But as we come to this, the foundation that we're going to rest upon is this one truth we see at the very beginning of Psalm 73. And that is that truly God is good to His people. Truly God is good to His people. When you think about God, there's a lot of things that will come to your mind, a lot of different attributes that come to mind. Maybe you think first of the holiness of God, or the power of God, the authority of God. But tonight, in this psalm, we will see the goodness of God. Look at Psalm 73, verse 1. says, truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. So that's the main point that we see tonight, truly God is good to his people. And we're gonna see this in three ways. First, we're gonna see the goodness of God proclaimed in verse one. Then we're gonna see the goodness of God questioned. And third, we're gonna see the goodness of God remembered and realized. You see, truly God is good. The goodness of God proclaimed. That word truly, or some of your translations might say surely. There's no question there. There's no room for doubt or argument in his mind. This psalm was written by Asaph, who was the worship leader in Israel during the time of David. David had appointed him to do that. And he's writing this and he's saying, truly, for sure, certainly God is good. Or Charles Spurgeon writes, truly or more correctly, only God is good to Israel. He is only good, nothing else but good to his own covenanted ones. He cannot act unjustly or unkind to them. His goodness to them is beyond dispute and without mixture. Whatever your psalm, the title of the psalm in your Bible might be, The main point that we see is that God is good. But what do we mean by that when we say that God is good? What is meant by his goodness? Because we might think of his moral uprightness. We think of the rich young ruler coming to Jesus and saying, good teacher. And Jesus saying, why do you call me good? Only God is good. So certainly it does refer to his moral uprightness. But in this sense, it has more to do with his benevolence. It's speaking of God's benevolence. A. W. Tozer writes in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, this definition. He is tenderhearted and of quick sympathy, and his unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is open, frank, and friendly. By his nature, he is inclined to bestow blessedness, and he takes holy pleasure in the happiness of his people. The goodness of God is his benevolence, it's his kindness and tenderness toward his people. And of course we could say that God is good to all people. We know that God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. And Psalm 145 verse nine says that God is good to all man. Which is often referred to as the common grace of God. God is a good God. But Asaph here includes a clarification in this verse. And it's very important for us to see this. He says, truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. We see here the full scope of what he means. He's good to Israel, to the pure in heart. What's meant by that? Does that mean that God is only good to the descendants of Abraham? Or to those who are perfect? That's not what this means. It means that God is good to his covenanted people. To his people. There's a special goodness that God reserves for his people. What is that goodness? Well, we'll see this in more detail later, but the special goodness of God toward his people is God himself. It is fellowship with God. That's the main point of Psalm 73. It's what Asaph is teaching the people of God that truly he is good to his people. But this conclusion didn't come naturally to Asaph. He learned it through an internal struggle. We see the goodness of God questioned next. We look at verses 2 and 3 here. He says, 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. Asaph opens his heart to us, allowing us to see his inward struggle. In truth, he begins to question the goodness of God. And we need to see the danger of this. He says here, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. This means that he was in great danger spiritually. This is a picture of somebody that has no footing in a place where he needs footing. I think of, I don't know what comes to your mind, but for me, it's climbing Tenelion Mountain, which none of you know where that is or what that is, a few of you do. But it's a mountain that I was very familiar with growing up because I climbed it for the first time when I was 13 and for the last time when I was 21 or 22 and several times in between that. And once you get into the peak of this mountain, it gets very steep. And it's like... gets to be a little bit dangerous. But to add to that danger, the footing is terrible. It's just a bunch of loose, flat rocks, and you gotta be really careful where you step, because you might start sliding. And there were so many times that I started sliding, and there has to be quick corrections made when things like that happen, because if you don't correct it right away, you're not gonna stop until you get to the bottom. There's great danger in that. That's the picture I get when I think of what Asaph is saying here. His step had nearly slipped. We're not talking about the danger of falling to the ground and scraping your knee a little. We're talking about the danger of falling down a mountainside. And the result is deadly. That's the very real danger we're in when we begin to question the goodness of God. No doubt, none of us would come right out and say that we're doubting the goodness of God. To do so would go against everything the Bible teaches about God. It would even be full apostasy. But there are many ways that we question God's goodness in very subtle ways. Envy. Desiring sinful things. And it's a real danger. I'll show you the most obvious example of questioning God's goodness. So that we can understand just how dangerous this is. We turn to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. Verse 1. What is Satan doing here when he comes to Eve? He's asking her a question in such a way to get her to doubt the goodness of God. Think about what it was like for Adam and Eve. They'd been living in the garden for an undisclosed amount of time. They had food. They had animals. They had each other. And most importantly they had God. Everything that they had experienced was good because God made all things good. But he gave them one command. Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And now the serpent comes. Did God actually say It's a simple question, but asked in such a way to produce doubt. Satan was causing Eve to question the goodness of God. Not the power of God, or the sovereignty of God, or the wisdom of God, but the goodness of God. Did God say you couldn't do this? And we know what happens, the woman responds, but look at verse four and five. But the servant said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. What was Satan saying? He's saying that God is withholding something good from you. Suddenly the law of God is being presented as a fear tactic to keep one from finding true happiness. Worse than that, God is presented as a liar, a thief of joy, and even to some degree evil. At that moment, Adam and Eve had a choice. Believe God or believe Satan. Is God good or is he withholding good? If the serpent is to be believed, disobedience to the command of God will bring more good, more joy, more happiness than keeping the law of God. We see verse 6. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. So what was the determination? What convinces her to eat? The fruit of the tree is good to the eyes. If the tree is good, but God said not to eat it, then God is wrong. He's withholding something. He's trying to keep me from some good in this life. And all I need to do to obtain it is to forsake his law and grasp it. This is the danger. questioning the goodness of God. This is the danger that Asaph was in when he says, My feet had almost stumbled. He recognizes the danger that he was in. My steps had nearly slipped, for I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. This was Asaph's predicament. What causes them to question God's goodness? It's the prosperity of the wicked. And what did that lead to? That he was envious of them. What is envy? Webster defines envy as to feel uneasiness, mortification, or discontent at the sight of superior excellence, reputation, or happiness enjoyed by another. So Asaph begins to look around him and what does he see? He sees prosperity, but not by him or other righteous people. He sees the prosperity of the wicked. And he gives a discourse on that in verses 4 through 12. Verses four and five it says, The ESV in the first line translates no pangs until death, but most translations use no pangs in death. Which is a better translation. That is to say their deaths are peaceful. We could summarize these two verses to say that they have no pain or trouble either in life or in death. They have peaceful deaths. They have a death that we would all want. They also have no troubles in their life. Their bodies are fat and sleek. Fatness back then was a sign of prosperity. They're not in trouble as others are. They're not stricken like the rest of mankind. They don't worry about things like money or food. All is taken care of. They're not toiling like the rest of mankind. But the fact remains, they are wicked. And because of their wickedness, we see their wealth makes them only more ungodly. Look at verses 6 through 11. First off, we see that they're proud. Verse 6. Asaph calls them proud and arrogant. They consider themselves to be something great because of what they possess. Likely they possess what they possess because they are intelligent. They are shrewd. They have good business sense. They can look around and like Nebuchadnezzar they say, look at what I've built. Look at what I've done for myself. And they're very proud. Spurgeon says they wear their own pride as a better ornament than a gold chain. They give no glory or credit to God. They give nothing back to God. Nothing genuine anyway. They trust in themselves and their money. They are proud, but they're also violent. The end of verse 6. Violence covers them as a garment. They get what they want any way they must. Violence is not below them. But even more than that, they do not hide it. They don't hide that they're violent. Rather, they take pride in it. They want people to know that they will go to whatever lengths they must. We see that they're also foolish. Verse 7. Their eyes swell out through fatness. Their hearts overflow with follies. The bulging of the eyes is a greater emphasis on what was said in verse 4, that their bodies are fat and sleek. But expounding on that, we see that their hearts overflow with follies. While their bodies burst with food, their hearts burst with foolishness. That is with sinful pursuits. While they have all the wealth and great opportunity to use it for the glory of God and the good of man, they would rather pursue stupid things. The wicked are proud, violent, and foolish. And last we see that they're scoffers. Verses 8, 9, and 11 it says, This is where their arrogance has led them. They're scoffing at God Most High. They're strutting through the earth with arrogant speech. They mock heaven and earth and the One who made them. And they mock the righteous man. Verse 8 says that they threaten oppression. Who are they threatening? When the arrogant and wicked prosper, it's the righteous that suffer. arrogance speak out against God's people, against heaven and against God himself. They do their wickedness and say, how can God know? After all, they have no regard for the law of God, and yet they are prospering. The logical conclusion