PSALM 73 A CRISIS OF FAITH2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Psalm 73 A Crisis Of Faith

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2016.

Well, as we look at Psalm chapter 73 this morning, I'd like to talk to you about a very scary feeling. It's a feeling I'm sure you're familiar with, and you must have experienced and will probably experience again. And it's the experience of what the psalmist mentions in verse 2. He says, as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. Now,

And as I was meditating on that verse this past week, the Lord brought this picture to mind. This is a place that I would love to visit one day, and maybe you'll go with me. It's a place in Norway called Trolltunga, and it means tongue of the troll. And so it's like a troll sticking out his tongue, and it's this ledge that sticks out from the mountain. It's about 2,300 feet above the water below.

And so, you know, you can imagine, you know, being at that kind of height and whether or not you have a fear of heights, I wouldn't consider myself really having a fear of heights, but even still, you know, you get to the edge of a cliff, you get to something like that, and there's a

you know, kind of a gasp for air. There's a real appreciation of the drop that's there. There's a, you know, carefulness that you would have, you know, in placing your foot. And if you had kids around you, you know, you'd be grasping, you know, making sure nobody just does anything crazy because there's that fear of the foot slipping. You perhaps have felt this if you've ever been to the Grand Canyon or, you know, other trails and things where you're at the edge and it's just that that

that real sense of awe of what could happen and carefulness that your foot is on stable ground. Now, of course, as the psalmist is writing this, he's not actually talking about a physical height or some type of physical danger, but he's talking about emotionally and spiritually what he is experiencing.

And at the same time, just as I've been describing kind of the physical sensations, we can have those same sensations about that fear of slipping and that caution that takes place as we go through things emotionally and spiritually. And so I'm going to refer to it as, entitled the message this morning, a crisis of faith. We all know what that's like. I'm sure you've had

Some type of crisis of faith, even as the psalmist had here in Psalm chapter 73. And maybe you're in the midst of one even this morning.

We go through these things. And there is the same type of fear that the description of my foot slipping, my steps had almost slipped, my feet had nearly stumbled. The idea is, man, I came really close to just walking away. I came really close to just losing it all. I came really close. I'm right at the edge. I'm just about to fall off. And I don't know if I can hang on any longer is the sense that is being conveyed here by the psalmist.

And I think we've all experienced that. We've experienced that kind of a crisis of faith. And yet, at the same time, I think we would often think that nobody can understand. You know, as we talk about challenges, as we talk about struggles, as we talk about things that we've gone through in our faith, in our walk with God, we would try to express it. Maybe we would even express it to someone and say, you know,

You really don't know how close I was to throwing it all away. Like, you don't know how close I was to walking away. You don't understand. I mean, I was like right at the edge. And we've all experienced that. And so I'm thankful for Asaph, the writer of this psalm.

Now we don't know exactly who this is. There's a man named Asaph who was a worship leader during the time of David. And so it could be that guy. It also seems that there were kind of descendants from that Asaph who were also worship leaders. And so it could be one of his descendants.

Either way, we see that this guy was a worship leader for the congregation of Israel, for the nation of Israel. He's responsible for 12 of the Psalms that we have in the scriptures. So he's a songwriter. He's a worship leader. He leads the nation in worship. And a person of that position, a person of that level, experiences a very severe crisis of faith.

That's just to illustrate that it's something that we all go through. And you might think, well, Pastor George would never have a crisis of faith. But I can tell you from personal experience with Pastor George, you know, we all have crises of faith. I'm not sure how to pronounce crisis in the plural form, so I'm going to probably variate a couple different ways. But we all go through a crisis of faith from time to time. We all have those seasons where the faith is challenged and

And where it feels like we're right at the edge and our feet is just about to stumble, our foot's about to slip, it's a very dangerous position and we're just right at the edge of just throwing in the towel and walking away.

And so how do we handle that? And what do we do with a crisis of faith? That's what we want to learn from the psalmist this morning. And so there's four points we'll look at here in Psalm chapter 73. The first point is found in the verses we just read, verses 1 through 12, and that is faith is tested by sight. Here's what you need to know about faith. It is going to be tested. It

It is going to be challenged. There are going to be things that you have to overcome in your mind, in your heart, in your emotions as you endeavor to walk with God. Now the psalmist begins in a good spot there in verse 1. He says,

He starts out well. He starts out with a solid foundation, with something that is true, a certainty. Here's what he knows for sure as he enters into this season of testing. He knows that God is good to Israel. He knows that God is good to those who are pure in heart. In other words, God is good to those who walk with him. And he's holding on to this truth. He says, this is the foundation. This is a certainty here.

