Title:
Truly God is Good to Israel
Text:
Psalm 73: 1-28
Date:
June 7, 2012
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
When
our life becomes Christ, so that the riches of this world are no profit to us,
then the prosperity of the wicked ceases to be something we envy. When our life becomes Christ, from which
nothing we suffer can take nothing away then our sicknesses and losses become
bearable to us. God writes this maxim on our hearts.
Psalm 73: 1: «A Psalm of Asaph.» Truly God is
good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
Truly
God is good to those he chose in Christ from before the foundation of the
world. Truly God is good to those he has
washed in the blood of his dear Son. Truly
God is good to us whom he has created anew and given a clean heart by the work
of the Holy Spirit.
Though
God may cause the wicked to prosper and his own people to suffer much
affliction in this life, remember brethren,
truly God is good to us. We may not understand what God is doing in
the world around us, still, truly God is good to work all things together for
our good according to his everlasting purpose of grace. Good to sustain us by
his grace and keep us and good to glorify his great name and to give his glory
hereafter.
Proposition: And truly, God is good to continually wash us and create
in us a clean heart to turn our eye from the world of the wicked to Christ in
glory so that we can say with the psalmist, Truly God is good to us. I am glad because sadly, believers sometimes foolishly
do what the psalmist describes here.
I. WE LOOK IN THE WRONG DIRECTION WHEN WE
JUDGE BY OUTWARD APPEARANCE.
Psalm 73: 2: But as for me, my feet were
almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. 3: For I was envious at the
foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
We
cannot judge God’s goodness toward us by looking at the prosperity of the
wicked and our base condition. We will surely become tripped up and the fleshly
man of our old nature will envy. This was the temptation by which David almost
fell.
He
saw that the wicked often die as they live.
Psalm 73: 4: For there are no bands in
their death: but their strength is firm. The wicked often live without sickness and die of old age
in a very peaceful way. 5: They are
not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other
men. The saints enter the kingdom of God through much tribulation. But wicked men often live and die without
being plagued with trials, without distresses of sin or afflictions of conscious.
Application: Believer, God chastens those he loves. By sickness, God shows us we have no
strength. By afflictions, God show us our
frailty and the shortness of this life. By not giving us riches, he keeps us
dependent upon his grace. Let’s not
regard our sufferings with bitterness but as sweet bands of God’s grace,
which keep us bound to Christ. Else we would be like the wicked who live and
die apart from God in the ease of wickedness.
He
saw the wicked full of pride and prospering in their deceit.
Psalm 73: 6: Therefore pride compasseth them
about as a chain; They wear their pride as if it were like
their gold chains, as adornment. But their pride is really a slave’s chain
which binds them. 6:…violence covereth them as a garment.
Their cut-throat dealings and profiting
at others expense covers them like their expensive garments. 7: Their eyes stand out with fatness: they
have more than heart could wish. They have more than the heart could wish yet
not as much as they their covetous hearts wish for. A covetous heart is never satisfied with what
it has, but as fat as their eyes bulge out by what they have, so their eyes
bulge out coveting more.
Application:
God hates pride and oppression and covetousness. That which is of great price and highly esteemed by God is the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Contentment with godliness is great
gain. It is better to have none of
this world’s riches in our hands and the love of God in our hearts than to be
full of this world and have not the Spirit of God within.
He saw the wicked boasting of their own righteousness.
Psalm 37: 8: They
are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak
loftily. While they themselves deal corruptly, they condemn
others for the same oppression: they speak loftily, they justify themselves as
not being like others who do the same. 9:
They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the
earth. They speak against God’s
condemnation of their own evil as if God is pleased with them, while at the
same time with the same tongue, they condemn other men in the earth for the
same offenses.
He saw the wicked prosper in leading many astray.
Psalm 73: 10:
Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung
out to them.
Concerning
those who are wicked in a secular sense only.
By looking on the outward appearance of prosperity and strength and
health, in comparison to their own poverty and weakness and afflictions, many forsake
the right way and become worldly like the wicked men they admire. Waters of a full cup are wrung out
to them—they often receive plenty
of good things in this life. Psalm 73: 11: And they say, How doth God
know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
They may own there is a God, even acknowledge God to be the most
High. But they question his knowledge in overruling of men on the earth.
Concerning
those who use religion for their wickedness.
They, too, by appearing outwardly righteous, by appearing to hate wickedness,
by appearing prosperous, in comparison with the lowly state of God’s assembly, cause
many to forsake the right way, assuming God is blessing those whom God has not
blessed. As Peter puts it,
2 Peter
2: 18: For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure
through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were
clean escaped from them who live in error.
