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NewCity Orlando Sermons
The Art of Divine Contentment | Psalms 73
Pastor of Formation & Mission Benjamin Kandt continues our series, The Art of Divine Contentment, preaching from Psalm 73, and tracing the journey from contentment, to discontentment, and back into recontentment.
Hello everyone. This is Pastor Damian. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando. At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1:Please join me in praying the prayer of illumination. Please join me in praying the prayer of illumination. Gracious God, we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from your mouth. Make us hungry for your word that it may satisfy us, lead us and give us life Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Speaker 1:Today's scripture reading is Psalm 73. Truly, god is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped, for I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death. Their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are. They are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore, pride is their necklace. Violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness. Their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice. Loftily, they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore his people turn back to them and find no fault in them and they say how can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the wicked. Always at ease. They increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I discerned their end.
Speaker 1:Truly. You set them in slippery places. You make them fall to ruin how they are destroyed in a moment swept away utterly by terrors, like a dream. When one awakes, o Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold my right hand, you guide me with your counsel and afterward you will receive me to glory. 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. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord, god, my refuge. That I may tell of all your works. This is God's word. Please be seated.
Speaker 2:This week I was listening to a podcast and as I was listening I was just experiencing a bit of admiration for this person I was listening to and just thinking, wow, he has such a command of what he's talking about and the quotes and the illustrations and the insights and everything he said was just so on point. And then I started thinking about what I know about his life and the insights and everything he said was just so on point. And then I started thinking about his, what I know about his life and the church that he pastors and kind of the values that he holds, and I found just this growing internal discontentment with my own life and experience and I realized in that moment oh, this is envy. That's what's happening right now. I was confessing to a good friend of mine, doing the whole transparent trust thing that you just heard talked about here, and, like a good friend, my buddy, nick held up a mirror to me and reflected me back to myself and he said hey, ben, you know it's almost like you have like a Frankenstein's monster. That is just this amalgam of different preachers and leaders and thinkers and therapists that you just kind of blend together into this thing that you think you should want to be and you aspire to have what they have and to be who they are he's like and it sounds like it just crushes you. We're going to be honest in church this morning. I hope you understand that. But that's okay with you, because what he was pointing to was envy. He's talking about envy.
Speaker 2:Now, I don't think I would have been so consciously aware of what was going on in my own mind when I was listening to that podcast if I didn't have the joyful privilege of meditating on envy this week, but I was keenly aware of it. You see, I'm assuming that envy has a more significant role in your life than you're aware of. It's just an assumption I'm going to make. I'm just putting that out there for you right now. There's a study that was done on the verbal stream of thought that goes through our minds and it's so rapid that we internally have about 4,000 words per minute cruising through our minds. Now, most of that's not in conscious awareness. Now let me just give you an analogy to understand that a little bit. The average State of the Union address by a president is about 6,000 words and it lasts for a little bit over an hour. You have about 320 State of the Union addresses playing through your mind each day. I wonder how much of that contains envy. And so this is the question I want to wrestle with is what role does envy play in our discontentment? And I want to submit to you that envy has a more significant role in your life than you realize, and the fact that you don't realize that is actually even more of a problem that our total unawareness of it is in and of itself an issue.
Speaker 2:And so we're in this series called the Art of Divine Contentment, and last week we looked at Philippians 4 and saw what does it look like to have contentment in our circumstances? Well, this week we're going to look at contentment among the discontents, contentment among a world of people who experience discontentment, contentment among a world of people who experience discontentment, and how we look at those people, and what stirs up in us is envy to have what they have and to be who they are. And so, if you have a bible, we're going to look at psalm 73 together very closely, so you're going to need the text in front of you. If you don't have a bible, you can get a device open and turn to psalm 73. Psalm and the three points I have are the heart of contentment, the heart of discontentment and the heart of recontentment, because we make up words here at New City. So the heart of contentment look with me at Psalm 73, verse one. It says this it's a Psalm of Asaph. So I'm gonna be referring to Asaph. He's the guy who wrote this Psalm, a Psalm of Asaph. He's the guy who wrote this psalm, a psalm of Asaph.