This is what I know to be true. It's interesting as we consider this this morning because as believers today, we hold on to a similar truth, but from a different verse in Romans chapter 8, verse 28. We refer to it often. We know it well. Paul says, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. And we refer back to this often because it's

Well, the things that we see, the things that we experience in life, don't automatically point us to this truth. It's challenged. Our faith is tested, and we have to go back and remind ourselves, here's what we know Paul says. Asaph says, truly, certainly, God is good to those who are pure in heart. We know that God is good, and he works together all things for good.

to those who love God. That's a certainty. That's a truth that we build our faith upon, that we trust and rest in. And yet, knowing that's true and even having that as our foundation, we still can wrestle with the things that we see going on around us. Look again at verse 2 and 3. He says, But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped, for I was envious of the boastful.

He starts out with this certainty, with this truth. I know God is good to those who are pure in heart. But at the same time, I began to waver. And I was at the edge of the cliff. My foot almost slipped. I was about to just go tumbling down away from God. And what brought him to that place? What brought him to this crisis of faith? He says, I was envious of the boastful. I began to look around at the people around me and...

They have better lives than I do. I began to envy their life, even though they're wicked. He says, I began to envy them. Notice what he says, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Here's the thing that provoked this crisis of faith within Asaph. It's what he saw.

in the people around him, in the lives that were happening around him. As he looked around in the world around him, the things that he saw, the things that he perceived with his eyes began to challenge what he knew to be true, and that is that God is good to the pure in heart. He began to have a distorted perspective, thinking maybe these guys, maybe they're onto something. Maybe there's

Not as much to this walking with God that I thought. And he began to have doubts. He began to wrestle with those kinds of thoughts as he saw, as he had this distorted vision.

perspective. And it's easy for us to have a distorted perspective as we look at the world around us. And so I want to give you a couple examples of that just to help you understand perhaps what Asaph was going through is similar to what you experience or are experiencing, but there's also different ways for us to experience this crisis of faith. So the first example we'll look at is Asaph here in Psalm chapter 73. And here's the distorted perspective that he had.

The wicked have it good. He looked around, he saw the wicked, he saw their lives, and he says, they have better lives than I do. I'm trying to walk with God, and I'm suffering, and I'm miserable, and they're just living on easy streets. Check out verse 4. He says,

They don't have troubles in their life. Look at these guys. Look at, you know, they're crooked. They're wicked. They don't care about God. They don't seek God. But things are going well for them. And even in their death, I've seen the righteous suffer all the way to their death. But the wicked just seems like they just kind of fold their hands and rest and then just go right into eternity. It's like it's easy for them. It's not a big deal.

This is what he's observing in the world around him. In verse 7, he says, In verse 12, he says, Behold, these are the ungodly who are always at ease. They increase in riches.

They're always at ease. They're just hanging out. They're just chilling. They're out partying and they just have riches and it just keeps coming and they just continue to have abundance. And it doesn't match up with what I believe. It doesn't match up with God is good to those who are pure of heart. But here, look at these wicked and they have it good and things are going well for them.

Now, as is common in the Psalms and kind of poetic type literature, there's exaggeration going on here, right? Asaph is not saying literally every wicked person never suffers, but he's just looking around and what he's experiencing, that's what it seems like. That's what it feels like as he's looking at the world around him. So he's beginning to question. I know God is good, but why doesn't,

The world match what I know to be true. Have you ever had this kind of distorted perspective? Faith is tested by sight. If you're going to walk with God, you need to know what you believe about God and what the scriptures reveal about God and the way that we're called to live and the way that we're called to relate to God. You need to know that that's going to be tested by what you see in the world around you. There's going to be challenges to your faith.

As you look at your neighbors, as you look at your co-workers, and you might be thinking, man, I'm working hard, I'm doing my best, and the lazy guy who's wicked and cutting corners is getting the promotions. What's the point of working hard and walking with God if it's the wicked who are promoted in advance? You see, we can develop this distorted perspective as we look at the world around us.

