May 5, 1999

EXPLORE THE BIBLE:
We, like the psalmist, must
allow God to be God
___ Psalm 73
___By Dillard Wilbanks
___Travis Avenue Baptist Church, Fort Worth
___The psalmist's journey began with his soul shrouded in clouds of doubt. Along the way he is enlightened to see their source not in some defect in God's providence, but in his own ignorance and hasty irritation. His journey ended in the sunlight of certainty. God does not forsake us in the darkness of doubt.
___ Envy of the wealthy wicked (Psalm 73:1-6, 13-14). Seemingly, misfortune had dogged the steps of the psalmist while the wicked had been blatant in their infidelity and were continuously showered with good things.
___Why? He did not know. He began with what he did know, that God's goodness to the true Israel (pure in heart) was beyond dispute. His personal experiences seemed to contradict his spiritual absolutes. While he could not trace God's hand in this mystery, he could trust his heart. Faith had a fight on a slippery slope (vv.2-16), and faith won (vv.17-28).
___The slide began when the psalmist's focus shifted from God's goodness to the prosperity of the wicked, their good health and their apparent exemption from calamity. The effect of their good fortune was arrogance. They wore their pride as a necklace and violence as a robe. The effect upon him was jealousy (envy). It was evidenced in exaggerated assertions. The fact is all wicked people do not prosper, just as all godly people do not suffer. The problem is some wicked people do prosper and some righteous people do suffer. Are we not "dogged" by this dilemma when observing ungodly persons of prominence prospering within the political, sports and business arenas? Perhaps it comes to mind in the experience of suffering, death or financial loss within our nuclear or church family. The psalmist's sin was not in the questioning but in its root. He was envious ( v.3) wishing it was he and not they who were prospering. Consequently, he had not personally met the prerequisite of a pure heart ( v. 1).
___Are our questions of perceived inequities based upon a high and keen sense of justice, or a jealousy of others rooted in self-pity? If the latter, may we, as did he, confess very explicitly this sin of covetousness (Exodus 20:17).
___ The ultimate end of the wicked (Psalm 73:15-18). The final answer to his dilemma is found while in the sanctuary. Up to now he has focused only upon the present. He had forgotten the future. In the sanctuary he learns that this world is but one act in the great drama of life. Success or failure is determined by how the drama proceeds to the last act. We all encounter problems which intellect cannot solve (16) but which communion with God will resolve (17). In light of eternity, all external prosperity of both the godly and ungodly is temporary.
___ The prosperity of the righteous (Psalm 73:21-26). In contrast to temporary external prosperity, the internal prosperity of the righteous is eternal. The psalmist was awakened to the fact that, even in his depths of doubt, the eternal presence of God was continually and eternally protecting, guiding and guarding his life (vv. 23-26). Faith now triumphed over frustration. Neither his finances, health nor circumstances had changed. The change was in the heart of a man who had found treasures eternal in the heavens.
___Here is, perhaps, a very early doctrine of immortality. All the heaven he wants is God, and God "forever!"

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