is that God doesn't see, God doesn't care, or there is no God. How can God know? They scoff and they mock God, and boy do we see that happening today. People go about doing what they want, living how they want, and mocking God and mocking his people. And they believe that God does not see. The wicked today are not much different than they were back then. Proud, violent, foolish, and scoffers. Yet many are entrapped by them. Look at verse 10. It says, Therefore his people turn back to them and find no fault in them. The literal reading of the Hebrew is, the waters of a full cup are drained by them. If you have the ESV, they'll be in the footnotes. This is one of those verses that if you read three different commentaries, you're going to get three different meanings of what they say it means. The first question that people ask is, who is his people? His people turn back to them. I believe it's talking about God's people. Not the wicked person's people, because all the other times it's in the plural, but here we see the singular. His people turn back to them and find no fault in them, or they're satisfied basically with the cup of... The waters of a full cup are drained by them. So the people, God's people even, are led astray. They're tricked by this wickedness. They think they're prospering, they're doing well, so God must be blessing them. And there's a great danger in thinking that way. Verse 12 sums it all up. It says, This is what Asaph was seeing. Even in his day when this was some of the best day spiritually in the time of Israel. He was still seeing this happen. The wicked are always at ease. Their bank accounts grow. Their houses get bigger and nicer. Their cars are the newest models. They have it all. And they have no concern as other men have. They're at ease. This is what he was envying. In his heart he was looking at the wicked and thinking, they have everything. Yet they are wicked and obtain their wealth through wickedness. His envy leads to a dangerous conclusion. We see that in verses 13 and 14. It says, all in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. So his conclusion is I've been keeping myself righteous. I've been suffering for the name of Christ. I've been going through all of these things and it's all in vain. What was the suffering he was going through? It could have been the ridicule of the wicked, for sure, we see that. But it was also, I believe, the constant fight against the flesh. It was depriving himself of the things that his wickedness desired. Because let's be honest, fighting against the flesh is a struggle. It's hard. It takes work. C.S. Lewis wrote, only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives into temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it. And Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means. This is what Asaph was up against. His life was devoted to God. He was striving to serve God and show his love for God. But he looks at the wicked and sees their prosperity. And he looks at himself and he sees afflictions. And he decides it's all in vain. It's pointless for me to suffer when I could be rich. It's pointless for me to go through these afflictions when I could just give in. And we might look at Asaph and say, how could you think that way? You're the worship leader in Israel under David. How can you be tempted to think that way? I dare say that envy of the wicked is a snare for any of God's people. It's a subtle and dangerous temptation. Maybe it's not prosperity that causes you to envy. Maybe it's the friends they have or the freedom they seem to have, in quotes. Maybe it's the fun, again in quotes, that they have in this world that you are constantly denying yourself of. I want to point out something here that's important. While Asaph speaks of affliction, there's no mention of a great event of affliction. He's not being chased by enemies. He's not lost a child. He's not gone through any great time of struggle. Nothing's mentioned there. I say that to say this. Temptations such as these often come through the subtlety of everyday life. I dare say that it's easier to throw yourself on the sovereignty of God, trusting His wisdom and love and submitting to His will when you are going through afflictions that are too great for you to handle on your own. But when your afflictions are everyday struggles, financial troubles, job troubles, family struggles, the everyday struggles of life, the temptation to fall back on your own wisdom is much greater and much easier to do. And that's what we see here. Asaph's conclusion was based only on his own wisdom. Surely I've kept my heart clean and vain. It's not worth all this suffering. I could have good things. I could prosper too. I could have all that I want. I could indulge the flesh. All of this is vain because clearly God is not good to me. Even though I've done so much for him, he is doing nothing for me. It's time for me to step in and do it myself. And what a dangerous thought that is. And yet it's very common, I believe. But look at verse 15. He says, if I had said I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. Here's a very important point for us to understand. Asaph is saying, if I had voiced these thoughts, surely I would have been guilty of leading others astray. He knew what he was feeling was wrong, and he refused to harm others by voicing it. We live in a day where people love to speak only about what they're feeling and thinking. Being an open book is something that's celebrated. But understand, foolish and sinful thoughts are not to be given a voice among God's people. It's not good to speak that way. But some people would say, isn't it okay, isn't it good for us to speak about our struggles? Confessing your struggles with good brothers and sisters is a good thing. But that is not what Asaph was referring to and not what most people do either. Most people are looking for validation in their struggles, not help getting out of them. And that's what he was saying. If Asaph had spoken his mind at this point, it would have been to the harm of the people of God and nothing good would have come from it. So we've seen Asaph proclaim in verse 1 the goodness of God, and then he questioned it. We see his inward struggle of questioning the goodness of God. But third, we're going to see the goodness of God remembered and realized. Fortunately for us, this psalm doesn't end at verse 15, but continues. Look at verse 16 and 17. