The human anatomy is obviously complex and diverse. That is our physical, our human structure, it's a complicated thing and there's a lot to it. And naturally, we tend to spend most of our time, we pay most attention to those parts of our anatomy that can be seen. That is our appearance, how much we weigh, our hair, our complexion, the things that people can see. Well, it's a bit natural, isn't it? That though this thing is, there's a lot to it, that which we spend most of our time is devoted to those things that we can see that are noticed by others. Of course, it's just common wisdom that there's much more to our anatomy than that, and we ignore those hidden things to our peril. We need to go to the doctor, take care of ourselves, sometimes have tests made because if we just concentrate on the things that people can see, we are very, very foolish people. The anatomy of the human soul likewise is complex and diverse. It's everything, it's our soul, everything that we are, the things that we love, the things that we fear. that which we set our heart upon, those people that we will spend time with, the things that we are attracted to, the things, what our ambitions are, all that's lurking in our hearts. There's a lot to it. Likewise, we tend at times to devote an inordinate amount of attention to those parts of the human soul, so to speak, which people can see. That is the parts of our personality, of the way perhaps that we might outwardly show concern for others, that with which can be seen and measured and noticed by other people. But like our physical anatomy, we ignore the hidden parts of our soul to our great peril. The 73rd Psalm, which we'll be looking at this morning, is a psalm which in full measure describes a part of that human anatomy which is part of normal Christian experience, but it's generally a hidden part. It's not the part that we show off to others. It's a part that we even deny at times to ourselves, but likewise to our great peril. Of course, it is the part of our anatomy which can be described as doubt. of frankly disbelieving the goodness of God, of looking at the world and seeing what appears to be dramatic, breathtaking inconsistencies, and wondering, is this all worth it? Is it worth being a Christian? Is it worth believing in God? It is being confronted with challenges to our faith, intellectual challenges, perhaps, ethical challenges, and just thinking, this doesn't make any sense to me. But for most of us, this remains part of the hidden part of the anatomy of our soul. In the 73rd Psalm, we see how the psalmist approaches this subject full on, head on, deconstructing what doubt is and giving to us a window in the way forward how we approach What again is described, not just here, but elsewhere, as a normal part of Christian experience. What do you do? How do we get beyond our doubt? What do we do with it? What are we supposed to think about it? And what is the way forward? First, we see in the psalm, we need to deconstruct our doubt in a few particular kinds of ways. Right off the bat, in the very first verse of the psalm, it's described as a psalm of Asaph. which commentators, scholars quickly point out, is significant. You see, here is someone who's going to describe his own inner turmoil with doubt, and yet clearly is someone who we can infer is a leader among God's people. We can rightly assume a mature believer, someone who's in a leadership position, yet we see this as part of the anatomy of his soul. He looks and he sees, his foot almost slips, he sees the arrogant and he wonders about the justice and the worth of following God. It was Calvin himself who said, the Psalms are the anatomy of all parts of the human soul. Nothing is ignored in it. And so we take from this that as a man like this struggles and wrestles with his faith, the apparent inconsistencies of the world around him, when we face those ourselves, we simply don't panic. We don't panic. In Mark chapter nine, there is the father of the demon possessed boy who desperately wants his son to be healed and ask Jesus, will you heal? Are you willing to heal him? Jesus, of course, says with God, all things are possible. Do you believe? to which the boy's father says, I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief. It was Calvin himself who said that is the mirror for every Christian. We all see ourselves touched by a measure of unbelief, of doubt. What do we do with this? Well, we see from the Psalm 2 that doubt at the end of the day is a heart issue. It's a heart issue. Look again at verse one. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But now it draws a contrast. Verse two, but as for me, my feet had almost slipped. I nearly lost my foothold. He's going against gravity here. Here's the contrast. So he's going to describe his doubt and it's structured as a heart issue to the pure and hard God is this way. But for me, I'm not doing so well. I'm kind of wobbly here. I'm a little shaky. Why? For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. When he saw. See, when he saw, here, this is the key. As Lewis, C.S. Lewis, Eugene Peterson, many people point out, it's the vision thing. You see, we are told in the scriptures that we walk by faith, not by sight. So in some strange way, what's counterintuitive to faith, or the opposite of it, is not just reason, as the world sees it, but that he's got a vision thing going on. He sees something and he nearly stumbles. It goes to his heart. So his mind, he is convinced of the truth of God's goodness, of the worth of following God, yet he sees something quite different. What does he see? He sees injustice. The wicked, the