Turn to God's Word, Psalm 73. This is Book 3 of the Psalter. And the title this morning is God's Nearness is Your Good. There are several themes in this psalm, several truths in this psalm that we could give this sermon various topics. But as I see it, the ultimate, I think, faithful approach is to emphasize what the psalmist is doing here, what he is stressing as God encouraged and inspired him to pen these words of total transparency. And it is bracketed with the first verse and the 28th verse. Truly, God is good to Israel. And then at the end, but for me it is good to be near God. Or the nearness of God is my good, is another translation. Which I take that those variants and changes in translation doesn't alter the effect, but it does emphasize when God's nearness is your good, that it's not you being near to God, but God is near to you. But what happens in this Psalter is, The psalmist makes this confident assertion, but then he looks at the world around him, and he thinks there's a problem. He thinks that there's a problem in that I am pursuing righteousness, but life is hard for me. The unbeliever is pursuing recklessness, and life appears to be easy for them. But what is God doing in this psalter? This is not just a man bearing his struggle. This is how God sanctifies his people. This is a revelation of not only God's goodness, but what God does to root out the sins that will compromise your confidence in his goodness. In this psalm, The issue was not the success of the unbeliever. The issue was this hidden sin in Asaph's heart. So here you have Asaph who was one of the leading worshipers and the leaders in temple or tabernacle in temple worship. He was one of the psalmist's David's right hand men. So he was a key leader. He would arrange the songs, but as you find here, he also wrote the songs in which some of these, if not most of them were penned into a song. So here's a man who was testifying of God's goodness, of God's faithfulness, failing to realize that this sin remains hidden under the layers of corporate worship, under the layers of corporate service. I serve every week. I'm faithful. I attend the rehearsals. I attend the practices. Every time the doors are open, I am here. I'm worshiping God. And God says, well, now, let me open your eyes to a reality ASAP. Take a look at this. God is testing him. to purify him, the testing of your faith. It is a good thing, Peter says. It is precious. And it results in the praise and the glory of God. And that is exactly what the psalmist will do at the end. But I want you to think about this as we read this psalm, that God is revealing a few important truths. to Asaph, and one of them is, Asaph, it's not that the world is successful and you're struggling. He said, Asaph, you are a deeply covetous man. And so his faith is on trial, you can say. And God graciously reveals a core problem, that it is not what the world has materially, it is that you are not satisfied with me. And the reason you're not totally convinced that I am good and it is good that God is near to me and I need nothing else is because you are a covetous worshiper. What this covetousness led to, this craving for what was not his, that rightfully belonged to others, he became envious of the wicked. But one lesson that we can draw from this, and I think that is the lesson I want to drive home, is that God's presence leads his people to a place of satisfaction. God's presence leads his people to a place of satisfaction, but along that road to satisfaction, to contentment, is dealing with not what you see in the world, but what God sees in you. Psalm 73, a Psalm of Asaph. Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death. Their bodies are fat and sleek. They're not in trouble as others are. They're not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore, pride is their necklace. Violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness. Their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice. Loftily, they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues stretch to the earth. But therefore his people turn back to them and find no fault in them. And they say, how can God know? Is their knowledge in the most high? Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease. They increase with riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said I will speak, thus I would have betrayed the generation of your children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until. I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I discerned their end. Truly, you set them in simply places. You make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors, like a dream when one awakes. O Yahweh, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in the heart, I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast towards you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel. And afterward, you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? There is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who was unfaithful to you, but for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works. His nearness, beloved, is your good. But in this interaction, as I said, verses 1 and 28, that is the theme, that is the thrust, that is the objective of this psalm, is to argue of God's goodness in the midst of this sin around us, but more so the sin in our hearts, which this struggler revealed. So number one, God reveals the sins that cause us to stumble. God reveals the sins that cause us to stumble. When you look at this, especially beginning