There is, indeed, very little justice in the world. But that’s very old news. We established that last week. Last week we talked about that age-old problem of what you do what bad things happen to good people. We thought about how, when good people get into tough times, it just feels as though they are not being treated fairly. Well, no, let’s say what we really thought. We didn’t think about "they"- we thought about "we". We thought that we, good people as we surely must be ... here we are in church, after all ... we good people think that we deserve a better deal than we get. We seemed to agree, last Sunday, that there is very little justice in this world.
But that is old news now and it was old news then. We didn’t waste time then, and we won’t waste it now, trying to figure out why that happens. There just isn’t any fully satisfying answer. There isn’t any logic that gets all the pieces of that puzzle put together. Bad things happen to good people, they just do, that’s that, and it’s better not to strain the brain trying to figure it out.
But we did, last Sunday, find out that prayer enters that picture. Prayer enters that picture not by our asking God to fix the unfixable or put everything back together. Prayer enters the picture as in prayer we pour our very hearts out to God. When bad things happen to good people, God will hear the cries of anguish, and will bring forward reserves, memories, that will help us get through. We also found that sometimes God is silent until we find out how much we need Him. Then we win our victory. Then we will be satisfied; it may not be today, nor yet tomorrow, but ultimately we will be satisfied. We just have to go ahead and cry out, with all the anguish that lies buried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and let that cry assault the heavens ... that’s what we must do in prayer, when bad things happen to good people. Because human justice is not going to cross our thresholds.
Now today let’s turn over to the other side of the coin. Look at this from the other side of the ledger. What about when good things happen to bad people? The exact opposite of last week. When good things happen to bad people? When all the goodies seem to come down on people who have done nothing to deserve them? When showers of blessing rain abundantly on folks who have lied, cheated, and stolen, and again there just doesn’t seem to be any justice? You know the Bible verse that tells us that God makes His rain fall upon both the just and the unjust? Somebody has put it like this: "The rain, it falls upon the just and unjust fella; the trouble is the unjust took the just’s umbrella."
Why is it that the scoundrels get the goodies? How is it that the cheats and thieves figure out ways to keep their wealth and make the rest of us pay for it? What do you say when you read in the morning papers that some corporate hotshot has fired three thousand workers, cheapened his products and services, increased the profit margin, and awarded himself multiplied millions in bonuses for doing all this? Why? Why?
Well, if you can answer that, you can tell me what was going on the other day when I listened to somebody’s tearful appeal for help. He just needed a few dollars to get by. Tomorrow there would be a job and an income ... pastor, if you’ll just give me transportation money. A few questions, more pleas, an attempt at a witness, a moment of prayer, and finally some dollars changed hands. Ten minutes after it was all over, someone else who was in the church building said to me, "Did you see the car that fellow left in?" "Car? He said he needed transportation money?" "Well, pastor, I would need transportation money too if I were operating a big, shiny, new Mercedes ... the one with the big engine ... and the extra bronze trim."
I lost it with the extra bronze trim. I just lost it. Why should such a good thing as my charity, the church’s charity, be lavished on such a bad person? Why should we be taken in by such a rogue? Why does God let good things happen to bad people? Why?
But now, remember, last week we said that there wasn’t really an answer to the why. That the issue was our feelings. Our deep down emotional response to things like that. The issue is not what we think up here in the head. The issue is what we feel down here in the heart and how we are going to work that through.
That’s where the prayer of the Psalmist comes in. That’s where the great Shepherd Psalm, beloved of generations of people, speaks to us. The 23rd Psalm is the prayer of a person who has found out what he feels and how he can deal with it when he looks out from his ordinary life and sees that very good things happen to some very bad people. The 23rd Psalm is the prayer of a soul which has found satisfaction, anyway. Satisfaction, anyway. Because it’s all about grace. It’s not about what we deserve. It’s all about grace.
I
You see, when good things happen to bad people, and we just don’t seem to be getting our fair share, prayer helps us discover that we do have good things. We have good things, and, if we but recognize them, they are the better things. In prayer, we find that we don’t want anything else. We don’t need anything else.
Have you been thinking about material things while I’ve spoken about the good things coming to bad people? I’ll bet you have. I led you down that path. I spoke about corporate raiders and welfare cheats. I snookered you into thinking about material goodies. Good things, material things, happen to those other people out there.
But, you see, when you pray the prayer of the Psalmist, you can go to a whole different place. You can move to a whole new level. The issue for the Psalmist is not his need for material stuff. The issue is that because he has opened his eyes to see what the Lord has already given him, then "I shall not want." I shall not want. I am not going to need anything. What I do have is all from grace.
Our problem is not with how much or how little stuff we have. Our problem is with our wanting. Our wanting works overtime. If we see it, we want it. If it’s new, we have to have it. If it’s the latest thing, it needs to be my thing. If that takes hold of us, we will never be satisfied. Never! There is no such thing as enough, no such thing as satisfaction if it is things material you are after. If you get one million, you want two (or so I am told). If you get two, you have to have four, And ten. And a hundred. It becomes a great huge game of competing, and if you are caught in that you will never be able to sing our song, "I am satisfied." Never!
But the Psalmist! Look at the gifts he had learned to see. "[The Lord] maketh me to lie down in green pastures- he leadeth me beside the still waters." And if I have all of this, I shall not want. If I have the gifts of grace, that is all I need. If
I have, in prayer, discerned God’s gentle gifts, what somebody else has and why they got it won’t be an issue. I’ll just be focused on gratitude for a quiet heart and a centered soul. I shall not want.
