Psalms 73:12-17

Psalm 73, let me begin reading with verse 12 and read through verse 17. Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my hand, excuse me, verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency. for all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. If I say I will speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. Till I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I there end. God bless to us His sacred. and holy word this evening. Many years ago there was a Frenchman who lived in England for a number of years, and he decided he would become an English citizen. So we traveled to London. He went through the necessary ceremony, and he paid the customary fees to become a citizen of England. When he returned, one of his friends said to him, well, I suppose you’re an Englishman now, but I don’t see any difference. Ah, but there is a difference, said the Frenchman. Yesterday, Waterloo was a defeat. Today, it’s a victory. Sometimes what you think about something makes a big difference. The way you look at it can make a big difference. Psalm 73, it records for a big difference. us the trouble that Asaf was experiencing as a believer. And it boils down to this. He’s living a godly life, but he’s suffering, as we saw in verses 13 and 14. Those around him who are living sinfully are prospering as we see in verse 12. He’s perplexed by this. So he tries to work this all out of his mind. And with the Lord’s help here, with the Lord’s We find that he arise at the conclusion of verse 1, which tells us that truly God is good to Israel, even as such as are of a clean heart. What we need to carefully ponder is the way in which Asaph arrives at this conclusion. We saw the importance in a previous study of right thinking to begin with. He didn’t just speak impulsively. He says in verse 15 here, he curtailed his tongue, lest he say something about it’s not worth to live the Christian life and his brothers and sisters and the Lord be offended by that. We saw also that Asaph began to think about his problem from a spiritual perspective, which is essential. While thinking on a humanistic level, he had anguish of heart, as verse 16 tells us. It’s only when he went to God’s house that his spiritual thinking was jarred. So let me begin tonight by saying this. The house of God is the place in which you should get understanding. You’ll notice he says here, then understood I therein. Now let me draw a thought from this word understanding. You’ll notice you don’t come to church to get an emotional high. You come to church to get an emotional high. You come to church to get an understanding. To be edified in the things of the Lord. When you come to the sanctuary of God, it’s the place where you learn about God, it’s the place where you learn about his ways. Asaph didn’t say here, I went to the house of God and made me feel better. Instead, he went to the house of God and I was given understanding with regard to my problem. He didn’t merely forget about his problem for the time being. Get a brief reprieve while he was at the worship service. But he found a solution to his problem. Karl Marx, the father of communism, once said that religion is the opium of the people. He looked at religion as sort of a drug. It put people in a stupor, if you would, maybe a high emotional state or something of this nature. But it avoids reality. Religion should not act like a… drug to us. The Lord’s Day should not be some type of fix for an emotional high that we need. Too many professing Christians have a religion that really reaches some state of euphoria when they go to the worship service. It’s sort of like an escape from their troubles. But they’re not interested in an exposition of God’s word. Unless they have very short sermon, what they’re interested in is much mood music. Let’s have a lot of emotional music and songs and just praise the Lord and just have a soothing atmosphere. My friends, that’s not the religion of the Bible. Because of the religion of the Bible is not about emotional highs. Could we have an emotional? how I going to church? You could. But that’s not the focus. The focus is on understanding. If your faith doesn’t give you understanding into life and living, it doesn’t give you understanding into God’s character and man’s depravity, then there’s something drastically wrong with it. I realize there are churches that sing all kinds of lively hymns and choruses and they’re swaying to the music and have their hands uplifted and so forth. It’s an emotional conditioning. But that’s not what the church is all about. Don’t be deceived on this point. So you don’t come to church to get an emotional high. Worship is primarily addressed here. To your mind, to your understanding. Thank God when Asaph went to the house of God, he found an explanation rather than an emotional high. worship is meant to edify the believer. I want you to look with me at Nehemiah chapter 8 for a moment. I want to look at first four verses and then verse 8 also. Look at Nehemiah Chapter 8. We read here and all the people gather themselves together as one man into this street that was before the water gate and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women. And all that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh month. They could hear with understanding. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday before the men and the women and those that could understand and the ears of all the people were attentive under the book of the law and Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood which they had made for that purpose. Notice verse 8. So they read in the book in the law of God, distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. You’ll notice here what this was all about. It was focused on giving the meaning of the Word of God and to help the people understand what God is saying in His Word. That is what the worship of God focuses upon. Look at 1 Corinthians Chapter 14 with me this morning or this evening. 