Sermon: Psalm 73, Asaph’s Testimony

I am Asaph ben Berekiah, ben Shimea, but you may call me Asaph. I am a Levite from the line of Gershon. I am a hozeh, a seer, a prophet, but I consider it my greatest privilege to have been chosen by king David to lead our people in the worship of our great God, Yahweh Elohim, Yahweh Sabaoth, El Elyon, the Most High God. I have served under David and his greater son, Solomon. I have used David’s songs, Solomon’s songs, Moses’ songs, even some of my own to lead our congregation in praise to God.

 

But I have a confession to make. There are confessions of faith and there are confessions of sin, and I have both to make. My confession of faith is this, Of a truth God is good to Yisrael, to those who are pure of heart. God is good to the pure of heart! This is what I believed, and I still believe it, but what I understand by good has changed. You see, it was my belief that God would bless pure-hearted Israelites with good, by which I understood prosperity. And this is what led me into sin.

 

Our people had always taught that if you followed Yahweh, He would bless you, and, of course, if you did not, He would curse you. But I saw something that made me trip on my own faith. I saw the wicked prospering. There was no denying it. My eyes were opened to the truth, that there were people who did not trust in God who nevertheless had money and wealth, plenty to eat, abundant health, and even when they came to death’s door, they had easy deaths. They didn’t experience any troubles; no afflictions came to rest at their dwelling places. And what was worse, this only served to make them proud and boastful. They wore their pride like jewelry, and they were even emboldened to use violence and unjust means to increase their wealth. They grew mean and self-centered, even mocking those who thought they should obey God, fearlessly claiming that God didn’t care what they were doing, maybe even didn’t know. It made me sick.

If that had been the only fact I observed, I might have been okay, but I also saw another fact, that I was not prospering. I was afflicted all day long and punished every morning. I won’t go into details, but though my heart was pure, my life was a mess. Where was the good God had promised?

And that is when I sinned. I lost my faith. I quit trusting in God. When I heard people recite their truisms, “God blesses the faithful and curses the unfaithful,” I wanted to shout at them that this was a lie, that God did not curse the unfaithful and He certainly wasn’t blessing me, and countless other faithful people I knew, with prosperity. I don’t know why, but I refrained from any such outbursts. Just because I lost my faith, why should I try to get others to lose theirs. I’m grateful now that I did not go down that path.

 

But I myself went a very, very dark path. I told myself that there was no longer any point in having clean hands, no point in having a pure heart, because God was not good to those with pure hearts. There was no point in being righteous because there was no reward for it. God did not come through. That sounds awful to say, doesn’t it, but that is how I felt.

I reached a really low place in my life. I’d lost the only good thing in my life, my relationship with God. And I kind of lost my job. I was so burdened and troubled about this that I could not possibly lead my people in worship. One look at my face and they would see my sorrow and hopelessness. I was bitter, I was grieved, I was kind of senseless. I was no better than a brute beast. I don’t think I could get any lower than I was then. And it hurt, terribly.

 

So I did something, something I should have done at the very beginning. I don’t know why I waited so long. I took my concern to God. I had an example in Job. And you may say, well of course you took your concern to God, but I was not really eager to talk to Him. Maybe I delayed because I was so ashamed of my attitude, and maybe I delayed because I was so angry at God. But when I finally, and desperately, brought myself to Him, entered His sanctuary with my fears and doubts, He met me. He spoke to me. He showed me what I needed to see, He taught me what I needed to know.

 

Here is what He made clear to me: Though the wicked might prosper now, there will be a most certain judgment they will face. Their prosperity will come to an end in the storm of God’s wrath, and it will destroy their foundations. Their dreams will become despised fantasies, nightmares, and they will rue the day of their arrogant self-satisfaction.

Now you again may say, okay, well and good, but that doesn’t really answer all the concerns you had, does it. You are still suffering, you are still seeing prosperity flee from you, you are still being punished every morning. I know, I know. But there was something else I realized in all of this. Despite the fact that I was acting like a wild animal, a senseless and ignorant beast before God, He never let go of my hand. He never left me alone. Who do you think it was who moved me to come to Him with my lost faith? Who else but Him gave me the counsel that restored my faith? He never stopped being my God and never stopped seeing me as His child, His very undisciplined and spoiled child, to be sure, but His child, nonetheless. He didn’t stop loving me and caring for me.

And I’ll tell you this, He made something else clear to me. Even though I don’t experience wealth and health and trouble-free living in this life, afterward…afterward, I will be received into glory. Do you understand what I mean? Into glory! Just as there is a sure and unpleasant judgment ultimately for the wicked, there is a sure and very pleasant judgment coming for me. I will be praised, if you will, by God. I will share His glory, His eternal praise. Oh, I should have heeded the words of Moses that this short life of ours should teach us to number our days and apply our hearts to wisdom. I was looking at things through a very small hole. I needed a bigger perspective.

 

You may know that as a Levite, my tribe was not apportioned land in Yisrael. Our support came from the tithes given to Yahweh. This is why Yahweh said that He would be our portion. He reminded me that He was my portion. And it made me feel like saying, “Whom have I in heaven but You, Lord Yahweh, and earth has nothing I desire besides You.” I know, I have desired many things on earth besides Yahweh. I wanted the good things I thought He should provide me, but now more than that I want Him. I do not doubt that I will find my desires wandering to earthly things, but I have learned that should my flesh and my heart fail, God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

 

My worship of God, now, is not because of what He may give me. Oh, I am grateful for His every provision, however meager or abundant it may be, but He is the strength of my heart, not what He gives me. I worship Him for Him. I have made a profound discovery for my life. It is good, good (you hear that word?), it is good for me to be near God. My good from God is to be near to Him, to have Him in my life, to have intimate fellowship with Him. I can say my confession, that God is good to those in Yisrael who have pure hearts, and understand that the good is Him. And that purity of heart I speak of in my confession is the purity of worshiping Him for Him, for who He is, not for what He gives.

What is my reward for following Yahweh? It is Yahweh Himself. You heard me. It is Yahweh Himself.

 

Would it be permissible for me to pray for you, because I can only guess that my struggle is not mine alone, that you too have felt the same struggles of faith that I have. You have had times when you begged God for something you desperately needed, and He did not provide it as you hoped. You expected Him to get you that job, or make your job easier, or at least make it pay better, and your prosperity did not come. Like me, you have been discouraged in God, and maybe you, too, have lost some or all of your faith. Please, please, let me pray for you.

Oh Lord Yahweh, sovereign of the universe, Yahweh of hosts, use the nights of darkness in our souls to lead us into increasing devotion to You.  Teach us that You alone are our prosperity, that even if we never experience wealth and perfect health that You are our portion forever, You are our refuge, and You are indeed good to those who are pure in heart.  Help us not to measure our relationship to You by our prosperity, and certainly not to measure it by the prosperity of the wicked.  They will perish but You will take us up in glory.  Even as their final judgment comes at death, so our ultimate reward comes also at death.  Lead us into Your sanctuary that we might learn from You what it means to find answers to questions we have hopelessly failed to answer about our faith.  Open our hearts and our ears to hear You when you teach us. Introduce us to the joy of being near You, so that we may declare with sincere hearts, “Whom have I in heaven but You, and earth has nothing I desire besides You.” Amen and amen.