Some of us have lived in the bright lights too long. We think that’s what life is. Let me remind you of another reality. Years ago, when our children were small, our family was invited out in the country to visit some friends for an evening cookout. It really wasn’t all that far from here, but it was far enough that as the sun went down and the stars were revealed, we were all taken aback with the brilliance of the starry heavens. We all paused in our eating to look up. My little daughter said it best, "Daddy, why didn’t you tell me there were so many stars up there?" Daddy didn’t tell her about the moon and the stars which God has ordained because you can’t see the stars when the city’s lights are shining. And daddy had been looking at the glare of the world’s lights, he had been blinded and had forgotten about all the light that was out there. We miss the gentle gifts, the gifts of grace, but they are there.
Let good things, or what they think are good things, happen to bad people, all kinds of people. If we remember God’s quiet gifts, His there-every-day gifts, we shall not want. We shall be satisfied. Because it’s all about grace.
II
But now, I must admit that sometimes the green pastures and the still waters are not quite enough. I must admit that even the most contented and prayerful of us gets caught in that web of jealousy that just makes us angry when others do so well and we do so modestly. I must admit that when I have more month than money because somebody sold me something shoddy, and I have to replace it, I don’t like it. I start making an enemies’ list. Remember Nixon and his enemies’ list? Me too. You talk about feelings, I have them. I nurture them. You may think that your pastor is mild-mannered Clark Kent, but, if you try to cheat me or steal from me, if you make yourself my enemy, well, there is an S just under this robe, and it does not stand for Silent! I feel things, and I want to get them out!!
Several months ago we decided we wanted to have some work done on our house. A floor needed to be replaced, some decking needed to be added, the gutters were tumbling down. We got a contractor out there, he agreed to everything, and we put about $400 down on that job. The contractor promptly disappeared; phone calls were not answered, letters were not responded to, nothing happened, except that the check was cashed. I drove out to his address, only to find a locked door. I went into orbit. I called the county Consumer Affairs agency. I got one of our members who is an attorney to help me beef up my demanding letter. I talked with the Maryland Home Improvement Commission. I photocopied contracts, I sent in canceled checks, I did it all, all in pursuit of $400 and a measure of satisfaction. I went after the enemy.
Guess what? I did all that for $400 and satisfaction. Today I don’t have either one. No $400 and no satisfaction. Because the 23rd Psalm shows us that getting even is not where satisfaction comes from. Satisfaction comes from the life of God entering our hearts, even in the presence of enemies. Getting over on someone else is not the source of satisfaction, nor are we going to get any real pleasure out of seeing somebody else’s misery compounded. Our real satisfaction comes when we settle down, quiet down, in the heart of God. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me" "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." I don’t have my $400, but you know what? I got a floor from another contractor, enough to hold up my kitchen table. It’s going to be all right. He has prepared a table and filed it with enough. I haven’t seen this scoundrel hauled off to justice yet, but "Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over." It’s all grace! It’s not about what I deserve or he deserves! It’s about grace. And when we can see that, when we can, in prayer, take hold of that, it will be enough. Satisfaction.
Never mind that too many goodies land on the bad guys’ plates. You and I have a table set before us by the Lord Himself, and it will be enough. Let go of the resentments, let go of the enemy feelings, and it will be enough. We will be satisfied. Satisfied because our real needs are supplied by a gracious God. And we will fear no evil. None. It’s all about grace.
III
For, you know, a day of reckoning is going to come. A day of justice will finally arrive. Nothing is more clear throughout the Scriptures than this. The day of the Lord will come, sure and certain, and on that day, the righteous judge of all humanity will render some verdicts. A day of justice is coming.
Some folks do live as though that day will never arrive. Some folks live to satisfy every whim and take whatever they want, whenever they want it, as if there is no accounting. And, yes, it looks like they get away with that, for now.
But, I tell you, the Bible speaks of a great day of judgment in which the King will divide us into two camps. Some who have taken and squeezed, coveted and wanted, who have never been satisfied will be over on one side They will be told, much to their surprise, that the bill is now due and payable. Insofar as they gave nothing, shared nothing, offered nothing to the sick and to the hurting, now they will get what they deserve. And it will not be pretty. It will not be satisfying.
And that same Bible tells us that the Lord will turn to others, others who scarcely thought about what their resources, and He will speak of their generosity, He will speak of their detachment from the things of this world, and He will announce to them in tones of triumph, "Come, ye blessed of the Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you." Oh, I tell you, mark it down, there is going to be a day of justice. There is going to be a day of reckoning. The mills of God grind slow, but they grind exceeding fine.
You and I can wait for that. We can wait because we pray with the Psalmist’s rapt gratitude, "My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." We have discovered, with the Psalmist, that it’s all grace. Grace now, grace then. Grace before us, grace beneath us, grace above us. Not what anyone deserves- but what we all receive in grace. Not whether we’ve invested wisely so that we can live in comfort- but whether we have let go of material attachments so that our spirits find comfort. It’s all of grace. Not whether we have enemies that we can pursue to eke out justice; it’s whether in the presence of our enemies we can see what God has done for us and let go. It’s all of grace.
Nor is it whether we feel cheated, it’s not whether we think we deserve better, it’s not whether we’d like more in the bank account. It’s about grace. Satisfied with grace. So what if good things happen to bad people? We’re in that group too! For "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.". And so "by grace are you saved, through faith, and not of works, but it is the gift of God, lest anyone should boast." It’s all about grace. Grace alone. Grace abounding. Satisfaction? "When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s grace than when we first begun."
No, it’s really not about whether I am satisfied. The question comes to me, as we think of Christ and Calvary, as we learn to pray, is my savior satisfied with me?
