Psalm 73 Sermon. February 28, 2021. Grace-Benson, Grace-Vail. Which would you rather have? The peace of a person who: has no struggle at death, whose body is sturdy and healthy, who does not have the common struggles so many face, and who are not plagued like others are. Or would you rather have the struggle of a person who is plagued all day, punished every morning, whose heart is bitter, and who struggles with envy so much it feels like their feet are slipping? In a vacuum it’s an easy choice. We’d all take the peace over the struggle. But there’s more to the equation. Psalm 73 includes the cost to the peace and the struggle. It’s the peace of the wicked; and the struggle of the righteous. The peace of the wicked means that person wears pride like a necklace, clothed with violence, they oppress others from a high perch, they speak maliciously against people and even against heaven. While the struggle of the righteous includes having a pure heart and clean hands, though it seems to all be in vain. So, with the fuller picture, which of those 2 would you rather have: the peace of the wicked, or the struggle of the righteous? I know what your head answer is. We’re at a place of worship on Sunday morning. We’d all answer in our heads, I’ll take the struggle of the righteous over the peace of the wicked. But I want to challenge you this morning, because sometimes your body and spirit have a hard time agreeing with your head. Sometimes we are like Asaph who wrote this Psalm; we struggle to decipher which of those 2 options really is better - especially in light of how unfair it all seems. In order to sit with this question longer and discover how our hearts actually seek to answer in real time, I want to consider a few real life examples with you. I’ll give you 3 examples: medium, extreme, and mild. First example: Would you rather be a business person in the US who has wealth and success in their business, who can a nice house for their family and plenty of vacation time, the best health care, therapies for any problems that come up; and all it takes to get there is a little taking advantage of customers, undercutting competition, falsifying information to make the product seem better than it is, or even deliberately covering up information, a little bribing regulatory agencies - but the payoff is success and a secure, peaceful life. Or would you rather be a business person who struggles to pay the bills at home and to keep the doors open at work, who values their product and their customer, but who just can’t seem to keep up with the competition, who tries to do what is right, but doesn’t seem to get the reward that others do. Which of those 2 would you rather be? More than the question of which one would you want, the bigger question that plagues Asaph was: is this even fair? If we live in a world where the wicked seem to prosper while the righteous struggle, what kind of God would allow that? Let me give you an extreme example of the unfairness. I’ll tell you about Shiro Ishii, who I’ll warn you, might have done some of the most wicked things you’ve never heard about. Shiro Ishii was a Japanese scientist and doctor during WWII. He was given authority to run a facility called Unit 731; where he conducted horrific experiments on thousands of live human prisoners in order to learn how to effectively carry out biological warfare.
The torturous pain-inducing experiments he carried out on thousands of innocent unfortunate victims are truly horrendous. I’ll just say that when I heard about some of the things done at unit 731, it makes a Nazi concentration camp seem like a country club. But it gets even worse. Shiro Ishii was captured by the United States. You’d think justice would finally be served, he’d be put on trial, publicly humiliated and executed for his crimes, but that’s not what happened. Instead the US made a deal with Shiro, that if he gave them all the information of scientific findings from his horrific experiments, they would grant him legal immunity. He was never tried for his crimes. He lived another 15 years in peace. Some of the other leaders of Unit 731 became professors in Japanese universities, and lived secure lives despite their horrible crimes. Is that fair? Is it fair that thousands of unsuspecting chinese, russian, and even british and american prisoners were tortured to death at Shiro Ishii’s camp, and he got to live peacefully? Is that fair? What kind of God would allow something like that to happen? That was the extreme example; now back to real life. Is it fair that the popular person in many social groups is not the one who is the most pure and clean; but instead the one who is the most skilled at influencing a group, whether for good or bad? Is it fair that there are many cruel people who live healthy lives, while many kind and generous people deal with all kinds of health problems? Is it fair that some people seem to get all the breaks? This is a problem for our minds, it challenges our faith, it seems to unfair, and the unfairness can lead to envy. But it’s not just an external problem, it’s internal as well. What do I mean? When you and I want the prosperity of the wicked rather than the struggles of the righteous, what does that say about us? Asaph reflected: I was unthinking and ignorant, like a dumb animal. I envied the wicked. My feet were slipping. It was as if he was on the edge of a cliff, his feet standing on righteousness, and down below was wickedness, and he actually felt his feet slipping down. It can happen to us too. If even for a moment, I actually wish I had the peace of the wicked, even if it means oppressing, and violence and cruelty to get it; if for even a moment I want peace for me at any cost; what does that reveal about my heart? How selfish, how cruel, how sub-human. Maybe I wouldn’t go to the level of Shiro Ishii to get power and influence and information. But the same self-centered heart causes me to use power, intimidation, cruelty to get what I want. When you actually desire the blessings of wickedness rather than the suffering of righteousness; you’re discovering that actually your “righteousness” is actually all about you and not God. All about getting gifts from him, and not about him and his glory. That’s the situation. How can we get out from under this deformed evaluation of who’s got the good life and who doesn’t? For Asaph, just thinking more about the problem didn’t help, it only made Asaph more envious. What turned it around for him? 2 things: See the end destiny, and see God’s presence now.
