Last night we took look at Psalm 73. The notes are admittedly sparse, but, here they are!
Psalm 73
1 The truth. (this is what get’s forgotten)
2-14 Wrong thinking based on a certain way of seeing.
2 dangerous place to be
3 work backwards: your eyes affect your heart affect your feet
4-12 what his eyes saw (public persona, unharmed by sin)
13-14 since I don’t have those particular things, it makes my life seem pointless.
the idea behind “chastened” is parental discipline (see Heb 12:3-12–if you don’t receive discipline from your heavenly Father, it means you’re not his kid.)
15-16 The dilemma – the silent, secret struggle
17-20 add eternity into the equation (the right perspective on time) and a just judge (the right perspective on reality) and then you have the whole picture.
21-28 even when I’m stupid – (a “beast” doesn’t live in eternity)
23 …I’m with Him
24 I have the personal presence of God
25 …who’s better than anything else.
28 this is the opposite of v.13
Christ and the eternal perspective:
Since we’re Christians, how do we see Jesus’ life, death and resurrection relating to Psalm 73. See these scriptures for some help: Matt 25:31-33, Mark 8: 36-38; Phil 1:24-24, 3:7-10; Hebrews 10:32-35, Hebrews 13:5-6
We might keep thinking about it and see even more. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus show us the same truths that Psalm 73 shows us. Or we could say, Jesus gives us a firm foundation to see why the conclusions Asaph reaches in Psalm 73 are true. He shows us that…
- This world is judged. The current order of things will not last.
- The ultimate meaning of everything is found in how it relates to the judge of all things.
- When he came and walked around, we saw the hearts of everyone exposed.
- In his death and resurrection we see the ultimate verdict of God on all human sin, and the ultimate way we can be rescued from the effects of that sin: connection to Him (by faith).
- To be close to him is eternal life. To be far from him is to perish.
- So we have a reason to not envy people who are enjoying sin far from him. They are like fish, sunning themselves and playing volleyball on the sandy beach—their time is short, and their fun is killing them.
- In Jesus we also see God’s heart towards these people—he loves them (we are all them)—and he came and died so they could turn go from being far from him to being near to him. (Eph 2:13)
If you don’t know Christ: Are you willing to consider the fact that you may not have all the information you need to judge what’s really important? Or that you could even be deceived? Please consider that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ could be most important thing you need to know about, and that Jesus Himself, and how you relate to him might actually define your life…It’s what He claims.
To end we read Psalm 16