I love to run in new places. A few years ago I was in NYC for the U.S. Open and my dad
and I stayed near Central Park. So I wanted to run in Central Park and I
did. However, after running for
some time, I became disoriented and didn’t know how to get back to our
hotel. I was lost in NYC’s Central
Park. What I needed was a bird’s
eye view of Central Park! I needed
another perspective. Finally, I
did find my way back but it wasn’t after many failed attempts. Often when we are lost or life is hard
and we experience suffering, we at times lose our perspective. During this time, we have a lot of
questions about God and about faith and about what really matters in life.
Suffering breaks us from the false reality that true happiness is living a pain
free life where we get all we want in life.
In this passage, we see one who belongs to God suffering and
experiencing deep loneliness in his suffering. I love this psalm for it is refreshingly honest. This psalm
of Asaph, the founder of the temple choir and one who was consider a spiritual
leader, shares his own crisis of faith.
He feels very lonely as he suffers. His response to his suffering challenges us to confession,
forces us to examination, and encourages us to
rest in the sovereign goodness of God.
1 Surely
God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as
for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my
foothold.
3 For I
envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the
wicked.
4 They have
no struggles;
their bodies are
healthy and strong.
5 They are
free from the burdens common to man;
they are not plagued
by human ills.
6 Therefore
pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves
with violence.
7 From
their callous hearts comes iniquity;
the evil conceits of
their minds know no limits.
8 They
scoff, and speak with malice;
in their arrogance
they threaten oppression.
9 Their
mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take
possession of the earth.
10 Therefore
their people turn to them
and drink up waters in
abundance.
11 They
say, “How can God know?
Does the Most High have knowledge?”
12 This is
what the wicked are like—
always carefree, they increase in wealth.
13 Surely
in vain have I kept my heart pure;
in vain have I washed
my hands in innocence.
14 All day
long I have been plagued;
I have been punished every morning.
15 If I had
said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed
your children.
16 When I
tried to understand all this,
it was oppressive to
me
17 till I
entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final
destiny.
18 Surely
you place them on slippery ground;
you cast them down to
ruin.
19 How
suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away
by terrors!
20 As a
dream when one awakes,
so when you arise, O
Lord,
you will despise them as fantasies.
21 When my
heart was grieved
and my spirit
embittered,
22 I was
senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.
23 Yet I am
always with you;
you hold me by my
right hand.
24 You
guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will
take me into glory.
25 Whom
have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing
I desire besides you.
26 My flesh
and my heart may fail,
but God is the
strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
27 Those
who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who
are unfaithful to you.
28 But as
for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the
Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all
your deeds.
I read this Psalm and I am
reminded of Val’s and mine faith journey in regards to the pains of infertility
and loss of our son Scott. At
times, we were very lonely. God
used this experience to expose my inconsistent views and lies that I believe
about God and about my faith. That
is what He does often when he ordains suffering in our lives. Friends, if you belong to God through
faith in Jesus Christ, then suffering is part of our story. God’s word says if we want to share
Christ glory, then we will share in Christ suffering. Being a Christian identifies us with Jesus Christ. Jesus suffered on our behalf by taking
our sins on the cross so that we can enter into an eternal relationship with
God. So this does not mean that
since I belong to Jesus and obey Him that life will be perfect this side of
heaven, that nothing will go wrong, that God will give me a pain free
life. You see, I probably would
say that I didn’t teach that mindset, but my interpretation of life revealed
differently. What do I mean?
I was discouraged, angry and jealous and envious, betrayed.
- We did all right things as a Christian (we waited
for the right one to marry, we were not sexually active before marriage,
we treated one another with respect, etc.) and yet God is withholding the
very thing we want and need.
- I struggled with anger with God. “How can He say He loves me? I really thought that He would
meet all my needs, and here I am—not a father!
- I was envious. “God, look at the many who are getting pregnant, and
yet they are having abortions.”
God, many who hate you, you are blessing with many children!
- God, I am no better off than a
non-Christian! Is faith in
you really worth it?!
What was my perspective in the midst of suffering? Where
were my eyes fixed? As I faced
what seemed an extremely emotionally painful and agonizing trial, was my
perspective biblical? Was it
eternal? How was I interpreting
the facts in light of God and my relationship with Him.
This is why I love this psalm because it convicts us that in
the midst of suffering, we can bring our questions, doubts, confusion and fears
to Him.
Why can I say this so confidently? Because
of God’s redeeming love (v.1, 23-28)!
