TEXT: PSALM 73
LISTENING TO THE TEXT
In
Psalm 73 we hear the writer struggling with this question: "Does it really
do any good to serve God?" Why does it seem as though those who thumb
their noses at God get on just fine, while those who try to serve God
suffer?
The
psalmist is not calmly discussing the problem of evil in the world. He
is personally sharing his journey 
at
a time when it appears that his
confidence in God was threatened. If God is fair, if He is a God of righteousness
and justice, and if He is really all-powerful, loving, and good, then how
is it that the problems the psalmist articulates can exist?
ENGAGING
THE TEXT
The Need
Everyone has faced these questions to some degree at some point in life.
It really doesn't matter whether the circumstance is illness or a lost
job or being treated unfairly at school. The questions that hit us hard
in those moments are not so much questions of belief in God, rather they
are questions of how this relationship really works. They are questions
like, Do I belong to God? Do I matter to Him? Does God answer my obedience
and trust with His protection and care? Does it really matter at all when
I pray?
God's Answer
The place where the writer gains a new perspective on these oppressive
questions is in worship. While in worship he sees from God's perspective
that the wicked are on a slippery slope (v. 18). It might seem like they've
got it by the tail now, but their fortune is a fool's paradise.
The understanding the psalmist gained was really fairly simple. Life is not fair, but God is. We dare not get the two confused. We tend to become very narrow-minded when life gets focused on our particular brand of fairness or goodness. In worship, however, we begin to see that there is more to life than immediate fairness. There's more than comfort, wealth, or happiness.
There are actually three profound promises that the writer gets a hold on that begin to bring equilibrium to his life. These are really three confessions of faith:
First, there is the promise of God's presence. "Yet I am always with you; you hold me in your right hand. You guide me with your counsel" (vv. 23, 24).
Second, there is the promise of future glory. "And afterward you will take me into glory" (v. 24).
And third, there is a contentment in whom God is and what He provides. "Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (vv. 25, 26).
Our Response
These are not "clever" answers to the questions raised, but they are genuine
confessions of faith. If the answer to these dilemmas is sought in the
world, the conclusion is "life is not fair so God must not be fair." But
if the answer is sought in the worship of God, then the conclusion is
"God is faithful and there is coming a day when all the unfairness of
life will be set right."
The real issue is, which way will we choose to see things? Which "reality" will we believe? Will I allow God to be defined by the world and by my life, or will I allow the world and my life to be defined by the revelation of who God is?
PREACHING THE TEXT
The psalmist does not move too quickly to embrace answers to his deep
questions. Neither should the preacher. We need to be careful to allow
this psalm to refunction in the lives of our people as it functioned in
the worship of Israel. Don't be afraid to let the questions linger and
go deep into the hearts of your people. They need to feel the tension
of believing in God yet not always being able to name God's action in
their experience.
The congregation needs to remember how keenly tuned we are these days to issues of fairness. Children have a highly developed sense of fairness (at least defined in their own terms). Adults are not very different. There may be several people listening to us on Sunday who are thinking something like "I believed in God once, but after so many disappointments there is just no way I can believe in a God who knows me and wants the best for me."
Once the process of the psalmist is unfolded, moving from the dilemma through worship to his confessions of faith, there is one more turn the gospel preacher needs to make. If we are going to proclaim a God who is ultimately fair in the face of a world that is not, we find our best footing in the proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Cross reveals what kind of world we have and what kind of God we have. The world is unfair. Life is unfair. But in the midst of it all we have a God of sacrificial love and of resurrection power. The psalmist finds his "answer" in the character of God. And so do we, as that character is given definition by Jesus.