And waters of a
full cup are wrung out to them. They too often receive plenty of good things. Wicked men flatter them. Their cup appears to
run over. They appear to have great ease
the rest of their days.
Psalm 73: 11: And they say,
How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? In word, in doctrine, in letter, in
creed, they would not dare deny Christ is the Head of the church and sovereign
to govern all things by the word of his power. But by their works, of joining
the crafty, by looking to what they deem as better means than the gospel of
Christ and him crucified, by their works they deny Christ’s Wisdom and governing
power of his church. David saw this in his day as many in Israel joined
themselves in the worship of Baal calling it the worship of God.
He saw the ungodly prosper
Psalm 73: 12:
Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in
riches. In both cases, secular or religious:
2 Peter 2: 19: While they promise them liberty, they
themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of
the same is he brought in bondage. 20
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the
knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled
therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
Application: Brethren, attempting to judge God’s goodness to us by
comparing our afflictions with the prosperity of the wicked only hinders us. By doing so, David’s thoughts became like
those who forsake the right way and go after wickedness.
Psalm 73: 2: But as for me, my feet were
almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. 3: For I was envious at the
foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked….13: Verily I have
cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. 14: For all
the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
Yet in all this, God was showing David his goodness
toward his sons and daughters. David is
writing this after the fact. He is showing us the order of what he did and
thought. He began with what he had been
taught again through this, “Truly God is
good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.”
But during all this, David had come to the place where he
needed for God to create within him a
clean heart. He complained that v14:
“all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.” Through
all this God showed his goodness to him, teaching him
Hebrews
12: 5: And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when
thou art rebuked of him: 6: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7: If ye endure chastening, God dealeth
with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8: But
if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards,
and not sons. 9: Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us,
and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection
unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10: For they verily for a few days
chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit,
that we might be partakers of his holiness.
II. WE ARE TAUGHT GOD’S GOODNESS BY
EXPERIENCING HIS CONTINUAL KEEPING GRACE.
The
Spirit of God keeps our hearts by constraining us with Christ’s love for us.
David
was thinking it is vain to serve God, but he had not published his thoughts to
anyone. But he was constrained by the love which Christ has for his people.
Psalm 73: 15: If I
say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the
generation of thy children.
Application: Nothing more effectually keeps believers than the love of
God toward his children.
·
His love in his covenant promises to us
·
His love in assuming our nature
·
His love in laying down his life to justify
us from our sins
·
His love in bringing the truth to us,creating
us anew
·
His love in keeping us
The
Lord’s love cleanses our hearts to consider the Lord’s care for his church, his
children. In spite of all the wickedness
in this world, God has a people who are kept by his grace in every generation. So he keeps us constrained as he did David,
for the good of those Christ everlastingly loved. This is what the love of God in the heart
does to us, for us.
The Lord keeps us by turning us from our own
understanding to him.
Psalm 73: 16: When
I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;
Application: It is impossible for us—by our reason, by our looking at
things with the carnal eye, to know the end God has in store in his government
of this world. When we try to understand
by looking at things below—why God allows the prosperity of the wicked while
afflicting his own children--it trips us up—our feet will well-nigh slip in
envy.
Psalm 73: 17: Until
I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
·
Until I went into the house of God where God
teaches us to assemble, where the Spirit teaches us in spirit and in truth.
·
Until I went to learn in the scriptures—the
holy word of God.
·
Until I went in to his throne of grace to ask
for grace to help in this time of need.
·
Until I was taught of God THEN UNDERSTOOD I
THEIR END
Application: You came here and we are learning from God from his holy
sanctuary above, through his word, what God teaches us about these things. Has God settled you by his word? I hope so.
Had we
not obeyed God, assembled with his saints for the public preaching of his word,
looked into his word asking him to be our teacher, we would not be hearing this
instruction right now, not even at least, with the natural ear.
When needy sinners reject God’s ordained means of
teaching his people, it hurts you and I, not in the sense that someone else’s
absence causes us to miss out, but because we love them and know they have
missed the word by which God has blessed our own hearts.
It makes us to feel at least a small measure of what our
Lord felt when he said “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the
prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and ye would not!” (Mt 23:37)
God keeps us by teaching us the truth about the end of
the wicked and the end of the righteous.
Psalm 73: 18: Surely
thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into
destruction. The feet of the wicked now appear steady but
God has set them in slippery places.
They appear to be elevated but God has cast them down to destruction. Paul said my foot well-nigh slipped by
looking at them—who made the difference between the wicked and David--Psalm 73: 23: Nevertheless I am
continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.
·
Continually upon his mind, he is
always thinking of me for my good.
·
Continually before his eye; the eye of
the Lord never sleepeth, but is perpetually watching for my good.
