A Debilitating Glance

This morning, we come face to face with a sin to which we are all, in our very nature, susceptible. It was the sin that drove Cain to commit the very first murder, that of his brother Abel. In Romans 1, Paul speaks of this sin as characteristic of the heathen world. This sin begins in the heart as one observes the position or the possessions of someone else. And then soon resentment and bitterness sets in. Initially, such a person may secretly desire the harm or rejoice in the calamity of the object of his resentment. that in time his malice may erupt in some dreadful action in which he manufactures some destructive scheme. Not even Jesus’ own apostles were beyond this sin, this evil and antisocial behavior. I’m talking, of course, about the sin of envy, that debilitating sentiment that first begins in the heart, but then corrosively erupts to the surface of our lives. Paul said that the heathen world is full of envy.

Romans 1.29, indeed, it was characteristic of our behavior before Christ, as Paul reminds us in Titus 3.3, that we were spending our life in malice and envy. But even once we’re saved, the sin of envy lingers as kind of a devastating pitfall into which we may easily fall. Both internal and external examples of this plague were present even among the apostles. On at least three solemn occasions, the sin of envy presented itself even among them.

The first occasion was, quite astoundingly, only days after Peter, James, and John witnessed Christ’s transfiguration. Not even that fantastic scene prevented them from engaging in a debate about who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. That sentiment lingered and presented itself again immediately following, of all things, Christ’s washing of their feet. Luke records that even while they were still in the upper room, there arose a dispute, a dispute among them as to which of them was to be regarded the greatest.

On the third such occasion, even after Christ’s death and resurrection, Jesus presented himself to them while they were fishing. As Jesus explained to Peter that he would endure captivity and ultimately martyrdom, Peter jealously wondered, what about this man, the Apostle John?

Peter must have learned his lesson well Because in his first epistle, he proceeds to urge that we constantly watch for evidence of loving things more than people. He urges that we set aside all malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander. Envy is something to be watched by every one of us. Once we’re aware of the potential of falling into the sin of envy, it is wise that we study so as to understand as much as we can about this troublesome element.

Psalm 73 is just that. Would God’s people please turn to Psalm 73. Psalm 73 presents a consideration of this sinful tendency of envy from the standpoint of one who is willing to acknowledge its deceptiveness, its instruction to us in correcting such thinking, and in the guidance to avoid these thought patterns in the future. Psalm 73, from the beginning. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart, but as for me, my feet came close to stumbling. My steps had almost slipped, for I was envious of the arrogant, as I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For there are no pains in their death, and their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore, pride is their necklace. The garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulges from fatness. The imaginations of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression. They speak from on high. They have set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue parades through the earth. Therefore, his people return to this place, and waters of abundance are drunk by them. They say, how does God know? And is there any knowledge with the Most High? Behold, these are the wicked, and always at ease.

They have increased in wealth, Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence, for I have been stricken all day long and chastened every morning. If I had said, I will speak thus, behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight. until I came into the sanctuary of God. Then I perceived their end.

Surely you set them in slippery places. You cast them down to destruction. How they are destroyed in a moment. They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors. Like a dream when one awakes, oh Lord, when aroused, you will despise their form. When my heart was embittered and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant. I was like a beast before you.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have taken hold of my right hand. With your counsel, you will guide me and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And beside you, I desire nothing on earth. 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 will perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge. that I might tell of all your works.”

In this, now only our third psalm in our study, we come to yet another completely different kind of psalm. This one is one of the dozen or so psalms of Asaph, or Asaph, if you prefer. This probably refers more to the heading of these dozen or so psalms, gathered under that name rather than the idea that Asaph was the author of each of those. Our psalmist opens with a positive declaration in verse one.

He’s going to issue a complaint, we just read it, what seems to him to be a disparity that is unfair regarding God’s providence. That will come, and soon. But he wants the reader to know that he does, he will come full circle. He’s assured of God’s character. Look at verse one. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. Deep down, he knows the nature of God, that he is good, God is inherently good, perfectly good in his character and in all his deeds. He is incapable of injustice. In a sense, verse one is the template, if you will, for Romans 8 28. God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God.

