. And yet just a few verses later, the same man says in 23, yet I am always with you. You hold me by the right hand. So which is it? Is he senseless and bittered? Or is he held by God? They don't seem like they go together. But the answer is both.

That tension, that tension is where the people of God live. We are spiritually alive, we've been given life to know the truth of God, the Father, and his Son, and what that truth is and what it means to each and every believer, but we are also still holding on to this body of death. It is a constant tension, it is a constant battle, it is a constant struggle. And it is unique to believers.

Psalm 73 is pretty honest, which I love. Like, Asaph doesn't hold back here. He tells us exactly what he's feeling. A lot of times, we would be ashamed to say the things that are on our hearts. the guilt that we have, even the doubts we have. We don't even like to entertain them to ourselves, the doubts that we have. We're ashamed of them. Internally, we just want to push them away. Not ASAP, and I'm so grateful because it's for us to see this.

He says, surely God, at the very beginning of Psalm 73, surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. This is solid, sovereign grace theology. God is good to his people, to Israel, to those pure in heart, pure through the work of Christ. That's the only pure kind of man there is. If you are pure, it is because of the work of Christ. Surely God is good to Israel. But then just a few verses later, so he's confident about that. Surely, guaranteed, God is good to his people. Of which I am one, says Asaph.

And two minutes later he's saying, but as for me, my feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold. Same guy, same man, same calling, same faith. Internally slipping. Why? It's our nature. Our nature is to have wandering eyes and wandering hearts. It would be so easy if we could simply focus on Christ. We all know that. We all want that. Can you do it? I can't. And this is proof.

Our nature, again, wandering constantly. So just like our nature, Asaph says, he starts to look around. He starts to look at the people in the world. And this man hit home with me. I mean, when I'm up here, I'm preaching to myself. I mean, he says in verse three, four, I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens. They are not plagued by human ills. And a little bit later he goes on to say, Why am I striving to be good or be pure when all I see when I wake up is sickness and pain, and yet all these evil people that I'm looking at, these wicked people, have all the best parts of life. They have money. They get to live in better homes. They get to go on trips. They get to get everything they want. He sees people who don't follow God and they seem to be doing great. They're comfortable, they're more successful, they don't appear to carry the weight that he carries.

And his heart starts to drift. Which is what happens every time we take our focus off Christ. Now thanks be to God We can never drift out of his grasp. I need to say that right away. We are not holding on to him, he is holding on to us. But we have to experience this. So it's good to talk about. Your heart starts to drift the minute you look at the rest of the world, the minute you look at yourself. the minute you look anywhere but Christ.

He said in verse 16, and I think this is great too, when I try to understand all of this, why my life seems to be hard and their life seems to be great, and they are the wicked, when I try to understand all of this in my own human perspective, in the abilities that I have, it troubled me deeply. There are no answers to be found inside of our hearts. Our hearts are deceitful and wicked, it says in the scriptures. Is that a place you wanna go for answers? And by the time we get to verse 21, he's not just confused, he's saying, when my heart was experiencing this, he says, when my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was mad. I was angry.

Asaph, a man who leads worship, a man appointed by David, a man who knows the truth, who has been shown the truth, and still his heart turns bitter. That's who you are. That word embittered matters. It's not just mild frustration, it's much deeper than that. This is what happens when confusion sits for a long period of time and resentment grows and festers. Embittered, when you start to look at everything through angry eyes and a bitter heart. And this is where Asaph found himself. And here's the reality, you can know what is true. You can be an individual who has been shown by God what is true and still feel unsettled, and still feel embittered, and still feel off. Are you a believer? Do you believe in Christ? Do you believe that he's the only way that you can be saved from the sins that you have? Does your heart always follow that? It doesn't. That doesn't mean you're not a believer.

This is the path we live. Asaph is telling us all about it. You can believe in the sovereign grace of God through Christ and still have a heart that doesn't feel aligned with that at times. And in a way, that's a blessing because we recognize that as a battle. We recognize that as tension. If you are not given life, there is no battle. There is no tension. Your heart is not aligned with the truth and you're fine with it. So be grateful for that.