with verse 2 and ends in verse 12, the psalmist says in verse 2, but as for me, This is a wrong interpretation of the world because he looked at it from a natural point of view. Because in verse 3, he said, I saw. This is a natural observation. This is an observation without doctrine, an observation without theology, an observation apart from the Word of God. So it's a skewed observation. There are some realities to what is happening, but that reality is not grounded in the ultimate authority of God and the will of God. So, the world is in trouble, but Asaph has an issue. It is an issue of the heart. Because at the end of this psalm, it is very similar to what you find in verse 2 and verse 28, but for me, but as for me, there's a change of direction, there's a change of focus, and it is God. It is God. But he said, for him, as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped, He said, I was envious. The Hebrew root word for this word envy, envious, has to do with a red face. He was deeply envious. Envy gripped his heart, and envy is the result of covetousness. He coveted what he saw, he desired what he saw, and then it led to envy. He says, I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Once more, the Hebrew word here is actually for the word peace or shalom. He said, I saw the shalom of the wicked. But shalom, God's blessing of peace, the peace of God to the people of God did not belong to the wicked. The scripture does remind us that God's mercy is on all his creation. Jesus said in Matthew that God reigns in the just and the unjust, but shalom for the wicked. So the psalmist was distorted in his view because he was looking from the natural instead of viewing everything from the scripture, the supernatural. It was all on a level plane. I want what they have. This revealed a desire for what God would not give him. And ultimately, we know this is true, right? That whenever you covet, Whenever you desire what belongs to another, it is ultimately your offense is against God. You are not pleased with his way of provision. So these sins of the heart, although they are invisible in some ways until you confess it, has to do with your sinful disposition toward God's provision. So this is not just stumbling, this is a struggle in embracing day by day, and God give us this day our daily bread and what we do not have for today. In our minds, you've given us what is sufficient for today and we will trust in you. That is not what Asaph is thinking. He is envious. And this craving is deep. It is deeply rooted and embedded in his heart. You may have had this experience from time to time, desiring something that doesn't belong to you or it is not yours. And we know that when it comes to the media and commercials, they are actually encouraging envy. They will show you a furniture that you don't have. They will show you a shape that you cannot get. They want you to be filled. This world is filled with envious information. They want you to crave and covet and desire because every time you look in your living room, every time you look in the mirror, you said, God, something is wrong with me. Asaph is saying that. He's saying, God, something is wrong. It's not me. And it's interesting how he paints the wicked, right? How he paints the world around him. It's so sinful. It's clear. He's articulating just how wicked the world is. And then when God opens his eyes, he realizes how wicked his envy was later in this psalm. He says, they have no pangs until death. Their bodies are fat and sweet. In verse four, This is his impression, once again, it's not an accurate impression because not everyone dies in a fearless manner. Many unbelievers die in great fear and terror. Someone said it's fearful to know that the way of death for most people is a fixation, is a loss of oxygen. Can you imagine? You have 30 seconds left, and you're about to meet God in judgment, and you have 30 seconds of air and oxygen left. It doesn't matter how much you draw from the air around you. It doesn't matter how much you inhale. You have 30 seconds. You will die. What? How humbling is that? The psalmist says, it seems to me that You should really feel the pain of imminent death if you're living without God. If you're living a life that is lacking trust and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that at some point in time you will have 30 seconds to breathe and that's it, you are no more. Or you could drive down the highway Enjoying life you're on your way to the beach And things are going well But not so well with the other driver Instantly you're gone the psalmist is wondering why Is there a lack of severity when it comes to life and death on the part of the unbeliever? Should there not be a sense of urgency with how they live? Should there not be an awakening every day you wake up to know that the next moment you will wake up on the other side of this life and stand before just judge? He's like, they seem to not even care. He says at the end of verse four, their bodies are fat. and sleek, which means they're doing really good. They can afford all the dreamery and the creamery for the face. They're impressive in their appearance. They're decked in their apparel. They're not sick like everyone else. Once more, this observation is not totally accurate, but there's a sense of truth to that. It seems as if they have no problems at all, like everyone else. And then pride, in verse 6, is their necklace. Whenever something is put on the neck like a necklace, it would be a symbol of respect. As Pharaoh put a necklace on