It's a heart matter . . .

 

We saw yesterday that the psalmist's insight on the prosperity of the wicked while the righteous suffered was like looking at two sides of a coin.

He wants us to know that the prosperity of the wicked is for the short term - but their doom is eternal. And on the flip side, the blessings of the godly are eternal, and their trials are short term.

But let's start at the beginning with Asaph:

Surely God is good to Israel,

to those who are pure in heart.

But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;

I had nearly lost my foothold.

For I envied the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. (Psalm 73:1-3, NIV)

Asaph actually starts off with something that would be so familiar to his listeners. The people would have heard these phrases many times, about how faithful God was to Israel, and how He cared for and delivered those who were pure in heart.

The first phrase focused on the covenant nation of God; the second phrase zeroes in on those within that nation - the ones whose hearts were right before God. In the language of our day, we could say that there's a difference between attending church, or even being a member, and having a personal relationship with God. It's a question of our hearts. It's on the heart level that we must deal with our Father. We can't hide our struggles or our doubts from God. What do we do? We tell Him, and then we battle through until our hearts are pure before Him.

Asaph contrasts the first verse with the fact that he almost fell. It says in verse thirteen that he was trying very hard to be pure in heart before God. He was not a skeptic. He was a believer. He's even honest enough with us to admit that his struggles made his heart bitter (verse 21). After the battle, though, he can say that "God is the strength of my heart" in verse 26.

I believe Asaph would tell us not to just put on a happy face when we are doubting. Don't just casually say, "Sure, everything is fine" when we are hurt or bitter. After all, our Father already knows our hearts, so we can admit to Him that we are struggling. We can tell Him and ask for His help; we can keep working through until we can say, "God is the strength of my heart."

So, if it is a heart matter, what does God see in our hearts when we are doubting? When we look at the wicked and their easy, prosperous lives, and we grow doubtful, what are we letting grow up in our hearts?

What is the root of the problem?

Envy.

Look back at verse 3. "I was envious...." Asaph looked around. He saw the lack of material goods on his side. He saw his troubles. Then he looked over at the wicked. They were rich and powerful. "Why can't I have what they have?" he thought.  Those desires are wrong. He was hoping to get rich, thinking that wealth would solve his problems. 

Many years later, Paul would write to the young pastor, Timothy:

But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (I Timothy 6:9-10)

In verse four, Asaph mentions that the ungodly seem to him to die peaceably. They aren't panicking about judgment, because Satan has lulled them into thinking that they are good people and that God will overlook any faults they may have. He also mentioned that they had "fat" bodies in verses 4 and 7 of the psalm. He wasn't poking fun at them; this was considered a positive thing in his culture. They were fat because they had all the food they wanted to eat, while others went hungry. He also mentions their pride and arrogance; they were ruthless and if they needed to step on someone to get to the top, so be it. They believed they succeeded on their own, and they figured they didn't need God's help.

Asaph is being painfully honest here. Have we ever entertained the thoughts and doubts that he did? He probably didn't envy the ruthless ways or arrogance of the powerful, but he did envy the easy lifestyle of the rich. He was jealous of the fact that they had plenty of money to enjoy the finer things of life, and he was allowing wrong thoughts to make a home in his head and in his heart.

This was definitely a heart matter. Have we been there?

We'll study more on this next week........