Made to Worship
Morning Greeting:
Terry Handle
Announcements:
- Child Dedication and Baptism
- Steve Weissert for Special Music
Introduction:
Text: Psalm 73
Theme: Made to Worship
*Read All Verses*
:Context:
This is a thoughtful and open Psalm from Asaph. It is one of my favorites because of its heartfelt honesty and how easy it is to relate to. He expresses something that many Christians have at times felt and struggled with themselves. And it is that question: “How is it that people who do evil enjoy prosperity?”
They hurt others. They mistreat others. They oppress others. They discount God. Worse, they set their mouths against the heavens. And many times from our perspective, they appear to get away with it. Not only do they appear to get away with it, but they appear to prosper. They live comfortably. They are well off and lack nothing that their bodies, eyes, or hearts want.
Have you ever thought or experienced this? It can be hard not to be frustrated with the situation today. In the news we read about religious leaders that have abused children. We read about many wealthy persons whose wealth is gained by fraud. Our justice system used as a weapon for political purposes. Movie producers exploiting actors for personal gain.
Well, there is nothing new under the sun, and Asaph lived during troubled times as well. It might be surprising to think of it this way, but most of the time that the Bible was being written, it was not being written during righteous times. It was being written during unrighteous times. And many of the writers in the Bible were not sitting in castles; they were sitting in prison cells, or in the ashes of a burned Jerusalem.
Asaph is someone you probably don’t know about. But he lived during Israel’s golden age and also a very troubled age. Israel’s golden age was during the reigns of David and Solomon. And Asaph was a song director for both of them. But he also lived to see what came after Solomon, when the kingdom was torn in two and the northern kingdom abandoned God and the Temple. And then the southern kingdom was attacked by Egypt and many of their people were killed, and Egypt plundered the temple and mocked them.
And though David’s reign and Solomon’s might be described as golden ages, they weren’t perfect either. We know about David and Bathsheba. And David could not build God’s temple because the Lord said He had too much blood on his hands. And Solomon did many evil things in the name of wisdom. Solomon even had one of Asaph’s brothers killed. And those were the good times!
:Struggle:
And so here Asaph sits and he writes a very open and honest Psalm. And it’s one that I think is tremendously beneficial to Christians, because while being open about his struggles, he also tells how he overcame his jealousy. And as he comes out of his struggles with envy, he ends up writing some of the most beautiful and worshipful words in all of Scripture.
Asaph said “I became envious of the arrogant and the wicked, because of their prosperity.” He almost stumbled. His feet nearly slipped. He tired of his hardship and wanted the comfort and prosperity that the world was offering. He wanted to stop Following God in a Fallen World and follow the world instead.
He thought “why have I been so very righteous? My heart I have kept clean. My hands washed in innocence. And yet here I sit stricken and rebuked every morning.”
Verse 15, he kept his struggles to himself quietly. He didn’t want to speak these ideas because he didn’t want to betray other believers. What would the righteous people do if they knew this psalm writer felt this way? He needed to be an example to God’s people. He was a song leader. But inwardly he struggled.
He struggled, he says “until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.”
:End of the Wicked:
When he got up to go and be in the presence of God, worship God, reflect on God’s ways, it was there that he realized the truth. The prosperity of the wicked is but for the space of a dream. They do indeed do well, for a time, but then like a dream when one awakens, the Lord rouses himself and despises them. They are living the dream, but wake up to a nightmare.
In a moment they slip and fall to ruin, destroyed and swept away by terrors. Elsewhere we see in the Bible it says “be sure your sins will find you out.” If, today, you have felt envious of the prosperity of the wicked, I hope you aren’t missing the reckoning that is going on. On the one hand you can look and say “how have the wicked prospered so?” But on the other hand you can see “their prosperity has been but a dream, and has ended in disaster.”