And stating this up front, the psalmist lets the reader know that even though he came close to slipping, entertaining blasphemous thoughts, God in his abundant goodness graciously walked him through this dark valley. Having established his high opinion of God, The psalmist begins telling of this tumultuous journey, beginning in verse two, and that dismal discussion will conclude all the way in verse 14. His correction, which itself is a process, doesn’t begin until verse 15, and then continues to the end of the psalm. In the first section, The problem is a familiar one for us, easy to see. In the second portion, the wise reader will observe and learn about the deceitful pitfall of envy. Would you glance at verse two?

But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling. My steps had almost slipped. We don’t know how far things got, whether it was just doubting in his heart, grumbling on his lips, or worse. It fell short of apostasy, leaving God altogether. But that it was sinful is plainly evident throughout the course of this psalm. Even simple doubt, wondering about God’s kindness and care, can easily be turned into outright rebellion. Well, for the child of God, this kind of mutinous doubt, even though unjustified, must have some source, some cause, a beginning.

This he begins to detail in verse three. For I was envious of the arrogant, as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Things are unfair. This was the flashpoint for the psalmist. This was the start of this troublesome course of thinking. The prosperity of the wicked. It wasn’t just that other people were particularly well off, His concern was that there appeared to be this imbalance, that he, a follower of God, was poor, while these arrogant and wicked men were prosperous.

That’s what he can’t reconcile. The writer feels as if God is unjust and unfair. He’s seeking to discover some kind of a formula by which he can obligate God to bless him. But God’s providence is independent of that. God’s love for his children cannot be measured by physical means. God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. A child of God may be poor with regard to the world’s goods, and yet be rich in the things of God.

Worse still, the wicked rich were boastful, arrogant about their success. They were the original self-made men. But beneath the layer of straw lay the pitfall. He was envious of them. The arrogant, the wicked, Everything in the psalmist’s thinking was upside down. How could he desire to be like them in any way? The psalmist isn’t alone here, is he?

This thinking is very common. Deep down in our heart of hearts, we want things to be fair. We want God to take notice of our efforts, our good deeds, our goodness, and we want him to reward us accordingly. We cannot bear when it’s otherwise. When ungodly people have more of the world’s goods than we do.

And so in verses 4 through 11, this writer begins to detail his complaint against God’s providence. And some of these observations, I’ll tell you, are exaggerated to the point of absurdity. Verse four and five, he speaks of the rich as if they’re almost superhuman. Glance at those few verses.

For there are no pains in their death, and their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men, and nor are they plagued like mankind. The picture is that they just kind of cruise through life, unencumbered, unaffected by all the difficulties that strike humanity.

And of course, all of this is overstated. How would he know that the wicked rich enjoy pain-free deaths? He didn’t die with them. When he chides that their body is fat, he is not speaking of their need for diet and exercise. He’s simply referring to the excess into which they’ve come. They’ve got it made.

But regardless of appearance and the layer of insulation that wealth provides, everyone has struggles and trials. The writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us that time and chance overtake us all. No one escapes the effects of the fall that we bear by Adam and Eve’s curse, pain in childbirth, thorns and thistles, not to mention eventual death. Unless these are truly supernatural beings, The psalmist’s complaints are grossly overstated. Nevertheless, it is true that wealth does afford a layer of insulation from some of the inconveniences of the world.

True it is that quite often prosperity corrupts. It hardens hearts. It tends to make people cold and cruel. And at least it opens the door to the abuse of the excesses that they enjoy. Not everyone succumbs to these, but enough wicked rich succumb to them that it becomes almost proverbial. James states it so matter-of-factly. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? The psalmist sets forth examples of such heartlessness in verse six and seven.

Glance there if you would. Therefore pride is their necklace. Their garment of the garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulges from fatness. The imaginations of their heart run riot. When the writer says pride is their necklace, he’s not decrying the wearing of jewelry. It’s just a poetic way of saying that those who are wicked and wealthy are exceedingly proud. It’s plainly evident. Pride is a prominent feature of their lives.

