6. Complaints from the Godly Psalm 73:13-22

Text: “Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.”

Psalm 37:1-2.

Good morning, fretful Christian!  If you and I are completely honest – as all professing the Name of Christ Jesus as Christians should most certainly be – then we shall openly confess to each other in the Body of Christ, that we too often become fretful and "…envious against the workers of iniquity…"  Honesty is the very best policy, beloved in Christ Jesus.  Amen?

“Confess ye your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual prayer of a righteous (made righteous in Christ) man availeth much.  Elias (Elijah) was a man subject to like passions (weaknesses, faults, etc) as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.” (James 5:16-17)

Verse 13. “Verily (truly) I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. Here it is, dear Reader!  Is this not the complaint of your fretful heart and mine at times; times when we get weary of well-doing, when we see the prosperity, the increased riches; the securing of social positions; the outward peace of mind, and freedom from troubles that the unsaved all around us seem to be thoroughly enjoying? 

This is certainly how I personally feel sometimes, and I know you will agree, sometimes you feel this way too, my friend.  We begin to feel just as the Godly Psalmist who wrote the Book of Psalms felt in his day – there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. What the Psalmist experienced, is our experience also, honesty is, indeed, the best policy for us.

It is a very immature Christian who has never questioned his/her faith or practice while going through, perhaps, a prolonged period of sore and severe testing by the Lord, or tormenting by the world, the flesh, and the Devil.  Contending for the faith is tough!

Verse 14.” For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. As sure, or as soon as I rise, I have a whipping, and my breakfast is bread of sorrow and the water of adversity…our lives are full of afflictions; and it is as great a part of a Christian’s skill to know afflictions as to know mercies; to know when God smites, as to know when He girds us; and it is our sin to overlook mercies.”  (Joseph Caryl 1602-1673)

Ever have days like this, Christian friend?  I have, and if I am honest (and I am!), I often complain that I have far too many of them!  Days when one feels like something scraped off the sole of one’s shoe.  Days, when a dark cloud of depression, and hopelessness descends and wraps all around one’s soul, like the immediate discomfort of a wet blanket being draped across one’s shoulders.  In days like those, one can quickly feel that the Lord God has turned His face away from one, and that joy has abandoned the heart completely.

In comes Satan with his hob-nailed boots firmly on his ruthless feet to kick the lights right out of the serving Christian – while the serving Christian’s armour is down, and his/her soul is languishing in what John Bunyan called ‘Doubting Castle’.  (See Pilgrim’s Progress).

Hear what John Trapp (1601-1699) had to say on this subject: 

“The way to Heaven is an afflicted way, a perplexed, persecuted way, crushed close together with crosses, as was the Israelite’s way in the wilderness, or that of Jonathan and his armour-bearer, that had a sharp rock on the one side and a sharp rock on the other.  And, whilst they crept upon all four, flinty stones were under them, briars and thorns on either hand of them; mountains, crags, and promontories over them; so, Heaven is caught by pains, by patience, by violence, affliction being our inseparable companion.  “The Cross way is the highway to Heaven,” said that martyr (Bradford); and another, “If there be any way to Heaven on horseback, it is by the Cross.”  To Hell a man may go without a staff, as we say; the way thereto is easy, steep, strawed with roses; ‘tis but a yielding to Satan, a passing from sin to sin, from evil purposes to evil practices, from practice to custom, etc.”  (John Trapp)

It is only when the Lord reveals the end from the beginning to the godly Psalmist, that he begins to see more clearly the reason for his sore trials, daily testing, and afflictions.  Even thinking that the Lord might have abandoned him, and begun to bless the evil-doers, was a source of deep pain to him – for he knew in his heart that His Lord God would never abandon him, or leave him without necessary comfort in his times of testing.

Verse 16. “When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me.  One of the worst trails for the serving Christian is when Satan fosters the notion into his/her mind that the Lord God has forsaken him/her.  Once we open the great Book of God, our KJV Bibles, we are immediately set right on this vital subject, and God’s comfort flows once more into our beleaguered Christian hearts.

“Let your conversation (entire lifestyle) be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.  So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my Helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”  (Hebrews 13:5-6)

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them Eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck then out of My hand.” (John 10:27-28)

The Lord God reveals unto ‘His people’ the end that must come to all those who reject His Salvation offer in Christ Jesus.  They may well seem to be prospering, enjoying peaceful lives; amassing fortunes in material wealth, at this time.  However, the end that awaits such reprobate souls we would not wish for anyone.

Verse 17: “Then understood I their end.  No envy gnaws now at his heart, but a Holy horror both of their impending doom, and of their present guilt fills his soul. He recoils from being dealt with in the same manner as the proud sinners, whom he just now regarded with admiration.

Verse 18. “Thou castedst them down into destruction. Eternal destruction will be all the more terrible in contrast with the former prosperity of those who are ripening for it…If the wicked had not been raised so high they could not have fallen so low.” (C.H. Spurgeon)

Thought: One thought of where the Christ-rejecters are headed Eternally – turns the Christian’s fretful envying of them to abject pity for the destination of their immortal souls.  Let us pray harder for those yet unsaved, that they might receive God’s grace.

4. ‘The Ungodly Wicked’: Defined by God’s Word! Psalm 73:5-12

Text: ”Ye shall know them by their fruits.  Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?...Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit…Wherefore (a conclusion) by their fruits ye shall know them.”

Matthew 7:15-20.

Good morning, discerning Christian!  When the Lord God called us with His effectual call to Salvation; granted you and I repentance from our sin; faith to believe (trust) in Christ; and quickened us by His Holy Spirit from a dead spirit to one alive in Christ Jesus – He granted us Spiritual discernment, a discernment which we are called to improve daily, through the earnest study of God’s written Word, and in constant fellowship with Christ Jesus.  Praise God for Spiritual discernment!