If you think they have gotten away with it, you are wrong. The fact that you are reading about their sins in the news shows that they haven’t gotten away with it. Their sins have not stayed secret. Their prosperity has been but a dream. They are discovered and their reputation is shattered.
The allotment of the wicked is pleasant for a time, but it ends in disaster – often in this life! But always in the lift to come. But what is the worst part is how a person’s relationship with the Lord suffers.
Asaph reflects on his time spent envious of the wicked, and he realizes what it turned him into. He became bitter in his soul. His heart was pricked. He was brutish and ignorant. He behaved like a beast toward God. His joy and delight in God dried up.
The prosperity of the wicked visible on the outside is not present on the inside. It’s just a dream and he learned that in his soul and in his heart as he became bitter, brutish, and ignorant. And his relationship with God took a hit. He didn’t prosper. He suffered. His soul was like a desert.
The comfort, the smiles, the extravagance was just an illusion. The prosperity of the wicked is just a deceptive dream. It ends in disaster. And the dream is lived in bitterness and like an animal. The truth of the matter is a corrupted heart and a grisly end.
And then Asaph turns from his bitterness and his envy and writes two of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. He says:
:The Good Life:
“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
This is the good life. A life lived in worship to God. Asaph has come to understand what he was made for, how he can find his greatest purpose, where joy is to be found: it is found in the Lord. Wickedness leads to sudden destruction. Covetousness makes for a sick and bitter heart. The world and its various pleasures prove empty.
Better, by far, than all that could be found on the earth or in heaven is the Lord. Heaven and earth have nothing to offer in comparison to God. Do not envy the prosperity of the wicked, for you have the greatest treasure of all: the Lord
You and I were made to worship. And we were made to worship the One who has no equal. Nothing comes anywhere close to being as good as God is. No one can love you more than God does. No one can provide for you anywhere near what God does. No one can give you eternal life. Though your flesh and heart may fail, God has the power to be your portion forever. Eternal life is a gift from God.
You can have the bitter and brutish illusion of pleasure that the wicked have for the space of a dream. Or you can have a strengthened heart for all eternity and a relationship with the One who made the stars. Don’t be deceived by the mirage that is the prosperity of the wicked, for the truth is there is just a desert behind it. You have access to living waters and a storehouse filled with treasure.
You know in your heart the bitterness caused by envy. The harm that it does to your relationship with God. You know by observation that the prosperity of the wicked is an illusion, one that ultimately ends with their sin finding them out and destroying them in a moment.
This is because that is not what we were made for. We were made to love and enjoy God forever. We were made for enjoying the pleasures of grace and kindness, of purity and love and light. It is the things that God offers, more specifically God Himself, which is able to fill our deepest longings. We weren’t made to enjoy violence, anger, selfishness, and hate.
And indeed, we don’t enjoy these things! At times we find ourselves gravitating towards them, like Asaph did, because of the deceptiveness of sin and the lies of the enemy. But it is deception, its lies; it’s a dream, a phantom.
What you and I really want, what we need, more than any other thing, is God. And whether you want that to be true or not, whether you believe it or not, it is how it is. The most awesome being in the universe has created us to be in a relationship with Him. I can therefore guarantee you that your enjoyment of life will never be what it could be without Him, because nothing compares to Him.
When Asaph struggled with envy of the wicked, and then turned to the Lord, it was then that he learned this truth. He ends his Psalm stating what the real truth is for those who follow the world and what the real truth is for those who follow God.
:The True Comparison:
*Read verses 27-28*
And that is the conclusion of the matter: We have been made to worship. It is good, indeed it is the highest good, for us to be near to God. Those who are far from the Lord ultimately perish. Do not envy them, because the prosperity of the wicked is a mirage
Application:
“The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Do not be discouraged as you Follow God in a Fallen World. Do not be deceived into thinking that unbelievers have it better. You were made to worship and you have access to the greatest treasure in the universe: God. Let your greatest joy and satisfaction be found in Him!