Another example to consider, and I'm just going to refer to the different scriptures. You don't have to turn there, but you can maybe write them down and look them up later if it's meaningful to you. But I would ask you to consider the example of Elijah. Elijah's distorted perspective was, I'm the only one serving God. There he was on Mount Carmel. He has a great victory against the prophets of Baal. He calls down fire from heaven, covers the altar. It's a great victory, but then his life is threatened by the queen.

And he runs for his life. He hides in a cave. And God says to him, what are you doing here? And he's just, he's having a crisis of faith. He's freaked out. He's bemoaning himself. He's, you know, in self-pity. And he's saying, I've been so faithful. I've been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts. This is in 1 Kings chapter 19. I've been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts. But they've killed your prophets. And I alone am left.

and they're trying to take my life. He's convinced. I'm the only one faithful to God. I'm the only one serving God, and they're trying to kill me. And God says, you know what, Elijah? Your job is not done. And he gives him some stuff to do. Go anoint this guy as king. Go anoint this guy. He's going to take over the ministry as you pass on. But then God tells him in 1 Kings chapter 19, verse 18, he says, I have reserved 7,000 in Israel.

all whose knees have not bowed to Baal. You're not the only faithful one, Elijah. You're looking around and based on what you see, based on your evaluation, based on what you think and what you know, you've determined I'm the only one. And God says, you're not the only one. I've got 7,000 more just like you that are faithful to me, that are serving me. Have you ever had this kind of distorted perspective?

You know, you look around at your workplace, you look around at your family, maybe even you look around at your church and you think, man, I am the only one serving God. What's wrong with all these other people? And there's a great loneliness that can come with that. Faith is tested by sight. Another example to consider is the example of Zacharias. You can read about him in Luke chapter one. He's the father of John the Baptist. And he had a distorted perspective. It was that a particular prayer that he had

could never be answered. He was a priest. He was ministering to the Lord in the temple one day, and an angel appears to him. And the angel tells him, "'Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.'" Your prayer is heard, but Zacharias doesn't believe it. Why? Well, he tells the angel in verse 18, he says, "'How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.'"

I'm old. She's old. We're well beyond the childbearing years. I don't believe it. He's relying on his sight. He has a distorted perspective. Here the angel tells him, your prayer is heard. Now, it's interesting to consider how long has it been since he's actually prayed this prayer. He's probably given up many years earlier because he's an old man and she's an old woman, but your prayer is heard.

And his perspective was that prayer can't be answered. It's too late. The opportunity is gone. It's over. That prayer can never be answered. Have you ever had that kind of distorted perspective? Something you're praying for? Maybe something even that God's promised you, but you're thinking it's just not possible. It can't happen. Just that opportunity is lost. Faith is tested by sight.

You will be challenged in what you believe. You will be challenged in the promises of God by what you see going on around you. Another good example of that is Peter. Peter's distorted perspective was, you know, this step of faith, that was probably a mistake. I'm referring to Matthew chapter 14 when the disciples are out on the Sea of Galilee in a boat and Jesus walks out to them on the water.

And they're freaked out. They think, wow, this is a ghost or some kind of image or something. And Jesus says, calm down, guys. It's just me. And Peter says, if it's really you, then call me to come out to meet you there on the water. And Jesus says, OK, come on, get out of the boat. And Peter takes a bold step of faith. I don't think I would have done it. He gets out of the boat, and he begins to walk on the water. I mean, it's pretty amazing, pretty miraculous. It's like, wow, that's incredible faith and boldness there of Peter. Yeah.

But then it tells us in Matthew chapter 14, verse 30, it says, He takes a couple steps on the water. Wow, this is pretty cool. It really is Jesus. But then it says, He saw the wind was boisterous.

He's looking around at the situation. He's looking at the waves. He's looking and basing his decisions on what he can feel and the wind beating against him. And suddenly, no longer is this a bold step of faith. Whoa, this was a mistake. I shouldn't have done this. What was I thinking? What was I doing? So he cries out, Lord, save me as he begins to sink. And it tells us in the next verse, Jesus stretched out his hand and catches him.

and says, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? You started off good. Why did you doubt? Peter had a crisis of faith right there, standing on the water and beginning to sink. Have you ever had that kind of distorted perspective? You begin to respond to something God tells you to do. You begin to do something that God set before you. But as you do it,

You start to realize there's wind and there's waves and there's difficulties and there's obstacles and there's afflictions and beginning to see all of those things that are happening around you, you begin to step back and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, this step of faith was a mistake. You were responding to what God said, but that faith, that obedience was challenged by what you saw. Faith is tested by sight. One final example for us to consider, and that is the Apostle Paul.

