Series: Psalms
Service: Sun PM
Type: Sermon
Speaker: Ryan Boyer
My favorite thing about Psalm 73 is how honest it is. It is a description of the author’s own doubts and temptations.
Verses 1-2 are the difference between faith and reality. Verse 1 is what God’s people are “supposed” to believe and say. It is basically the content of Ps. 1. Verse 2, however, is the author’s reality. I’m torn on how to interpret v. 2. My first option is how I have always understood it - God is good to his people, but my life is hard and I don’t see it right now. A second option is that the author is being tempted, he’s slipping away from God, to live like the wicked because they seem have it all. I could
Verses 3-9 describe how the wicked have it all, and how the author was envious of them. Rather than explain the various positive descriptions of their ungodly lives, I’ll focus my attention on the author’s envy. Verse 3 says, “When I saw…” Given all the warnings in the Bible about “the lust of the eyes” (1 Jn. 2:16), we should probably pay close attention to this fault. Afterall, it was the cause of the fall of God’s perfect creation, “…when the woman SAW that the tree was good for food, and that it was a DELIGHT TO THE EYES…” The main problem in the author’s heart in this psalm is not how the ungodly are living, but that he SEES them and feels jealousy about it.
Verses 10-14 follow the descriptions of how the ungodly prosper with the unfortunate reality that God’s people are often tempted to fall because of this. Verse 10 is hard to translate, and you probably have a marginal note in your Bible about it. My ESV says, “his people [i.e. God’s people] turn back to them [i.e. the ungodly].” The next line has a note that says a probably Hebrew literal translation is, “…the waters of a full cup are drained by them.” I take this to mean that the cup doesn’t overflow. God’s people just keep drinking it all in when they see how well-off wicked people are. Verse 13 speaks the sad reality that God’s people may even regret living a life devoted to him, “All in vain have I kept my hear clean and washed my hands in innocence.”
vv. 15-17 - One of my main take-aways from this psalm (I’ve got a lot to say about this)
Verses 15-17a is the same scenario as Lk. 15:17 when the prodigal son comes to himself. This section is like the author asking, “What am I saying!” There are two helpful keys to breaking out of this kind of doubt and temptation, and they are both rooted in getting away from an inward, self-ish (not selfish in the way that your children won’t share their toys, but self-ish in the way that my thoughts and actions are always direction towards my self) way of thinking and moving into an outward way of thinking. The first wake-up call is v. 15 where he says, “If I had said, ‘I will speak thus,’ I would have betrayed the generation of your children.” In other words, “I won’t walk this path, and I won’t even say it out loud, because of what it might do to other people, specifically, the younger generation.
This passage shook me a bit because I have tried to train my mind to see my sin as always being against God. For example, when Joseph was tempted by Potiphar’s wife, he explained, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” I would probably think that Potiphar would be the primary victim in that situation, but Joseph saw it as God. Another example is David confessing his sin in Ps. 51 when he said, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight…” Well, David, you didn’t only sin against God. There was Bathsheba, Uriah, and Joab to start the list. But David understood that God was the primary victim of sin.
In addition to thinking about other people, the psalmist says I didn’t understand all this, “…until I went into the sanctuary of God.” Proper worship is inherently and outward-focused project. If you look at Ps. 73 in my Bible you will see that vv. 2-14 have a lot of red (bad) highlights. The red is where the author is thinking and talking completely about himself and other wicked people (e.g. “I,” “me,” “they,” etc.). God has been completely crowded out of this section by a self-ish, worldly way of thinking. But in v. 17 there is shift to green (good) highlights. The author went into the sanctuary of *God! Beginning in v. 18 there are references to “you” and “Lord,” and in vv. 23-26 God is addressed and/or mentioned in every single line. The key for breaking out of a slippery and tempting mindset is to stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about others, and especially, God.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this topic isn’t one of the subject Becky and I have discussed the most throughout our time working with God’s people. People who have the most trouble almost always have this inward, self-ish way of thinking. “Those people are probably talking about me,” or equally, “Those people are not talking about me, and they should be.” “What will they think about me if…” “I can’t believe they said that thing to me. How thoughtless of them. How hurtful.” Me, me, me. This inward thinking seems to be one of the key troublesome symptoms in people with depression, and especially anxiety. This one will probably hurt, too, especially if you are presently struggling with this - nothing will push a person inward faster than grief. Maybe it’s because when you are grieving your pain is an ever-present reminder of your SELF. We do some of our most self-ish thinking in the throws of pain and suffering.
Here’s a lesson that will probably be hurtful to some of you - nobody is thinking about you…probably ever. And I promise you this, nobody is thinking about you as much as you are thinking about you.
And if you want to be free of the same doubts and temptations that the psalmist was describing, the solution (or at least one solution) is to move your thinking outward to other people whom you may be affecting negatively and especially to God.
In vv. 17b-20 the author explains what helped him realize how silly it was to envy the wicked - “…then I discerned their end.” Verse 18 is a neat contrast with v. 2. In v. 2, the author’s feet almost stumbled and his steps had nearly slipped. But in v. 18 he remembers that God sets the wicked in slippery places and God makes them fall to ruin.
Verses 21-26 describe the author coming to his senses. There are a couple neat observations in these verses. First, let’s finally trace the word “heart” through this psalm. In v. 1, the author says what we are all supposed to say, that God is good to those who are pure in heart. In v. 7b, the author describes the prosperous wicked person as someone whose heart overflows will follies. Verse 13 is a low point where he says, “All in vain have I kept my heart clean…” And now, in v. 21, the author comes to his senses, “…when I was pricked in heart…”
One thing his pricked heart caused him to realize is that he was “like a beast” toward God. That word “beast” is a Hebrew word you may recognize—behemoth. It can mean cow, or hippopotamus. Goldingay notes it is, “…also a monster that embodies resistance to God’s purpose. So the psalm confesses that bitterness and hurt generate an attitude to God that has the stupid, pretentious, clumsy aggressiveness of a demonic monster.” Yikes!
In v. 23b, God holds the author’s hand, which is always helpful when one is on the brink of slipping and falling (v. 2). In contrast to all the wellbeing and “stuff” the wicked have in vv. 3-9, the author’s final conclusion is, “And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (cf. Heb. 13:5-6). God is his portion.
Verses 27-28 are a conclusion to the whole psalm. Remember the way this psalm began, “Truly God is good to Isreal…BUT AS FOR ME, my feet had almost stumbled…” Now consider how the psalmist has changed over to a Godly perspective in vv. 27-28, “For behold, those who are far from you shall perish…BUT FOR ME it is good to be near God…”
This psalm leads me to two prayers for myself and my family. First, God, help me have a Godly perspective with less of my self and more of you. Second, help me to see this life through the lens of eternity.