1 Corinthians 14 verses 12 through 16. Paul writes here, even so ye for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret for if I pray in an unknown tongue and my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the Spirit and I will sing with the understanding also. Else when thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall he that occupies the room of the learn say amen at the at the at the at the giving of thanks seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest whatever we do in the church is to be done for edification that people would understand then if you would Colossians Chapter 3 in verse 16 Colossians chapter 3 in verse 16 the scripture says let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Notice what he says here even in the singing we are actually teaching and admonishing one another as we sing these psalms together because we are saying in a sense that we agree that this is the truth that this is what God would have us to understand. And so these passages of scripture and there are many more like them give us an indication here of this idea of understanding when we come to church, the idea of edification when we come to the house of God. Whatever we’re doing should be geared to that end. Today more emphasis is placed on mood and atmosphere and emotions that upon understanding and what happens is edification is lost. What is your chief desire when you come to church? Are you interested in Christian doctrine? Do you know what you believe? Do you know why you believe what you believe? Or is it simply to be happy and feel good that you attend church? So here’s an acid test. Let’s evaluate our church service. What is it geared to? What is the focus here? emotionalism or understanding of the scriptures. So House of God is a place which should give you understanding. Now notice here that we should come to this conclusion, and that is the regulatory principle must govern our worship. At this point, you might speak up and you may say, well, can’t we do just what we think? think fast when we worship Christ? Can’t we do it in a way that makes us happy and pleases us? What’s wrong with sacred drama? What’s wrong with testimony times and religious dance and Christian rock bands and so forth? The problem is you’re asking the wrong question. The question is this. Does the Word of God command this to be done in the worship service? This is what we’re talking about. We talk about the regulatory principle that God regulates all that is to take place in the worship service. Now look with me at Deuteronomy chapter 12, verse 28 through 32, if you would. Deuteronomy chapter 12, beginning with verse 28. Observe it here all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, for ever. when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord by God. When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them. And thou succeedest them and dwellest in their land. Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them. After that they be destroyed from before thee. and that thou inquire not after their gods saying, How did these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise? Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God. For every abomination to the Lord which he hated hath they done unto their gods, for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. now notice verse 32 here’s the principle what things soever I command you observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto or diminish from it the people of God when they get in the land they’re not to follow the ways of the heathen they’re not to see how they worship and say hey we ought to incorporate that in our worship God says don’t you dare do that could the people of God just choose to worship the way they please in the best manner they thought best could they decide that what standard did they have to follow they had to follow what verse 32 tells us what I command you do that the worship of God is therefore not a neutral activity that there’s nothing necessarily wrong that it must be okay to do no we must do what God commands us to do and conform to the elements of biblical worship that are laid out for us in scripture such as the singing of the Psalms as we just read in Colossians 316 the offering of prayer as second Timothy or excuse me 1 Timothy 2 1 to 8 talks about the reading of scripture as we saw in Ezra the preaching and hearing of God’s word the administration of the ordinances of baptisms of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the giving of offerings for support of the ministry and relief of the poor. These are the kinds of things that this scripture says we should do. So one of the fundamental principles here of worship, it must be edification. And this is why if you look at reformed worship services, preaching is at the heart of all those services. For understanding, edification is the key issue. If we look through ancient history, there’s a warning about this. It’s about a thousand or so years ago. The religious leaders just continued explaining the word of God. The priests decided that they were going to do it in Latin. And the people were left in the dark. Slowly but surely the religious edifices became scenes of all kinds of pageants. dramas, comedies. We had to act out the word of God because they couldn’t hear it directly. And what was the result of that? Well, the great darkness of the Middle Ages. Is this where we’re headed today with our Christian and Eastern pageants in religious circles? I don’t know, but the house of God is a place that ought to give you understanding and it’s regulated, worshipped by God itself. Now secondly, the house of God is a place that ought to give you understanding and it’s regulated, and it’s regulated, of God is the place which gives you a full picture of life. Your understanding here must not be parted. Then I understood he talks about their end, the end of the wicked. Asaph was in agony of mind until he goes to the sanctuary. He’s thinking in a very limited and incomplete fashion at this point. He’s been looking at things from the human side, from, if I can put it this way, the earthly perspective. But when he goes to the house of God, worship there provides the other side of the coin. Life is sort of like a diamond. It has many facets to it. And we must understand that there is a divine perspective to life. It’s always important to look at things with the big picture, with the big view. Not just a little section of life. Many years ago, I was a night manager at a lawn and garden center. Many moons ago. And on several occasions, people would come in and they would complain about raccoons that were tearing up large sections of their lawns. These animals were flipping over entire patches of their manicured lawns. What could they do about the raccoons? Well, at this point, I attempted to explain to them the problem from a larger perspective. I