Is God Enough? (Psalm 73)
Cognitive Dissonance
What do you do when you are confronted with two truths that seem incompatible, two facts that seem impossible to put together? For example,
you know the Bible says God created all things, but science class teaches that we all evolved from apes. Or, the gospel of Christ calls you to long for heaven and forsake sin, but the world and its pleasures look—and feel—really good. Or, you know that God alone satisfies, but the things of God—Bible reading, praying, church, fellowship—feel so boring.
What do you do then? You know you’re not supposed to deny the Bible, the gospel, Jesus. I doubt you would be willing to get up on a stage and argue that’s what you should do. But you also can’t deny the reality of your experience nor the desires of your heart, can you? The cognitive dissonance is real. What do you do then?
Psalm 73 is the testimony of man named Asaph, who, when he was confronted with two seemingly incompatible realities, he almost abandoned God. It is the testimony of a man who went to the brink of unbelief, who stared down in the dark abyss—and then by the mercy of God stepped back from the cliff, and was brought back to the path of life.
Why would this testimony be in the Bible? Because the Bible is real. It is about real people and their real struggles in the midst of the real sin-cursed earth—and about the real God who meets our real needs with His real hope. The Bible was written a long time ago, but it speaks today to you and to me. It is the living Word of God spoken into our painful reality.
So then, if you have ever doubted God’s goodness, if you have ever thought that God failed you, if you have ever been disappointed by a promise in Scripture,
if you have ever thought, “I wish I were an unbeliever,” if you have ever wandered and drifted away from the church, if you have ever been tempted to love this world, if you have ever felt like giving up on God, this psalm is for you.
Let’s learn from this man’s testimony.
Psalm 73
0 A Psalm of Asaph.
1 Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that 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 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.
I. The Crisis of Faith (vv1-15)
1 Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
This is a platitude. All Israelites would have said, “Duh. Of course God is good to us.”
2 But as for me,
my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
Asaph doubted the truth of verse 1. Stumbling and slipping are expressions of destruction. He almost fell off the foundation of the faith. He almost denied the God who was good to Israel. Why?
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Asaph saw the wicked living the good life, and he wanted what they had—wealth, happiness, prosperity, joy, peace. Listen to how he describes them.
Asaph’s Envy
4 For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
In other words, their lives are good! They’re healthy, relaxed, prosperous.
And they’re unashamed of their sin. In fact, they flaunt it.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
The wicked—by which the Scripture simply means unbelievers—prosper. Despite their pride and violence, their scoffing and slander, their blasphemy and arrogance, they thrive. They live the good life.
10 Therefore his people [that is, God’s people] turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
Because the wicked prosper, God’s people doubt God. I mean, if they’re rich, fat, prosperous, surely they cannot be bad, right? And all the while, the wicked mock God. They call Him ignorant, stupid, blind. “How can God know?”
This is what Asaph saw in his day. But today, things are the same. Unbelievers prosper. They are the rich and famous, the beautiful and powerful, the movie stars, the political leaders, the business moguls, the great athletes. They live long lives of fame, fortune, and feasting—24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all the year long.
We think, “Why would God give better gifts to unbelievers than to His own children?” Unbelievers do not love God. They do not walk in righteousness. They hate God and love their sin. They reject Jesus Christ and His gospel. They worship the gods of money and pleasure and power. They are as Titus 3:3 says, “foolish…, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending [their] li[ves] in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” I’m not being judgmental; this is simply how the Bible describes the unbelieving.
Yet Scripture1 also promises that the wicked man, the unbelieving man, “will fall by his own wickedness” (Proverbs 11:5), that he “is thrust down by his wrongdoing” (Proverbs 14:32), and that his years “will be shortened” (Proverbs 10:27). Scripture promises that the wicked “are overthrown and are no more” (Proverbs 12:7), that they “are filled with trouble” (Proverbs 12:21), that their house “will be destroyed” (Proverbs 14:11) because the “curse of the LORD” rests upon it (Proverbs 3:33) and that they will “be cut off from the land” and “uprooted from it” (Proverbs 10:27). Psalm 1:4 says that “The wicked are not [blessed] / But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.” Psalm 2:9 says that King Jesus is supposed to “break [the wicked] with a rod of iron [and] shatter them like earthenware.’” (Ps 2:9)
So, what gives? Does God punish the wicked or does He not? Are His promises true, or are they not? Is the Scripture trustworthy, or is it not? Is God righteous and fair, or is He not? Is He good and generous, or is He not?
