Good morning,
The slippery slope
The music we sing in our worship of our God is always colored by what is happening in our culture and in the time we are living in that culture. When King David wrote his Psalms he was writing music that fit in the time that the nation of Israel was strong and leaning on their God. When the choir director, Asaph, wrote his Psalms he was living in the days of the last kings of Israel and the kingdom was about ready to collapse. Asaph loved the Lord, but he had a really big problem. He lived in a time and place very much like what we are living in today. In Psalm 73 he starts well but then he realizes that he was in big trouble. He writes, But as for me, I almost lost my footing. My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone. For I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness.(vs.2,3) It is interesting to notice that he was talking about himself seven times in two sentences. In the next four verses he complains about how blessed and healthy and trouble free and proud and spoiled their lives were. In the next two verses he accused them of, They scoff and speak only evil; in their pride they seek to crush others. They boast against the very heavens, and their words strut throughout the earth.(vs.8,9) Doesn’t this sound familiar? Then he tells about all the confusion that good people were having and the way that people were asking about what God was doing about all this. Then he himself was wondering why life was so hard for him when he was doing his best to do what was right. Doesn’t this sound familiar? He hadn’t complained to others yet, but boy was this confusing. Could we have done something like that?
Out of desperation he decided to get alone with God and ask him to help him understand what was going on. As he waited quietly on God, God opened his mind to what he was doing with these wicked people. Now he understood that, Truly, you put them on a slippery path and send them sliding over the cliff to destruction. In an instant they are destroyed, completely swept away by terrors.(vs.18,19) God really did know what he was doing. Asaph now realized that, my heart was bitter, and I was all torn up inside.(v.21) Now he realized that he too had been sliding into Satan trap by being envious, proud and unloving towards people who were without God’s help to live any other way. But God didn’t stop there. He also helped Asaph to know that, Yet I still belong to you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.(vs23,24) If God could be that kind, he could also do the same with those wicked people who would turn from their sins. Now Asaph exploded with praise as he declared, Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.(vs.25,26) Now that he knew what was going to happen to the ungodly, instead of envying them, he promised God what he would do for them when he said, But as for me, how good it is to be near God! I have made the Sovereign LORD my shelter, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.(v.28) Please Lord, would you do that for each of us as well.
Psalm 73: 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. 26 My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.
Roy Wisner
