On the outside we may sing, "God is good." But on the inside, do we really believe it?
Chadron Bible Church Podcast
Inside Doubt - Psalm 73
[music] Hello and welcome to the Shadron Bible Church podcast where our desire is to share the help and hope that people need in Jesus. Find us at ShadronBibleChurch.com or on other social platforms under Shadron Bible Church. Thanks for joining us. [music] The most popular movie of the year, this year, the biggest movie of the year is called Inside Out 2. Some of you have seen the movie, probably seen both one and two. I've seen number one inside out the first one. I haven't seen the second one, but one of the guys yesterday on our Journey Men's Ministry hike told me it was pretty good. But in the Inside Out movies, you sort of track the inner workings of this little girl named Riley as she adapts to her ever-changing world and as she deals with the different emotions going on inside of her. Joy and sadness, as you can imagine, like to fight each other for who gets the core memory out of a situation or circumstance. You've got anxiety, fear, anger, embarrassment, all of these things going on inside her is she's reacting to her world and you can see why it's such a popular, such a hit movie because we can relate to that. We can all relate to the emotions that are going on in this movie. This morning, we have another Inside Out story in Psalm 73, but we're calling it an Inside Doubt story. Psalm 73 is written by a worship leader 3,000 years ago during the time of David and his name is Asaph and he wrote about 10 or 11 Psalms and he probably led worship for thousands of Israelites. And on the outside, Asaph is talking about how he sang. He led the people to sing, "God is good." But on the inside, he's questioning that because like you, when you look around at the world today, the state of the world or maybe the circumstances that you're in or maybe an event in your past, you might say on the outside, "God is good." But on the inside, there can be some doubt. There can be some questioning. So that's what we're going to talk about today. And as we do, I want to invite you to consider what it is in your life that might be shaping your view of God. What is it in your life, in your past, or a present circumstance that maybe has you questioning God's goodness? And we'll go from there. In verse 1, we find Asaph's creed. His creed is that God is good. Surely God is good to Israel. Does it sound like he's trying to convince himself? Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart, to those who seek him, to those who follow him. This is our creed too. It's not just Asaph's creed. If I say to you this morning, "God is good all the time," you say, "all the time, God is good." This is our creed. God is good, four songs on the radio I heard this morning, or not this morning this week, said, "In them, God is good." God is good. We say it all the time. Asaph himself, as a worship leader in Israel, has been singing it since he was this high, since he was waist high. He's been among the congregation of Israel, singing God is good. He has heard it preached to him that God is good. Now he's standing before the congregation before thousand saying, "God is good and on the inside," he has some doubts. We find his confession in verse two, "But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling. My steps had almost slipped." That's Asaph's way of saying, "I almost doubted God's goodness. I almost quit on God, I almost threw in the towel and walked away for good." I love the transparency. On the outside, he's singing God is good on the inside. He's questioning that and considering throwing in the towel. We find Asaph's confusion in verses three through fourteen now, "For I was envious." This is the why he was so confused and doubting. Or 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. So prosperity of the wicked, they're wealthy. They don't love God, they're not following God or serving God, and yet here they are. They are prospering. It doesn't line up with our limited theology sometimes, "How could this be?" There are no pains in their death. They're healthy. They die a ripe old age. Their body is fat. That's his way of saying they were well off. Back in their day, they didn't have Walmart. You had to fight to survive. If you were, you had some weight to you, it meant you were wealthy. That God was good to you. Even today, tribes today, they don't know like their indigenous tribes. Those guys want to have a big belly because it means they're providing for their family. So kind of a backwards value system, huh, compared to ours, but they're healthy and they're wealthy. Verse 5, "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 so they're clothed with violence. They're decorated with pride, and yet here they are, they're fat. Actually the NLT, I couldn't believe it, called them fat cats. Those fat cats. I'm pretty sure that's not a literal translation. The imaginations of their heart run riot. Running riot carries the idea of no control, senseless violence. They don't care who gets in their way, they're climbing the ladder to the top. They're going to run over people. They're using their imaginations to do it, which kind of carries the idea of their creative in their ways to defy God. They actually use their imagination like, "How can I defy God today?" Verse 8, "They mock and wickedly speak of oppression. They speak from on high. They have set their mouths against the heavens and their tongue parades through the earth." So not only do they defy God, they actually will mock God openly before all the people. From their places of influence, he