If you have never asked these questions, don’t worry; you will. When your friends leave the faith, when your loved ones die, when God said, “No,” to your prayer for the thousandth time, when you suffer, when your church split, the floodgates of doubt are unleashed.
Maybe you’re just like Asaph. You see the wicked partying and living their best life, doing what you know is sin, yet you crave what they have. You want to be free, popular, beautiful, living it up—just like them.
Or maybe you feel a tension between what the world values and what Scripture values. The world promises pleasure and popularity, while the Scripture promises persecution and pain. You ask, “Why would God want me to be unhappy?”
Or maybe you struggle to really believe that God is love. People suffer and die every day. If God was really loving, wouldn’t He just put a stop to all this? If he was really loving, why did he let your loved one die? Wouldn’t He just make everything right?
Or maybe, you’ve done your best to live the good Christian life. You read the Bible, pray, obey your parents, go to church. But it still hasn’t fixed your depression. It still hasn’t cured your sadness. You still feel alone, miserable, like death itself. “What’s the point of it all?” You ask yourself.
You might be in the fight of your life. My friend, you’re not alone.
Asaph’s Lament
Listen to Asaph as he reflects on the prosperity of the wicked:
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
He looked back on his life of devotion to God and said, “It was all for nothing. I obeyed, I refrained from sin, and it profited me nothing. Instead of blessing, I got beat up by my conscience. Instead of encouragement, I got criticism every day. If being wicked leads not to punishment, but to blessing, why not join them?”
Asaph was no spiritual weakling. He was assigned by King David himself to be a worshipper leader of all Israel (1 Chron 16:4-7). In fact, his entire family was devoted to praising God in the temple (1 Chron 16:37ff). Worshipping the Lord was not only their profession; it was their life. He was like the worship pastor, not only of a church, but of the entire nation. He knew his Bible. More than that, he actually wrote some of the Bible, 12 of the 150 psalms, of course, including Psalm 73.
But godliness doesn’t eliminate struggle. In fact, his prominence and position made his suffering that much harder.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,” [about envying the wicked]
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
As a leader, he couldn’t share his struggle. If he did, his fellow Israelites would have viewed him as a traitor; how could a worship leader doubt God? So, enslaved to his doubts, Asaph muzzled his mouth; he became trapped in the prison of his own making.
Is that you? You’re wrestling with doubts, and you feel alone, afraid, ashamed. You tried to ignore them but they come back. You tried to find answers, but you’re not satisfied. My friend, you are not alone. Do you think you’re the first person to doubt the Scriptures, to doubt God? You are not. How could you be? Asaph beat you to it! And you are not alone; every Christian, if they’re honest, has unanswered questions!
This is why we sing songs like Christ The Sure And Steady Anchor. Verse 1 says:
Christ the sure and steady anchor
in the fury of the storm
When the winds of doubt blow through me
and my sails have all been torn
In the suffering, in the sorrow
when my sinking hopes are few
I will hold fast to the anchor [Christ!]
it shall never be removed2
What will you do with your doubts? Will you just sit there and let them eat you alive? Or will you fight them by the power of God? You need to tell your foolish doubts to shut it. You need to search the truth and then preach truth to yourself over and over. You need to trust God, the Maker of all, not because you feel like it, but because you know He will, in time, answer all of your questions. Don’t be afraid to have hard questions and to admit your doubts. When handled rightly, they push us to walk by faith and grow in knowledge of the truth.
When confronted with his doubt, Asaph suffered. But he did not despair. He turned to worship.