Paul, writing to Timothy, He doesn’t categorically forbid wealth, but he does caution its tendency to produce this attitude of self-importance. First Timothy 6, 17, instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. The psalmist characterizes their hard-heartedness metaphorically as the clothing of violence. The eye bulging from fatness is a rather blunt illustration of excess and overindulgence.

It’s part of the core of their character. And as wealth so often corrupts, the unrestrained imaginations of their heart indicate these unbounded sinful thoughts. Behaviors, conduct, all of those things follow close behind when money is no obstacle. Deeds and a lifestyle that is shocking to most is routine for them, the wicked and the rich.

In verses eight and nine, the writer takes note of their caustic speech. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression. They speak from on high. They have set their mouth against the heavens. Their tongue parades through the earth. Those who are wicked and wealthy quite often reveal their pride in their speech. As soon as they open their mouths, their character is declared. Jesus himself provided a powerful illustration of this in Luke 12. Luke 12, Jesus told them a parable saying the land of a rich man was very productive.

And he began reasoning to himself, always a danger. He began reasoning to himself, saying, what shall I do since I have no place to store my crops? Do you hear the arrogance? Then he said, this is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. God said to him, you fool, this very night your soul is required of you, and now who will own what you have prepared? So is the man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

You can hear their pride in their speech. They scoff at any who would try to place a dollar limit on their power and influence. The very idea of sin is a joke to them. They speak with malice toward any who would challenge them or who cannot benefit them in some way. If someone should cross them, they threaten to do them lasting harm. But as bad as all of that is, it gets worse because they challenge God with their verbal boasts.

You look at verse nine, their mouths lay claim to heaven. Their tongues take possession of the earth. To them it seems as if there’s nothing that they cannot do. Nothing they cannot achieve. Whether on earth or in heaven, they don’t need God’s help. Would you glance at verses 10 and 11.

Therefore, his people return to this place, and waters of abundance are drunk by them. They say, how does God know? And is there any knowledge with the Most High? These kinds of people, the wicked rich, have lots of would-be followers, groupies almost, hangers-on, those who enjoy the crumbs that fall from this rich man’s table. A writer here refers to them as his people.

Like thirsty dogs, they lap up everything that he has to say. And this rich man, why, he doesn’t need anything. But in a strange way, he needs these admirers. Their slobbery adulation feeds the wicked rich man’s ego. And regarding God Himself, it’s not as if the wicked rich speak only as if He does not know. What they really insinuate in their arrogance is that He doesn’t even exist. Well, such is the description of the flourishing wicked. In verses 12 through 14, The psalmist tells of the effect that the flourishing wicked has had upon him as a person.

And it’s nothing short of frightening. And the fear is that we’ve all dabbled in this kind of thinking. Would you look at verse 12? Behold, these are the wicked, and they’re always at ease. They have increased in wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure. and washed my hands in innocence, for I have been stricken all day long and chastened every morning. First, he summarizes his perspective of the wicked rich in verse 12. And there’s really nothing new in it. Always carefree, increasing in wealth.

The psalmist admitted the response is just dreadful. In vain I have kept my heart pure, washed my hands in innocence, He might as well have concluded that it’s a waste of time to know and love God. That’s essentially the direction he’s heading. These have all been difficult thoughts to process. His harsh characterization of the wicked rich. His morbidly dismal conclusions.

But finally, Finally, beginning here in verse 15, there is a warm glow of repentance that emerges in this text. The psalmist now recognizes the danger of his foolish thinking. If you look at verses 15 through 17, if I had said, this is in my heart, It was rattling around inside of me. I pondered these things for some time, but if I had said, I will speak thus, I will verbalize these criticisms and conclusions, behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight until I came into the sanctuary of God. Then I perceived their end. The truth is he hadn’t verbalized these things, though they percolated in his heart. He had not allowed them to be expressed. Sinful thoughts, indeed, but the mouth gate remained closed. He acknowledges the peril with which he was flirting, that his relationship with God was in vain.