mentions they speak from on high. They use their platforms, their positions of influence to mock God openly. I cannot help this week, but think about the introductory ceremony to the Olympic Games in the last supper, mocking the last supper. They use their places of prominence to mock God before the people. And so with ASAF, we say, "Hey, men, what's up with this, God? Why does crime pay? Why are cheaters winning?" Because in my theology, sometimes we are tempted like ASAF to think, "If I do bad things, bad things will happen to me. If I do good things, good things will happen to me." In a sense, that's true, but as they've said, God doesn't always settle all of his accounts in October. So crime sometimes does pay, and it's confusing. It's hard on God's people, we're dismayed by it, and confused by it. Sometimes we approach God kind of like a genie, I don't know, like a contract like God, I will follow you in order to be blessed by you, right? If I follow you, Lord, I want you, I want your blessing, so I'm willing to give, or I'm willing to serve you, or whatever, and it's kind of the prosperity gospel thing where we're willing to follow God if we get his blessing. And if that doesn't happen, if I don't get his blessing, I'm following God, I'm doing what's right, and that doesn't, I don't feel blessed, well then we can end up a lot like ASAF ready to throw in the towel. Because we say, "God, I thought we made a deal." And God's saying, "I never made that deal with you. I never made that promise." In fact, just the opposite. What did Jesus say? "If you follow me, you're going to be persecuted." It is a blessed life following Jesus, but it's not always easy. It's not always easy. It's abundant, but it's not always easy. From the apostles to us today, countless people have given their lives for Christ. Countless Christians have given their lives for Christ. The wicked have prospered and the righteous have suffered. I was saying the same thing with ASAF this week as I thought about the Olympic Games ceremony, the wicked are prospering, they're mocking God, and then I get on my email, I look in my email account and I say, and I see an email that says, "Please pray for so-and-so." This young husband, this young father, because he has an aggressive form of cancer and he doesn't have long. And I found myself saying, "Why are the wicked prospering and why are the righteous suffering?" We say the same thing. Verse 10, "Therefore his people return to this place and waters of abundance are drunk by them." They say, "How does God know?" And is their knowledge with the most high? Like, does God know what's going on? Does he know what they're saying? Is he deaf? Is he blind? Is he dumb? Is he powerless? I think those are questions from God's people. Doesn't he see what's happening? Why doesn't he do anything? Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease they have increased in wealth. So I think the point is, in these verses here, 10 through 12, is that God's people are confused and dismayed by what's going on. Evil's winning, righteous or suffering, and they're asking themselves, "Is it in vain that I have followed God?" Because I'm following God and it seems like my life's falling apart, but these people are living without God and they're doing well. Verse 13, he says, "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." So this is Asaf's personal story. This is Asaf inside out. We don't know exactly what was going on in his life, but he has been out. He has been following God, trying to do what's right. And yet every day, every morning he says, "I have to deal with something that is, something is afflicting him. He's stricken all day long, chastened every morning. Maybe it was a health issue. We don't really know, but I think we can relate in the thoughts. As he studies his life and as he studies the world, these thoughts want to send him down a dark alley of doubt." And it's here that we start to switch gears. Verse 15, we find his consolation, "If I had said, 'I will speak thus, behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.'" So remember Asaf is a worship leader in Israel and he's saying that if I had thrown in the towel, there would have been a host of people who would have thrown in the towel with me. They would have said, "Amen, Asaf, what's up with this God? I'm with you. We're done with this God thing." He said, "I would have betrayed this generation of your people." I think in every generation, in every church, there are people who are just ready to say, "I'm done with this." Several years ago I met a man in Scott's Bluff. I was trying to share the gospel with him and he said that he became a nun. Not an N-U-N, but an O-N-E. He was in the church for decades. He was a leader in the church and at one point he just said, "I'm a nun. I don't want any religious affiliation anymore. I think there are people like that in every church today just waiting for an excuse to point the finger at God and say, "I'm done." In verse 16 he says, "When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight until..." Until there's the key word, until I came into the sanctuary of God and then I perceived their end. He comes back to God's house to the place of worship and he's reminded of God's perspective. He's reminded that this isn't the end of the story. This isn't how it ends, that God is with him. And I want to get into four, we're going to call them sources of light that can drive out the darkness of doubt in our lives. These are four truths and they all have to do with remembering things about God and what he has told us to do. Number one is to be reminded to keep