Joseph's neck, a symbol of dignity, as one commentator noted, it is a symbol of honor. Their honor is to be publicly and openly arrogant about their life. Let's just say this, dear saints. Arrogant people, pride-filled people, who trust in their riches and trust in their wealth are not trusting in God. The psalmist says, someone wearing apparel, their garment is violence. Whether it be physical violence or verbal attacks, it doesn't matter. The way to success for them is by any means necessary. Their eyes swell out through fatness. Their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and verse aid and speak with malice. Loftily, they threaten opposition. So if you oppose them, they will attack you. They speak with bitterness. There's no love. They're mockers, like Psalm 1 says. So they not only mock wise counsel, but they mock godly counsel. In verse 9, they set their mouths against the heavens and their tongues stretched through the earth. This is the unbelieving world. Those who oppose God. The psalmist says it just seems like all of them who are successful have the same philosophy. Instead of loving God and loving their neighbor, they hate God and hate their neighbor. They love themselves, love their riches, love their success, and they can care less how it affects you. Of course, they would say, how can God know? Is their knowledge in the most high? So once again, I am doing this, I am living this way. You're saying that the way of the ungodly shall perish ASAP. ASAP, let me remind you of Psalm chapter one. The Lord, Yahweh, knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. And they say, I'm still here. Where is this promise that God assures you of and assures me of? I'm still here. I'm doing this wrong illegally. I'm cheating. I'm lying. I'm stealing. I'm rich. God hasn't done anything. It reminds me of a story of one lady who grew to some popularity because she had the ability to quote mock God. And she said, well, see, God doesn't exist. And so she dared him, and she said, God, if you exist, I want you to kill me. Prove that you're real by killing me. And she did this three or four times, and she says, you see, look, he's not real. He didn't kill me. Well, if God killed her, who's sovereign? She is. Another reality is that they failed to recognize that this is God's long suffering, the slander, The abuse, the criticism, the cynicism, the attacks against the character of God, against Christianity, those who worship God. We're here in the Lord's day and it looks like folly to the world. Every day is a day of entertainment for them. From one event to the next, they're busy with life, busy dying, but not busy living. We look like the fools. It's a waste of time. How can God know? Is He all-knowing? I mean, should He not do something? So the psalmist says, behold, check this out. Once again, he's emphatic. He's wrong on some levels, but right on others. He's not seeing that the struggle is in his own heart. This envy is so wrong. He's spending all of this time addressing the world in self-righteous hypocrisy without realizing that he has a problem. Instead of living in the tension of the here and now, looking forward to the future, He wants the tension gone because he says that the wicked are always at ease, they increase in riches. So Asaph's issue had to do with money. Asaph struggled with not money, but the love of money. We always have to be very clear when we say this. Money. is not the root of all kinds of evil. Money, when it is used well, stewarded well, is useful. I didn't say it's good, it's useful. The issue is the love of money, this craving for more. You have enough, but you want more. You're sufficiently supplied, but you want more. And the covetousness is this burning desire for what belongs to another. And once more, I put this to the definition that God, yes, in your eyes is wrong for not giving it to you. What a sin. But we all wrestle. with covetousness to some extent. Wanting something better but don't need it, desiring it. There's nothing wrong with wanting certain things or desiring them, but it is a sinful desire. This craving is what James says in James 4. It becomes a conflict. Like desiring something from someone else, desiring that your employer treats you well and with respect is a good thing. But when it becomes a craving and you speak sinfully against him or her, and you attack them with slanderous words, and you have nothing but evil things to say about them, then you are in sin. And now this craving has become a sinful craving. Desiring the spouse. To do things well or do things in a way that is helpful or useful in the home is a good thing. But it is covetous when you slander and attack and criticize and marginalize her effort or his effort, her zeal or his zeal. You crave it so much that you will press upon them with hyperboles. The psalmist has elements of truth, but there are too many hyperboles. He's stretching the point to justify his envy. This is a revelation of the heart. It's a revelation of our cravings that God in those moments is just not enough. He's just not. I've got to have this with him. If I don't have this with him, he will hear from me. I will let him know of my discontent, my lack of satisfaction. I have no pleasure in worshiping him or adoring him until I get this. And that's exactly what you find in this song. Verses 13 through 15. God revealed Asaph's motivation for serving him. And that is exactly what you find when God opens your eyes to your sin and your worship becomes a conditional effort. He's revealing your