Father, we thank you for pouring out your love on us. We thank you for the grace by which you would open our eyes to see your truth and to not only understand it intellectually, but to be able to embrace it and have your spirit impart it to our lives and change us through it. And we pray that you would do that now. In Jesus name, we ask it. Amen. When was the last time you compared yourself to someone else? probably don't have to think long at all about that. For most of us, it probably didn't happen too long ago that you compared, perhaps, appearance, job, situation, car, house, whatever it might be. This morning, you may have looked overlongingly at another family and thought, they just seem to have it so together. I wish we were at that place. Or you may have watched A couple interact, and you may have seen how kind and tender one was and thought, I wish my spouse were that way. I wish my situation were different and made that comparison. The gas pump, looking at the car across the way and saying, I wish I had one of those. The Facebook friend from high school who always seems to be going on beach vacations and posting photos. And you look and go, how does that happen? How do they do that? As much as we hate to admit it, we make comparisons often. And unfortunately, those comparisons often devolve into not just looking and checking what I have compared to what you have, but then starting to make judgments and maybe feel disappointment and think, how did Bill get that car? How did he get that job? Why not me? Why don't I seem to catch those same kind of breaks? Why does he seem to get them? It just doesn't seem fair, and we may even move that to the point of questioning and doubting God. Lord, I work hard. I play by the rules. I do my job. Why don't I ever seem to catch a break? You've probably been on that path a time or two, and so has the writer of Psalm 73. If you have your Bible, you can turn to the 73rd Psalm. The writer here, Hebrew pronunciation, probably Ossoff is probably how you would say it. We tend to say Asaph, and it's probably where I've always said it, and so I'll pronounce it that way. But Asaph is our writer here, and he's perhaps the same individual that we first see in Scripture in 1 Chronicles 6 as one of the Levites, one of those who served at the temple in Jerusalem, particularly in helping God's people in music worship, in leading in music. And that seems to be his function. He's attributed with 12 of the Psalms, including this one. And what we see in Psalm 73 is him working through this dilemma caused by comparisons. Ultimately, it's a lesson in dealing with perceived unfairness. When you begin to look around and you begin to make these judgments and measurements, And it doesn't seem to square up. How do I live in a world where it seems like those who are godless find success and wealth and power? What do we do with that? Psalm 73, verse 1, begins a psalm of Asaph. Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. Just stop there. God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. If you're a visual learner, picture Psalm 73 kind of like a letter V. We're starting at the top here. And the affirmation that he will make here at the beginning of the psalm of God's goodness, God's greatness, the thing that he knows about God beyond the shadow of a doubt, that God loves his people and cares for them, will be the point he returns to. But we're going to go into this valley first as he begins to explore looking around and looking at others and comparing them. And we will hit a point in this V where he will hit rock bottom. And he will begin to see how his own actions, his own thoughts, and the questions he's starting to voice are not only troubling to him, but could even be troubling to those around him. And we'll come to that. But let's read a longer section here. He starts with that affirmation, truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. Verse two. 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 are not in trouble as others are. They are 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 tongue struts through the earth. His people turn back to them and find no fault in them. And they say, how can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High? We'll stop there. Let's call this Asaph's confusion at this point because we've already seen he knows that God is good and that God shows favor, but now he's looking at the unbelieving world and his faith is genuinely shaken. These are serious questions that he's dealing with at this point because he is now looking at the well-being, the health, the prosperity, the arrogance, attitude of these people who have turned against God, and he's looking at them and saying, wait, this doesn't square. They act this way, they turn against God, and yet they seem to have, at least in earthly terms, blessings. So he's beginning to battle these doubts and this unbelief. It's important to see he understands the cause for this plight right away. He says, I know God is good. For me, I'm starting to slip. But then he says why in verse three, and he points it out. He says, for I was what? Envious or jealous, depending on what your translation says. So let's give credit to Asaph right off the bat. He understands what he's doing. What we're reading in these verses, this section that we've looked at, is not merely observations and descriptions that are significant, but it's truly jealousy. That word envy, that idea of jealousy, is not only is he looking at it and saying, this doesn't seem right, but he's looking at it wishing that he were in that position. That's what's confounding to him. It's not just that the wicked seem to be blessed, but that he doesn't seem to be, again, at least in earthly terms. And so he's angry, in a sense, and wants the roles reversed. He wants