gathering with God's people. Asaph gathered with God's people and that was when he started to come back to his senses. I don't know what it is guys, but there is something here that encourages us in a way nothing else will. We're out there in the world and it's corrupt and it's crazy, it's fallen apart, but we come here and it makes sense, doesn't it? This right here is what makes sense. This is like a picture of the world to come. This is a picture of, it's a pocket of flourishing in this world. You can have the worst week, but you come here and you're reminded and you're singing praises to God and you remember God is good. And we're not alone, that there's a whole family in Christ that we're together on this journey together and that we're strangers, we're pilgrims in this world, but one day God's going to come and he's going to make it right, amen? Sometimes us Christians, we catch flak and rightly so for the lack of consistency between who we are here and who we are at home or who we are at work. And sometimes we deserve that flak. But at the same time, I would say some of that just isn't true. There's something changes here. I don't know what it is, but you can have a grumpy car ride here. You can have the worst Sunday morning, right, fighting with the kids, whatever, but as soon as you walk through those doors and you come in here and you praise God, doesn't your attitude not change, your attitude changes, things change. God's spirit is here. He's here in every one of us and it's a synergy that encourages us. And so like Hebrews 1025, the encouragement is don't stop gathering with God's people. Keep gathering. But first, the thing we want to do when we're in a dark place is we want to avoid people. And I think what we need to do is drag ourselves to church, to gather with God's people. And the last thing we need sometimes is to be alone. The second thing is the ASAP, the second source of light, when you're in doubt and the second source of light to drive out the doubt is to be reminded of the bigger picture. The bigger picture that God is painting, verse 18, you have 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. Notice the past tense. He's saying the judgment is so certain it's in past tense. Make a dream when one awakes, oh Lord, when aroused you will despise their form. So ASAP's reminded that at the end of the day, God's people and God will come out on top. They are on a slippery slope to judgment and just like that, God, like a sleeping giant, may arise and enforce his judgment. He will settle his accounts. It may not be in October, but it is coming. I'm hesitant with passages like this because I don't want to create an us versus them mentality. It's there, but it should be us trying to reach them, amen, us trying to reach them. And so the first thing that should probably happen in our hearts and minds when we come across something like the Olympic Last Supper, the Olympics Last Supper version is we should start praying for them. The first thing I did when I saw it, I prayed and I said, God, let a redemption story come out of this. Let someone at that Last Supper come to Jesus and what a story, what a redemption story that would be because every one we need to remind ourselves who has not trusted in Jesus as their Lord and Savior is going to be judged by God. And that's a terrifying thing. So let's remember that, let's try to reach them. This is not us versus them. Someday this bad dream is going to come to an end. I like that analogy. You can also think of this like halftime in a football game. Reminds me of Super Bowl 51. Did any of you guys watch that? No one ever dreamed when the Patriots were down 28 to 3 that they would come out on top. But they did. That was a fun game. But you got to remember right now today while the wicked prosper, it's just halftime and the games not over. Thirdly, let's remember God's steadfast love is unfailing love when my heart was embittered. When I was bitter, 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. You want a few verses, a couple of verses to cheer you up this week. Just meditate on those. Asa starts out saying, in my doubt, in my thinking, I was like a senseless animal. I wasn't thinking about the future. I wasn't thinking about the big picture. He says, I was like a beast before you. And even though I was like an animal, he says, God never left me. I even though I was throwing a tantrum, maybe I was throwing a fit over my circumstances. God never left me, Asa says. He says, you are continually with me. I'm continually with you and you have taken hold of my right hand. It's like God, the father with us, it's like a father and son relationship, the father holding the hand of his son walking with him, counseling with him. The son might be throwing a temper tantrum, but God's saying, come on, you got this and we're going someplace good. We're going to glory. So Asa, this is interesting. He has help for today. And he has hope for tomorrow. God is helping him all the way until glory. He's with him the whole way. It reminds me of Derek Redmond from the 1992 Olympics, 400 meter relay, I don't know if it's the relay sprint and he tears his hamstring in the race and his father comes out of the stands onto the track and carries him to the finished line. What a picture that we're seeing. We have the same kind of loving father who is going to help carry us all the way to glory. Lastly, let's remember what matters most as a source of light to drive out the darkness. Verse 25, "Whom have I in heaven but you, and besides you I desire nothing on earth. My flesh, 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 ask for me, the