motivation for serving. Asap said, in verse 13, all in vain, I've kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence for all day long. I've been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said, I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. This is an incredible indictment in his own heart. What is he saying? He said, God, all the time I worshiped, All the time I attended, all the time I gave, every time I served, when I said you are good and I worshiped you, when I greeted all the saints with a holy greeting, when I commended the saints and the love of God to the Lord Jesus Christ, I did all of that. He said it was absolutely useless. Why? It didn't satisfy my cravings. This desire for worship was for a season rooted in envy and craving for material things. It was rooted in, I'm going to do this so I can get that. I'm going to give this so I can get that. Now what happens when someone does this and they're not in the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, they're just unbelieving word of faith thinkers. Name it, claim it. I put the $20 in and I expect my 104 harvest. Asaph is saying that that doesn't work. When you give and you get nothing in return, it's for a reason. It is so that no man may boast. It's also that God vets your motivation. Why do you do what you do? That's all of life. Don't leave the Lord's Day worship and say, well, this sermon was just confined to the Lord's Day. Why do I worship? No, no, no, your life is a worship. What do you do when you punch in on Monday? What happens when you clock out and go home? Is your motivation for God? The psalmist says, and he uses the word vanity, it means that it was empty. That's heavy stuff. Can you imagine writing that to God? No, no, no. God is saying, Asaph, I want you to write this. This is God encouraging and inspiring the psalmist to write this. The vanity is emptiness, means it was useless. It was all for nothing. He said, in all of this worship, it's like what Ecclesiastes said, I was chasing the wind. Why was he chasing the wind? Because he didn't get what he wanted. He got more of God, but that's not what he wanted. He wanted God plus something else. And you would say, well, in the covenant, God promises to bless his people. Yes, Asaph was blessed. When you think about verse 26, when he says, my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever, you remember that he's a Levite. The Levite had all of the blessings. They had the blessing of blessings. You know why? God says that I am their portion. That's incredible. God says, I am your portion. He goes back to that. But until then, there's this struggle that God being his portion, it's just not enough. And this is revealing a motivation, and he's saying, yeah, ultimately, my motivation was I didn't get what I wanted out of worship. And how many of us have made worship a matter of what it does for us? How many people are looking for a place of worship that fits their preference? Their style that's, once again, dear saints, is rooted in a motivation not for God. He says that all in vain, and he's saying it's all in vain. Every step I've taken, I've kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. And of course, when he says in verse one, truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart, and he says this in verse 13. The Israel he's referring to is not the nation of Israel, I would argue. He's referring especially to the believers. So you have the nation, of Israel, and God rules them, but then you have the elect believers within that nation, the believers speaking to the elect, the redeemed, because at the end of verse one, he says, to those who are pure in heart, which means they are devoted to God. Not every Israelite was devoted to God. They gave a lot of lip service. Their heart's far from him. So now he's saying that this aspect of keeping myself ritually clean, So that I maintain the fellowship with God, that process of committing to God, which would be for us in Christ, pursuing sanctification, he said, it's been a useless effort. Because he said in verse 14, for all the day long I've been stricken and rebuked every morning, which God rebuking is great. But he's like, I'm weary with it, I need a reward. That was an argument many years when people said, well, I don't go to this Bible teaching church because every time I go, I feel condemned. Our world today is like they're allergic to rebuke. It's like as soon as you rebuke them, they break out with like sinful hives. Don't correct them. Don't do that. This correction and God striking him, it had to do with his sin. But he didn't see that. It's just like, well, why am I going through this affliction? Why am I dealing with this? Because God said in Exodus 20 not to covet. Your neighbor's donkey, wife, male, female servant, and then he said, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. And Asaph buried that commandment under this craving, this insatiable hunger for more. So when he's stricken and rebuked, he's not getting it. It's not clear to him because he wants this thing so bad. that God's rebuke is offensive to him. It doesn't even make sense to him. That sin is rooted so deep in the heart that God's correction is like a foreign language. It has no merit to him right now. So I'm doing this, and God is useless because I'm not getting what I want. And he's seeing God's way of purifying him, refining him as an offense. And he's seeing God's means to mature him as useless. Motivation. So then what is your motivation for serving? What is your motivation