·
Continually in his hand, so that none
shall be able to pluck me from him unless omnipotence itself shall be overcome.
·
Continually on his heart, graven
there, worn there as a memorial, even as the high priest wore the names of the
twelve tribes upon his heart for ever.”
·
Tried and afflicted and chastened—but even then--“Nevertheless”-Say
it in your heart, “I am continually with thee.”
·
Thou hast holden me by my right hand
Illustration: Will trying to go the wrong way but restrained by me
holding his hand.
Application: Believers, know what we are if God lets go of us. We do not boast of our holding his hand but
of his holding ours.
The wicked appear to die in peace but as soon as their
eyes close in death Psalm 73: 19: How
are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly
consumed with terrors. 20: As a dream when one awaketh; so, O
Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image…but what about
those saved by God’s grace?...24: Thou
shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
·
By his eternal counsel—his eternal decree—God’s
predestinating counsel makes it so his child must prevail.
·
By his written word—which tells me how the
story will end
·
By his counsel of peace accomplished by
Christ Jesus—when all else fails I lean upon the fullness of the covenant he
has made to me--declaring the completeness in which Christ has put away all my
sin and blotted out all my iniquity—his counsel that he will not remember my
sin anymore. He guides me by his counsel and afterwards receives me to glory
Brethren, if your life is not like you always thought it
would be, don’t fret. Don’t look at the
wicked and envy. The Lord shall guide us
and AFTERWARDS receive you to glory—to an incorruptible inheritance reserved in
heaven just for you. Like it was said to
the man in hell,
“Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy
good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou
art tormented.” (Lu 16: 25)
God keeps us by correcting us through his gospel, making
us see our error in envying the wicked.
Psalm 73: 21: Thus
my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. 22: So foolish was
I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.
1.
In verse 10 he said, “Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup
are wrung out to them.” And in the sense of David, or one of God’s own, who
stumbles at the prosperity of the wicked, who begins to have thoughts of vanity
and foolishness—we come to have a cup of sorrow wrung out to us, too.
When he shows us his faithfulness even during
our most staggering unbelief--our inward heart—grieves at our own
unfaithfulness to God. We are pricked in the inward most depths. So foolish was
I and ignorant
Isaiah 1: 3: The ox knoweth his owner, and
the ass his master’s crib:…but I was as
a beast before thee.
Yet,
even when we have been as a beast before the Lord. God sees the believer
in Christ, wearing Christ’s garments, washed in his blood therefore his love
and grace changes not.
1 John 2: 1: My little children, these things write I
unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
The Psalmist said, “There
is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared.”
III. GODLY
REVERENCE IS THE PEACEABLE FRUIT---THE END--TO WHICH HE BRINGS US AGAIN AFTER
EACH HARD TRIAL.
Psalm 73: 25: Whom
have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that
I desire beside thee.
It is possible to lose loved ones, property, homes, and
still not desire Christ and go on seeking happiness in this earth. But when God reveals this: Psalm 73: 26: My flesh and my heart faileth:
but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. Then
we will cry out…25: Whom have I in
heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I
desire beside thee.
Psalm 73: 27: For,
lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that
go a whoring from thee. 28: 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.
John 3: 21…he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that
his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
We who believe have committed—our committing to him—we
have trusted him to keep us trusting him even when we are not trusting him….THAT--as
the Lord keeps us in spite of us—we might declare all his works. That is what David is doing here and what I’m
trying to tell you about now.
Believer,
looking to this world will cause our feet to slip and cause the old man to be puffed
up in envy, bitter, and if not for grace, to throw up our hands and join the
wicked. Instead, ever look away from
this world to Christ seated at God’s right hand, he is our Life…”When Christ, who
is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
(Col 3:4)
GO
HOME WITH THESE THREE THINGS WE LEARN FROM THIS PSALM:
1. Whatever
our outward circumstances, “Truly GOD is
good to Israel.” Even in the prosperity
of the wicked, even in our afflictions, the LORD is bringing about the greatest
good.
2. Learn
that the chastening hand of our Lord is because of his unchanging love to his
redeemed which he purchased with his blood.
Because by our afflictions God cleanses our hearts to keep us partaking
of his holiness while kept from the evil and making Christ JESUS more precious
to us.
3. Remember
the end purpose: this is how he makes us to declare his wonderful works rather
than boasting in ourselves. Witnesses most
eminent in GOD’S service are most eminent in suffering, yet being kept by his
grace, it is his works we bear witness too.
Sicknesses and
losses cease to be bad things to us when our life ceases to be something that
can be taken away.
Colossians
3: 1: If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with
Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is
our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Amen!