nearness of God is my good. And I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works." Don't you love that? I read through it way too fast. You'll have to go over it again later on your own and meditate on it. Asaph reminds himself that God is all he needs and if he is near to God, he has the nearness of God in his life, he doesn't really need anything else. It doesn't matter about the health. It doesn't matter about the wealth. He has God and he says, "That is my good. That's my portion. That's all I really need." He's my strength. He's my inheritance. What is your greatest goodness this morning? If you were to say, "If I just had this or that, then I would be good. I would be set." Maybe it's a career. Maybe it's a relationship. Maybe it's health or wealth, something like that. If that's where our good is, we are in a world. We're going to be in a very disappointing world because it's just not going to happen. We've got to remember God is our good and he is enough. If we're going to change the world together, we're going to look at the next couple of weeks. We're probably going to spend time on our vision and mission statement for our church family. If we're going to accomplish our vision, we're going to accomplish our mission. We've got to remember that God is our good. We're going to be able to give people help and hope. We've got to deal with our own stuff. We've got to remember God is good and the things that we're wrestling with. I invite you again to think of that thing, what it is in your life. Maybe it's a present circumstance, a past event. Whatever it is that has you questioning God's goodness. Typically these are things in our lives that we have no resolve with. There was no happy ending. There was no rest solution and on the inside, they eat us alive and they cause us to doubt. I want to invite you to trust God with that today. I'm going to put a picture on the screen of one of my own experiences. This is hard to see. I didn't want to blow them up anyway, but you know, this is a picture of my dad right here. This is a picture I took on September 5th, 2014. It's a picture of my dad filling up our grain drills. The day before this picture, my dad revealed to me that he had cancer and he probably didn't have long. The day before he was extremely helpful. More helpful than usual at helping me understand how to drill wheat, how to plant wheat. He never let anybody drill his wheat, so I thought it was weird that he was being so helpful, but he knew that I was going to be the one drilling the wheat from here on out. I remember exactly where we were at in that field. I was driving the tractor and he was in the buddy seat when he told me that he had cancer. Two months later, God took him home, but it was a couple months after that that I still found myself wrestling with God over him, still asking God, "Why is their dad still alive in mind? It's not." I was really just starting to connect with my dad and really enjoy each other's company. When I was at church one day, it all kind of started to unfold as I was at church one day and we were singing "Good, Good Father," a song that I did not pick out today for the worship team, but they put it in there. We're going to sing it here. It came out in 2014, and I was sitting there in church and we were singing "Good, Good Father," and I just said to God, "I'm not sure about this," because I felt like he just took my father from me and I started to break down and it was going to come crashing down so hard that I ran out the side door in the front and I ran out to my vehicle and I just broke. I started to realize at that point that I needed to trust God with this because it was starting to shape my view of God. I've trusted God with that in my life. There is no anger over it, there's no bitterness, but there's still pain. Every time his birthday comes around, I sense the pain. Every time I look at our wedding photos, I sense the pain because in our wedding photos, my dad had cancer and we didn't know it and then we ended up using his picture from our wedding photos in the funeral and so every time I see our wedding photos, all I can think about is his funeral. I wish we hadn't have done that, but we all have pain that we're dealing with. I don't know what it is for you this morning. I'm not asking you to just suppress your emotions and get rid of the pain. The pain will always be there. You can't tell a parent who's lost their child, "Well, you just can't feel that pain anymore." That's ridiculous. But there doesn't need to be anger and bitterness over it. I don't know what it is for you, but I just want to invite you to trust God with it this morning as we sing this last song. To identify it, take it before the Lord and say, "Lord, I do trust you. You are good." Let's do that this morning. Lord, this morning we come before you with some of our deepest pains, circumstances, events in our life that leave us broken and maybe doubting and shaping our view of you. We take it before you're thrown this morning. And if we can't do it right here and now I get that, but Lord, help us to do it maybe later this evening or later today as we process that. May we lay it at your feet today. Just remember that you are good. This is not the end of the story. There is a bigger picture in mind. And we surrender our insistence that this life always makes sense. Sometimes it'll never make sense. Cancer never makes sense. But we bring these things before you, the message you give us the faith to believe that you are still good and by an act of our will we will trust you. And keep sharing the help and hope that people need in Jesus, amen. [MUSIC]