I believe we need to first understand the glorious, awesome, powerful grace
of God in order to properly confess, examine and rest. This is what the psalm is
about: a poem about life’s most
important and significant relationship—relationship with God, the Sovereign
Gracious Ruler.
Look with me at verse 1. “Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure
in heart.”
Even though the psalmist experienced a crisis of faith, he
was able to begin his psalm remembering that God is good. We see that He is good in verses 23-28:
23 Yet I
am always with you;
you hold me by my
right hand.
24 You
guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you
will take me into glory.
25 Whom
have I in heaven but you?
And earth has
nothing I desire besides you.
26 My
flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of
my heart
and my portion forever.
27 Those
who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who
are unfaithful to you.
28 But
as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the
Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I
will tell of all your deeds.
This is the story of redemption! In this section, we are
reminded of the grace of God. God
is with his people when they face suffering. In fact, God rules over all things. You will never find yourself in a
location, situation, or relationships that is not ruled by King Jesus! Also,
since you are connected to Jesus by faith in him, (Christ has suffered, you
will suffer), He is personally with you in the midst of the suffering. He is not distant but is actively
present as you suffer. You are his
child whose Son had to die so you could be adopted. His eye is on you and his ear is open to your cry. He cares about you, permanently and
deeply. We may not ever understand
the reasons behind suffering but he controls all things for our benefit. As we experience suffering, He guarantees
us his grace because he controls all the situations, relationships and
locations where that grace will do its redeeming work.
Paul Tripp reminds: “What
makes me rich is not a circumstance or a collection of possessions. I am rich because of a relationship with
a Person who is always with me.
His name is Immanuel.” He goes on, “I look at the wicked
and I can say, “Yes, they have burden-free circumstances. Yes, they always seem to be increasing
in wealth. But I HAVE GOD! I am held by His right hand, and I am
guided by His counsel. When my
heart fails (my eyes seem deem), He is my strength. He is taking me toward eternal glory. He is what makes me rich. Nothing compares to what I have, I can
look around and honestly say, “There is nothing on earth I desire besides
You. You are my refuge.”
GOD IS
REALLY THAT GOOD! We are eternally
rich in Him. He is our hope! He is
our all and all. He is the one who
has redeemed us (ransomed us and is committed to changing us in the image of
His Son).
Because God loves us in
Jesus Christ (vv. 23-28),
- We
can honestly confess our miss-focused eyes in the midst of suffering (vv. 1-12).
- We
can diligently examine our miss-focused eyes in the midst of suffering (vv. 13-16).
- We can confidently fix our eyes on God in the midst of suffering (vv. 17—24).
We can honestly confess
our miss-focused eyes in the midst of suffering (vv. 1-12).
As we read this section of Scripture, Asaph honestly
confesses his miss-focused eyes in the midst of suffering by expressing a
temporal view of life. The bad
guys are winning; the good guys are losing, so why should I trust you, God (“my
feet almost slipped, I nearly lost my foothold”).
Basically, he is saying, God, you don’t know what you are doing and if
you are like this, then my faith is not worth keeping. He was looking at the prosperity of the
evil world and the suffering of God’s people, and not on God Himself and His
promises. He was interpreting his
facts based on his circumstances and life situations and not on who God is and
what He promises.
Most of us, if we are honest, interpret God’s goodness on
the basis of our level of present, temporal, and personal happiness. Our view of happiness has to do with
things that are physical, external and immediate. It is hard for us to imagine that God could be good and not
give us our portion of the “good life.”
We have a temporal focus not an eternal, long-term focus. Our eyes are fixed on our circumstances,
situation, (i.e., no children, a dissatisfying job, a bad marriage, illness,
disobedient children, a difficult father, a unloving brother, etc.) My case, my eyes were on Val getting
pregnant and having a child to make me happy.
This how it would play out: I would find out news that
acquaintances become pregnant, and I would become envious. At times, it made no sense to me that
these unbelieving couples should have more success in getting pregnant than
us. So I would cry out, confessing
my envy and asking him to help me make sense out our relationship.
I needed to be reminded of 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Through outwardly we
are washing away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles
are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,
but on what is unseen. For what is
seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Paul fixes his eyes not on what can be seen (i.e. no babies)
but on what is unseen (on what God is doing in me through this situation).
God used our struggle with infertility to move me towards
Him – by showing me my sin of discontentment, confessing it honestly and
changing me in the midst of the circumstance. He chose not to fix the situation
but to change me to reflect more of Him.
How about you?