To believe in Christ, to be one of his people, does not equal emotional stability. It equals salvation from your sins for eternity. It doesn't equal ease of life. It doesn't equal a balanced heart perfectly aligned with what you know to be true. And the danger isn't that your heart struggles. The danger is that your heart starts to interpret the reality around you. You start to look through the lens of your heart, through your emotions. when you settle in and trust your weak, unstable, and sinful emotions, and what they tell you is truth. Because it is not. There's only one truth. Everything in this world is a lie. Christ is the truth.

Your emotions lie to you. That's what happens to Asaph. He started measuring everything by what he saw and what he felt. And when that happens, everything gets distorted. What's actually happening doesn't change, just the way you look at it. How he saw it.

And if we're not careful, we do the same thing. And even if we are careful, we end up doing the same thing at times. We start letting, I mean, the list of distractions is endless. Stress, money, confusion, pain, jealousy, coveting, pride. That becomes the lens in which we look through everything, look through to see the world and interpret what we see as truth. That leads to difficult times.

Instead of God's word shaping how you see life, our emotions start shaping how we see the world and even how we see God. But then in verse 17, after he gets done saying, when I tried to figure all this out, it bothered me deeply. When I sat and tried to work out this problem on my own, I got nowhere, I got worse. And then follows that with verse 17, until I entered the sanctuary of God.

He turned his focus. Instead of looking at all these thriving wicked individuals around him or looking at himself and feeling pity on his life that he's living, he turned his eyes to God and the blessings that come from him. Nothing in his circumstance has changed. Those wicked people were still really successful, still thriving. Nothing about his own life had changed. The only difference is until I entered the sanctuary of God, the people he was envying were still prospering. His situation hadn't improved, but his focus had shifted. He moved from looking around to looking to God. He moved from interpreting life through his feelings to seeing it through the amazing grace of God. to see how blessed he truly is.

And we all know this. We just have such a tough time doing it. I do. I know that if I would sit down and focus on the blessings of salvation, it would be good for my soul. It'd be good for my heart. It'd be good for my outlook while I'm here. Do I do that? Not nearly enough.

But he moved, again, from looking through the lens of his feelings to looking through the lens of grace, and that changes everything. Once his perspective changes, once he says, until I finally entered the sanctuary of God, This is where a modern-day Christian story would talk about, and he became a much better man. And he went to church every day, and his leading was even better. And all these incredible changes in his life, and probably went around telling everybody about his testimony.

None of that is in the scripture. He doesn't say, now I've got it together. He doesn't say, now I'm thinking clearly. He doesn't say, now I'm strong. He doesn't even say, I no longer have these thoughts. He doesn't say my jealousy is gone. And now I love my neighbor as I'm supposed to. He says, yet I am always with you. You hold me by my right hand.

And that is the unchanging truth. We go through life as Asaph, focused on all the wrong things. And when I say we, I mean believers. Focused on this world, focused on ourselves, focused on every aspect of life outside of Christ. But if you are one of God's chosen people, you are always with him.

And he holds you by the right hand. Always. Regardless of your feelings. Take your emotions and throw them out the window. That's how much they matter. The good news of the gospel of Christ isn't that your worldly circumstances will improve or that you yourself will improve. It is that throughout every moment of our entire lives on this planet, one thing remains true. One thing.

Your salvation from the wrath of God has been fully secured forever. It's done. It's over. It is secured and finished. Truth. Everything else we feel, we experience, it's not true. It's not truth. It all come into an end. It's all coming to an end. It's gonna be snuffed out. It says it's gonna pass like vapor, not even smoke. You know how fast vapor disappears? That's the stuff we're concerned about, vapor. But the one truth that stands forever is Christ and the work he accomplished for his people, forever. Christ has won. Your salvation has been secured forever.

I know I keep saying this, but this is the truth. This is what it means when he says, you hold my right hand. He certainly doesn't say, I hold your right hand, or I hold you with my right hand, because we would let go in a heartbeat. First, because we're not strong enough to hold on, and secondly, we would choose to let go. God held on to me, God holds on to you. Your relationship with God is not sustained by your grip on him, yet that is what we're constantly focused on. It is by his grip on you and it is a grip that is unbreakable.