The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 describes what he calls a thorn in the flesh. And in the midst of this thorn in the flesh that he had, his distorted perspective was, this pain is more than I can handle. We don't know what kind of thorn in the flesh it was. We don't know if it was a physical affliction or some type of spiritual or emotional battle. We don't know what exactly it was.

But we know, as far as Paul was concerned, it was exceedingly painful and he couldn't live with it. He says, Three times or even three seasons of prayer. It was just real three seasons of, man, this is incredibly difficult. Lord, you have to take this away. I can't live like this. I can't go through this. I can't keep on with this kind of pain. And God's response to Paul was,

In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9, God told Paul, His perspective, I can't handle this. It's too painful. It's too difficult. It's too hard. It's too hard.

But God says, no, I can get you through this. His faith is tested by his sight. Have you had that kind of distorted perspective before? There's perhaps others that we could consider as well. Things where we're challenged, things we believe about God, things that God tells us about who he is and what he does and what he promises for us. But our faith will always be tested by what we see. And I'm sure you've experienced these kinds of things.

Maybe a few of these things. I've experienced all of these things and maybe even go as far to say I've experienced all of these things this week. There are challenges to our faith in this world that we live. It's tested by what we see. And let me tell you that your faith will frequently be in crisis if you are focused on what you see.

If you're persistent and looking and focusing and being consumed with what you see and what you experience and what you feel and what you think, your faith is going to begin crisis constantly. If you rely upon your feelings to a large degree, you're going to be frequently in a crisis of faith because it's contrary. The way that God's called us to live is contrary to the ways of this world. God's ways are not our ways, the scriptures tell us.

And so he calls us, well, Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7. He says, for we walk by faith and not by sight. We walk by faith. That is, we walk believing God at his word and living obediently, trusting God, not by what we can figure out, what we can understand, what we can see, how we feel. We live by faith. We walk by faith, Paul says. At least that's how we're called to walk.

But it's going to be challenged. Our faith will be tested by our sight, by our feelings, by what we perceive and what we think. Well, moving on to verses 13 through 15, we have point number two, and that is faith is mocked by sight. Not only is faith tested by our sight, but it goes a step further and it's mocked by what we see. Check out verse 13 and 14. He says, "'Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain.'"

You see the contrast that the psalmist is painting here? The wicked have it easy. They just sit there and party and laugh it up, and then riches just get piled onto their laps. And here on the other side, I work hard to be righteous, and I cleanse my heart, and I wash my hands, and I suffer all day long.

It doesn't seem fair. It doesn't seem right that the wicked have it easy and that the righteous suffer. And again, I think as the psalmist is walking us through these emotions and feelings that he's going through, that we can relate. We all know what this is like. And there comes this mocking in the midst of this affliction that we experience. Because it's not just that the wicked are doing well, but now as we observe that,

There's a taunt. There's a mocking that takes place saying your efforts are worthless. You're working hard to walk with God, but what's it getting you? Why are you working so hard to be righteous? Why are you working so hard to walk with God? It's not getting you anywhere. Look at all the suffering. It would be so much easier if you would just give up in your walk with God. Give up your integrity. Give up that righteousness and things would be so much easier for you. We're taunted by

by what we see. Challenge to just throw it all, throw it all away, throw in the towel, just, just give up and give in to the ways of this world. We're taunted by the things that we see. They're calling out to us saying, where is your God? Oh, your God's so big, huh? You know, you got such an awesome God. Where is your God? Why are you suffering like that? How come you can't pay the bills? There's a mocking that we experience. It's painful. It's, it's hurtful. The enemy throws these things at us relentlessly.

Why is your life so hard if God is so good? Faith is mocked by sight. Paul expresses this as well in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 in verse 19. He says, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. He's talking about the resurrection there in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And we'll get to those concepts in a few moments here in Psalm chapter 73. But

But at this point in Paul's argument, he says, look, if all that there is to the faith of Jesus Christ is this life, he says, we're more pitiable than any other men. We're more pitiable than any other people if our hope in Christ is only for this life. What he's expressing there is that there's challenges to faith in Christ. There's challenges to walking with God. There's sacrifice. There's difficulty. There's affliction. And if it's only for this life that we're living,

If faith in Christ only benefits what we have here in this earth, he says, everyone should pity us more than anybody else because that's not what we experience in this life. We don't experience just great comforts and blessings and goodness all just because we believe in Jesus Christ. It doesn't work that way. And the afflictions and the difficulties that we experience mock our faith and challenge us. Why are you holding on to that? Why don't you just let go?

