Sermon Tone Analysis
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*“Focus on Forever”*
*Psalm 73*
Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 73.
We are continuing our “Summer in the Psalms.”
And I trust that you are being nourished as we peruse a sampling of some of these poetic chapters of God’s Word.
Psalm 73 has quickly become one of my favourites.
And here’s why.
I found that this is a very honest passage of Scripture.
And it’s also a “Wednesday” type of psalm.
Some passages in the Bible contain lofty concepts.
As an example, we are familiar with the way Paul opens up his letter to the Ephesians by stating that Christians are blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, chosen by God before the foundation of the world.
He goes on to say that God has made us alive in Christ and seated us with him in heavenly places.
These are the kinds of things that make your mind stutter.
These are lofty thoughts that have great and ultimate significance for the Christian.
Psalm 73, on the other hand, has a down-to-earth feel to it.
The author has “lived” this one and the reader “feels” it and can identify with it.
We get the dirt under our fingernails in this one.
Because of its honesty, there are few (if any) who can dismiss it because of irrelevance.
Let’s read the text as we get under way.
*READ.*
At the outset, you will notice that this is a “Psalm of Asaph.”
There are a number of psalms that are attributed to his writing.
Asaph was a Levite musician appointed by David to serve in the tabernacle. 1 Chronicles 6:31–32 “*31 *These are the men whom David put in charge of the service of song in the house of the Lord after the ark rested there.
*32 *They ministered with song before the tabernacle of the tent of meeting until Solomon built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they performed their service according to their order.”
Before Solomon had the temple built, the nation of Israel would meet, worship and sacrifice to God.
And *Asaph* was a leader within this tabernacle.
The first point is *Where are you looking?
*We will notice that in verses 1-3, the object of Asaph’s focus subtly shifts from God in verse 1, to himself in verse 2, to others in verse 3. Watch it.
Psalm 73:1–3 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*.
God is good to his people.
I became envious when I looked at them.
This pattern also plays out in the rest of the chapter.
Asaph will begin with this truth concerning God, elaborate on his struggle when he looks around at others and will yet conclude by returning to his focus on God.
Back to verse 1. Asaph begins with a truth statement.
He says that God is good to his people, to those who are pure in heart.
As a leader in the tabernacle of God, Asaph would be well acquainted with the Law of God.
He would have been immersed in its teachings.
Asaph would even lead the people in singing these great truths.
He didn't pick this statement out of the air.
It was his declaration.
It was embedded within him.
You take a quick peek at verse 2 and look at the first words and realize that there will be more to the story.
He is going to wrestle with this very statement.
First, I would like for us to comprehend the importance of having an anchor such as the one Asaph demonstrates here.
In the next several verses his experience and perception will challenge the statement.
But if he did not have a foundation with which to work with, the results might be quite different than they were.
What Asaph does here is what Martin Lloyd-Jones refers to as talking to yourself.
When emotions and experiences and the Enemy begin to challenge some of the truths that you have learned, you are in peril if you listen to such talk */rather than/* speaking the truth to yourself.
Asaph begins with an understanding that God is good to his people in an attempt to remind himself of that very fact.
If he was trying to understand the character of God based solely on his circumstances and not what he was taught, he might conclude wrongly.
“But as for me,” he says, /my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.
/There are two very key words in that.
Did you catch them?
“My feet had almost stumbled and my steps nearly slipped.
We’ll follow up on this ultimate significance at the end of the passage.
But why did this happen?
As for Asaph, what went wrong?
Verse 3 tells us that he was overcome with envy… when he saw the prosperity of the wicked.
He saw the prosperity of the wicked.
He took his eyes off the God who is good to his people and began to look around at others.
I’m sure that none of us have this problem though.
Right?
We consistently look to God and trust that he is good.
We don’t look around to see how we measure up.
We do not care if others are doing better than us.
We are simply content to live on what God has blessed us with.
There is never any envy or coveting houses or boats or bikes or cars or other stuff.
But we are faithful and always trust that God is out for our good.
So none of this really pertains to us.
Or does it…?
What went wrong with Asaph?
What goes wrong for us?
We look around.
We look around and compare ourselves with our neighbors and coworkers.
How much trouble would be avoided if we stopped looking around and looked to our God.
So Asaph has begun with this truth statement that God is good to his people.
And then he begins to let us in on his struggle.
In his doubt, he looks around at everyone else and asks the question, “God, is this really true?” “Is this really true? Because, I don’t know, I had a little look around and I’m having a bit of a tough time with this one.”
The second point is *Distorted Experience.
*It seems to me as though Asaph is having a rough go at life.
Perhaps he’s had a really bad day.
What happens here is that he launches into a bit of a pity party it seems.
Anybody here throw one of these for yourself?
I’m pretty good at them.
I never thought of myself as a party planner.
But I can pull off a fairly good pity party.
You know how they go… We start saying things like “I’m always sick on holiday weekends.”
“Why doesn’t anything ever go my way?
Why does my boss always…” You get the idea.
As we recount Asaph’s experience here, I think we will see that when we get caught up in such thinking, our accounts become distorted.
With some of the issues he introduces, there will be elements of truth, and yet some distortions right alongside.
Let’s take a brief look at Asaph’s distorted experience.
It begins in verse 4.
According to verse 4, the wicked experience no pain in their lifetime.
Their bodies resemble their wealth and gluttonous eating.
In other words, they do not suffer needlessly because of a lack of food or other resources.
In verse 5, they do not experience trouble.
As a result, verse 6 tells us, the wicked are proud of their self-sufficiency.
In fact they wear their pride as a necklace.
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