City Life Starter

The Word: Psalm 73:25-28

25Whom have I in heaven but You?

And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.

26My flesh and my heart may fail,

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

27For, behold, those who are far from You will perish;

You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.

28But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;

I have made the Lord God my refuge,

That I may tell of all Your works.

Asaph, the author of Psalm 73, was a Levite musician appointed by David to serve in the tabernacle. See I Chronicle 6:31-32, 39. I don’t usually associate songwriters with good theology or Truth. When I’m trying to figure out the right way to think about God, I’m not apt to play Bruno Mars or Katy Perry in search of answers.

Asaph, although he was a Levite, had also engaged in some bad theology, which he recalls in verses 2-14. He looked at the world around him, concluded that the wicked prospered and there were no adverse consequences in this world or the next for their conduct. As a result, he had concluded he had kept his heart pure in vain and there was no reward for the righteous.

All that changed for Asaph when he came into the sanctuary (v. 17) and there found the proper perspective that comes from experiencing the presence of God in worship. It was then Asaph realized how ignorant he had been; he compared himself to a dumb animal (v. 22). In the midst of worshipping God, Asaph saw two things clearly.

First, Asaph realized that while the wicked may appear to prosper in the short term, they rarely do in the long term. This is the message of Psalm 37. Psalm 37 makes it quite clear that a life of holiness engenders a divinely supported continuity, while the wicked, who may seemingly prosper in short spurts, will suffer discontinuity (be “cut off”) as a result of their conduct. We see this every day. The wealthy, famous, and powerful who seem to prosper for a time are brought down by their own conduct. Harvey Weinstein is a good example. Wicked conduct is pregnant with the seeds of its own destruction. Asaph saw this clearly when he worshipped God: “You set them on slippery places . . . . They are destroyed in a moment.” Psalm 73:18-20.

Second, and more importantly, Asaph realized in God’s presence that regardless of whether there was a temporal punishment for wickedness, the Lord Himself was the reward for righteous: “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good.”  Psalm 73:28. And with that revelation, comes the bold statement that forms one of my favorite verses in the Bible, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26.

In other words, God is the gospel. We don’t serve Him for what he will give us or do for us; we serve Him because in serving Him we get Him.

Application

A number of years ago, I represented an employee in a religious discrimination case in federal court in Lufkin, Texas. The company was arrogant and refused to settle before trial. So, Cindy and I and my paralegal traveled to Lufkin for trial. The night before the trial, Cindy and I were eating at a restaurant in Lufkin. One of the waitresses came over to the table, said she was a Christian, that she didn’t know why we were there but that the Lord had told her He would give us victory. Of course, we were stunned. She had no idea we were believers or why we were there.

Over the next few days, I tried the case to a Lufkin jury, who, at the end of the trial, unanimously ruled in my client’s favor. After the trial, we went back to the restaurant to tell the waitress we had won the trial. We asked for her by name, but the manager said there was no one with that name who worked there.

What I remember most about that case was not that we won. We have won many trials over the years. What I will always remember is that the Lord spoke to us in a restaurant in Lufkin, Texas. What I will remember is the nearness of God.