Not only would it have brought him down, made him stumble, as he put it in verse two, it would have had a terrible effect on others. Those he refers to as God’s children. Jesus provided the most severe caution for this in Matthew 18. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, It would be better for him if he had a heavy millstone hung around his neck and he be drowned in the depth of the sea. His thoughts, once verbalized, would have been painfully discouraging to fellow believers. The soul emptying assertion that following God was pointless, Psalmist knows how very dangerous the course that he was on.

Verse 16 indicates that he’s still wrestling with these vexing questions. He doesn’t have an answer as to why the wicked prosper. All he’s sure of is that his thoughts, the thoughts that he was entertaining, were in themselves unrighteous. He doesn’t understand at all, but it’s tremendously burdensome to him. This had obviously been a longstanding conundrum for our writer, one with which he had really grappled to try to understand. How could he ever gain insight into this difficulty? Verse 17 tells us.

It was until he entered the sanctuary of God, until he came before God in humble worship, however much we might frown upon the psalmist thinking thus far, at least he ultimately knew where to look for the answers to life’s disturbing problems. He went to God. And he went to his word. And then, and only then, did he begin to understand His mind moves from a fixation upon things as they are to a view to the future, things as they will be in God’s time. And the primary thing that he was reminded of was the final destiny of the wicked rich. With that, our writer mulls over the truth that what the wicked face from a holy God unless they repent. He had nearly forgotten these basic things. And now he comes to a reconsideration of God’s ways.

Is God unaware of the injustice exacted on his children? No. Is God indifferent to the sinful behavior of these wicked men? No. Does God ignore pride? No. Does God wink at blasphemy? No. Unless they repent, the wicked face a horrible end. He refers to it mildly in verse 18 as a slippery place, a spiritual place in which they will be utterly unable to stand. Here, He says solemnly that God will pass them down to destruction, even to hell itself. And the writer is struck with the speed and the unexpectedness of God’s judgment. In a moment, he says, swept away by sudden terrors. Well, slippery places, sudden terrors.

And this third image is both familiar and gripping. Like a dream when one awakes. We’ve all had dreams. Often we wake up and we have to kind of pinch ourselves to determine whether or not the dream was real. And this too is sudden, within seconds, in the blink of an eye. So also is the reality of God’s judgment.

Our psalmist has realized the foolishness of his thinking. He’s had that thinking reshaped by the truth of God in his dealing with sinners, and that leads him directly to a confession of his sinful thinking. Look at verses 21 and 22, if you would. When my heart was embittered and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant like a beast before you.”

He had spent far too much time looking and watching at the prosperity of the wicked. He had a full report. He had almost savored his criticism of them, even embellishing their conduct. And he had invested too many precious hours of envying, not only their things, but even themselves. As he acknowledged at the outset, he was envious of the arrogant. All that did for him is to render his heart bitter. It was a festering complaint. within himself against God. But here, finally he admits his foolishness. Senseless and ignorant, he says, he was conducting himself and his thinking and his demeanor like a brute beast, an unthinking animal.

Remember King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel? Rebuked by God, and made to go about on all fours and eat grass like a cow? We can only wonder what suddenly went through Nebuchadnezzar’s mind when reason returned to him. But I would liken Nebuchadnezzar’s turning to that of the psalmist’s transformation. Our troubled friend now finally has come full circle. He hinted at his ultimate position in verse one, that of God’s goodness. And he took us on that perilous journey over hazardous mountains and terrifying canyons.

He took his eyes off of God and his ways, and he focused instead on the wealth and privilege relished by wicked men. He even entertained envy. Envy of wicked men. God was merciful to him. He showed him his sin. He corrected his thinking. He reminded him of the empty and hopeless judgment that awaits a godless sinner. All of this work to bring him to repentance. And here, finally, Having come full circle, he recites the unparalleled honors of the child of God. He comes to a restoration of the truth. Would you look at verse 23?

Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have taken hold of my right hand. With your counsel you will guide me, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And beside you I desire nothing on earth. 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 will perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you, but as for me, The nearness of my God is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works.

