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The Most Rewarding Life-Outline

Psalm **

Introduction – The starting point for every human being is figuring out how to live the most fulfilling life.

People tend to look at others who seem to have fulfilling lives and see what was the source of their success. It is perfectly normal to do that. Wisdom involves doing this. But wisdom also demands that we are right about the evaluation that we make of their success. The first step must be to identify who are the people who are truly successful in life. Who are those who live the most rewarding lives? Who are the people that are indeed wise? The Bible consistently identifies those who are wise as those who are God fearing people, people who strive for righteousness.

Wisdom is particularly emphasized in the psalms. The book of Psalms belongs to the wisdom literature of the Bible. Several psalms, such as Ps 1, 37, 49, and 73 contrast wisdom with foolishness.

Today we consider one of these psalms, psalm 73. The writer is “Asaph, one of the Levites who served as a musician and worship leader at the sanctuary during David’s reign.” A total of 12 psalms are written by Asaph:50, 73-83.

In Ps 73, Asaph struggled with the age-old question: Why does the righteous suffer while the wicked prospers?

When we look around in the world and we see that often those people get ahead in life who cheat, who take shortcuts, who use others and betray them, those who do what is sinful, one wonders if the wisest thing in life is to be a person of integrity and one who values spiritual success more than material wellbeing.

Asaph came to the conclusion that the most rewarding life is to strive for righteousness even if that is not the easiest thing to do at times. He begins with the lesson that he learned, but immediately after he traces the stages that he had to go through in order to arrive at such a conclusion.

I. The Perception of a narrow mind – a perception that can lead to stumbling. The psalmist says, in vs 2, “my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.”

A. Why did he almost stumbled? Because of a narrow perception of life, one where apparently the wicked have it better than the righteous. Two sides to this.

1. It seems that the wicked always prosper – (vs 4-12) The psalmists mentions that the wicked are “fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.” They are proud and rebellious against God. They scoff and speak malice. And yet despite all of this, they prosper.

His conclusion comes in vs 12, “Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.”

Application – “How is it possible that those who are ungodly and unrighteous prosper?” How is it that their wickedness pays off?” 2. It seems that pursuing righteousness is not worth it. The psalmist says in vs 13-14:

“All in vain have I kept my heart clean

and washed my hands in innocence.

14 For all the day long I have been stricken

and rebuked every morning.”

“What’s the point of doing what is right if everything is upside down? Why strive for integrity if the wicked have more prosperity from their wickedness than the righteous from their innocence?” Often those who pursue righteousness suffer. They have enemies who inflict misery on them. They get sick. They die. They suffer injustice. Something is wrong in this picture. So, what’s the point of living in integrity and righteousness? This is the question that the psalmist struggled with, a struggle that almost caused him to slip and make shipwreck of his faith.

B. How did he almost stumbled? He almost gave into two main temptations. 1. Envy the live of the wicked – He says in vs 2-3, “my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. 3 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”

It is a very honest admission. Most of us would not dare to admit so boldly that we envied the wellbeing of others, especially of those who seem to have it well despite living wordily lives.

And yet, we better admit this if we sense that envy has crept in because envy has terrible consequences. It eats at our happiness and seriously blinds us to the truth. It makes us forget all about God being good and just. It poisons our souls on many levels.

Application – There has never been more temptation for envy than today with social media which has an endless supply of posts promoting the success and happiness of others.

The perception is that so many people that we know have it better than us. This is what we tend to perceive when we look around us. Concluding that others have it better than us despite not being bothered with God and living according to his word will lead to envy.

2. Question the fairness of God – Justice would be for the wicked to experience ruin and the righteous to prosper. Wealth and the good life should belong to the righteous, not the wicked.

This was Asaph’s assumption as well but, in his observation and experience, the opposite was the case. And because of this, he was tempted to question the justice of God and whether it was worth walking on the path of righteousness.

Application – this is a temptation that we face sometimes. Satan seeks to take advantage of the difficult moments in life and whispers to us, “Are you sure that is worth trying to be pleasing to God? It does not seem to be paying off for you. Just look at the people who don’t care about these things, those who go after all the things in the world. Look how well they are doing.”

This is what Asaph was tempted to think but he admits that this happened because he was ignorant. He says in vs 21-22,

“When my soul was embittered,

when I was pricked in heart,

22 I was brutish and ignorant;

I was like a beast toward you.”

He confesses to have been ignorant in his evaluation of both the wicked and the righteous. His perception of life was wrong. And because it was wrong, he doubted the goodness and the justice of God.

Despite being embittered and tempted to have envy and to question God’s justice, he did not stumble. He realized that he was on the wrong track. He moved from a faulty perception to wisdom. How did he do that?

I. The PLACE where the mind is transformed – vs 15 is the pivotal point of the psalm, the point where the psalmist begins to have a different thinking. He realized that his narrow and faulty perception led him to have thoughts that were contrary to the thinking of a believer.

Vs 16-17, “But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,

17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;

then I discerned their end.”