their good health. He wants for them to be judged. He wants the wealth and the prosperity. He wants for them to experience some of the troubles that he's had in life, and he wants to see them go through those. I think we can relate. We see some celebrity, some person in power who does something wrong, and they seem to get away with it. And we shake our heads and we wonder, how does that happen? They seem to, as verse 5 says, not to be stricken like the rest of mankind. They seem to operate on sort of a different plane. We do something and are immediately hit for it. They do it and somehow they seem to just move on from there. Or they've got enough money that it doesn't affect them in any way. Worse yet is the way he describes them in verse 6. It's the arrogance and the pride. They not only are uninterested in the Lord, and counting their wealth and looking at their wealth, but they're doing so in a prideful, selfish kind of way. This is about me. This is sort of, if you remember Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel, looking out and going, look what I've done. Look at this empire that belongs to me. And that's what Asaph is so troubled by here. Not only do they have all this stuff, and are they flaunting it, They don't even seem to recognize that there's a creator who gives them life and breath and talent and skill and all the things that they've used to attain that wealth. It's kind of like an episode of some Hollywood reality show or some celebrity gossip show where there's precious little humility, just people flaunting the so-called good life that they have. They eat well. They wallow in their immorality. They have no place for God. or at best a distorted view of some deity. And verse 9 then says, their mouths are set against the heavens. The idea there is, as far as they're concerned, the way they speak, it's like there's nothing above them. There's nothing to answer to. There's no authority in the heavens. There's no one that they would have to stop and look up to and say, oh, wait, I'm sorry. Their mouths are set against the heavens. They say what they want. They have no interest in some kind of higher authority, if you will. Verse 10, let me just stop on verse 10 for just a second. If you have NAS, you have a different translation than what I read. ESV here says, therefore his people turn back to them and find no fault in them. NAS says, therefore his people return to this place and waters of abundance are drunk by them. The point here is the Hebrew is not entirely clear to us as we translate this. It may be either the idea that the wicked entice the believing community. In a sense, they draw their curiosity. We look at them, and we're sort of tempted to follow them, to try to emulate them in some way. And so that might be the sense where his people turn back and find no fault in them, if the ESV has that right. More likely, it's the idea that God's people are so perplexed, as Asaph was, that trying to comprehend this is like trying to drink from this cup that never ends, these waters of abundance. You just keep taking this in and taking this in and there never seems to be a sense of satisfaction or answer. It never quite comes clear. And I think that idea probably makes most sense when you look at verse 11 and it says, and they say, this is God's people now, His people, how can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High? The question at this point is one you've probably surely asked at some point in your life. I know I have, when you look at a situation that seems so ungodly, and you said, can God know this? I mean, he must, but how can he allow this? If this is in God's knowledge, How can it continue the way it does? One of my favorite Old Testament books is Habakkuk. In Habakkuk, his whole issue is with the Babylonians who are coming in to take the Jews captive. But he starts with the Jews and their immorality in Israel. And he goes, where's God? Doesn't he see this? This is troubling to me, and I'm watching it. Doesn't God see it? And that's the question in verse 11. Doesn't God know what's happening here? And if he knows, why is he allowing it? With all these observations now behind him, Asaph begins to draw some conclusions. If you and I are like Asaph, we know this is where we kind of get in trouble. We've made the observations. We have not consulted with God's word at this point. We're just going to draw some conclusions based on what we see, and this is where we tend to go astray, and so does Asaph at this point. Verse 12. Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease. They increase in riches. all in vain have I kept my heart clean, 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. All right, here's his conclusion. First verse 12, he sums it up. Look at the wicked always at ease. That's his summary of what he sees. They've got it good, no problems. Then he takes the dangerous step now of comparing himself, drawing on this incomplete conclusion, if you will, and saying, They not only have it made and have no problems, but here I am. I'm a Levite. I help God's people in worship. I come to the temple. I've pursued purity. I've not wallowed in immorality. I've tried to make God-pleasing choices, and look at my life. Look what happens to me. It's not that easy. I have troubles." Now, let's be honest here at this point. We all know that as we look at our own lives and what other people see, often we see the problems and the struggles and the trials that we put a good face on, and so people see the outer appearance and it looks good. And Asaph here is looking at his own life and he's just saying, his envy right now is in full bloom. How do they get this and I don't? God, why aren't you giving me the same thing? I obey God, my car breaks down. I get sick, my company says, you've got five, six days. When