attempted to give them the big picture. I explained that to resolve their specific problem with the raccoons, they needed to buy a chemical or bacteria to put on their lawns that would kill the grubs. The raccoons were tearing up the lawns. to get the Japanese beetle larvae that were underneath the grass. It was a food supply for it. And quite often people looked at me and thought I was crazy. That was not the real solution to their problem. Didn’t I have something that would kill the raccoons? Could we give mole nuts? Will they eat moldnuts if we could try that? But these people were only looking at the small perspective of the picture. I’m looking at the whole thing. I’m saying, Here’s the problem. We’ve got to stop the food supply. You’ve got to stop that cycle. So if you get rid of the food supply, they will quit tearing up your lawn. But people didn’t get it. And they thought I was crazy. Then understood I their end. There were factors ASAF had not considered. And once he started looking at those facts, things began to change. So you must not be. have partial thinking. You must consider the final end of things. If you’re only looking at the present state, at the earthly state of things, you’re looking at it and you’re not seeing the end. Here, I think he has, for the most part, he’s thinking about the eternal state. Many of the troubles in life today are due to the fact that people fail to think things through to the very end. Asaph looked only at the present prosperity, the wicked, but when he went to the house of God, then he understood their end. In the book of James in chapter 5 and verse 11, he talks about Job, talks about the patience of Job, and all the trouble he’s going through and so forth. He said, but then he says, look at the end of Job. Look what happened at the end. And what happened at the end? Because you get pretty discouraged. You start reading the book of Job, and you only got halfway through, and gave up and disgust, and say, well, here’s a guy, you know, he’s living such a life that even God says, hast thou considered my servant Job, to Satan. He’s an upright man, a shoeeth evil, and so forth. And yet, Satan gets to attack him. Satan gets to take all his wealth, his property, his family, and you’re thinking, well, this is terrible. this is terrible. What’s the end? James says, what happened at the end? Everything’s restored to him. In fact, he gets double, he gets a double portion of what he had before, doesn’t he? Don’t stop before you get to the end of the book. See what happens at the end in the book of Matthew, Chapter 7, where Christ is teaching on the sermon in the mouth there, his sermon. He talks about two roads. He talks about the broad way and many people think about it as a marvelous way. You can go with the crowd. You can do whatever else anyone else is doing. You can engage in the pleasure of sin. You can indulge your evil desires. You can please yourself. And you can, you can dolege your evil desires. You can please yourself. And you, you look at the narrow way. That’s the other way. And that involves mortifying sin. That involves taking up your cross daily to follow Jesus Christ. Now, if you only look at the beginning of the roads, you might think, well, the broad road looks more appealing to me than the narrow road. But Jesus said, what is the end? Where does the broad road lead? It leads to destruction. Where’s the The narrow road here leads to life. Proverbs 1412 says there is a way which seemeth right unto man but the end thereof are the ways of death. You can’t just look at the beginning or even the present state of things. You have to look at the end, the ultimate end of things. What’s the final end of the wicked? The end of the prosperous wicked in contrast to the present, enjoyable life that they have right now, which is the way to that end, is their death. Physical death ushers you into eternity, which is an everlasting state, in contrast to this life’s short existence. So their prosperous, enjoyable, earthly life leads inevitably to their final and eternal end, which is destruction in hellfire. It’s foolish to evaluate their earthly prosperity apart from the end that they are going to face. What’s the end of the righteous? Well, look at verse 24 of our text here. Here back in Psalm 73. The end. of the righteous. Thou shall guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory. Despite his suffering, despite his chastening. What’s his end? What’s Asa’s at? Heaven. I like what it says in Numbers 2310. Let me die the death of the righteous. Let my end be like his. The terrors of the Lord fall upon and consume the wicked. Verse 19, how are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors? You remember in Luke chapter 16 the story about the rich man in Lazarus. The rich man for all his prosperous life, how he fared well every day, ate a big feast and so forth he dies suddenly in a blink of an eye in hell he lifts up his eyes being in torment he suffers the terrors of the Lord and he cries out I’m tormented in these flamers the folly of those who believe in the prosperity of the wicked is due to common graces their refusal to consider the end to which this prosperity leads. And it doesn’t lead to a good end. It leads to a bad end. So don’t look at the surface of things. You’ve got to look deeper. Look at the end of things. So here is another vital step in understanding the problem you face in this life. First, get your thinking right. Don’t just impulsively say things that are going to offend. God’s people and lead them astray because you are confused about where you are. You have to think spiritually. Don’t skip the house of God. Go there. Because that’s where you’re going to begin to think spiritually. Get a biblical perspective on things. And when you do get an understanding, then you’ll know what God is doing. You’ll see the big scheme of things. You’ll think long term. You’ll look at the end of everything. Not true. just the present. Look at the outcome of all from God’s viewpoint. And so this is what ASAF is telling us tonight. Don’t stop before you get to the end. Look at the whole picture here and remember what’s going to happen. They might die peaceably, but they’re not going to live peaceably after that. Exist, I should say, peaceably after that. They’re going to be in torment. where the worm does not die and where the flame is not quenched for all eternity. That’s their end. Let’s close with the word of prayer.