Speaker 2:He starts off by saying truly, god is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. If you wanted the heart of contentment summarized in three words, here it is God is good, god is good. That's the heart of contentment. Cs Lewis says it like this God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. So the opposite is also true. Oswald Chambers says the root of all sin is the suspicion that God is not good. So the heart of contentment is this it's simply getting it down deep enough into the nervous system, this deep, abiding sense and trust that god is good.
Speaker 2:That's all I've got for point one, because it gets bad real quick in verse two. And the reality is is that not many of us in this room are just kind of floating through life, like living out of this abundant heart of contentment where we just have this sense of all of our loves are ordered to the summum bonum and everything is good no matter what happens. That's not our experience. So let's look at the heart of discontentment, because I think diagnosing that is going to be really helpful for us. Look with me at verse 2. But, as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped, for I was here's the word envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. What is it that caused Asaph to stop and to stare and to stumble? Envy, stare and to stumble? Envy, envy, envy is the heart of discontentment. It's something that if I followed you around with a video camera, you might be raging with envy and I might never really know, because it happens in the heart, that secret place of who you are.
Speaker 2:The heart of discontentment is envy. This is the way that one pastor defines it. He says envy is when you resent God's goodness in other people's lives and ignore God's goodness in your own life. Envy is when you resent God's goodness in the people around you but you ignore God's goodness to you. You're oblivious to that. And so a real question is when was the last time you confessed envy?
Speaker 2:Probably not very frequently. Why? Well, because we confess things like anger and lust and pride, and in some ways those ones if you indulge just a little bit, they almost feel good. To indulge in a little bit Envy is humiliating. We don't confess envy because we're humiliated by the fact that we wish we were you, that we wish we were not ourselves, but we wish we were you. There's something humiliating about that. It's got shame kind of embedded in it too, and so therefore, we rarely confess this to other people. And so I submitted to you earlier that I think envy plays a bigger role in your life than you'd want to admit, and I think this is one of the reasons you don't want to admit it. Another thing I want to say is I think the Bible actually thinks that it plays a significant role in your life. Let me just point this out real quick.
Speaker 2:This is a little overview of some stories of envy in Scripture. You don't get to page like three of the Bible before. Cain kills Abel out of envy because Abel is more righteous. That's in Genesis 4. In Genesis 30, rachel envies her sister because Leah can have children and she can't. Joseph's brother tried to kill him out of envy because he's the favorite child. In our McShane Bible reading plan we just read this that Korah and Dathan and Abiram envy Moses and Aaron because of their positions of leadership in Numbers 16.
Speaker 2:In 1 Samuel 18, king Saul envies David because women are making up songs about him. Saul kills his thousands, david, his tens of thousands. Saul gets jealous and envious of David so he tries to kill him. David then covets Bathsheba and envies Uriah, so he kills him in 2 Samuel 11. The religious leaders it actually says this in the New Testament envied Jesus's popularity and so they sought to kill him. Which is why Pontius Pilate in Matthew 27 says this that he knew it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.
Speaker 2:You see, envy plays a significant role in the biblical storyline and it plays a significant role in your life too. Let me make a quick distinction. We covet things, we envy people. The 10th commandment is about covetousness. It's up there with the other nine big ones, and I'm saying envy and covetousness are just flip sides of the same coin. You covet things, you envy people.
Speaker 2:And did you notice the way that Asaph's envy was stirred up. He says I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. You don't even have to be a Christian in here this morning to recognize that there's few things that rob you of your joy. Quite like comparison. You just scroll socials and all you see is how great their outside is and you compare it to your inside and you realize how much you lack. What does it do? It stirs up envy. You see, your eyes and your heart are inextricably linked. You see others, you compare yourself and then it stirs up envy in you. And so I want to submit that the evil of envy is in your heart, and if you don't believe that, that's probably in and of itself a pretty big problem. This is the way that Stephen Olford says it the most deadly sins do not leap upon us, they creep upon us. So how did envy creep into Asaph's heart? What was it when? Verses 4 through 12, we'll look through these together. You see what made him stop and stare and stumble, what stirred up the envy in his heart.