that's done, you're in trouble. I miss a payment, and the bank is calling and saying, where's the money? All the troubles that ASAP is now speaking about that you and I can relate to. I try to be an example at school, those of you who are younger. Try to do the right thing. Study hard. Don't cheat. Some other kids cheat their way through tests. They do fine. I struggle, work hard, that doesn't seem fair. Remember the V, we're at the bottom now. We're at the point where he has descended in his own thinking to this place where he is now saying, what is the point in living a godly life if this is what you get for it? The late James Boyce, great preacher of the word, worded it like this, he said, What is the advantage of being a Christian if those who are not Christians get what I want and I don't get it? Indeed, the situation is even worse than that, for not only do I not get what I want, I have troubles to boot. In fact, it seems as if I'm being punished for trying to be good." Can you relate to ASAP? Are there points in life where you can say, yeah, OK, I can see where these questions come from. You've tried to obey God. But maybe your spouse has drifted from him, and you're struggling in your marriage, wondering, well, why are we at this place? You've tried to raise your kids to love the Lord, and one has walked away. And you're saying, how does this work? How does this seem fair? You're diligent. You're at work early every morning. You complete every assignment on time and with skill. And that self-serving loudmouth is the one who gets the promotion. Wait, how's this working? In verse 15, he's at rock bottom, and what he's saying here in verse 15 is if I, if I had, basically if I kept speaking this stuff out loud, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. What he's saying is that there's a point here where Asav realized, if I carry on in this kind of behavior and with these kind of questions and these sorts of complaints and I start giving voice to them, I run the risk now of really harming the younger ones in the faith. I run the risk of now leading them astray and of myself looking like a traitor to the faith. I'm now at the point where he realizes, not only did he realize in verse three that this was all started by his envy, but he's now at the place where he realizes his questions have come to a place where God has not shot him down at this point for asking the questions, but they've now devolved to a place where he's realized this can become a problem. There's something wrong here because if I start giving voice to this, I'm going to lead other people to stray. Verse 16. But when I thought how to understand this, trying to comprehend it, it seemed to me to be a wearisome task." Follow his progression. At this point, he realized that his anger and his questions are now becoming very problematic and they're spiraling to the place of maybe harming others. And he says now, I am exhausted. I have looked at this at various angles. Perhaps he's had conversations with others in the tribe of Levi and he's tried to find these answers and he's wrestled it through. And he's at the place now where he is battling unbelief. If God is good to Israel, and yet this is where I see myself, and then I see the unbelieving world, I'm struggling to believe in the God I'm supposed to believe in. Verse 17, until I went into the sanctuary of God, and then I discerned their end. There are a number of lessons you could draw from Psalm 73 as we go through this this morning, and as you, I hope, take time in your devotional time and meditate on it as well. But this morning, if you get only one, I hope it's this. Believers in Jesus Christ struggle. We go through questions, we face temptations, we wrestle sometimes with doubts, we examine our beliefs and turn them over and look at them, and we face these kind of situations that even if we don't do all that, those situations, Satan's trying to use them to provoke those kind of doubts and to push your faith and to see what it's really made of. When that happens, one of the most important things you can do, if not the most important, is to draw as near to God as you can draw. That is Asaph's solution to this whole situation is draw near to God. Find God in his word, in his people, in corporate worship. Surround yourself in that. A lot of the New Testament books we see written to believers who are struggling, persecution, temptation, trial situations that you and I can maybe not even begin to relate to some of the persecution they face in the New Testament. One letter though in particular in the New Testament starts with these words, counted all joy my brothers when you experience various trials. What book is that? We'll do your Bible quiz. James, right. Book of James. James, if you've done any time in James, you know James is dealing with some of the practical everyday, the mouth, how we speak, the trials that we face, the conflicts that we deal with with other believers, the inner desires that we wrestle with that get in the way of our relationships at various points. And James speaks to believers about dealing with everyday life. And in James chapter 4, and he's talking about believers who are quarreling with one another and getting caught up into this and lured by the world and its temptations. He says, these are familiar verses I'm sure to you, James 4 verse 7, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. I don't know about you, but when I'm wrestling with temptation, temptationary where maybe I've struggled before or my faith is weak, I'm questioning something that's happening in life. I don't know about you, but my tendency at that point is to move away from God rather than toward God. I think that's a pretty natural tendency based on what we see from man's first fall into sin. Adam and Eve fall into sin. God is