Psalm 73 - When Life Doesn't Seem Fair

When we get frustrated in this broken world, Psalm 73 reminds us to go to the Lord in his Sanctuary to find your answers.

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When Life Doesn’t Seem Fair

Good Morning. The Sundays after Trinity focus on what it means to live as a Child of God. Today we begin with Psalm 73. One of the first challenges God's children face is discovering that the world is not fair.

Even preachers face this. Jeremiah has to be reassured this morning about lying preachers who tell people what they want to hear instead of telling them the truth because it’s more profitable. We expect people who do good to be blessed, and evil people to get what’s coming for them. Then life happens.

Faithful Christians get cancer. It stinks. Meanwhile our unbelieving neighbors seem perfectly healthy. And it can shake our faith. “Is God watching his people?” How do you believe that God is good when life’s not fair?

That question’s a thread through our lessons, and if you’ve ever wrestled with it, you are not alone! In fact, you are in the company of one of the most prominent spiritual leaders in Bible History. Psalm 73 was written by a man, a choir director, who struggled with this exact problem.

His name is Asaph. He was a prominent worship leader while King David was on the throne. He spent his days leading God’s praise but like any of us, had his spiritual ups and downs. The psalm opens with a statement of faith:

Certainly God is good to Israel, and to those whose motives are pure.

Good start, sets the stage, but then he confesses:

But as for me, my feet almost slid out from under me.

Asaph’s faith is wobbling because something has shaken him to the core. For I envied those who are proud, as I observed the prosperity of the wicked.

Now, Asaph isn’t doubting that God exists outright. His struggle is personal. He’s wondering if following God, trying to live a godly life, is worth it, since evil people seem to be doing just fine. Ever felt that way?

In verses 4 through 12, Asaph describes what he sees. Those who don’t care about following God appear healthy, and free from the troubles that burden everyone else. They have money and influence. Worst of all, they mock God and instead of judgment they enjoy prosperity.

To make matters worse, the Hebrew word translated “prosperity” is shalom. The wicked somehow have Peace. “Why do they have the things God promised to good people?” Then he thinks, as verse 13 says:

Surely in vain I have kept my motives pure and maintained a pure lifestyle.

In other words, “What was the point? Have I been serving God for nothing?” You pray and struggle to “do the right thing” but others who couldn’t care less about God seem to have everything. I love that Asaph gives us such an honest picture of his heart. He lived over 3000 years ago, but he sounds like anybody I talk with on a daily basis.

First piece of Good News. God can handle our questions. Especially since God already knows our hearts. He knows our doubts, our frustrations and fears.

God understands we get upset. We don’t understand what’s going on, and it’s not sinful for Christians to be depressed or frustrated. Our problem is when we think we can hide it from God and pretend we’re just fine.

God invites honesty in prayer. Asaph pours out his heart before the Lord, and that honesty becomes the path to healing.

The turning point of our Psalm comes in verse 17:

Then I entered God’s sanctuary and understood the destiny of the wicked.

Before this moment, Asaph had been looking at life entirely from a horizontal, earthly perspective. He was evaluating everything according to what he could see right now. But then, he enters the sanctuary.

In the sanctuary, Asaph encountered God’s presence. For the first time, he stopped comparing what he lacked with what others possessed. Standing before the Lord, he saw things from eternity’s perspective and the  prosperity of the wicked looked very small compared to the privilege of belonging to God.

Surely you put them in slippery places; you bring them down to ruin.

Everything he had been envying: the wealth, the comfort, the success, was temporary. It all passes away. Asaph sees the problem was never that God had failed to act; the problem was he was judging God by temporary, fleeting circumstances. Asaph begins to realize that what looked like God’s indifference was actually patience. The prosperity of the wicked was not proof that God had forgotten justice. It was evidence that God was giving them time to repent.

And when he sees it, Asaph stops looking with envy at the wicked and starts looking at his relationship with God.

But I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. 

While Asaph stumbled, God's grip on him never loosened. The wicked may have their fleeting wealth and their temporary comfort, but Asaph has the presence of God.

In a way, that ties together all of our readings this morning. Jeremiah saw false prophets prospering while faithful servants suffered. Asaph saw the wicked prospering while the righteous struggled.

The rich man in Jesus’ parable thought he was secure because he had accumulated so much. Yet all three passages point to the same truth: we cannot judge God’s blessings by appearances alone. What seems successful today may look very different in eternity. This leads us to the summit of the psalm, the heartbeat of the entire passage:

My flesh and heart may grow weak, but God protects my heart and gives me stability. (last verse) As for me, God’s presence is all I need.

He does not say that his problems vanished. He does not say the wicked stopped prospering. His circumstances are exactly the same as before. But his perspective was transformed. He realized that God Himself is what he needs to satisfy his soul.

Not wealth. Not comfort. Not success. It is simply good to be near Him. That is where Asaph found stability. That is where we will find it, too.

There will be times when you do not understand what God is doing. There will be days when the world feels broken and unfair. But remember that the story is not over. God is on His throne, He is still holding your hand.

The answer to Asaph's problem was not that God suddenly made life fair. The answer was greater than that. The great discovery Asaph makes is that God Himself is better than the gifts God gives. The wicked could keep their wealth. The righteous had something infinitely better: the presence of the living God.