for attending? What is your motivation for reading the scripture and pursuing Christ's likeness? Is it to gain more in this life? Or as Paul said, to gain Christ. That's the dilemma. And God does purify motives. And the reason for our worship, the reason for our service, the reason for our lives throughout the week, as he purifies us, will be satisfaction in God. That's it. But what does that look like? Well, Psalm 73 will be reduced to like five verses instead of 28. What does that mean for you? you will complain less and give thanks more. You remember that God is near, that Christ dwells in your heart by the Holy Spirit, that you have fellowship with Father, Son, and Spirit through the Lord Jesus Christ, then that is all the riches you need. And so your motivation for serving the Lord Jesus Christ will be rooted in the gospel only, plus nothing else. If it is the gospel message that God uses to save, then it should be the gospel message that is sufficient for you throughout life. But there's still some integrity in Asaph's heart. He said, if I had said, I will speak thus, what is he saying? If I rehearse verses two to 14 to the congregation, can you imagine someone who's bitter and we've seen this before? Several prominent men, especially who thought it was prudent to stand before the one that says, well, I deny the Lord Jesus Christ. Zero integrity. The reason why you deny Him, and you're doing it now, is because you were never of Him. You never stood for Him. The people who publicly refute Christ after publicly declaring Him, instead of drifting away and just disappearing in secret, they always wanted to be the center of attention. They wanted something from God He would not give them. So they have to find a reason, some excuse, some lousy, cheesy, ungodly excuse. But he said, if I had said I will speak thus, I have this struggle, I'm slipping, I am really having a hard time with this. And he's not talking about if I told him about my envy, he's not gonna do that till later. He said, if I told him the real issue, And the real issue I have is as I stand up one day, I just said, ladies and gentlemen, look, we've been gathering for a long time. You know, we've been preaching through the Psalm, and I just can't help but think about Psalm 1. I don't really see it happening. The ungodly continue to flourish, and I think time's up. God has betrayed us. He can't be trusted. He's not faithful. He's not good. He just can't be trusted. Asaph withheld. Why did he do so? Because Asaph, It's a believer. Only unbelievers attack the faith they once proclaimed. I think here's another encouraging reality is that even in our struggles with doubt, it is true in one sense that unbelievers don't really struggle with doubt, do they? If you're dead in sin, why would you struggle with the truth? There has to be some measure of life or some measure of faith to actually struggle with doubt. So this is a good battle because it not only assured him of God's goodness, it revealed in his heart the sin that prevents him from embracing God's goodness. All of a sudden, the people who were rich looked richer in his eyes. It's almost like if you Ever heard of the show Richie Rich? You have to be about 90 years old to watch it. I'm not quite 90, but you gotta be at least 90 to remember Richie Rich. You would think that every blonde person is rich. Well, that was my thought, and I looked in the mirror, and I'm not gonna make the cut. I'll never be rich. I'm not blonde, my hair's not yellow. My melanin is rich. It's just, it's too much to be rich. That's the natural perception. In other words, it was exaggerated. And he would have gone to the people with this exaggerated analysis because he's so bitter, he's bitter with envy. There's things, please, let me ask you. What are you envious of? What are you? What do you desire? Better grades, a better position, more accolades? What is it that you crave? where you're so distracted that you just cannot strip all of these things bare and say, I just love God. And even if I don't receive those things, I have everything in the Lord Jesus Christ. What are you envious of that you cannot say this with confidence? Because if you cannot say this with confidence, that the nearness of God is your good, it means that you do not need anything else. You need nothing to make things better. All is right in fear with Christ. So we've examined that God leads his people to a place of satisfaction in his presence by revealing the sins that cause us to stumble, by revealing our motivation for serving him, and then as we Look at the rest of this psalm, God graciously reveals his faithfulness. Because it says in verse 16, this verse is 16 through 28, but when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task. What are you trying to understand? I think if we look at this text, we're looking at it from the standpoint of how is it possible for the wicked to pursue wickedness, breathing God's air, using God's resources, not giving him thanks and keep doing the same thing every day with impunity, with no judgment. The psalmist says that if, when I thought how to understand, once again, this is trying to understand without God. Like in the earlier part in verse three, it's trying to see life without God. When you see life without God, it just, the chaos looks unbearably chaotic. There seems to be no order. There seems to be no structure without realizing that God's plan is right on schedule, that all of these events fits into his plan. You say, well, you see the wicked and they're doing their