It'd be so much easier if you would just let go and walk away from God. Now, as he's wrestling with this, he's also trying to show some discretion. You can see that in verse 15. He said, if I had said, I will speak thus, behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of your children. So he's on the edge. He's about to slip. I mean, he's like right there, like, I don't even know why I bother. Why am I working so hard? It's so difficult. But at the same time, he's saying, I can't say this out loud. I mean, this is going to mess up other people.

Again, I think we can relate, can't we? We all go through things that we don't talk about because we know better, right? I know I'm not supposed to feel this way. I know I'm not supposed to go through this. I know I'm not supposed to experience these things. And so I appreciate that Asaph, although in the midst of it, he's like, okay, I can't talk about this right now. But then later on, he comes back and he writes what he went through in the psalm. I think that's a good principle for us to consider.

When you're feeling overwhelmed, when you're strongly overwhelmed by the emotions and in the midst of the trial, the challenge to your faith, that might not be the time to post it on Facebook and share it and just shout out all the struggles that you have and the doubts that you have about God. But after you've gone through it, it's probably a good opportunity that God wants to use to minister to other people.

In the midst of it, when you're feeling it, that's oftentimes when we want to shout it. We want to scream. We want to shout it out because, you know, it's so scary. We're at the edge. You know, you don't know how close I am to just giving it all up. It's so intense. But then later on afterwards, we kind of like come back to our senses. We get grounded once again. And then now we don't want to share it because it's like, oh, we're kind of ashamed. And we'll see that in the psalmist later. But there's value there. Look how great comfort we have looking at this psalm and relating to his experience.

Now, I would also add on to all of that to say you should have people in your life that you can share these kinds of struggles with. And, you know, maybe you're not publishing it on Facebook, but that you can sit down with Pastor George and say, you know, George, I'm at the edge. I'm really struggling here. I don't know if it's even worth it anymore. We do need those kinds of people. It's not that we can't talk about these things, but that there's some good discretion that we

can use. Charles Spurgeon says, it's not always wise to speak one's thoughts. If they remain within, they will injure ourselves only. But once uttered, their mischief may be great. And so it's a good opportunity for us to use caution, to use precaution, but to still have some relationships where we can talk about what's really happening within our hearts. Because our faith will be mocked.

And it will be scorned by what we see. And that taunting will be hurtful so that we feel like we're on the edge. Close to just giving up and walking away. Now, that's kind of the dark part of the psalm. Now we get to kind of build back up to faith in what it needs to be. Verses 16 through 23. Now point number three. And that is faith is restored in worship. Faith is restored in worship. Verse 16 says...

When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I understood their end. Asaph is thinking about what he's seeing. He's thinking about the pain, the difficulty, the affliction, the challenges, the mocking. He's thinking about this and he says, it was too painful for me. I couldn't figure it out. I couldn't understand it until, until I went into the sanctuary of God.

And as he begins to focus on God, things begin to get better and things begin to fall into place. He went into the sanctuary of God. You know, there's great value in the sanctuary of God. Sometimes we get a little bit confused and we associate God's presence with a particular place. And that's not the reality. You know, God is everywhere and we can connect with him everywhere. But

And yet there is great value in having a place that is devoted to God. And so here for us at Living Water, we call this building here the sanctuary. This is a building that's devoted to God. It's devoted to worshiping God. It's devoted to walking with God, to knowing God, to hearing from God. It's devoted to the things of God. It's not the only place where God is, but it's a place devoted to seeking God and knowing God.

And that is incredibly valuable for us. Here the psalmist has a place, the sanctuary of God. It's not the only place where God was. That's not the point. But it's the place where he went that was devoted to seeking God, to knowing God. And it was there that he began to have understanding. I like what the commentator Albert Barnes wrote about this. He says, the psalmist has tried his own powers of reason and

And the subject was above his reach. That's verse 16. When I thought to understand this, it was too painful for me. He tried his own powers. He tried his own understanding. He tried everything he could figure out to make sense. God is good to those who are pure in heart, but why are the wicked prospering and doing so well while I'm suffering? He couldn't figure it out. It was beyond his reach.