The end destiny. Would you rather have a shallow peace now; but one day face sudden destruction, ruin, terrors? Or would you have struggle now; but glory later? God’s final judgment levels the field of unfairness. He says, the wicked who seem to get away with it and prosper now; one day it’ll be like a dream that is over, an illusion that is vaporized. God will judge all people. No one ever actually gets away with anything ever. God causes the destruction and ruin, because he is the final judge, his justice and fairness will take course, and any who are not aligned with his justice, will come to ruin. God is a defender of the oppressed, which includes bringing justice on the oppressors. On the other side, the righteous who struggle now, will experience glory on the day of judgment. The opposite of destruction; it’ll be the putting together of people fully and wholly. The person you’ve always deep down wanted to be, that’s what the righteous will be. Nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of. Instead of a dream fading away, it’ll be a dream finally coming true. All good desires fully satisfied. That’s the glory that awaits the righteous on that day. But it’s not just later on that the unfairness is righted. It’s now too. Just ask: would you actually want the peace of the wicked rather than the struggle of the righteous? The struggle of the righteous is a struggle with God involved, with him near, with his presence. The peace of the wicked even now is a peace without God. Would you really want to be a person like Shiro Ishii who had to live knowing the horrible violation and torturing of other humans that he was responsible for? Would you really want such a warped, twisted conscience that you could actually have some version of peace about that? What a terrible way to live. There is such mercy from God that he has kept each of us from doing more horrible and regrettable things than we already have done. Such mercy that he curbs the sins that we are able to commit. Even when we struggle we can know that God is near. As Asaph said, “I am always with you. You hold me by my right hand. With your guidance you lead me, and afterward, you will take me to glory.” See how his main focus is on how he has God now. “As for me, God’s nearness is good for me.” The righteous even when they struggle, discover that God is the ultimate reward, not his stuff. Him. Having God near is the peace we desire. Not having power in this world, or wealth, but God near to us, God with us, that’s the true wealth we desire. So, how can you have him near? Look at how Asaph describes the wicked person’s relationship with God. In v.27 he says, “you destroy those who commit adultery against you.” He says they commit adultery against God. If you asked any of the wicked people, have you committed adultery against God, most would say, “No.” To commit adultery against someone you have to be married to them. When I’m with my wife, I’m not committing adultery against anyone else, she’s my wife. Asaph said that we all are married to God. We all owe him our allegiance, our nearness, our closeness, our bodies and souls and minds. Sin is not just minor or trivial. It’s a violation of the fundamental relationship that we all were made to have. And we all have committed spiritual
adultery against God. We’ve all put ourselves in bed with other gods, with our idols like success, or wealth, or comfort. God has the right to divorce himself from us, send us far away. But instead, to bring us to himself again, Jesus Christ came as God in human flesh. He was the only human who never grabbed peace through wickedness, never committed adultery against his heavenly father. Yet he was treated the most unfairly of all. Justice was flipped upside down when Jesus died, and we get the benefit.The Father treated Jesus as the adulterer to be divorced. God can be a rock for us when we struggle because Jesus was a rock pulverized, crushed to dust. He can be your portion, because his portion was taken from him. He is your refuge because he faced the most unfair, unjust and painful death; and yet he endured, yet he trusted, yet he rose from death. Jesus is the place where envying the wicked falls away. He did not envy the soldiers who drove in the nails. He didn’t envy the authorities who spit on him and beat him. His feet did not slip from his path. Why? So he could have you close to himself. There’s no rock like Jesus when life is unfair, when your feet are slipping. A God who is a reward now, and an enduring treasure forever. A God who has fairness mixed with love, justice mixed with grace. He’s a God worth trusting even when your eyes struggle to make sense of who seems blessed and who doesn’t. Like Asaph, we can say, “Who else is there for me in heaven? Besides you, I desire no one else on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever.” The result of Jesus dying and rising: you now have a refuge for the times of struggle. Your feet don’t have to slip anymore. You no longer think like a dumb mute animal when you come to him in his word and he reminds you how valued you are to him. And you see a more balanced view of reality. Even in this life, the prosperous wicked have problems along with their success. The righteous have blessing along with their struggles. It’s a mixed bag for everyone. But you have Jesus, a rock, a refuge. And you can tell of his works to people around you. Even when life is a struggle, Jesus is with you, and he desires to be with all who struggle so he can be their refuge as well. Amen.