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task until I went in to the sanctuary of God, and then I discerned their end. We see the right place for the right perspective. Verse 16 is something I believe we could relate to. Trying to reason, to understand Why good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people is wearisome. When we're doing it through our own wisdom. It will drain you and stretch you to your breaking point. If you want to understand this, you don't turn to science or philosophy or your own understanding. You do what Asaph did and you go to the house of God. To the sanctuary of God. You go and you worship. You go to church to be around brothers and sisters who love God and worship God. You go to church to hear the Word of God proclaimed. You go to church to fellowship and to pray and to study God's Word together. To sing the praises of God. And it's there where in the busyness and the craziness of life you get a right perspective on things. Asaph did the right thing. He went to the sanctuary of God. He went to worship. Notice that nothing changed in Asaph's situation. His circumstances were the exact same. The only thing that changed was his perspective. The wicked were still prospering, but he was worshiping. And through worship, he gained the right perspective. The sanctuary of God was the right place for the right perspective. And what was that? Look at verses 18 through 20. The end of verse 17 says, then I discerned their end. 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 like a dream when one awakes. Oh, Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. We see that the wicked will truly perish. Asaph realized that despite their prosperity, despite their status, the wicked will one day face God as there is nothing that they have gained in this earth that will protect them from the judgment that was to come. We see a parallel between verse 2 and verse 18. Verse 2 says, Asaph, by questioning the goodness of God and by envying the wicked, had nearly slipped, but the wicked will surely slip. Why? Because God puts them in a slippery place. He causes them to fall to ruin. Everything that they had built for themselves will all be destroyed. Look at verse 20, it says, What's a dream? A dream is something that's fleeting, something that doesn't last. Well, you're in the dream, it feels so real, but then when you wake up, it's gone. The dream is the world that they had created for themselves, is everything that they had built, and it will all come to nothing. It will so utterly be destroyed that it will be like a dream, like it never even happened for real. No matter how wonderful it may seem at the time, it won't last. Asaph finds the right perspective and sees that truly, wicked will come to ruin, but he still must confess his foolishness. Look at verses 21 and 22. He says, when my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast toward you. After rightly perceiving the end, Asaph confesses his foolishness. He was angry. He was upset. He was bitter toward God. He had looked at the wicked and began to question God in his heart. Why, God, do you prosper the wicked and chastise me? Why do you show goodness to those who hate you, but cause me to suffer? This was indeed very foolish. He says he was brutish and ignorant. He was like a beast toward God. Indeed, he was ignorant and foolish. And it was good to repent of those thoughts. Charles Spurgeon says, the wisest of men have enough folly in them to ruin them unless grace prevents. How easily we can fall into foolishness and ignorance when we look around. But when it's revealed to us, we confess. At this point, those who don't know Christ may say something like this. You speak only to trick yourself. Look what you have. But look what I have. Look what I'm working toward. I have peace and comfort. I have prosperity. And these things can be yours too. Yet you're foolish and choose to serve God rather than seek pleasure for yourself. You deprive yourself and yet you pity me. And all this for a future reward you can't see or be sure of. But they do not understand what we truly have. Because they do not know Christ. They cannot know what Paul calls the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. And that's what Asaph recalls to mind in verses 23-28. He says this, Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel. 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. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me, 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. When we consider the whole of life, the entirety of life, we see two parts. There's the temporary earthly life and there is eternity. Asaph doesn't speak as one who is merely looking forward to something that he does not yet have. And though something much greater is to come, the reality is that in the here and now, God is with us. Verses 23 and 24 says, Nevertheless, I'm continually with you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel and afterward you will receive me to glory. Think of that picture of holding his right hand. How he keeps him from stumbling. He keeps him from slipping. Like a child as we're walking on the ice and they begin to slip and fall and you're holding their hand. So you pull them back up. And they don't fall. God holds his people by their right hand. He keeps them from stumbling. He's all powerful. He has all wisdom. When we begin to slip, he pulls us back. When we try to go our own way, he sets us on the right path. Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Jesus said that he is the good shepherd. And we have a good God and we are always with him. He holds our hand. He guides us with his counsel. And one day he will receive us to glory. There's something really amazing here in this. Asaph speaking says, We know that when we die, we will go to heaven to be with God, and He will receive us. But there's a personableness there. There's an individualness there. that He personally receives us so that when we die and go to heaven, we're not sharing that welcome with 8,000 other people that are dying on the same day, but God is personally welcoming us into glory, receiving us into glory. How incredible that is. Suddenly the things that Asaph was so envious of before seem so pointless. Verses 25 and 26. 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. The things that Asaph was so envious before become strangely dim. What more can I have than God? What on earth is better than God? All you wicked can have all the riches and comfort you want because I have God and I need nothing else. So I was studying this, I was thinking of a conversation I had with my grandma the last time I saw her. She was telling me about distant family members that I had never met that had been dead long before I was alive. And one, I don't remember how it was related to him, but I just remember what she said. This man was in his early 80s when God saved him. I believe he was maybe 82. Before being saved, he was a grouchy man who worked hard for everything, but from what I understood, was not a delight to be around. Saved at 82 and died at 83. And what my grandma said of him, and I'll never forget this, is she said, he had one good year. Just one good year. Which I'm sure was worth it. said everything changed. He was a joy to be around. He had one good year. And I'm sure that he would say the same thing that God is good to his people. And there is nothing on earth that is better than knowing God. This world will fade away. The body will die. My heart, my flesh may fail, but God is my portion forever. The wicked are not better off. The wicked do not have it made. They indulge the flesh and deprive themselves not. But the child of God rejects the things of the world and seeks God. Oh, how happy he is that seeks the eternal and abhors the fleeting. Think of Pilgrim's Progress when Christian was in the house of the interpreter and he sees two lads there. One named Passion and the other Patience. Passion receives his bag of treasure with great joy and greed opens it and mocks Patience because he got nothing. But soon it was all spent and there was just rags. And the interpreter says this to Christian. The glory of the next world will never wear out, but these are suddenly gone. Therefore, Passion had not so much reason to laugh at Patience because he had his good things at first, as Patience will have to laugh at Passion because he had his best things last. For the first must give place to last, because last must have his time to come. but last gives place to nothing, for there is not another to succeed. He, therefore, that hath his portion first must needs have a time to spend it, but he that hath his portion last must have it lastingly. Verses 27, 28 says, 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. We have a lasting promise, a hope and joy that will never end. Our portion is with God. It's not with this world. It's not with the things of this world. God is good to his people. The question is, what about you? Where is your portion? Where is your hope? Is your desire for the things of the world? Or is your desire for God? Those who are of this world will perish, but those who are of God will live for all eternity with God, being forgiven and made righteous through Christ. For at the cross we see most clearly the goodness of God for his people. He sends Christ to die. He punishes Christ in our place for our sins. Because God is just and because all sin must be punished, the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to stand in the place of His people. To take the wrath that we deserve. If you believe and repent, you will be saved. And you will spend all eternity with God. You trade the lesser for the greater. You forsake the temporary and embrace the eternal. Many saints have gone before and have concluded the same thing as Asaph. You can have all the world. You can indulge the flesh all you want. But I have God. And He is all I need and all I desire. And He is with me now and forevermore. Truly God is good to his people. Even when nothing is going as we want, God is still good. Even when life is difficult, God is still good to his people. The temptation to envy is real. But there's nothing that the world has that is better than what we have. Can you say with Asaph, 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. Or are you looking around, envious of the wicked and questioning the goodness of God? Know this for sure. Truly, God is good to his people. Father, we thank you for the goodness that you have shown to us. The constant love and care that you have shown to us. How much better we are than the richest man. May we be like the wise man who sold all that he had for the treasure of Christ. Father, as we go through our week, there's certainly going to be temptations. Temptations to envy the wicked, temptations to indulge the flesh. I pray that we would remember that you are good. that there is no greater good than to seek you. There's nothing this world has for us. I pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.