Troubled Waters
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Troubled Waters
Troubled Waters
Psalm 73
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
A , a Psalm of Asaph… but who was Asaph?
Here we have a Psalm written by Asaph, we do not know a whole lot about Asaph but we do know that he was a leader of the musicians in the tabernacle of the Lord during the reign of king David.
Asaph was in a very senior position in Israel, he was a friend of the king. He was one of the most senior authorities in the priesthood.
I think of Asaph as being kind of like the Charles Wesley or the John Newton of his day. Here was a man in senior priestly duties who had a God-given talent for writing beautiful songs and poetry that exalted the glory of God.
Surely someone like this has got life all figured out, he gets to mingle with the elite in Israel. He gets to go to the tabernacle and speak with the Lord. And yet we read and we read about a storm that he is enduring. A battle like we all go through at some time or another and we are reminded that this was just an ordinary man who experienced times of weakness and uncertainty like anyone else and what make so beautiful in my eyes is it’s absolute honesty. Asaph makes no attempt to big himself up here, he is not wanting everyone to see how spiritual he is or how everyone else ought to be following his example. But in utter transparency, Asaph holds his hands up and says “hey, I’ve been struggling in my faith, but let me just share with you how I have come through”.
Like a ship in a storm
As I read through Pslam 73 the picture that comes to my mind is of a ship battling a ferocious storm. The waves are high, the ships captain has little to no control and the ship is being thrown and tossed all over the place. Everything inside is crashing down around them. The captain can’t see anything except 30ft waves and while the ship is out there to complete a journey, all thoughts of the journey are put on hold for the duration of the storm and the priority becomes just staying afloat.
Now when a ship is in a storm like that and there is a danger of being run aground, the most important job is to throw out an anchor. While everything is moving in the storm, the seabed is not moving and so by getting a firm anchor-hold on something that is stable the captain can at least hope to ride out the storm without the risk of having the ship thrown onto the rocks.
Asaph is going into a storm, there are things in his mind that he just can’t seem to resolve. It seems to him like everything is crashing around him, and he has got that black cloud of despair hanging over him.
So what’s the first thing that Asaph has to do?
He has to get a firm anchor-hold on something that is steady and does not move!
And so this is why verse 1 opens as it does
Verse 1
1 Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
While Asaph is just about to open up his heart and pour out all of these burning doubts and worries, he opens up the Psalm on his anchor-hold. Because whatever else happens, this is certain and it is unmovable.
What God has revealed to us in the light we must not forget in the darkness.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. 3 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
So Asaph is saying that, “I knew the goodness of God, but when I started to look at how the wicked people were doing really well, I started to get jealous, and as the envy was setting in it very nearly brought me down”
In today’s consumer driven culture where advertising for just about everything seems to dominate, we are being taught that it’s okay to envy what other people have. We are told that this is what makes a person ‘driven for success’. But Asaph tells us how it was when he started focusing on what everyone else had that he was nearly brought to ruin.
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
For those that make it their business to walk closely with the Lord, there is no good thing that He will withhold. When we start to covet what other people have and to grumble that we don’t have it as good as other people, then we call God a liar. Because His word says that He will not withhold any good thing.
Now a person may say, well does that mean that God wants to make me a millionaire, does that mean I am to expect a big house from God? NO! Because these are not necessary good things. There are plenty of people who have all this and more and yet are absolutely miserable but part of the trouble with our culture today is that we are told to envy those that have accumulated great material wealth and influence.
Upon the death of the actor Robin Williams, an old friend of mine who is also an actor remarked that he wanted to be just like Williams and that this guy was his role-model. Which I found very odd considering that Williams committed suicide on account of being deeply unhappy. And I find it very strange that when things like this occur that people don’t stop to think about where they are placing value.
This is one of the big points that God gets through to Asaph in this Psalm and we will come onto this shortly. That God has a better understanding of prosperity than what we do and what we see as being good, God being able to the future consequences may see it as ultimately being bad and what we see as something bad, God can see it actually working to our long term benefit.
4 For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
4 For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.
So presumably Asaph has issues and troubles since his complaint is that other people seemingly don’t have any problems. And Asaph reasons that surely a person that disregards the living God and all His commands ought not to do very well in life. But on on the contrary he says “They don’t have any ailments or illnesses until the day they die. They live in comfort with not just enough to eat and get by on but more than enough to where they can live in excess” and he says “They don’t even seem to have any troubles”. (verses 4-5)
6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.
Psalm 73:
Now he is going a step further and declaring that it is not even as though these are people that just keeps themselves to themselves. He says they have come to be in their position through the oppression of other people. They have gotten richer by making other people poorer.
Then he marvels that they are popular people, people like them for it.
And the more they get away with it all the more inclined they are to say that God does not exist or if he does then he is powerless.