II. The Judgment of the Wicked (vv16-20)
Asaph’s Revelation
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
The sanctuary of God is where God’s presence dwelt. In the Holy of Holies, above the ark of the covenant, behind the veil, God manifested His glory. If any man were to enter into the presence in an unworthy manner, he’d be killed because of the sheer majesty of God. Outside of the tabernacle, in the courtyard, the Israelites offered sacrifices, burning oxen, sheep, goats, doves, grain as an act of worship to God.
Imagine it in your mind. Hear the cries and prayers of the people as they confessed their sins. See the blood of the animals poured out as a torrent for the forgiveness of sin. Smell the charred flesh of the animals, as the smoke ascends to heaven from the altar. On festival days, the whole nation would sing the psalms of David and Asaph to God their King. Lyres and harps and timbrels and trumpets sound as the people dance and sing and shout to their God. For the Israelites, worshipping God engaged all the senses. And I think it is no mistake that here, here in the sanctuary, here, in the presence of God, Asaph got the answer to his doubts.
God’s Judgment
What is that answer? He discerned their end: sudden death.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
The psalm shifts dramatically from addressing the congregation to addressing God. In the presence of God, Asaph was confronted with the truth: the wicked may prosper now, but in the end, God will judge rightly. God will ruin them, destroy them, sweep them away, despise them as a bad dream. It may seem like the wicked are blessed. But that is only because in His grace, God blesses both the righteous and the wicked in this life. “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt 5:45). He gives to all peoples everywhere “life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:25). This means that the wicked enjoy good things in this life not because God is unjust, but because God is gracious.
But God’s grace does not nullify His justice. In the end, the wicked will not escape the penalty for their sins and arrogance against Him. With righteous anger, God will crush the wicked, punish them for their sins, and destroy them utterly.
I know this seems like a strange way to resolve a theological knot. Imagine asking Asaph, ‘Hey Asaph, how do you reconcile the reality that unbelievers prosper in this life, and yet that God says that they will not?’ And then Asaph turns to you and says, ‘They’ll all die.’ Is this bloodlust, some cruel, twisted delight in the suffering of others?
No. Asaph is not gloating over the death of the wicked; there is nothing like that in the text. Instead he is lifting his gaze up from the things of earth, and setting his eyes on eternity, on God. Justice, divine justice, is the answer. In God’s world—and this indeed is God’s world, His reality—no one gets away with anything. Justice is never aborted. Even when we do not understand, God never ceases to be perfectly just and good.
To our puny minds we may think the reality of what we see and the reality of what Scripture says are contradictory, but I assure you, they are not. God is the God of Scripture and the God of reality. He cannot lie, for He cannot deny Himself. He is truth, thus everything He says is true.
The only reason Asaph thought reality contradicted Scripture is because he was so obsessed with this life that he forgot about God. Have you? Where is your gaze—on the things of earth, are on the things above? Are you walking around in circles, staring at your belly button, murmuring about all the issues of your life? If you are, no wonder you’re crashing into walls and hurting yourself!
O forgetful soul, lift up your eyes! Get your eyes up, to heaven, to eternity! Wake up to reality! Wake up to the reality of God! See the God of eternity! Gaze upon Him!
III. The God of Eternity (vv21-28)
1. God is Our Comfort (vv21-23)
21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
When all Asaph could do was see this life, he was blinded to the reality of God. He became like a brute, an animal—ignorant, stupid, dumb.
When we’re like this, we’re insane. We’re like little ants scurrying around, frantic about the fact that something messed up our grand plans to get crumb of food, all the while completely ignorant of the good God who looks down from above. We’re like chickens with our head cut off—discombobulated, crazy, delusional—desperately trying to figure out where the sky went, why we can’t see any more. We’re like little children through a tantrum, crying so hysterically we can’t hear the voice of reason, the voice of love, the voice of truth.
If we could only record ourselves and our thoughts, and somehow play them back, we’d see we’re acting like crazy people, thinking thoughts and saying words and making decisions that in our insanity seems to make sense, but forgetting the most important reality—God!
Sin makes us insane. Sin makes us less than human. Sin makes us stupid. So how will God deal with us?