How are you dealing with your miss-focused eyes and how are you
interpreting your trials/sufferings or life situations in the reality of God’s
grace? What are you living for (the
job to make you happy when it doesn’t, envious of others who seem to have a
great job, marriage, children, etc.)? Where is God showing you that you are
getting more life in your personal happiness then in resting in God’s goodness
in the midst of the difficult situation?
Where are you envious, angry, confused, and discouraged? Where are your eyes focused? Where do you need to confess the wrong
interpretation you are basing your life on?
You see, God moves us to run to him and not from him in
order to learn to trust Him in the midst of suffering.
We can diligently examine
our miss-focused eyes in the midst of suffering (vv. 13-16).
In v. 13, Asaph concluded after viewing the situation, “Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure;
in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.” He is saying, “I wasted my time
trying to keep my heart pure. It’s
been useless to be careful to obey God.
What have I received as a result of all my faith and obedience?” “I don’t deserve to suffer in this
way?”
So in his examination, he found himself envious and bitter.
This was what Asaph was concluding:
- God, if He is good, will bless the righteous and punish the wicked.
- God has blessed the wicked while the righteous suffered.
- Therefore, God is not good.
- Asaph’s and as well my practical conclusion was that it was vain to worship and serve God. I do not deserve to suffer.
Asaph wanted results in his obedience. We want results. We want our service of God to result in
a wonderful spouse, obedient kids, a good job, no sickness, and a beautiful
house in suburbia. Because of our
service, we shouldn’t experience physical or emotional pain. Life shouldn’t be messy for us.
We tend to focus on good results. But God focuses on the process of
making us good.
He is working on us to free us from our bondage to the
desires of our sinful nature. Thus, the process of trial and suffering is no indication
that God has forgotten His promises to us and He, therefore, is not good. Rather, the process of trials, suffering,
and loss that He ordains for us demonstrates His stubborn, faithful, eternal,
and redeeming love. He will not
give up on us even when we are tempted to. God is relentlessly committed to our good.
This is why we can diligently examine the conclusions of our
miss-focused eyes in the midst of suffering. In light of God’s goodness and commitment to us, we can
begin to understand our faulty conclusions that are based on a wrong view of
God and life.
We
need to understand that we often draw our conclusion about life in unbiblical
ways. As God moved in Asaph, he
realized that if he continued to believe the faulty interpretation about his
suffering (that life is to make him happy), he would betray others in the faith
and it would become oppressive to him. (v. 15, 16: 15
If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed your children. 16
When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me.
Asaph’s examination forces us to examine our own conclusions
as follows:
- We need to understand what it means to think biblically about suffering.
- We need to recognize and confess where we have blamed God for our disobedience.
- We need to face the idolatrous nature our conclusions.
Sometimes we need help in our examination. I want to take you through this
examination by the counsel of two friends. Bryan Chapell, “Is that how you are really dealing with the
loss.” and Jim McKee, “Is Jesus
enough?” “Is God good even if we are not granted children?”
We need friends who will walk alongside us to help us
diligently examine how we are living life, what we believe about God and
ourselves. We are often blinded to
our sin and the incomplete way we are living, and we need others who lovingly
and patiently hear our story and ask us questions to help us return our eyes on
God. (Not to fix us but to point
us back to God and his perspective; not to give us Scripture and run but to
help us uncover what is ruling our hearts).
Confession and examination
of our miss-focused eyes, and the
bitterness, envy that may occur amidst suffering will lead us to rest in
our Sovereign God.
We can confidently fix our
eyes on God in the midst of suffering (vv. 17—24).
When did things begin to change for Aspah? In v. 17 when he entered the sanctuary of God!!! God gave him a new perspective as God
drew himself into His presence.
What a perspective!
“To walk around with such an inner conflict is deeply
painful, made worse by how wearisome it is to understand this: it seems
impossible. But when the singer goes into the sanctuary of God, the holy place
where God's people gather for worship, the light is finally allowed to break
through.” (ESV Study Bible)
It is impossible to make sense out of life without including
God’s eternal perspective as it relates to our suffering. Tripp, “Eternity confronts us
with the delusion of the permanence of the created thing (infertility,
etc.). Without this perspective
the believer looks at his little pile, and is discouraged. How different it is when he looks at
the same picture and realizes that what the wicked has acquired is already in
the process of fading away while
what God has given him is an inheritance that will never fade!”
Asaph uses two metaphors to show us the delusion of
permanence of this world. First,
he says that the ungodly are like people standing on slippery ground. They
are standing now, but they are going down (v. 18). It’s like watching me riding a skateboard up a ramp wearing
sandals. You are not surprised
when I fall because you never bought into the delusion that I was on good
footing.