violent, verse four, they have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man. They are not plagued by human ills. Verse six, therefore, pride is their necklace. They close themselves with violence. Then in verse 12, that is what the wicked are like, always carefree. They increase in wealth. And so. In the temple, among God's people, hearing God's word proclaimed, he understands that the wicked will be forsaken. He understands that the righteous will not be forsaken. It is good to follow God. He will bless those who follow him, yet He has this sight thing. He sees something quite different at work. And in verse 13, he expresses this doubt in unalloyed terms. Surely in vain I've kept my heart pure. In vain have I washed my hands in innocence. In that moment he says, this is not worth it. It's just too hard. I don't get it. I'm keeping my heart pure. I'm denying myself and yet, Those who don't love you, those who are wicked, those who are godless continue, it seems, to thrive. We live by faith, not by sight. What's the point here? The other day, I was in a discount store. and I found something I thought they'd stop making. It's one of those cheap transistor radios. I got one for Christmas when I was 10 years old. About this big, got like a two inch speaker. It's got those two kind of wheel switches. One that turns it on and one with an AM dial which you have to be very, very careful to get the station you want. Runs on a nine volt battery. Brought back a lot of memories. They were kind of cool when you were 10, but these days, it's kind of lacking in sound quality. I turned it on, and there was the Georgia Public Radio, and there was some, what I assumed to be some glorious classical music, but you know, it kind of lost the punch through that two-inch speaker. It was kind of tinny. There wasn't much to it. A little transistor radio. Well, not long ago, I was in a friend's house, and I walked into their family room, and I came face-to-face for the very first time with a large, widescreen, high-definition TV with theater surround sound. Oh, that was so cool. That was amazing. I'd never seen one really up close and personal. They had the TiVo. They had the digital cable. And it's not that guy thing to do the whole switch and do this. I was doing this on steroid and this was just so cool. The weather channel was compelling viewing. It was so sharp. It was just, it looked so clear. And there's a cold weather front coming from Canada. Oh my goodness, look at that. And there was this bass booster in it. And when you heard music, you could feel it. It was amazing. Well, Lewis, C.S. Lewis, draws this analogy. Others have teased this out. Very often, when we hear the truth, it's like a very thin sound. But when we see things in the world around us, it's like that visceral vision. Let me update it a little bit. I'm in my office. And I'm speaking to a student, a young woman, who's about to enter into a very destructive relationship with a young man, who's not a believer, who has bad personal habits, has got a history of abusive relationships. And I begin to speak the truth to her. I begin to exhort her from the scriptures. I begin to tell her about the danger, very obvious dangers. And she is hearing me, but what she hears is like that transistor radio, the two inch screen, the thin sound. When she meets up with her boyfriend and she sees his face, And she is enveloped by his hugs. And she hears his smooth words. And all those fears of never being married, of finally finding someone who will take care of me. It is like the comparison, there's no comparison. The truth becomes like the transistor radio. And what she sees, what she experiences, is like that widescreen, high-definition television with surround sound. It's visceral. Here he is. He's meeting this immediate need. And there's no comparison. This experience begins to will away at her faith. And the truth is drowned out by what she thinks she sees around her. A pastor in New York, Tim Keller, says this. Doubt comes when personal experience makes what the mind knows to be true seem unreal to the heart. Doubt comes when what you see, the widescreen TV, those around you, the messages the world sends, the seeming carelessness of the wicked, the indulgence of those whose money is God is money. is it makes what the mind knows to be true seem unreal to the hearts. We see this in a thousand different ways, don't we? We see it in the way with which that we run our businesses, the ethics that we need to maintain, how we run our families. I'm reading a book by John and Susan Yates called Character Matters, about the importance of developing character paramountly, as a paramount thing in our kids, they say this is one of the things that's a challenge is, a loud message screams to us that personal value is measured by success. Success in the classroom, on the athletic field, in the law firm, even socially. And so, as parents, we know, don't we? We know. We know that with our kids, That the significance is borne about by us being image bearers of God and having the gospel fully restore that image. That our children, the most important thing, is developing godly spiritual character. We know this. We read this. It's preached. We read books about it. And yet, we look up and we see. And the message we see all around us is that we prefer the beautiful people, the successful people, and we struggle with that and we doubt. And though we know better, we prefer the children who are good-looking and cute. We fear for our children because we believe they're not talented enough or socially skilled enough or they're socially awkward. It is, again, that the voice