Speaker 2:Joseph Epstein, who I don't think is a disciple of Jesus, wrote a book on envy and he, he says, envy is like a Rorschach test. You remember those, those inkblots, and you kind of portray onto it what, what's really going on in your internal contents of your heart. It's like a Rorschach test. If you tell me what you envy, I can tell a lot about you. That's what he says. And so let's look at what Asaph envies and do some self-examination. Pay close enough attention, see if you can learn something about yourself through your own envies. Look with me at verse 4. It says this For they have no pangs until death. Their bodies are fat and sleek. First of all, asaph envied their bodies. The Bible is so archaic and outdated. Who would envy another person's body? The Bible's so archaic and outdated who would envy another person's body?
Speaker 2:I was staying at New Smyrna Beach this was a few years ago and I get into the elevator. I get off the beach, get into the elevator and there's another guy in the elevator and he's super fit in his 20s. I'm like 34 now. Some of you are like I don't feel bad for you, dude In his 20s. I'm like 34 now. Some of you are like I don't feel bad for you, dude In his 20s, dressed like he gets barreled in like some deep pitted wave every day and he has no other cares in his life but how he's going to get to shred the gnar that day. And he has a dog with him. That's the top three breed of dogs that I would want if I could choose a breed of dog to have. And I walk in and I'm struck immediately. I would just like take them all in at once.
Speaker 2:And this man's appearance just leaps at me. It's not even my fault and envy stirs up in my heart. I told you we were going to be honest at church today. Okay, am I the only one? Maybe not. I envied this guy's body because he was clothed with the appearance of the good life. In my mind, if I were to boil down what I want out of life, it's like the ease of walking out on the beach and getting to surf every day with my Australian shepherd. That was the dog breed. It's amazing. I actually told Alana about it. I was like, hey, I don't know what just happened, but this dude in the elevator.
Speaker 2:And so I tell you that because Asaph envies the bodies of other people. Do you ever do that? Do you ever look at the bodies of another person, the body of another person, and wish yours looked more like them? The Bible's real y'all. And so this is how envy gets stirred up in our hearts.
Speaker 2:Look at verse five with me. It says this they're not in trouble as others are. They're not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore, pride is their necklace. Violence covers them as a garment.
Speaker 2:In this situation, you could tell Asaph envies their ease, their ease of life. They're not stricken like the rest of mankind. They don't deal with trouble like I do. He looks at that and he sees that People have commented on how we are more set up to be wrecked by suffering than any other generation prior to us. Why? Because human beings historically assumed suffering to be the default state. So when comfort came, they experienced gratitude. We assume comfort to be the default state and so when suffering comes, we grumble.
Speaker 2:Do you notice what he says here? They're not in trouble as others are. They're not stricken like the rest of mankind. Most of mankind experiences troubles and strickening, but those who have it going on have got envy for their ease of life. And he goes on.
Speaker 2:He says in verse 7, their eyes swell out through fatness. Their hearts overflow with follies. Jesus says out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Their hearts overflow with follies and then it immediately goes to. They scoff and speak with malice, loftily. You see, asaph envies their confidence to say what they think. They can just get on socials and say whatever they think about something and not care at all about what other people are going to think about them. They've just got this braggadocio confidence about themselves and he envies that.
Speaker 2:He goes on in verse 10,. Therefore, his people turn back to them and find no fault in them and they say how can God know, is their knowledge in the most high? I think here envy. Asaph envies their freedom. Why? Why do I say that?
Speaker 2:Do you ever wish that you didn't have to live with the moral constraints of being a Christian? Do you ever fantasize sometimes about how nice it would be to not have to be so scrupulous with your money and generosity? Blah, blah, blah. Do you ever wish you didn't have the binds of Christian sexual ethics in your life? Do you ever wish you didn't have the binds of Christian sexual ethics in your life? Do you ever wonder what it would be like if you could get away with things in secret and not feel so guilty about it, or like somebody actually knows what's really going on in your life?
Speaker 2:You see, the most miserable Christians are those who have a foot in and a foot out. They know enough to feel condemned, but not enough to feel content. That's where Asaph is. So he looks at them and he envies their freedom. How can God know? Is there knowledge in the most high? Is there even a God? And he envies that level of freedom. He goes on and he summarizes the whole thing in verse 12. He says behold, these are the wicked always at ease. They increase in and he goes on to describe himself. He says All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence For all the day long I've been stricken and rebuked every morning. Eugene Peterson translates verse 13 like this I've been stupid to play by the rules. What has it gotten me? Do you ever feel that way? You see, maybe you are a Christian and you've been, quote-unquote, playing by the rules, but it's not working out like you expected it to, and so you're about ready to give up.