Second, Asaph likens life of the wicked to a dream or
fantasy (v. 20). Dreams seem like real life. They are powerful and can leave us shaken. But dreams are not the real thing. They are fleeting fantasies in our
sleep. Real life continues. I have a recurring dream of winning an
Oscar for Best Actor in a Motion Picture…but I always wake up and real life
continues without that ugly statue of Oscar! Such is the prosperity of the unbeliever; it is but a
dream. It seems so much like real
life. In seems so permanent; but
it is a flash it is gone, and they wake up to the reality that this world is
not the main event.
Again, it reminds us of Paul’s words—are eyes are to be
fixed on the unseen and not the seen.
Entering God’s presence helps us to do just that. These metaphors point us toward what
God is doing as He expresses His redemptive love for His children. Tripp
again: “What is God working
on? Is He working hard to provide
us with the biggest pile of this world’s stuff and this world’s happy
experiences? If so, He has
miserably failed. Even worse, He
has used His creative and redemptive power to give us only that which is doomed
to pass away. Would this be the
work of a good God? Would a good
God motivate us to hope in things that are by their very nature temporary? Would He want us to stand on a slippery
slope? Would he want our lives to
be the passing fantasies of our sleep?
Would He be good if He did anything less than to confront our powerful
delusion of the permanence of this world?
Isn’t that what suffering, loss, and trials do for us? They don’t change the rules but they
confront us with what has been true all along:
- They explode the myth that this is all there is and that the goal of life is to get as much as you can.
- They confront us with the fact that the most blessed of human relationships, situations and experiences pass away, sometimes quite quickly.
- They help us to realize how deeply we have believed the lie, how much hope we have placed in the permanence of the created thing and now tightly we hold onto the things of this world.
- Most importantly, suffering through trials help us to realize who God is and the meaning of the gospel of Christ.
The Gospel reminds us that God is with us in Jesus Christ.
Because we belong to God by faith in Jesus, his presence and power is with us
as we face suffering.
Friends, because God loves us we can honestly confess and
diligently examine our hearts even when we struggle to believe our Sovereign
God. God invites us to see what
really rules our heart (loneliness, bitterness) so that we can grow in our confident
trust in Him.
Remember we don’t know how long the psalmist struggled and
came to the point of delighting in the presence of God.
In fact, at one point the best thing he could do was to keep
his thoughts to himself (v. 15), but now his lips are open. In the light of his examination of his
heart, we return to his first exclamation with new understanding: “Truly God is good . . . to those
who are pure in heart.” As he honestly confessed and diligently
examined his faith struggle, he came to find confident rest in God.
Into the Deep Robert
Rogers: his wife and 4 children die in flash flood driving in Kansas, wave of
water washed over car like a tsunami. Broke windows and tossed out, some kids
still strapped in van. “Even when
facing death, he had a peace. God
is here and he is with me in these deep waters.” As he made it out of the water, went to the police and then
wanted 3 hours to see his children say “Daddy, Daddy.” He waited and waited in the hospital but they
never came. He kept saying, “I
trust You, I don’t feel like it.” Then, the chaplain came told him that
his 3 children in van had died. He
identified their lifeless, wet bodies. 8 yr. daughter they found on a barbwire
fence dead. Remembered the tea parties, pancakes. Then they found his wife 3
days later. He questioned the
Lord, “why are you doing this.” Turned to the Psalms for comfort even
when his soul was weak. (3 yr. of grieve counseling). As he drove into God’s
Word, he experienced the sufficient grace of God. The Sunday after bearing his 4 children and his wife, he
went to church (usually plays piano), he had to worship God. He was determined
to fight for his faith in the midst of the struggle with God.
Paul Tripp: “Isn’t
it wonderful to know that no matter how difficult and confusing life may be,
there is rest to be found? The
rest is found, not in knowing the future or in logical syllogisms, and not in
research or experience. No, rest
is a gift of grace. It is the
result of being accepted into the family of the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. Rest is found in knowing
that the One who rules it all is your Father. Rest knows that the King loves you with an everlasting love
and he rules over all things for your sake. This kind of rest will stay with you when circumstances are
wonderful and when they are terrible, because your rest isn’t circumstantial,
it is personal. Now that’s real rest!”
Let us come recognizing, admitting, confessing, and
forsaking all patterns of discontent, anger, and bitterness toward God that
result from a view of life that forgets God’s eternal and redeeming love for
us! Let us grow together in resting in His love he has for us in Jesus Christ
and fixing our eyes there.
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