It reminds me about how people even today get very angry about what happened to many of the Nazi war criminals. Because while some were rounded up and taken to trial and some evaded capture through suicide, there were many that evaded earthly justice all together. They made alot of money through the horrors of war and the robbery of riches from the Jews and other people groups and then fled to South America, resided under the safety of German ex-pat communities and lived a comfortable retirement. Their lifestyle came from the oppression of others with little regard to being answerable to God.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
The anchor begins to slip
The storm is reaching it’s blackest point now, the waves are up higher than they have been yet and all seems lost. Because up until now it has all been just about other people. How jealous he is that other people, and undeserving people at that have it so good.
But know this commitment to envy is causing him to disregard the work of God in his own life, he is expressing now the beginnings of doubt in regards to the goodness of God which makes the situation it’s most dangerous because the ‘goodness of God’ is his anchor-hold and so right when the storm is most ferocious, the anchor is beginning to drag and the chain that keeps it tethered to the boat is starting to strain.
For he is now questioning if its even been worth serving God all this time. He is thinking would it have been any better if he had just lived a selfish life, feathered his own nest and not bothered with a faith.
But in verse 15 he says that he kept all this to himself, bottled it up and kept up appearances because while he is feeling as though his faith is on the rocks he wants to be sure that he does not shipwreck the faith of the people around him as well.
The light breaks through the clouds
Then just as the storm seems to be at its worst, the sky is black, the waves are high and it seems as if the anchor is just about to slip from it’s hold, the clouds begin to part. Rays of sunlight begin pouring though, and before that ship is dashed to pieces on the rocks the wind settles and the waves subside for in verses 15-16 Asaph sees the light.
Psalm 73:
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.
He says that it was all getting too much for him, until.... he came into the sanctuary of God.
For Asaph the sanctuary of God would have been the tabernacle, nowadays you will often hear people refer to the church as God’s sanctuary. But the fact that Asaphs concerns were settled I believe does not rest on the physical structure be it tabernacle tent or church but rather the fact that when Asaph or any other person for that matter comes into the place of worship they turn there eyes upon God and enter into prayer and worship.
Now prayer and worship can be and should be done anywhere, and is Asaph had done that in his home then perhaps he could have come through that storm a little sooner. But the reality is is that when a person is going through difficulties this is a discipline that can be very easily neglected, in such circumstances it is important that we have a habit of corporate worship.
Asaph undoubtedly did not feel like going to the sanctuary since he had such doubts. If he were around today he would be saying “I’m really not in the mood for going to church”.
But because going to the sanctuary was part of his routine he went, and he was all the better for it. It is good for us to establish good habits and routines, particularly attending church, so that when a storms come (and they will frequently come), we like Asaph have already established a habit of corporate worship and therefore set a watch against it.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!
No anchor for the ungodly
Back in verse 2 Asaph says that he had nearly slipped, were it not for that anchor hold of the goodness of God in verse 1. But he now sees that those who are opposed to the Lord are sure to slip.
They have no anchor-hold as he had and are subsequently swept away by terrors.
20 Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
We all prefer to have nice dreams than have a restless night but it is not something we put too great an importance on since one night is soon gone and there is no substance to a dream. Nothing in a dream that is lasting. So also is the case for those who do not know the Lord, any comfort is just fleeting. There is no substance to anything in this world and so to strive for earthly gain is like putting value to a dream that after one night is gone with nothing to show.
21 When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.
The animals are only concerned about the moment and where their next meal is coming from. They have no long-term vision and not spiritual perspective. So Asaph says that while he had his head in other peoples business, coveting what was not his, he was like an animal only concerned for the present.
Psalm 73:
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.
All the time while he was going through the storm, the Lord was with him. Even when he did not know it. There was not a moment when the Lord abandoned him. it was the Lord that guided him to safety and despite his doubts and complaints the Lord will receive him home to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
Psalm
The reality has dawned on Asaph. All that is on this earth is temporary at best and the focus of our living should not be about what we have here but what we are going home to in heaven.
Asaph says “There is nothing on earth that I desire on earth besides you” this really ought to be our prayer to God that our desires be brought into line with him that we be blind to the motivation of other people but ourselves content in being with the Lord each day.
He confesses that while his health may fail, well that’s okay. It fails for everyone at some point, but he has an inner-strength that most don’t have, and that is the Lord Himself.
He may not have money or power to hide behind, but that’s okay because the Lord is his refuge.
That reminds me of my absolute hymn ‘Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee’, brilliant song and so true. We find ourselves in trouble when we wander from the rock of refuge, that cleft in the rock.
Asaph makes it clear that he not only has a hope beyond the here and now that the unsaved do not have but that even in the present, God is his refuge and he can have absolute contentment with the Lord right now.