Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. Psalm 73:1
There’s an old saying that no good deed ever goes unpunished. Stories abound of people paying a price for doing something good for others that resulted in nothing but trouble for themselves. And all of us have noticed that when we as Christians keep our business dealings honest as we should, we pay far more than folks who ‘cheat the system’. It doesn’t seem fair and we wonder why those in the wrong should be better off than those of us doing the right thing. Our text today opens a Psalm in which Asaph ponders that very issue.
In this Psalm, Asaph admits he was envious of the prosperity of the wicked while he was ‘plagued and chastened every morning’. He found the unfairness of it to be too painful to even think about. But something changed his mind. It happened when he entered the sanctuary of God. Asaph was a Levite, serving in the tabernacle as one of the chief musicians in Israel. Being in the very presence of God made him aware of God’s holy character. And it also made him aware of the folly of the wicked. In verse 16, he states ‘then understood I their end’. He realized how foolish he was to be envious of those who were headed for certain destruction. It’s just as foolish for us today.
The Lord Jesus told of a wealthy farmer who had more crops than his barns would hold, but had made no provision for eternity. And He also told of a wealthy man who had to leave the fine linen and sumptuous food all behind when he went to hell. These accounts, telling of real people discovering the reality that the ‘prosperity of the wicked’ described in Psalm 73 is very temporary, helps us to reach the same conclusion as Asaph.
Read today’s text again and give thanks that God is truly good to Israel and to those of us who are saved and who live with clean hearts. – Jim MacIntosh
Here is the link to the video of this message: https://youtu.be/zQfXxX1yvZg