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
Despite our blindness and ignorance, nevertheless, we dwell in the presence of our merciful Savior. Dear Christian, He is with you, even when you’re driven insane by sin. He is with you, even in your spiritual temper tantrum. He is with you, even when you feel He is far, even when you are at your absolute worst, even when you blame Him and slam the door in His face. You might blame Him, ignore Him, believe lies about Him, even curse Him. But what does He do? He opens that door, walks up to you, grabs your right hand and says:
10 ‘Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’
…
13 “For I am the LORD your God, who upholds your right hand,
Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’
(Isaiah 43:10, 13)
In the fury of your doubt, do you realize that God holds you? As you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, do you realize that God holds your hand? As you suffer through another season of depression, God says to you, “Do not fear, for I am with you.” Even as struggle through anorexia and panic attacks, God Almighty says to you, “I will strengthen you. I will help you.” Even when He feels far, when you refuse to pray, when you lust for the things of the world, when you cannot see the light, He holds your hand. Do you not know He loves you?
As one commentator writes, “[Our] security and stability come from God holding on to [us], not [our] ability to hold on to God.”3 If He has given you faith to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to truly trust in Him for salvation from Satan, sin, and death, you belong to Him—period. Nothing can separate you from Him—not even you. He has grabbed ahold of you, and for eternity, He will not lose you.
As Jesus says in John 10,
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish;
and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all;
and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
Whatever your crisis, whatever your doubts, whatever your suffering, whatever your fear, God is merciful. If you are His child, He holds you in His strong hands. He stands close, holding your hand, all your life long.
Come back to Him, wandering soul. Come to Him, all you who are lost and weary, crazy and confused. He is your only comfort. He alone can satisfy your soul.
2. God is Our Savior (v24)
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
The counsel of God led Asaph back to sanity. Like a shepherd, God restored this erring sheep, this beloved child, and brought him back to the narrow path of right thinking and right living.
The wisdom of God—for us, codified in the Scriptures, supremely revealed in Jesus Christ—is not some mystical, mysterious thing. His counsel, namely His Word, leads us on the right path. It teaches us true reality and is the only trustworthy lens through which we interpret all other reality. The Word of God is a lamp unto our feet, and our light unto our path, and the destination of this journey is glory.
What is this glory? It is heaven, the very abode of God. We are so worried about the things of the earth—our life, our today, our tomorrow, our desires. But, when’s the last time you dwelt upon the reality of heaven?
When Heaven comes down, God will make all things new (Rev 21:5). There will be no more sorrow, no more death, no more mourning, nor crying, nor pain (Rev 21:4), nor disease. There will be no more curse (Rev 22:3); there will be no more sin. There will be no more doubt. We will no longer be poor in spirit or suffer want (Ps 23:1), for the LORD our Shepherd, has gladly given us the kingdom of Heaven (Mt 5:3). We will no longer mourn (Mt 5:4), for the God of all comfort (2 Cor 1:3) will Himself wipe every tear from our eyes and the memory of every sorrow from our hearts (Is 65:17). We will no longer hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt 5:6), for we will be satisfied in God. We shall no longer be persecuted, afflicted, struck down, discouraged, distressed (2 Cor 4:8-9), for we will rest, safe in the arms of our Shepherd.
When we enter Heaven, our Father will speak those glorious words, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master” (Mt 25:21). Our faith will turn to sight. Our hope will turn to reality. Our love for God will burst anew, every moment higher, every taste richer (1 Cor 13:13).
In Heaven, we will see the Holy God on His glorious throne. Unmediated, untainted, unveiled, we will see the God who is Light, Love, Life. In Heaven, God Himself will dwell among us, and we shall be His people, and He shall be our God, and He will be among us forever (Rev 21:3).4 Dear Christian, we were made to be with God forever. Heaven is our true place of citizenship (Php 3:20), our eternal house, our forever, final, home (2 Cor 5:1-4). It is where we belong.
God is holding our hand, bringing us to that glory. He is our comfort in this life, and our Savior for the next. What more could you want? What more could you possible ask for?