Speaker 2:I pay close attention, I listen to stories of deconstruction, where people walk away from their faith in Jesus, and the reason why is because I really want to understand them. I empathetically want to identify, understand, kind of where they're coming from, get a sense of what that's got to be like. And something struck me recently, which was whenever I listen to stories of deconstruction, it sounds like somebody chose a different philosophy. It sounds like they just opted for a different system of beliefs or choosing a different way of life. And I knew something never really sat well with me in that, until I believed, the Holy Spirit kind of illumined this to me and I realized if I were to leave Christianity, it would feel more like a divorce, it would feel like severing a love relationship with my God. It would feel like severing a love relationship with my God. It wouldn't feel like choosing from the buffet of options of philosophies to live my life by, and I didn't know what to make of that. And so what I want to submit is oftentimes people aren't deconstructing Christianity, and so I think that's what's happening here.
Speaker 2:Asaph is on the verge of deconstruction. Look what he's deconstructing, though he would say. He kept his heart pure and his hands were washed in incense. He would say that he thought he knew, but look what he actually deconstructs here. He says this in verse 13. All in vain. My religion was vanity, it was worthless to me. Why? Because his religion was built on a formula. It was worthless to me. Why? Because his religion was built on a formula. I played by the rules. What did it get me?
Speaker 2:You see, there's a way to relate to God religiously which looks like a formula. It usually looks like. If I follow the rules, then you must fill in the blank for you, if I do this, god, you do that. It's kind of a tit for tat relationship with God. It's a formulaic way of relating to God.
Speaker 2:And here's the thing we get locked into discontentment because God refuses to obey your formula. And so if you say something like this, even if it's just in your heart, god I'll serve you. If you should know that your real God is on the other side of, if that's who you really worship. And so what's happening to Asaph here is he's realizing that God is so good he won't let him have his if God is too kind to him to let Asaph use God to get his real God. Another way to say this is I want you to deconstruct your formulaic way of relating to God and receive God in the freedom that God has to be who God is in relationship to you and not a means to an end. That's what Asaph's deconstructing here. And so if God were to ask you, are you serving me, to get from me or to get me? How would you respond to that? And so that's the heart of discontentment. Let's look at the heart of a non-real word recontentment.
Speaker 2:In verse 16, asaph says this, but when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task. In other words, asaph felt what some of you might be feeling right now, which is a sense of the wearisomeness of wrestling through your own doubts and envy and difficulties, things that the Spirit of God is stirring up in you right now. He's saying listen, it was a wearisome task to press through this, but he pressed into it. I'm inviting you, don't give up here. Press in Whatever you're aware of in your life of discontentment, press in, deal with your doubts. And there's only one place to do that. That's in the presence of God. That's why he says in verse 17, until I went into the sanctuary of God, the place God promises his presence, then I discerned their end.
Speaker 2:It's worth noting, asaph was David's worship leader. This dude was in the sanctuary of God on the regular. So what's different Until I went into the sanctuary of God. What's different? Well, we know that there's a way to do religious things that are actually a form of avoiding God rather than encountering God. Jesus says these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, you see. So it wasn't just Asaph's feet that went into the sanctuary of God, it was Asaph's heart that went into the sanctuary of God. That's actually what changed. So even now, wherever you are, direct your heart towards God. That's what it looks like to go into the presence of God. He's everywhere present, but we are often absent. Directing your heart towards the presence of God is what Asaph is saying. That is what enabled him to discern their end.
Speaker 2:When I was younger, I put off getting glasses for a long time. I just I didn't think I needed them, went to the optometrist, got fitted, got some lenses and trees had leaves again. It was amazing and I realized that me putting that off actually was making it so. I didn't see the world as clearly as it was. Brother, sister, friend, please don't put off going into the sanctuary of God and dealing with your envy. See the world clearly. That's the invitation that Asaph is putting before you.