Paul goes to great lengths to say this in Romans 8, 38 and 39. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is found in Jesus Christ, our Lord. I feel like Paul wrote that and he took his time. How can I get this across? When Asaph says, you hold my right hand, it's exactly what Paul is talking about right here. else in all creation can separate you from Him. And what is required of us?

Absolutely nothing. Belief, and even our faith is a gift. Romans 5 says, you see, just at the right time when we were still powerless I love that word because it doesn't say when we were sick or when we weren't doing very well. Powerless, completely without power. So we couldn't make a decision. We couldn't reach out for him. We couldn't hold onto his hand. We were powerless. When we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Christ did not wait for you to be steady. In the beginning of, when he knew who he was going to save from the beginning, before the beginning of time, it wasn't this person eventually is gonna get to the level of steadiness that we're looking for, so he's on the list. And now, he's not waiting for you to reach a level of steadiness now. You have no chance of reaching a level of steadiness. He did not wait for your heart to be aligned. He's not waiting now, like, man, I hope Eric pulls it together. He did not wait for you to become spiritually sharp.

He comes to his people when they're powerless. And they remain powerless. He didn't come to them when they were powerless and say, I'm gonna give you a little bit of power and then we're gonna work this out. He came to them when they were powerless and he died for them. And it was over. All of the labor was finished. And we remain powerless.

That means your justification, your justified standing in front of God the judge, was not begun on how consistent you are. Your justified standing with God was not built on how faithful you are. and it was not sustained on how you are now in any way. Your justified standing with God was begun by the work of Christ.

It is built by the work of Christ. And it continues to be sustained for eternity by the work of Christ. Your heart, your emotions, your feelings may fluctuate. They will. But child of God, your standing in front of God will never change. Believe that. Hold onto it. It's the greatest news you will ever hear. The power of Christ's blood never changes, it never lessens. Anything or anyone whose salvation was purchased by the blood of Christ will always belong to him.

Hebrews 12 says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and the perfecter of faith. We can't fix anything. We can't fix ourselves and then look to Jesus. We can improve ourselves to the point where we feel like we are worthy to look to Christ. Just look to him. There's no time to do it other than now. Nothing is gonna change in your relationship to God to get you to a point where it's better now in the future to look to Christ than it is right now. Nothing will change. Look to Christ right now. Ask him for your salvation. And he will say yes.

We look to Jesus because as long as we're still attached to this flesh, we can't be fixed. We can't be improved. As long Looking to anything other than Christ in this world, think about this, it's like looking to the curse for a cure. A cure from the curse. That doesn't work. If your salvation depended on your consistency, you would lose it. If it depended on your emotional stability, It wouldn't last, but it doesn't. It depends on Christ's finished work, and that does not change.

And then Psalm 73 wraps up in this way. It says, my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. We have such weak hearts, but where it matters in spiritual things, God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. It doesn't say my heart might struggle. It doesn't say your heart may fail, which is exactly why God is sovereign. None of what he has accomplished and set forth depends on the strength of your flesh or your heart. because it would fail.

It has all been orchestrated by the weaver of the fabric of the universe so that salvation of his people solely rests on the only one who could accomplish it. It in itself is perfection. It solely rests on the perfect and the perfectly capable and victorious shoulders of Jesus Christ. I don't want it anywhere else. So, Asaph teaches us some wonderful things here.

In short, we can't trust ourselves. We are prone to wander, whether by heart or by eyes. We will look to things that will not give us good answers, will lead us in directions we don't want to go. And it's going to happen. But we will never go too far down those paths, not because of us. where we set free on our own, we would sprint as fast as we can down the wrong path.

But as Asaph says, he holds me by the right hand. I picture that in two different ways, leading me as a child, but also holding me back as a child. In all things and in all ways, God does what's best for his people to eventually bring them home to him. And trust, if you believe in him, he is holding your right hand. And he is guiding you home. Our Father, we thank you so much for the blessing of your holy word. to show us your beautiful truths, the truth of the gospel of our savior, the perfection of what he's done, the power of how it's unchanging, and the reminder to let go of the things of this place, to focus on you, to remember that we belong to you and we are in your hands, and rest in that. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.