then walking in the garden. What do Adam and Eve do? They hide, yeah. That's the first. There's that immediate sense of shame. It's that sense of what Asaph said when he said, you know, if I keep this up, There's going to be problems. I'm going to create problems for others. There's an awareness, there's a shame. And what our tendency to do, our sinful tendency to do is to be like Adam and Eve at that moment. And even though a loving God is pursuing us, we move away. We don't want to pray. because we're feeling guilty. We don't open the word because we don't particularly want it to speak to us at that moment. We just sort of want to wallow in our situation and our complaints. Even fellowship with God's people, we allow to feel sort of superficial and come, leave, try not to interact too much because of where we're at. ASAPH's wrestling with all of that. And when he gets to that point, he realizes that the thing that he must do is draw near to God, to go to be where he can find God and hear from God because he has exhausted himself on trying to sort this out and trying to glean human wisdom at this point. He went where other believers would most likely come alongside him. He went to the place that Jews understood to be the house of prayer. He went to the temple. Throughout the Old Testament, the sanctuary is understood to be the temple. It is the place where God dwelt among His people, the place where God's people came and they sacrificed to God, the place where you drew near to God, where the priest interceded on your behalf to God. It did not mean that God was not with His people elsewhere, but in this period, in this Old Testament, they understood that this was the dwelling place of God amongst His people, and if you wanted to draw near to God, that was where you went, was to that temple in Jerusalem. Back in the book of 2 Chronicles chapter 29, Hezekiah becomes king. He follows the evil rule of Ahaz and Hezekiah begins to turn things around and turn people back toward the worship of God, a people who had been rebellious. And in 2 Chronicles 30, he sends out letters to all of Israel to come to the house of the Lord. and celebrate the Passover. In verse 6 of 2 Chronicles 30, couriers, it says, go out throughout all the land and say, O people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Do not be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord your God. Hezekiah also intercedes in that passage for those who cannot make it to Jerusalem for some reason, and prays for them as they seek God with their hearts and understands the sanctuary is not the only place where people meet God. But there is something significant about Asaph saying, until I went into the sanctuary of God. After all of this struggle with his faith, he finally comes to the place of saying, the answer's not in me, the answer's in God. and I must seek it from Him." You and I do that without a temple. The New Testament says that if you are a believer, one who is trusting in Jesus Christ, your body is a temple of God's Spirit. God dwells within you. But the response here, at least the physical response, when we're struggling with doubts and unbelief, should be the same. Go toward God. Pray. We're talking about, as the leaders were praying before, I had the privilege of praying with your elders and your other leaders And one of the men was just praying and thanking God for how freely He urges us to come into His presence. He doesn't merely tolerate us, but He actually desires. We have a sense that when we're thinking like Asaph is and we're questioning God, that God must not want us at that point. That's how we sort of act sometimes humanly towards one another. And that's exactly the time when God says, come to me. I have the wisdom and the grace and the encouragement to give to you, the knowledge to give to you right now if you'll just cry out to me. Pray, open his word, seek his truth, come to the fellowship of believers. That's why God puts shepherds in a flock. That's why God has older women equipping younger women. That's why God has parents to train up children. It's all part of this discipleship model so that when we hit moments like this, we find someone to go to and say, this is where I'm struggling. Help me from God's word. Help me to see this truth. Lesson that Asaph gets now is what we read next. His thinking has changed. Verse 18, now he's gone into the sanctuary of God. Truly, remember the last time he said truly was back in verse one. Truly, the certainty, God is good to Israel. Truly, verse 18, you set them in slippery 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 Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms." The lesson Asaph got when he finally went to God could be boiled down to simply this, this life is not all there is. That's what it came down to. That's when Asaph finally saw the jewelry and the people who had way too much to eat and had so much good health and the nice home and all that stuff. And God says to Asaph, this isn't all there is. This is just, this is just a moment. If you are trusting in Jesus Christ, you are looking forward to an eternity with him. And for as long as Monday feels. It's so short in the broad scheme of things. It's just a little bit of time. Asaph may have allowed what was around him to do just what you and I do. What's around us, just what's on the horizontal, just dominates our day. The driver who cut me off, the person at work, the line I had to stand, and all that stuff that just seems so important. And what Asaph comes to grips with is, wait a minute. One day sooner than you think, your earthly existence will end and you will face your Creator. And you will stand before Him as judge. And you will either come before Him as one who is trusting in Him and believing in Him and enter into an eternity in His presence, or