He goes on to say,

As he worshiped. Now worship, we usually associate that with the guitar and singing. That is part of worship, but that's not all that worship is. Worship is a devotion to God. As he began in the sanctuary to be devoted to God, to seek the things of God, to hear from God, it's when he began to be restored in his faith. Again, verse 17, until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I understood their end.

He was looking at the wicked around him. And as he looked at the situation that they were presently in, he thought, this isn't right. What's wrong? Why is their life so good? But he was just looking at that moment. But when he went into the sanctuary, he says, then I understood their end. And so instead of just focusing on this one part of their life, his perspective was broadened. And as he began to see the whole picture again,

He understood better the righteousness and the justice of God. Last week, we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. It's a great, joyful celebration. But if you limited your perspective to Friday only, the crucifixion of Jesus, if you only looked at that, if that's all you see, if that's all you knew, you would think Satan won. If that's all you looked at, you would think, well, what good was a sinless life? What good was

God becoming man. What did it accomplish? What did it, what did he come for? It didn't value, it didn't have value. It didn't mean anything if you only look at that. But if you just widen it just a little, just a couple of days, and then you see the resurrection of Jesus. Well, then you see, okay, well, there's great value here. There's a much better understanding of what the plan is.

In a similar way, here Asaph was looking at just this moment and he's like, it doesn't seem right. It looks like Satan wins. It looks like wickedness wins until he went into the sanctuary. And as he began to look to God, to focus on God, to worship God, he began to broaden his perspective. He says in verse 18, surely you set them in slippery places. You cast them down to destruction. Now at the beginning of the psalm, he was at the slippery place, right? He's like, I was about to slip. I was about to fall off.

And as he begins to broaden his perspective, as he focuses on God, he realizes they're the ones on slippery places. They're the ones about to fall. Verse 19, oh, how they are brought to desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors. In a moment, they're gonna be brought to desolation. God's gonna deal with that wickedness and it's gonna happen quickly. He describes it as a dream in verse 20. He says, as a dream, when one awakes...

So Lord, when you awake, you shall despise their image. Have you ever had a really good dream and you wake up in the middle of the dream and then so you try to go back to sleep because you want to like finish the dream and kind of continue. It's like all you can eat ice cream dream, right? And it's like, oh, let me go back to sleep and just enjoy some more of that ice cream, right? But you wake up and that dream's gone. No matter how good it was, no matter how awesome the dream was, it's just gone. He says, this is what the wicked have.

They may have a moment, they may have a season that seems really good and everything's easy for them, but just like a dream, it's all gonna be gone in just a moment. It will be over as fast as when you wake up from a dream. And so as he begins to have his faith restored, he begins to recognize God's gonna deal with wickedness. This isn't the end of the story. Now he becomes troubled by his lapse of faith. Verse 21, thus my heart was grieved and I was vexed

How could I doubt, Asaph is saying? He began to be grieved because he had the crisis of faith. How could I be on a slippery place? How could I be so close to just throwing in the towel and giving it all up? How could I be so caught up in that, Lord? I was so foolish and ignorant. I was like a beast, just like an animal, just like focused on the physical, focused on the moment. He was grieved over his own lapse of faith.

And again, I'm appreciative of Asaph because I've experienced this, you know? It's like, and the enemy loves to do this, by the way. Loves to throw the doubts at you. Then when you begin to wrestle with the doubts, then he throws other darts at you saying, look at you, you're probably not even saved because look at, you experienced these doubts. You had these struggles. And Asaph is grieved, he's vexed. But notice verse 23. He says, nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold me by my right hand.

Here's the key. When you have a crisis of faith, here's the key. He says, I am continually with you. It's a great danger for us in a crisis of faith to run from God, to avoid God. It's a great danger for us to run from God or avoid God because we had a crisis of faith. No, we need to understand these challenges are

that our sight presents, these mockings, the hurt, the emotions, the struggle that we go through, that that's a prompt for you to run to God, not to run away from God. Don't let your crisis keep you from God. Don't let your lapse of faith keep you from God. And notice, God's not pushing you away. He says, you hold me by my right hand in verse 23. I'm with you and you're with me, Asaph says.