Speaker 2:It's as if Asaph experienced this thing, where going into the presence of God was the difference between watching a parade on the street versus a parade from the sky. On the street, you just see things coming and going past you like this. When you see from the sky, you get to see the beginning, the middle and the end. And Asaph, going into the presence of God gave him perspective to see how God was at work in his life and in the world around him. That's what the Christian tradition is called discernment. That's what he says. Then I discerned their end Seeing God living and active in your life. That comes from being in the presence of God. And so from the street, the wicked prosper and God is irrelevant to life. But from the sky, the wicked perish and God is present in life. Theologian Marva Dawn says it like this life always seems unfair until it is put into the whole picture of forever.
Speaker 2:And so Asaph goes into the sanctuary of God and he has three shifts in his perspective, three ways in which his heart was changed. And so the first one is he has a change of heart towards those he envied, a change of heart towards himself and finally, a change of heart towards God. Look with me at verse 18, you. He has a change of heart towards those he envied, a change of heart towards himself and, finally, a change of heart towards God. Look with me at verse 18. You'll see the change of heart towards those he envied. He says truly, you set them in slippery places, you make them fall to ruin. You notice the shift Since going into the sanctuary of God, the language changes, how it changes from the third person to the second person.
Speaker 2:Up to this point, up to verse 18, asaph's been talking about God. Now he's talking to God. There's something important to that the first person to refer to God in the third person in the Bible is the devil. Did God really say? You see, there's something that happens when we are doubtful and full of discontent that shifts. When we stop talking about our discontent with God and we start telling God, we start talking about our discontentment to God. There's a shift that happens there, addressing God in the second person. That's what Asaph does here, and so he goes on in verse 19,.
Speaker 2:He says how they are destroyed in a moment swept away utterly by terrors, like a dream. When one awakes, oh Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. Is anybody in here a vivid dreamer? I'm a vivid dreamer. My dreams feel so palpable and real to me until about a minute and a half after I wake up. Isn't that remarkable? That's the metaphor that Asaph is using in the story here. He's saying hey, the prosperity of the wicked seems so real until you begin to wake up to reality. The difference between what you have and what you lack, and what they have and what they don't lack. Look, it feels so visceral and real. And then you wake up to what's actually real and you realize how wrong you really were. Those who give themselves to the things that are here and now, they themselves perish with the things that are here and now, here today and gone tomorrow. Give yourselves to the things that are here today and gone tomorrow, and so will you. That's essentially what Asaph is saying.
Speaker 2:In 2005, tom Brady was being interviewed after winning his third Super Bowl. Some of you just started paying attention. And now let's just pause for a moment. Tom Brady, at least then I don't know how he's doing now embodied the paradigmatic picture of everything going well. I mean wealthy, handsome, athletic, underwear model, supermodel, wife at least I think he had one the winningest quarterback in the history of the NFL. I mean, this guy has everything going for him right in the history of the NFL. I mean, this guy has everything going for him right. If there's anybody that the generic American male envies, it's somebody like a Tom Brady, and this is what he says in this interview.
Speaker 2:In 2005, after winning his third Super Bowl, he says this quote why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey, man, this is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life. I think God, it's gotta be more than this. I love how that's almost a prayer. I mean this can't be what it's all cracked up to be. I mean I've done it, I'm 27 and what else is there for me? And the interviewer says so what's the answer, tom? To which he replies I wish I knew.
Speaker 2:I think Tom Brady in this interview is glimpsing what Asaph saw. If we live for temporary things, we ourselves become temporary. So Asaph discerns their end, almost like he got a fast forward video of the people on the Titanic and he sees what they're going towards and in that moment, right before the ship leaves for port, he glimpses that. And in that moment, who would possibly envy the people on that boat? And so, instead of envy, he now has pity for them. He glimpses that and in that moment, who would possibly envy the people on that boat? And so, instead of envy, he now has pity for them. He realizes the outcome of their way of life. But he has a change of heart, not only towards those he envies, but towards himself.
Speaker 2:Look at verse 21,. He says this when my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast toward you. I love this. Rather than pointing the finger, he looks in the mirror. We heard that from the women up here earlier In a circle. You need people to give you a mirror. He looks in the mirror. He sees that he himself had the issue.