thing. Well, there's a judgment for them, Asaph, but here's something else Asaph needed to recognize. That Asaph, I want you to see the wicked, and I want you to react to the wicked. And then I'm going to show you what I already see in your heart, Asaph. That if you did not see the wicked doing what they did and analyze it, if I didn't bring you to that place in my providence to witness this, you'd have held to this covetousness and envy in your heart and said, I'm just this great religious guy. Oh, look at me, holier than thou. and you would have been an idolatrous man to the day of your death. That's my analysis. It's in the mercy of God. God is faithful to not only give him this bare bones view. Asaph, yes, I'm not gonna remove myself from this equation because you're covering up your sin with religious practices. I'm gonna remove that. You need to be alone for a minute. and see yourself for who you really are so that you will see me in the purest of light. This is faithfulness. This is a faithful God leaving the world as it is for now and testing your loyalty through it. Revealing your love through it, as if all was well and rosy, then you would not have known just how deeply rooted your corruption and your sin is. If everything worked out well, and everything, and the life was equally balanced out, and there was total equity, it would not have revealed until God said, you shall not covet. Why are we going to covet? Because you are most likely going to have less than someone else. Well, if you covet because you have less than someone else, you become very envious of them. You become bitter. And the psalmist says, I wasn't bitter. This is mercy. To let you see the tragedy happening in this world. And then when you see the tragedies, can you say, I know that God is working through this? Because there's never a moment He's not at work. then you can still say, even if you're in that calamity, that tornado, that earthquake, and if you're alive, you can still say, God is good. And when you die, you will say that God is good. But you can't with envy. You will not with covetousness. Because it is an idol manufacturing factory. It is built for idols. Covetousness is built for idols. Because you want everything that you do not have. Because you think God is wrong for not giving it to you. This is God's faithfulness. He graciously reveals His faithfulness because it is in the sanctuary of God. So you realize that God wanted him to learn a lesson. And notice at the end of verse 17, then I discerned their end. Hmm, so where does discernment come from? The sanctuary could be a place of worship, but it's also a place where they read the word of God. And it's not that Asaph didn't remember some of those truths, but he quit preaching those truths to himself. So he needed someone else to do it. And then when he heard the truth, His discernment kicked back in. This is a believer who was struggling, and now discernment. He says in verse 18, truly you set them in slippery places, you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors. Verse 20, like a dream when one awakes, oh Yahweh, when you arouse, when you arouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. This is not only a statement of truth, but it is also a necessary warning to the ungodly. That the continuing malicious, willful rebellion against God, who is just, if you do not turn from your sin, He will address it and He will do so finally. You say, well, you know. That's the Old Testament, God. No, it's the Bible is one book. It's really only divided because of the weakness of our flesh. And how many of you would like to sit down and read the entire Bible? Weakness of your flesh. It's not because it's long, it's we're weak. We need help. It's one book. So, in 2 Thessalonians, as an example, the apostle Paul is encouraging the saints who are going through some severe trials. And in the first letter, there were some questions concerning the coming of the Lord. He addressed that. He wanted the saints to encourage each other as they speak the truth concerning Christ's coming. In 2 Thessalonians, listen to The truth, this is a warning, but it's also, it's eminent. It's going to happen. Verse three, we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as it is right, or as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly in the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith. Listen, in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring, This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the lord jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels their saints this is a part of the gospel this is like an extended explanation of the gospel because a part of the gospel's message is the return of the lord jesus christ for his saints now So to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. there will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marbled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed so there's a joy The expectation of the future glory for the saints. There's the gloom, the doom, the torment, the eternal damnation away from God's glorious presence and to face his wrath for eternity in hell. This is a warning to the unbeliever to flee from the wrath, which is to come by turning to the Lord Jesus Christ and receiving this gift of salvation that he freely offered through his sacrifice on the cross Believe in yourself no more. Believe in your success no more. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. That's a good warning. That's a loving warning. So the psalmist is speaking of God's justice and exercising it. And so the wicked as they're hearing this, yes, it will be you if you don't believe. And God will surely punish your sin because he's just. But then the psalmist returns to the problem. He's realizing now what's going on. This discernment's kicking in. Verse 21, when my soul was embittered. Why was it embittered? Envy. Covetousness led to envy. This bitterness means that he was really sour within. He wasn't doing very well. Notice he says in verse 21 also, I was pricked in the heart. Much is said about the heart, which means that this oxy was a deep bitterness of the soul. This is not a superficial thing. You said I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast towards you. He's confessing his sin toward God. This is marvelous. He said, I was acting out of instinct instead of responding to the illumination of the scriptures. Of course, he didn't have the full canon of the scripture, but they had God's law. They had at least the first five books. They were writing the Psalms. So they had inspired truths, and he was able to know the character of God. But he said, when I got into myself and I thought about myself only, what I needed, dear saints, selfishness is one of the most evil compositions that you can nurture. you will not be satisfied with anything, and you will crave what is not yours. When he says I was like a beast, he's, I believe, saying that I was acting out of instinct but not responding from divine truths. It was instinctive, I was reactionary, but I wasn't discerning. I saw the world and I collapsed. If you are spending a lot of your time with unbelievers, this will affect you. So you and I must be careful. You work among them, you fellowship with them, all of a sudden their thoughts, their words, their language, their philosophy, it will get to you. And the unbelieving world has a philosophy of just naturalism. It's amazing that they've stooped down to levels of animal behavior and also thinking the reason why so much of what we're seeing morally is God turns us over and now we live beneath the image-bearing truths. So instead of us progressing, we're evolving like animals. Look, when they use those terms, evolving, it's more of an instinctive animal philosophy. It is a denial of God's wisdom to help us not to evolve, but to make progress and to be wise in life. Professing to be wise, they became fools. But the difference between Asaph and the unbeliever is verse 23. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. God was faithfully, graciously there, leading him through this, opening his eyes, chastising him, was always with him. And he says, you hold me, verse 23, verse 24, you guide me, and then you will receive me. Clearly, the end of verse 24 has to do with God taking him up to glory, because it is the same term that was used for Enoch, that God received Enoch, or took him. That's what's happening here. The psalmist, even though some would argue that they didn't believe in the afterlife and the future glory, it's a lie. This text, I believe, clearly asserts the reality that they did believe that God would receive them into glory. But until then, he says, you are always with me. The reason why I am continuing with you is because you're always with me. You hold my hand, you guide me with your counsel. So God teaches him, he informs him, and he's even teaching him through this experience that ASAP, when you see things from a natural point of view, it exposes the fact that you have this desire in your heart for material things, but you must have a hunger and a desire for me only. So now, what does he say? He's no longer envious. Verse 25, Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire, listen to this, and there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. Have you ever noticed that verse in the context of his other desires? He wanted everything the wicked had materially. He wanted the money, he wanted the riches, and what came with it, this confession is a total 180. This is what repentance looks like. There is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. That's it. Take the world. Give me Jesus. He's all I need. Okay? Now that's worth asking. Can you say that? Can you say, My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you have purchased me by your blood. You have rescued me. You are the sacrifice in my place. You're my salvation. You are the joy of my life. I want to know you more. And there's nothing on earth that I desire besides you. Okay. Maybe you're in this category and you say, well, I really can't say that right now. And the reason why As a believer, you cannot say that. It's because there is something so deeply embedded in your heart that you know you have to give up. Something you crave, you long for, you must have it. Well, let me tell you, if you're a Christian, Christ is coming for it. He's going to get it. He's going to remove it from you. It's going to be painful. Because you know, one of the blessings of God's surgery, there's no anesthesia. None. You'll be awake and aware of the gloriously painful process sometimes. But Christ, who is God in the flesh, will have no other gods beside him. And that's what's happening. The idol is gone. The idol has been dealt with. It's not that he won't deal with this issue before, but the substance of that desire is gone, and he can say, I have no other idols before me. You are enough, God. But then the confession is that my flesh and my heart may fail, which is true, and it is bound to fail. But the strength doesn't come from me. God