of truth being drowned out by the message that can be very visceral and very, very powerful. Yet we need to attend to the truth. The outcomes when this message, and there are all kinds of messages, makes what the mind knows to be true seem unreal to the heart. For Asaph, it was this question of injustice, seeing the wicked prospering all around him. And surely in vain, he says, I have believed, and yet we struggle. There are parents here who fear for their children because they don't think they're good-looking enough or talented enough. There are parents here who don't want to let go, who want to control their children so they will succeed. Rather than seeing it as being paramount, it is developing godly character. We can extend this to any kind of issue, but what do we do about it? It is one thing for the psalmist to describe his wrestling with the gospel. Well, how does he handle it? Well, he does not leave us dangling here. The 73rd Psalm is really, in many ways, is almost a primer, a textbook, a manual almost, a way ahead in how we deal with our doubt. I'll have to pause here in terms of applying this and how I've understood this to make this statement. I have not had an original thought in 40 years. I'm not gonna start now, okay? In terms of my understanding of this passage's application, I'm standing on the shoulders of men better and wiser than myself. Men like C.S. Lewis, Eugene Peterson, Dick Lucas, and Tim Keller. So you're gonna hear echoes of all kinds of people, how I understand this and apply this. The psalmist here, For one thing, the way ahead for us is this, is that we expose what our doubt is really about. Look at verse three. Here's a key. Verse three, we read this, for I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. This is extremely important. His doubt is not objective. It's not a cool observation of the facts. Oh, look. Wicked, prospering, the godly not. Hmm. It's not a formula. He envies the arrogant. He is jealous. He wants this. So the way that he's observing the facts is not unbiased. He's not being objective. He wants the comfort of life. He wants the ease of life. He wants their toys. And so for us, we need to recognize that our doubts are rarely rooted in objective reason, but are swimming in personal motives, things that we truly desire, that we know are contrary to the will and desire of God. And so we ought to lay bare those motives as Asaph does. His doubt issue begins with his envy, his jealousy. The next thing is we consider the alternative. What is the alternative? What is it? On the one hand, Asaph's foot is slipping a bit. My foot is slipping. But look at verse 18 about the arrogant. Surely you place them on slippery ground. You cast them down to ruin. We consider the alternative. Let's back up a little bit here. This extends not to their eternal destiny, but even in terms of the consistency of where they are even right now. It's like this. I mean, over the years, working mostly, almost entirely in secular universities, time and time again, I've heard students who are troubled by things their professors say in class. Well, Tom, my philosophy professor said this, or my history professor said this about Christians. And they will rarely put those questions under the same scrutiny they're putting their faith. And so the psalm is inviting us to take your doubt, take your struggles, and apply the same rigorous scrutiny to them as you are to your faith. It's amazing. People say to me, well, my teacher said this about Christianity, and that's the end of it. Like he's speaking ex cathedra, like he's the final authority. Well, let's examine this person's position. What is he trying to predict? What authority does he have even to say, does he have his facts right? A classic example is the much ado about nothing with the Da Vinci Code. When it was a book kind of flying under the radar screen, I had all kinds of students read the book and they're having, going through this storm and stress of their faith. Could this be right? Well, it became this Hollywood movie. Everyone had to pay attention. And when you put this thing under any kind of scrutiny at all, it was ridiculous. It was a joke. You couldn't take it seriously. And yet for a few years, when it was not such a huge cultural phenomenon, people would read this, well, Dan Brown says this. The Bible was put together. Like that was the final authority. Put it under the same scrutiny you put your faith. And consider the alternative. You see, to embrace Christ takes faith. But rejecting Christ takes faith as well. Everybody's got their faith system. And as an aside, those that embrace atheism or even agnosticism, for example, we have Asaph's problem with injustice. If you don't believe in God or have any question whether He exists, you have no place for moral outrage at all. If you don't believe in God or really seriously question whether He exists, you're just a social Darwinian. There's no reason, so why should we be upset that there are despots in this world? Why should we be upset that greedy people will often succeed? There's no room for outrage. And so, we examine our doubts with the same kind of rigor that we presently do with your faith. We also see the significance of worship and fellowship. Verse 17, he was like a brute, went until I entered the sanctuary of God, then I understood their destiny. His refuge was the sanctuary of God. The sanctuary is where he would pray, where they would sing, he would approach God. He would listen to God with others in community together. You see, dealing with our doubt is not merely an intellectual exercise. Here we see the importance of worship and genuine