It was extremely difficult to make sense of the apparent injustice in life until he went into the sanctuary of God. Then, he discerned how things really were. Coming to the sanctuary of God is to go in the presence of God. This can be done either by going to the physical house of God – to the church – or in a spiritual sense, in a personal devotion, as one studies the Scripture, meditates on God’s Word and prays.

In either case, it is experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit who opens one’s mind to the truth and to discern things in the right way. Application – This is why a healthy spiritual life is so vital to a believer. The Christian life needs both the private devotion and the committed congregational participation in the house of God. If any of these is off track, it is not long before the believer struggles with doubt, with temptation, and if things do not change – as they did for the psalmist – one inevitably slips.

One starts desiring things in the world, trying to match the apparent happiness and success of those in the world. In short, one abandons wisdom and pursues folly and vanity.

What every person needs is to come to the sanctuary, to the presence of God, to his word and wisdom because that is how change for the better will happen. II. The PRINCIPLE that is foundational to the correct perception of life –He begins the psalm with “God is good to… those who are pure in heart.” The principle that Asaph learned is that God is good and just. He learned this when he stopped looking at himself and those around him and looked at God. This is the truth that we also must learn and embrace. When we are convinced of this, we no longer give into the temptation that life is unfair. Having this conviction about the character of God is foundational to the Christian life. This is the essence of wisdom – knowing God and living in a way that is pleasing to him. This the most rewarding endeavor in life. This is the principle in which the righteous puts their confidence in. So, then, they do not evaluate life based on what it seems to be but rather based on what actually is. III. The PERSPECTIVE that enables one to live the most rewarding life. Like the psalmist, we also need to abandon false assumptions and faulty perceptions of life. We need to learn that Perception is not always reflecting reality. Perception can be wrong.

This is why one needs wisdom to evaluate whether his/her perception is consistent with reality, with the truth.

We need to have the right perspective in life, the perspective that concerns the eternity and the accountability of every human being to God. When this is considered, two inescapable realities emerge.

A. Perishing of the one who indulges in wickedness - the success and ease of the wicked does not last long. There comes a day when the wicked learns that he was a fool. Just like the pursuit of righteousness equals wisdom so the indulging in sin equals foolishness.

Here is some of the things that the Bible says about the fool, that is the one who lacks wisdom

“The fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the Lord.” (Isa 32:6)

“A fool's mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul.” (Pro 18:7)

The fool mocks and laughs

The fool is proud. He thinks he is wise when in fact he is a fool.

The fool fails to learn anything from his mistakes. The greatest folly is that he rejects the existence of God and thus having to give account to him one day. Ps 14:1, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.”

In contemplating on the ultimate end of the wicked the psalmists says in Vs 19, “How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!”

And at the end of the psalm, in Vs 27, “For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.” Ps 1:5-6, “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” So, justice is done eventually. The wicked experience the just punishment for their sins. And we know that the perishing in the Bible is not about going out of existence but being cast into the lake of fire for all eternity, where suffering is unimaginable and without end.

This is the end of those who chose sin instead of God, those who rather enjoy the temporary pleasures of sin, those who have the wrong perspective in life, one that is only concerned with the present.

The wicked might do well now, but that will not be the case forever. Likewise, the just may suffer now but he will not suffer forever. The reality of every human being is not limited to a few years on this earth. One’s existence and fulfilment in life needs to be viewed in the much larger perspective

– that of eternity and of God’s ultimate dealing with his creation. B. The Perseverance of the one who pursues righteousness – When the psalmist compares once more the wicked with the righteous, this time from the perspective of eternity and that of God’s justice, he realizes that there is nothing to envy in the life of the wicked, for they are ultimately doomed forever.

Asaph has learned that what matters in the end is whether one has God or not. The wicked perish because they are without God.

Vs 28, “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.” The best thing in life is to be near God, to take refuge in him, because he is good to all those who do so and assures them of persevering to the end.

All who put their trust in God are rewarded in the end with the greatest prize – eternity in the presence of God, an existence that will be completely void of any suffering.

The title of the Psalm is “God Is My Strength and Portion Forever” This is the lesson that the psalmist has learned as he struggled with the apparent injustice in the world. He realized that the best life to live is the one where God is his portion.

Conclusion – Christians end up struggling in their faith when they make false assumptions about life, about God’ goodness and his justice. In order to know what it the most rewarding life that we can live, we need to have the right perspective in life, one that goes beyond life here on earth and one that includes God and his ultimate dealing with his creation. The most rewarding life is a life that is with this conviction that God is good to the righteous, that he will ultimately deliver them from all the troubles of life and establish them for all eternity.

Godly wisdom enables us to perceive life as it should be perceived. After he experienced a transformation in his thinking, he says: 23 “Nevertheless, I am continually with you;

you hold my right hand.

24 You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will receive me to glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” True wisdom is to come to such a conclusion. To find delight in this reality, which is that the righteous, those who are saved and pursue holiness, have God’s presence assured forever.

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