you will be exactly like these that Asaph has been envying. These who have turned their backs on God, who have rebelled against His truth, who have despised God, there is an eternity before them. experiencing God's judgment for their wickedness. Remember the line in James 4.14, you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. When you're driving to work in the morning, if there's fog, it's all-consuming. It slows the traffic down, it creates a problem, and it's just, it's all around. By about 9.30, 10 o'clock, right about when the rush hour has ended, right? It's gone, and it It's dissipated. We don't see it. And that's what James says. Your life is like that. These momentary troubles, as Paul wrote, these are just light afflictions storing up for you a weight of glory. The message to Asaph was those who reject God ultimately will be judged by him. Those who thought that a godless life on earth was so wonderful will now spend the horrors of a godless eternity. They will be apart from him forever. And he's saying to Asaph, that's what you have to understand. Those who act right now like they are the most secure people with the deepest pockets, the biggest bank accounts, who think that they can overcome anything, picture them, Asaph, as if they're standing on the very edge of a slippery slope. And God will one day, unless they turn to Him and repent, God will one day go, and they will go down. And that's it forever. You envy that, Asaph? Is that really what you want? And that's why he says, now I see it. Verse 21, when my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in my heart, I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast toward you. Remember this, when you move toward God to get clarity and understanding and strengthening of your faith, God is also kind enough that he will help you see your sin. That's what he does with Asaph. It's one of these passages where we look and we go, oh, how could he think this way? Oh, we think this way. But the interesting thing is to see his humility at this point. When he drew near to God, not only did he get the picture clearly, but he also saw his own heart. And what he realized then, this helpful thing that God exposed to him, was all of those moments of complaining, all those deep observations and deep thoughts he had about the unbelieving world and all of the complaints that he had, that he thought he was really thinking through this issue. He says, man, I was just acting like an animal. It's as if I was, you know, we've got two dogs in our house. You give one a treat and that one You know, if that's the smaller one, you know what the bigger one's going to do. It's going to come right over there and take it away. And he says, that's what I was acting like. These people have got all this stuff and I'm acting like an animal thinking, oh, if I could just grab their stuff and make it mine. And he says, how ignorant could I have been at that point? I was brutish. I was like a beast. That's how we act when we stand at the gas pump and look over at the shiny new car and internally we're griping about our circumstances. Why don't I have that? What we're saying is, God, why don't you give that to me? Don't be envious, as Asaph calls us to be. This is what he realizes, and then look at verse 23. 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? And 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." Aren't those marvelous verses? You've heard them, if not read them in context before, you've certainly heard them before. That's just such a wonderful passage of scripture. There's really, throughout this psalm, as we've seen, there's these transitions, these interesting transitions. And we saw, there's about four of them. We saw that first one, verses one and two, God is good to Israel, but As for me, it's not working out so well. Then you read the whole passage about, you know, all that the observations and all of the complaints, and then you get down to verse 17 and the transition is until I went into the sanctuary of God, then it comes to this one. Lord, I have seen now how foolish my thinking was. I acted like an ignorant beast, like an animal. Here's the transition. Nevertheless, verse 23, or in spite of all that, in spite of how I acted, you never let go of me. You remained with me. Even when I was at this place of questioning and doubting, there's God as the patient, loving, heavenly Father holding on to his hand. Even though the pivot point, Asaph, when he enters God's temple, The pivot point there is Asaph going to God. The reality is God's never been far from Asaph. He's been near to him. Continually, I'm with you. You take hold of my hand. The Hebrew word there pictures seizing something, grasping it. Despite my foolishness, you take hold of me and don't let go. Take note of who's doing the holding, by the way. Question's not how strong Asaph's faith is. Does he have a strong enough grip to hold on to God during the difficult times? No, the reality is God is the one who has seized Asaph's hand, and he is holding it in Asaph. Even though, verse two, remember Asaph, my feet had almost stumbled. I'd nearly slipped. How did it stay almost and nearly? Because God had never let go of Asaph. He held on to him. That ought to just lead us to just such worship and thanksgiving. After telling about arrogant people who think they are in control of their lives, Asaph reminds us, God's children, says to us, it's God who is the one who holds you, and who counsels you, and who guides you, and who assures you. It's not a question of your performance. It's not a question of whether you can do enough to stay there or abide there. It's his grace that's saved, and it's his grace that will cause you to persevere. Hebrews 619, rather, speaking about the certainty of God's promises in that passage. It