Speaker 2:Listen, some of you are bitter towards God right now, and I just want to lovingly tell you it's dehumanizing you. The reason for that is that to be human is to be that place in the cosmos that responds to the goodness of God with gratitude. That's what our distinct vocation as human beings is. You see, animals can experience the goodness of God, but they cannot express it. Human beings alone can experience God's goodness and express it in thanksgiving back to him. We alone can feel the sun on our face or taste a delicious meal or bask in the love of someone, and then respond by giving God thanks for it. Articulate praise from an intelligent being. Angels can articulate God's praise, but they can't experience God's goodness like we can. They don't have bodies. You see, this distinct place we have, and so that's why when Asaph is brutish and ignorant and bitter towards God, he's like a beast, he's like an animal.
Speaker 2:Ingratitude is dehumanizing to yourself, and so if I'm bitter about something, it's because I believe I got less than I deserve. But if I'm grateful about something, it's because I believe I got more than I deserve. But if I'm grateful about something, it's because I believe I got more than I deserve. Two fundamental postures to approach life right there. What do you think you deserve? We're going to come back to that question because I think it's powerful to look at this language. He calls himself brutish, ignorant and like a beast toward God, and one commentator says it like this. To be bitter and beastly is like the irrational animals that are ever looking down at the ground that they are grazing upon. That's what it's like when you refuse to express gratitude to God, You're like an animal that just looks at the ground that you're grazing upon, rather than up to heaven in joy at what you've been given.
Speaker 2:And so I want you to imagine, consider for a moment how bitterness not only dehumanizes us, but it devalues God. Imagine for a moment that you find the guy or the girl of your dreams and you're engaged, you're about to be married and a week before the wedding day, you get a call from your father and he says hey, listen, we made some bad investments and I know you were gonna inherit my fortune, but there's nothing left. And you go and you turn to your fiance for comfort and you start pouring out your heart. Hey, listen, I'm so sorry, but this is where it's at. I don't actually have the inheritance I thought I was gonna have. And they look at you and you can tell something's wrong. And they come back to you a day later and they say hey, I think we should call off the wedding.
Speaker 2:In that moment, what just happened? Your deepest desire in that relationship is to be loved for who you are and what was communicated. I love you for what I can get from you. Do you see how that devalues God. When we love God for what we can get from God, we treat him as if he's worthless to us. This makes us like beasts. So how does God respond? How does God respond to your bitterness, your envy, your ingratitude? How does he respond? Well, look with me at the third change of heart in verse 23. He says Well, look with me at the third change of heart in verse 23. He says nevertheless, I'm continually with you, verse 23,.
Speaker 2:Nevertheless, what a beautiful word to be placed right here in this text. Nevertheless, you see, god's love for you is not conditioned upon you. That's good news. God's love for you is conditioned upon God and him being loving towards the undeserving. And so Dr Martin Lloyd-Jones preached 10 sermons on Psalm 73, which is why this is gonna be a long sermon, I'm sorry. 10 sermons on Psalm 73, and he preached one entire sermon on this one word.
Speaker 2:Nevertheless, you see, what happened here is, if you remember, in verse two, asaph says truly, god is good to Israel, to those who are impure in heart. But as for me, I was. My steps had nearly slipped, my feet had nearly stumbled, because I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. God's answer to Asaph's, as for me, was nevertheless, you slip, you stumble, I don't. I am unfailing in my love for you. I falter not in my love for you, even though you falter in your love for me.