3. God is Our Satisfaction (v25)
In view of such visions of glory, Asaph exclaims,
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
This is breathtaking. Do you believe that? If you had no intelligence, no beauty, no status, no skill, no health, no family, no friends, no money, no one to love you, no earthly pleasure, nothing, absolutely nothing but God, would He be enough?
“Whom have I in heaven but You, Lord?” No one. “And besides You, I desire nothing on the earth.” This is where, by His mercy, God brought Asaph. He drove him doubt to devotion, from despair to delight. Satisfaction can be found only in God.
True Christianity is not measured by how many Bible facts you know, how eloquently you pray, how much you go to church, but your desire for and satisfaction in God. As Psalm 63:1 says,
O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;
My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
If you are a Christian, you know what King David meant when he said, “I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; / I have no good besides You.” (Ps 16:2).
If you are a Christian, your heart leaps out of your chest in joy when you hear Simon Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, to whom [else] shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” (John 6:68).
If you are a Christian, your heart is practically on fire when you read the apostle Paul. “For to me to live is Christ, to do is gain” (Phil 1:21). “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil 3:7).
This is basic Christianity. We want God. He has transformed us from the inside out to want Him, to desire Him, to find our all in Him.
To the Religious
You might be reading this and thinking, “Oh, that’s too radical. Desiring God alone? That’s for extraordinary Christians, like pastors and missionaries—not for an ordinary Christian like me. I can want God and the world. I can have God and sin.”
Don’t be a fool! You cannot have both! No one can serve two masters!
1 John 2
15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
What would it profit you if you gained the whole world—riches, fame, adoration, acceptance, comfort, all that the wicked have in this life—and yet lost God (Mk 8:36)? What good would it be to linger long and drink deep of the cesspool of sin? You would not drink sewage; why would you gulp down worldliness? What good would it do you to have your best life now, and then perish eternally in Hell?
Why love the world when you can have God, the very fountain of joy? He is
the infinite, eternal One, the fount of every blessing, the One who loved His own before the foundation of the world, the One who knows every hair on your head and every thought of your heart, the One who gave His very best, His beloved Son to be the sacrifice for sin.
There is no greater love, no greater comfort, no greater pleasure, no greater joy than trusting in the God of all, and finding your delight in Him. If you have God, you will know what it means to say “…In Your presence is fullness of joy; / In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” (Psalm 16:11). If you really knew the Lord, you would long for more and more of Him.
To the Saints
Second, there are many of you who want to desire God alone. In your heart of hearts, you do love Him; but you struggle in many ways. That desire, to want to want God, to be dissatisfied with your dissatisfaction with God, that’s good. Thank God for it! That’s not of you! It’s a precious gift from God.
Because we are sinners, we easily wander away from God, the fountain of life. We stuff ourselves with every other thing—video games, television, parties, studying, sports, friends, food—and try to fill the God-shaped chasm within our hearts. We ruin our appetite for God with joyless idolatry.
In love, God uses suffering in this life as His divine instrument to strip these false idols away, and teach us that our greatest need is for Him. That’s why when you chase your pleasures, you still feel empty. That’s why when you sin, you still gain no joy. That’s why when you hunger for the applause and approval of men, you never feel good about yourself. It is because you are made for Him.
God uses these disappointments to convince us that if we had everything but Him, we would have nothing. And by faith and patience, we come to learn that if we have nothing but Him, we have everything.
Don’t you see that the emptiness, the joylessness, the dissatisfaction with the things of earth is by divine design? They are a neon sign, a trumpet blast, a shout from the heavens, “Hello! You are made to delight in God!”
Is God enough? He is, beloved. If you’re afraid and hurting, angry and confused, God is enough. If you’re alone and forsaken, miserable and misunderstood, God is enough. If you need a comforter, a Savior, a Father, a Champion, a Redeemer, a Friend, a King, God is enough.
If you are a Christian, you truly believe this truly, but not yet fully. For the rest of your life, believe it more. Meditate upon the rich blessings we have in God through Jesus Christ. For “you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. …Christ…is our life…” (Colossians 3:3-4). God has place us “…in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). We are washed whiter than snow, loved from eternity past to eternity future, welcomed into God’s family, declared good in God’s sight by the finished work of Christ on that cross.