says that those of us who have fled to him for refuge have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf. That is the picture of a sure hope. The wicked, God says, slippery slope, about to be falling down. to an eternal destiny apart from Him. But those who belong to God through faith in Jesus Christ, he says, we have Christ as if He is an anchor for the soul. He has gone before us into heaven, and one day if you are trusting in Jesus Christ as your Savior, one day when this earthly existence ends, that anchor will grasp you and bring you into His presence in heaven. That's our sure hope. Where are you standing this morning? ASAP's given us some incredible pictures to visualize right here. The slippery slope, you can imagine that, or the firm hand. Where are you this morning? Have you realized that you desperately need a savior? That regardless of how good your life may be, I think sometimes we sort of We think people, they come to Christ, they must have to come out of just the worst possible circumstances when everything has gone wrong. God saves people out of the worst possible circumstances, but He also may be speaking to you this morning in the best possible circumstances, with a good car and a good house and life is great, you think? And yet you've never trusted in Jesus Christ, our Savior. This passage would cry out to you, to come to Him, to see that there is one thing, that is greater than all of your desires, and it is to know your Creator. If you are trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior, if you have confessed that you stood at odds with God because of your sin, and that Jesus Christ came to take your punishment for sin, to stand in your place, and died to take that, and you have turned to Him in faith, then He, you have an anchor in heaven that will one day bring you into His presence. That's Asaph's point. This body of mine, it's gonna end. But God is my strength. He says, not just now, but forever. God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Verse 27 sums it all up. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is 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. First, he takes us back. It's just a really interesting contrast. I mean, this guy in about two sentences just sums up an amazing amount of theology in these last two verses here. He says, one last look at the wicked who seem like they've got it all together. They will be swept away from the presence of God into eternal suffering, but for the ones who are believing in God, he is near. It is good to be there. He summarized God's ultimate dealing with all of mankind in these couple of sentences right here at the end of Psalm 73. Those not trusting in Christ will spend eternity apart from Him. Those who are trusting in Him will never be abandoned. We've come back to the top, to that same commitment, God is good, God is the one that I want to be near. Let's face it, it won't be long from now, when we leave here, that you will be tempted to compare. Just go on the internet. Your web browser knows about your searching, and so it will conveniently bring up advertisements for exactly things you've been thinking about, right? And it'll say, your life's okay, but if you had this, it'd be a whole lot better. And immediately you're going to be tempted at that point. neighbor has that car, neighbor has that kind of walkway, that kind of patio, whatever it is. Why can't we have something like that? And you're going to begin to have that temptation to envy. It's at those moments that our Father in heaven is so graciously grasping our hand to keep us from falling and reminding us that through his spirit and his word and his people, he is sufficient. He is enough to allow us to say, whom have I in heaven but you? and there is nothing on earth that I desire beside you. Let's pray. Father, thank you for showing us that very verse, that there is nothing on earth that I desire beside you. Thank you for showing it to us through the eyes of a man who was not perfect, who freely admits his struggle and freely admits that he wrestled with envy and with desiring that which he couldn't possess. and for showing us how you graciously reconcile that for him by awakening him to the truth that when we have you, you are sufficient. You are the one who is good, who knows our needs, who promises to provide for us, who promises that even though each day has enough worries of its own, we just need to rest and trust in you know that you will not lead us into temptation or into circumstances that would drive us to a point of oblivion or a point of being able to sort of lose our faith, if you will. The reason for that, Lord, is because you're holding us, because you've said that by your grace, those who are trusting in you, you have put a grasp on. That is an unshakable grasp. Thank you for walking with us through the valley of the shadow of death, for walking with us through the circumstances and the trials of life. Cause us in those moments not to be like those who would speak and not even acknowledge the heavens, but cause us to be those who would look up and who would be grateful and who even in difficult circumstances would ultimately come like Asaph to rejoice in you and say, but you're holding me. There's really nothing else I need right now. Lord, I pray that if there's even one person here this morning that is somehow resting in their riches, in their job, in their contentment, in life with its goods and whatever pleasures it may offer, who is far from you, today may your spirit work to open their eyes to see the one who truly is beautiful in every way, the one who is truly a delight to the soul, provides hope and encouragement and pleasure not just for this life, but for the life to come. May they know Jesus Christ as the risen Savior. It's in His name we pray. Amen.