Speaker 2:Nevertheless, you see, it's good news that, despite choosing God's gifts over God, nevertheless Jesus gives you his own son to bring you back to himself. It's good news that, despite wanting to be like the wicked, nevertheless Jesus became like the wicked in their punishment and was made to fall, to ruin, so he could bring you back to himself. It's good news for us that, despite our ingratitude, nevertheless Jesus gives us a meal every week that some traditions call the Eucharist, which means thanksgiving, so we can come and renew our gratitude for all that he is for us. It's good news that, despite our discontent with God, nevertheless God gives us his very spirit to fill us full and flowing over with himself to satisfy us. You might be aware that you've been running about 100 miles away from God, and what God would say to you is nevertheless, I'm continually with you, turn back, turn back, and all you need to do is realize. As you turn back, you'll realize you've run 100 miles away, but nevertheless, he's been continually with you. And so I'm going to go quickly through maybe the most amazing part of this psalm, because I'll probably not do it justice, so bear with me. Verse 23 says this nevertheless, I'm continually with you. You hold my right hand. Says this nevertheless, I'm continually with you. You hold my right hand, you guide me with your counsel and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Speaker 2:Tim Keller says that envy stems from two preoccupations. Here they are you ready? First, we're obsessed with what we deserve. Second, we're preoccupied with the present. You see, the solution is to look up to the Lord and to look ahead and hope, and that's just what Asaph does. He sees himself grasped, guided and glorified past, present and future. He knows that Jesus is grasping him, holding fast to him with the strong grip of his nail scarred hands. He knows that Jesus will guide him with his counsel and guide you with your counsel, through your slips and stumbles, just like Asaph's. And he knows that Jesus will one day receive him to glory. There is a certainty, a firmness, a stability to his future because of that, and so that's why he can look to God and say whom have I in heaven but you? And there's nothing on earth that I desire besides you, my flesh, my heart and my flesh will fail, but God, you are the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Speaker 2:Thomas Watson, who wrote Art of Divine Contentment that this series is based on, says it like this if there be enough in God to satisfy the angels, then sure there is enough to satisfy us. Fresh joys spring continually from his face and he is as much to be desired after a million years by glorified souls as at that first moment. There is a fullness in God that satisfies, and yet so much sweetness that the soul still desires. God is a delicious good. You ever use the word delicious as an adjective to describe God. The Puritans did, and they're supposed to be stuffier than we are. Verse 26,. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Speaker 2:I want you to imagine for a moment that everything you call yours is taken from you. In a moment, let's just say that you find yourself abandoned, forgotten by all, and in that utter desolation, completely alone with you and you alone, you ask the question what do I now have? What do I now possess? You see, you don't know that Jesus is all that you need until Jesus is all that you have. There's a prayer that I like to pray. I pray it probably more aspirationally than anything else, and it's this take what you want, leave me yourself, I'll have enough. Take what you want, leave me yourself, I'll have enough. You see, augustine of Hippo says he, that is God after all, is enough for you. Apart from him, nothing is enough for you.
Speaker 2:Do you believe that Jesus is better than anything life can give? Do you believe that Jesus is better than anything that can give? Do you believe that Jesus is better than anything that death can take away? Do you believe that if you have nothing but God, you have everything? Do you believe that if you have everything but God, you have nothing?
Speaker 2:Let's end where the psalmist ends in verse 27. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who's unfaithful to you. But for me, but for me. But for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord, god my refuge. That I may tell of all your works. He starts with truly God is good, but as for me, and he ends with, but for me, it is good to be near God. You see the transformation that happened between verse one and verse 28? From the heart of contentment through the heart of discontentment to the heart of recontentment. And now he can say but as for me, it is good to be near God. Take what you wish, leave me yourself, I'll have enough. Let me close with a story.
Speaker 2:There's a guy named Alan Gardner. I've told this story before because it's so powerful. In 1851, he went as a missionary to the southern tip of South America and he was supposed to be followed a couple days later with a supply ship that had food and water for him. And the supply ship never showed up. And so when his body was found, his journal lay nearby him and he recorded his final days of hunger and thirsts and isolation. In the last entry in his little journal, you could barely read his handwriting, because you could tell he was shaking with his famished state to even write this out. And this is what he wrote.
Speaker 2:Quote Psalm 34, verse 10. The young lions suffer, want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. And next to it he wrote his own words I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God. Let's pray. With a sense of the goodness of God, let's pray, father, would you wean us off of our envy of others into gratitude for all that we have in you and all that you are for us. Spirit, this is your work.
Speaker 2:I pray for the ways in which you are lifting our gaze to see Jesus, that we would resist that base instinct to push away the work of the Spirit in our life. Jesus, we want to see you as enough. Pray this in your name, amen, amen. What we do now is, in a way, to respond to the word of God. We respond with prayer, and so I'm going to give you just one prompt, which is to, before you come to this table, is to allow the Holy Spirit to search your heart for where the role that envy is playing in your discontentment. And, as you ask him to do that, as you reflect on what you heard, and as you ask him to do that, as you reflect on what you heard, simply bring those things to Jesus. There is more grace in Jesus than there is sin in you. Draw near with boldness and confidence. We'll be back up in a moment.