God is our satisfaction; He is enough.
4. God is Our Confidence (vv26-28)
Verse 26 is perhaps more clearly translated as:
My flesh and my heart may expire [that is, die]
but God is the strength of my heart and my possession forever.
The older I get, the greater the fears and the louder the doubts can become. “What will I do if that happens? What if I deny God in a moment of weakness? What if I don’t have strength to make it to the end? Will God really welcome me to glory?”
But listen to Asaph’s confidence. “My flesh and my heart may expire / but God is the strength of my heart and my possession forever.” God Himself guides us home. God Himself holds our hand. God Himself strengthens us to persevere. And He becomes our confidence. I’m not confident of my strength. I’m dust—beloved dust, dust made in the image of God—but dust nonetheless! You are, too! God knows that (Psalm 103:14) for He made us, and has compassion upon us (Psalm 103:103). That is why we must make Him our refuge, our fortress.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.
These are the words of a man made resolute, made strong. He sees the wicked, and all their glitz and glamor. And he is tempted no more.
You need to be able to say this about the unbelievers you envy: “They may have their pleasure now, but they are far from God. God will deal with them on His time; I do not need to doubt Him. But as for me? It is good to be near God. God is my refuge, my fortress, my hiding place, my security, my confidence. He leads me in this life by the hand. He is my only satisfaction. He is my strength, my refuge, even unto death. I will tell of His works. I will declare His deeds, for He has been good to me.”
Make Psalm 46 your anthem.
1 God is [my] refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore [I] will not fear, though the earth should change
And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;
3 Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.
IV. Conclusion
Our glorious God—the God of eternity is our comfort, our savior, our satisfaction, our confidence.
So what do you do when you hear something that contradicts His goodness? What do you do when you can’t reconcile what the culture says with what Scripture says? What do you do when your feelings tell you the exact opposite of what you’ve learned at church? What do you do when what you experience seems to shatter everything you have believed from Scripture?
Run to God.
If you’re struggling with a theological knot, seek answers from God and His Word; do not relent. If you’re struggling to forsake the world, seek strength from God; Christ understands every temptation, and stands eager to give you grace and help in time of need (Hebrews 4). If you’re struggling to enjoy the things of God—Bible reading, praying, church, youth group, find a Christian friend and do those things together. If you’re struggling to believe that God is good, confess it to Him; read the psalms, these honest, raw, godly prayers, and make them your own. If you’re struggling to hope that tomorrow will be better, hope in God, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever; you can trust in Him.
God brought Asaph through his doubts; Psalm 73 is evidence of that. But to that testimony, God has added millions and millions more—namely the lives of every saint in His church. God has brought each of your brothers and sisters, your fellow travelers on this journey Home, through storms, through fears, through doubts, and He has shown us beyond a shadow of a doubt that yes, God is indeed trustworthy and true.
Dear Christian, believe it. God will bring you through. God is your comfort, savior, your satisfaction, your strength, your good, your refuge. God is enough.
Prayer
Whom have we in heaven but You, O Lord? No one; we have only You. You are our all. You are enough—enough to satisfy every thirst, enough to satiate every hunger. We confess that apart from You we have no good. If we were to gain the world but lose You, we would be of all people most of all to be pitied. But if we were to lose everything but gain Christ, our riches would exceed the heavens.
Help us to believe this, Lord—to believe with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength that at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore; to believe that You are our sufficiency, our hope, our joy, our satisfaction.
You have shown us Your goodness and your love. Show us again, O Lord. Above all else, we need You.
In Christ’s glorious name, amen.
Footnotes
Solomon would later write this in various proverbs
https://www.mattpapa.com/lyrics-to-christ-the-sure-and-steady-anchor-by-matt-papa
Daniel J. Estes, Psalms 73–150, ed. E. Ray. Clendenen, vol. 13, New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2019), 37.
From 2020.08.26 TFTT, done for Lighthouse Community Church
Photo by Jean-Pierre Brungs on Unsplash