is faithful. God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. And for behold, it says in verse 27, another warning, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. We just cannot skip these truths. You've got to tell the unbeliever, the unfaithful, the wayward, the straying, that there's a correction for God's people, but then there's a final destiny for those who reject the good news, reject the gospel, and God will punish them eternally. Turn from that. Don't believe it won't happen. It will. God's word is true. But as for me, God's nearness. It is good to be near God. God's nearness is my good. We have this great treasure of Christ. His name will be called what? Emmanuel. Which means God with us. Here it is. He tabernacles, not in the temple. He tabernacles with redeemed people still dealing with this body of sin. But He's just not with us. Those who are in Christ, He is in us, dwelling presently, gloriously, powerfully. So when you think about the distractions in life, those distractions will take you away from the glory of the presence of the Savior. But let me state this, dear saints, that God's presence leads His people to a place of satisfaction and satisfaction in Him alone. God, through this psalm, stripped the psalmist of his sinful desires to where he only has one desire. Desire is that all he needs in this life is God. That's it. You should ponder that today throughout the week to see whether or not It is true in your own life that there's nothing you desire besides Him. And in doing so, the psalmist says, I've made the Lord God my refuge, or Yahweh God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. I do want to maybe offer some other encouragements here, because I do believe I put it in the outline. And I want you to consider what God's nearness will help you to overcome. From this psalm, God's nearness will help you to overcome spiritual instability. That's what you find beginning with verse two of this text. God's nearness will help you to overcome covetousness, which leads to envy, which produces a bitter soul. And that bitter soul is that you're bitter toward who? If you're ever covetous and it turns to envy and you become bitter, who are you bitter toward? Who? It's God. It's God. It's not the neighbor. The neighbor doesn't have that authority or that power. Everything that they receive that is good comes from God. You're better with Him. This nearness of God will deal with that. It also will deal with regret. If you ever regret worshiping or attending a place of worship, draw nearer to God. Humble yourselves. Let Him exalt you. Don't exalt yourself. There should never be any regret with serving the Lord. Whether it is the Lord's Day or throughout the week, there should always be joy, but once more, those hard sins may say otherwise. And also to deal with a bitter soul, that you're bitter toward God because the circumstances are not the way it should be. God's nearness will help you overcome those things. Now, from this text, there's some keys to cultivating that nearness from this psalm. You may have recognized them. One of them is discernment. discerning whether or not this desire you have is cultivated by the Word of God or this desire, even if it's a good desire, have become evil. And now it is covetousness, and you will pursue it at all cost. The Word of God will help you to discern whether or not it's happening. And when it's happening, when you get to that point, it means that you are so distracted and fixated on it that you no longer focus on God and others, you focus on yourself. So it will always be the topic of conversation. It will be on your mind a lot. You'll try to find ways to get it to work out for you. Idiot discernment. Prayer is another key to cultivating nearness. And then in this text, corporate worship. We all have reached a point where we, you're exhausted throughout the week or you're struggling, you come to the place of worship and then you realize what the end is. and what God will do, and you find comfort. There's no avoiding of corporate worship. There's no skipping. There's no pick and choose. This is not should I attend a place of worship or should I do something else. It's to gather with God's people and to hear what God has to say. There is no substitute for corporate worship. There's no substitute for the preaching of God's Word. You can't make that up anywhere. Online sermons and messages praise God for supplements, but they are supplements. And last I check, you won't live long if all you take are supplements. The main course is corporate worship and hearing God speak. Pray with me, dear saints. Father, thank you for encouraging and inspiring these men to pen their struggles and to give us a glimpse into how you use these events in life to transform us. We're so blessed. Pray that you will seal these truths in our hearts so that we will consider Even in our own lives. Those sins that may cause us to stumble. And then what is our real motivation? Is it in vain or is it eternal? Knowing that our labor as a scriptures is not in vain when our labor is in the Lord, so we should be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. But then ultimately, God, you are just faithful and yes, you are good. You patiently compassionately, lovingly brought Asaph to a place of recognizing his folly, but also confessing his transgressions to you. What a merciful God. What a merciful God. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good, that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, God's people said. Amen.