I'm grieved. I can't believe. I'm so sorry, God, that I doubted you. I'm so sorry that I had the lapse of faith. But God, I'm also thankful that you're still holding on to me, even when I'm wrestling with whether or not I should hold on to you. Your right hand, or you hold me by my right hand, he says. Continue to be with God. Continue to seek God. Continue to worship God. Faith is restored in that worship. And you might regret it.

how you've been challenged. You might grieve over it like Asaph, but don't let that drive you away. Let that drive you towards God. He's not pushing you away. He's not upset at you for your crisis of faith. He's holding you. He's holding your right hand. Faith is restored in worship. And so Warren Wiersbe says, when life seems unfair, take time to worship and get your spiritual vision properly focused. That distorted vision, get it reset.

reassembled by the Lord. And as you worship the Lord, things will come into proper perspective. Well, the final point is found in verses 24 through 28, and that is that faith is focused on eternity. As you begin to worship God and have a perspective that God has, you begin to include in that view all of eternity. And that's where faith is focused.

Verse 24, he says, you will guide me with your counsel and afterward receive me to glory. He says, you will guide me. You're going to take care of me right now. You're going to give me answers right now. You're going to speak to me right now. You're going to lead me right now. But then also he says, afterward, you'll receive me to glory. It's great confidence that he has. What a great promise for us.

That you can have the leading and guiding of God in this life with the confidence, with the comfort that beyond this life, God will receive you. And the way he describes that receiving you, he says it's to glory. It's not going to be to misery. It's going to be to glory. It's going to be awesome. Eternity is going to be incredible. And that's what's in store for you.

And so Asaph, he realizes, you're going to guide me. You're going to take care of this situation that I'm in and the suffering that I'm in. You're guiding me through it. You're taking care of me. You're leading me. And I have the promise of eternity. In verse 25, he says, "'Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is none upon the earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.'"

As he looks to God, he realizes, he looks to eternity. Who do I have in eternity except for you? Life isn't just this life, but life is for all of eternity. In heaven, I have only you. You're the one I have to trust in. You're the one I'm believing. And he says, on this earth, there's no one I desire besides you. You are the most important person to me, Father. You're the most important person to me. I'm seeking you.

He says, my flesh and my heart fail. My body's going to fall apart. I'm going to experience devastation physically. I'm going to experience decomposition physically. This is all going to fall apart, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion. Notice, forever, forever. He begins to look towards eternity and realize God's got me. God has me in his hand.

He's guiding me right now. He's going to take care of all these situations I'm going through, and he's going to receive me to glory for all of eternity. The Apostle Paul expressed something similar in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. He talks about outwardly wasting away while inwardly being renewed day by day.

And how could he do that? How could he go through the difficulties outwardly, but be renewed day by day? Well, he goes on in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 18. He says, Remember how your faith is challenged by your sight? Paul says, here's how we stay renewed day by day. We're not focused on the things that we can see.

Those are temporary. It's not going to last. And so we're focused on the things that are unseen. We're focused on the eternal, the things that last forever. As you evaluate and consider what you see around you and what you see in your own life, as you go through a crisis of faith like this, you have to consider the whole plan of God. And as you consider the whole plan of God, understand that the biggest part of God's plan for you

is eternity. The major part of God's plan for your life is eternity. It's not who your parents were going to be when you were born. It's not who your siblings were going to be. It's not what kind of school you would go to or what kind of career you would have. That's not the biggest part of God's plan for you. The biggest part of God's plan for you is eternity. That's what lasts forever. That's what's most important. We get so backwards on this because all we know is this life, but God can see the whole picture, the whole plan.

And when you begin to focus on eternity, things begin to fall in place. You begin to understand. Not that we'll understand completely and totally, but it begins to make sense. You can trust God. You can have faith in God. You can walk with God and know and rest in the promises of eternity. Think about it this way. Last year, we went through the process of remodeling this sanctuary. Now, if you only looked at the first part of the project,

That was the demolition. If you only looked at that, you would think, boy, this is evil. Look at these guys destroying the house of God. How could you do that to the house of God? If that's all you looked at, if that's all you're concerned with, if that's all you knew, that would be blasphemous. That would be horrible, atrocious. How could you do that? You have to widen the perspective and understand, no, no, there's a bigger picture. Now, if you came along as we're

beginning the rebuilding process and you look and what are these pillars here they're weird they're out of place they don't fit what what is this here for it doesn't make sense well there was some temporary stuff that we had to build some things that weren't there to be permanent they were just there for well the moment that we needed them so that we could do the rest of the work and and then it had to be removed but if you only looked at that perspective that only looked at that slice of time you'd be like this is funky why would you do that

Sometimes we do that to God, huh? It's like, why would you do that? Why would you allow this in my life? I mean, what kind of curveball is that? But if you don't take in the whole picture, if you look at the whole plan, you go, oh, I understand. We had to demolish in order to rebuild. We had to do funky weird things in the middle to be able to build the thing that needed to be built. We had, it was part of the plan. In a similar way, listen, the major part of God's plan for you is eternity. And so things that happen in this life, if you only look at that, it's like, well, this is evil, right?