community as the way to approach and to deal with our doubt. In worship, we are reordered. All parts of our emotional, intellectual anatomy are reordered. The intensity of our awareness and appreciation for God is nurtured as we worship together, as we sing God's praise, as the Word of God is taught, as we rub shoulders with other Christians, as we see the sacraments as emblems of the grace of God. We are reordered. We are reminded. It heightens again. The community experience heightens our awareness and appreciation for things, just the way we are. That's why people join book clubs. Book clubs are popular because you read a book and you might enjoy it, but how much more do you appreciate it when you talk about it? Remember this, the community experience, when you watch a game with people and you join in the experience, the community heightens the awareness, the experience. How much more, how much more? when we together, our awareness of the grace of God, our experience of God is heightened by our community together in worship. But of course, this needs to extend beyond the formal hour of worship. We are told this. God tells his people in the Old Testament, fix these words of mine in your heart and tie them as symbols on your hands, bind them on your foreheads, teach them to your children, talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. Write them on the door frames of your house and on your gates. The idea, how do we deal with our doubt? We deal with our doubt because as people together, we share in that experience and we share in that struggle and here is our problem. Our problem is, in our tradition, I must pick on IPC here, but we're part of the problem here. Part of our problem is, is our tradition, we often have this almost stoic reluctance to talk about the reality of God outside the hour of worship. We're very uncomfortable with it. Now, I know we don't want to be like those churches over there and that church over there. They're always talking about God. You know as well as I do, if you know me at all, there is scarcely a man in all of Christendom who dislikes Christian sentimentalism more than I do. I understand that. I know that. But there is something wrong when there is this almost embarrassment to talk about the grace and mercy of God in very natural ways. with those outside of our worship service. You see, the way of dealing with doubt is that our awareness of the reality of God's grace is heightened. The comfort of others is given to us when we are prepared in worship, which extends beyond this hour, to talk to each other about the grace of God. And so it's a challenge for us, isn't it? in natural ways, to be people who are comfortable with sharing our personal struggles, that our children know that we do struggle with certain things, and that we speak about the mercy and the grace of Christ in natural ways, even outside this hour of worship. And finally, we see here, we draw near and experience the personal care and hope of God. Look at verses 22 to 24. I was senseless and ignorant, excuse me, 23 and 24. Yet I am always with you. You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel and afterwards you will take me into glory. This is almost the psalmist way of saying this. You asked me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart. At the end of the day, as he faces his doubts, As he exposes them, as he sees the need to be with God's people in worship, he says, I know you're with me and you lead me by the hand. That is a simple, childlike affirmation of faith. It is the Jesus loves me, this I know of the Psalms. That's not all that there is. There's other things, but he has, as the Puritans would say, a deep sense of experimental religion. He senses emotionally, viscerally, that I know God's with me. He leads me by the hand. I'm confident that I've got a future with him. And so this is the way, listen carefully, as we understand that doubt is part of normal Christian experience, as we intentionally expose those doubts, we put them under scrutiny, we see they're often rooted in bias, in our emotional bias. as we consider the alternatives, as we gather in worship, as we talk naturally to each other about the reality of the gospel, as we develop a real experimental kinship with God, to simply say, I know Jesus loves me. I know he's got me by the hand. This is where the transistor radio and the widescreen high-definition TV, they kind of come together here. They kind of come together here. You see, it's in the reality of real fellowship. of worship in spirit and in truth, of struggling together with our doubts, of sharing our joys with each other, of developing that personal kinship with God, that the reality, the truth of God becomes high definition. It becomes clear. It becomes more and more compelling even to us. And so, we don't deny our doubts. We don't ignore them. We expose them. We fly to the grace of God. We do it together in worship, and we do it together as a people called by his name, that we might say, but as for me, it is good to be near God. We've made the sovereign God our refuge. We will tell of all his deeds as we pray together. Lord, help us now to be people who are full of faith, people who are convinced that you have us by the hand, that you are good to us, and help us see that there are loud, powerful messages all around us that would, as it were, draw us away from that truth. Let that truth not be a thin sound. But as we commune with you with each other, as your Holy Spirit works in us, that it might continue to be that loud, powerful truth drawing us to the hope that is ever before us. Praying all this in Jesus' name, amen.