Psalm 73 O God, Why Do The Wicked Prosper In Their Wickedness And Enjoy Life While I, The Righteous, Suffer? Series

Psalm 73 O God, why do the wicked prosper in their wickedness and enjoy life while I, the righteous, suffer?

Intro

Can you imagine a scenario where a renowned preacher from a national church or a well-known evangelist loses faith in God? As the spiritual leaders of our church, at some point, we may face a crisis of belief in our leadership. We all have a weak stumbling moment that makes us doubt about our faith. As God's servants, who have a clearer understanding of the scriptures and God's will compared to ordinary Christians, we should be able to resolve such weakness. In Psalm 73, there is such a person who doubted his faith in God and finally resolved his doubt. Today we are going to study Psalm 73 as an example of facing such a problem and find out how to come out of it. Shall we pray?

Psalm 73 (using the ESV text displayed according to the sermon sections)

When we read this Psalm, we can identify six major themes that emerge from this Psalm:

Verse 1 The Conclusion of this Psalm.

Verses 2-3 The Psalmist's profound doubt.

Verses 4-12 His Puzzlement about the prosperity of the wicked.

Verses 13-14 His Reason for Stumbling.

Verses 15-20 His Quest for the answer from the Lord.

Verses 21-28 His Enlightenment at the end.

Now, let’s dig into the words as the Holy Spirit guides us!

1.0 The Conclusion of Asaph's Quest for Justice vs 1

vs 1 ‘ ”TRULY” God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.’ We can see this is the conclusion of the Psalmist’s quest for the answer to the prosperity of the wicked while I the ‘pure heart’ am suffering. ‘Truly God is good to Israel.’ This statement has a qualifier: ‘to those who are pure in heart.’

-> The difference between the people of God in despair and the people without God is that: no matter how bad the situation of God's people is, there is always a dawn of hope and a turning point that they can look up to. In Asaph’s case, he first was bitter to see the wicked enjoying peace & prosperity until he understood their real end. The people without God are truly hopeless. This is repeatedly demonstrated in the Book of Psalms and other scriptures and the believers' lives. This is true in Asaph’s case in this Psalm.

'Surely God is good to Israel.' Israel is the Lord's elected people, and we Christians are the elect of God too. But not every person holds that the name ‘elected people’ is good.

'Surely God is good... to those who are pure in heart.' -> The heart represents the essence of a man, his emotion, his thinking, and his virtue. Men's hearts are evil, our Lord Jesus said,"... But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone." (Matthew 15:18-20). -> Pure hearts are the opposite of the above. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8). No one can be pure in heart except filled with the Holy Spirit. No one can be filled with the HS except born again in the Spirit!

2.0 The Darkness of Hour of Unsettling Doubt vs 2-14

In vs 2-3 & 12-14, we see the Psalmist's problem and his reason for stumbling. In vs 3, he confessed that he is not interested in justice but envies the wicked enjoying life. This is the reason for his crisis of faith. His conclusion in vs 13 is that: "All in vain have I kept my heart clean & washed my hands in innocence". Walking God's way had no reward but living wickedly had gained a lot even till death. -> In today’s term… ‘My faith in God is worthless, I want to be like them too!’.

The psalmist in his puzzlement, exaggeratedly concludes 20 things about the wicked in vs 3-12:

In one take about three breaths, he spills out 20 characteristics against the wicked. This shows how bitter he is against the wicked when he thinks of them!

1) vs 3a The wicked are arrogant

2) vs 3b They prosper despite their wickedness

3) vs 4a They have no pangs until death.

-> (We, Christians sometimes have to pray for others for their sickness, yet the wicked have no pain until death?)

4) vs 4b Their bodies are sound & sleek. (They are healthy & happy. -> enjoy golfing all the time?)

5) vs 5a They are not in trouble as others.

6) vs 5b They are not stricken or plagued like others. -> (Everything goes their way smoothly!)