God says, no, no, no. It's just part of the process for the eternal work that I'm doing in you. You look at stuff in your life, and this is funky. I don't understand. Why would you do that? But God says, no, it's just part of the process. It's part of the work that I'm doing in you. But as you look to eternity, you can rest and trust that God is good. The psalmist closes kind of with a summary in verse 27 and 28. Here's what he says.

For indeed, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who desert you for harlotry, but it is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare all your works. He wraps it up saying, okay, now I get a better understanding. Those who are far from you, they're going to perish. Those who've deserted you to pursue other gods, they're

I may look at this slice in their life and think, wow, they're doing awesome and everything's easy for them and they don't have any pain, but they're going to be destroyed. That's the end result of wickedness. The wages of sin is death. That's still true. And so now he has some perspective. He's focused on eternity. He understands, oh, that's the end result. And as for himself, he says, it is good for me to draw near to God. I was right on the edge. I wasn't sure I was going to continue to walk with God. I was about to slip, but

But now, okay, I understand better. I come to the conclusion, no, it's good for me to draw near to God. I need to draw near to God. I've decided, he says, to put my trust in the Lord God. That's faith. I'm going to believe you, God, at your word. I'm going to trust you, and I'm going to declare all your works. An eternal perspective is what you need. It's what I need. It gives us understanding.

It brings all these things in so that we understand the realities that God has declared. If we try to evaluate this life only, well, that's what tests our faith. It's our sight. What we can see, what we can perceive, it mocks our faith. But when we take eternity into consideration, we begin to realize we can trust God. It's good to draw near to God. Faith is focused on eternity.

Let me share this one last thought from Warren Wiersbe. He says, we are not philosophers living on man's explanations. We are pilgrims living on God's promises and his promises never fail. We're not philosophers. You can take that kind of approach to life and try to come up with explanations for all the weirdness that you see and why is wickedness happening and being successful. And you can try to come up and you know, some people do come up with

explanations that sound pretty good. But we're not philosophers. We're not relying upon man's explanations. He says we're pilgrims. We're just passing through. We're headed towards eternity. And so we are living on God's promises. We're trusting in God's word. We will have lapses of faith. You will experience a crisis of faith. It's going to be tested by what you see and mocked by what you see. But don't let it push you away from God. Instead,

Come to worship God and your faith is restored as you focus on God. And as he begins to widen your perspective so that you consider all of eternity, your faith is reestablished and you begin to better understand who God is and what his plans are. This morning, we're going to close the service with a time of communion. And it's a good opportunity for us to really put into practice these things that we're talking about.

Perhaps you are in a crisis of faith, or maybe you have been, even if you're not. You know what it's like. And what we need is to worship God. What we need is to remember the perspective, remember the plan of God. And the core of that plan is Jesus Christ, who died upon the cross for us, who then resurrected so that we can have the hope and the promise of everlasting life. But first he died upon the cross to deal with our sinful condition. And he says, you need to remember this.

And so he gave us the bread. He said, this is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. He gave us the cup. And he said, this is my blood which is shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Remember these things. Remember what I've done for you. It's my demonstration of love. It's how you can know and be reminded that I love you. I want what's best for you. And I'm willing to give it all to the death so that you can have everlasting life. There's great reason for us to trust God. It's good for you to draw near to God.

And so let's take the time as we close out the service in worship and communion, let's take this time to worship God, to focus ourselves once again, to trust him and recenter our lives based on what he says and not based on what we see. As they lead us in worship, the ushers are gonna pass out the bread and the cup and at any time during the worship, you go ahead and partake just between you and the Lord as you are reestablished in your faith, strengthened in your faith.

worshiping God and focused on the eternity that Jesus Christ died to provide for you. Let's worship the Lord together.