He begins his recitation of the honors that the child of God enjoys. Verse 23, first, the perpetual relationship with God himself. I am continually with you, not only here on earth, but into eternity. And, like the loving Heavenly Father He is, as an earthly father does a child, He takes us by the hand and gently leads us through the dark and dangerous world, ultimately into the light of eternal glory. God will receive His children to glory. In verse 25, somewhat rhetorically, He wonders aloud, Whom have I in heaven but you?

The obvious answer is no one. God is now to him everything. Despite great wealth flaunted by wicked men, he is richer by far than any of them. And his desires are brought into line with that. If he is God’s child and God is his father, what earthly trinkets could possibly eclipse the worshipful love that he has for God. Beside you, I desire nothing on earth.

Before, he was spellbound by the shimmering opulence of worldly men. Those riches could never provide him peace. They could never give him righteousness. They could never give him eternal security. And so now his focus is returned to God alone. in all his glory.

For a man that was enamored with things, things that others possessed, things that others possessed that he did not, he has truly come full circle. And he knows that just as the wicked rich in reality do not escape their own mortality, so too he in time will perish. Joshua and David both knew it. They both uttered the same exact sentiment. Behold, I am going the way of all the earth.

So the psalmist’s words echo here in verse 26, my flesh and my heart may fail. They certainly will. The writer of Hebrews states it so frankly, it is appointed for men once to die, and after this comes judgment. And so it would be for the psalmist soul will be for us, except that there is this matter of eternity. Would you glance at that second line of verse 26?

God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. No wonder he closes this dynamic and wide ranging song with the encouraging testimony of verse 28. But as for me, in spite of what wicked men, those who are far from God, unfaithful persons, regardless of what they may do, as for me, the nearness of God is my good. Thomas has seen the world’s wealth. and he has weighed it in a balance, and now is certain that his relationship with God is the most precious thing of all. He has made the Lord God his refuge, a safe harbor, a haven from the storms of life, a place of confident salvation, and the overarching benefit that he may tell of all of God’s good works. It’s an opportunity to tell others about the things that God has done, especially the things that he had done in his own life.

Bringing him back from the edge of disaster. These spiritual riches are of infinitely greater value than those of this earthly life. In the New Testament, Paul, more than any other writer, seizes upon this very natural illustration. Spiritual riches versus earthly riches.

The point is, the man or woman who has found access to God himself through the redemption provided by his son, Jesus, has no need to lust for the riches of the world, because, as Paul says it in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, you know the grace of God. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor, so that through his poverty, you might become rich. We have no longing for the wicked man’s treasures because Jesus, Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon him. Romans 10, 12. We need not envy great houses or real estate of the wealthy who do not know God because he has made known to us what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the saints. Ephesians 1, 18.

We need not fixate on the sinner’s 401K, his flashy cars or designer clothes, because according to the riches of his grace, we have redemption through Christ’s blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, Ephesians 1.7.

As believers, we know that God will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus, Philippians 4.19.

God bestowed the riches of His glory upon us as vessels of mercy, Romans 9.23.

Riches that are deep, Romans 11.33 and unfathomable, Ephesians 3.8.

Why would the Christian desire anything else? You humble yourself before him. Our gracious God, we thank you for this psalmist who in his honesty was so willing to bear his soul and to admit his gross error. Father God, we thank you because we have dabbled and entertained the same thoughts. We have looked and focused on other people’s things, on other people’s privileges, opportunities. And Lord, we know in our heart that we have envied at time, envied them, envied their things. Lord God, we pray for the same work of repentance that you granted the psalmist.

Bring us to an end of ourselves. Bring us to a place where you are to us the only thing that we see. Grant us to have our hearts turned to Christ and all that he has provided. eternal, spiritual, unfathomable riches. Lord God, we thank you and we pray that if there are any here, Lord, the only reason that we are not among those who are wicked is because of your work of grace in our lives. It wasn’t because of us. You sought us and brought us to repentance. Lord God, we pray that for any who are in the room who do not know Jesus Christ as their Savior, that this might be the day of salvation for them. We thank you and we praise you. In Jesus’ name, amen.