“And ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free…If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”  (John 8:32;36)

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might KNOW the things that are freely given to us of God.  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth; but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual.  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are Spiritually discerned.”  (1 Corinthians 2:12-14)

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.”  (2 Timothy 2;15)

This below, however, is how ‘the ungodly wicked’ are Spiritually defined in Psalm 73:5-12:

Untroubled: The ‘wicked’ are Bible-defined as untroubled in daily life, in comparison to the Christian, who seems to be getting difficulties every day!  In a great battle, the warrior-soldiers are found constantly at the front of the conflict, at the forefront of the fighting; in the vanguard of the fiercest contentions – while the arm-chair generals are usually found miles away from the danger, contemplating the odds, in comparative personal safety.

Such arm-chair generals are of no immediate danger to the enemy fighters, and therefore, seldom are the focus of the opposition.  The Devil and his demons do little harm to professing Christians who seldom don the full armour of God to contend with them for Christ.

Verse 5.  “They are not in trouble as other men.  God has given them over to the desires of their own hearts, that they who are filthy may be filthy still: like a sick man, are they to whom a wise physician forbids nothing, since the disease is incurable.” (Gerhohus1053-1169)

Verse 5. “…Neither are they plagued like other men. Fierce trials do not arise to assail them: they smart not under the Divine rod.  While many saints are both poor and afflicted, the prosperous sinner is neither.  He is worse than other men, and yet he is better off; he ploughs least, and yet has the most fodder.  He deserves the hottest Hell, and yet has the warmest nest.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 314)

Proud: Because they receive little if any Divine chastisement – for a Father only chastises His own children – they become arrogant an haughty, “…pride compasseth them about as a chain.”

“Therefore, pride compasseth them about as a chain (they are entrapped by it); violence covereth them as a garment.”  (Psalm 73:6)

Violent: Their violence is not always personally doled out, but administered often by the mark of a pen, or the secret nod or wink of conspiracy in secret meetings.  Yet being proud and having little fear of God, they often desire to have, and take what they want by one means or another.  They believe sincerely that they are, in fact, worth all things they desire.

Gluttonous: Nothing is enough for the wicked, the reprobate, who only has this world and its desires in mind and heart.  They become gluttonous, greedy, selfish, and grossly covetous of material things.

Verse 7. “They eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. There is no satisfying a gluttonous man/woman. As we often say, “His/Her eyes are bigger than his/her belly.”  A heartful of whatever it is the wicked crave/covet – is not enough.  “More, more, more!” This is the cry of their reprobate hearts.  Satisfaction is NEVER achieved.

Corrupt:  Because the inner heart-motivation of the wicked is greed, they must, by sheer necessity, be able and willing to be corrupted, and to corrupt others to get what their lusts covet.  Their treasures are all in this world, and therefore, they just cannot get enough to satisfy the needs of a never-dying soul.

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”  (Matthew 16:26)

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.  But lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  (Matthew 6:19-21)

Oppressors of the Godly: Their father, the Devil, is a bully and a constant oppressor.  Like father, like son with the wicked, Christ-rejecting reprobate.  By their fruits shall ye know them.  The spirit of ant-Christianity, is merely the Devil in disguise, oppressing God’s people.

Disobedient to God: Mark well how many laws being brought in to Government legislation worldwide, that not only favour the ungodly, the oppressor, the perverted, and those that detest the Ten Commandments of the Living Lord God Almighty.  These are the actions of those being Biblically-defined as ‘the wicked’.

Ill-gotten wealthy: The wicked always seem to prosper in amassing ill-gotten gains.  No doubt their father, the Devil, and the corrupt natures they possess – will make them rich in this world’s material goods, but paupers in the Kingdom of Heaven to come.

Thought: “Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world.”  (Psalm 73:12)

3. Self-Honesty – the Best Policy! Psalm 73:3-4

Text: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.  Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?  But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates (rejected of God).”

2 Corinthians 13:5-6.

Good morning, often weary, but self-honest Christian!  Show me the professing Christian who NEVER feels totally weary, utterly discouraged, and sometimes almost in deep despair – and I will show you someone who has never really been engaged in the privilege of Spiritual warfare against the world, the flesh, and the Devil.  No pain, no gain!

Living a genuine Christian life is described in Scriptures as a profound and continual warfare, and this is the reason that the Living Lord God grants us a full set of Spiritual armour which we must place upon ourselves daily – if we are to war a good warfare in Christ’s service.

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil…Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.  Stand therefore…loins girt about with truth…the breastplate of righteousness; feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace…the shield of faith…the helmet of Salvation…the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; continual fervent prayer…”  (Ephesians 6:10-20)

But who would ever want to live such a life of constant warfare, constantly being on guard, perpetual watching, and seeking God’s face, and serving a Saviour/Lord Who has suffered on a cruel Roman Cross, died, rose again from the dead three days later, and, after showing Himself alive to a chosen group of His disciples and followers, gone back Home again to Heaven, with the instruction that we, ‘His people’ must now wait patiently for His return, and contend for faith in Him, in a most hostile world, while we do so?  It seems an almost impossible task!  (Luke 1:37)

However, the Lord God does not leave us without His Spirit; His Presence; and His protection and peace.  Praise His Name!  This is why “…many be called, but few chosen…” to be Christ’s followers; and for that same Scriptural reason, “…narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it…” (Matthew7:14)  (Matthew 20:16)

Without the Living Lord’s Divine empowerment, we could not dare to be ‘the children of God’ in a world so steeped in anti-Christianity, disobedience to God, and gross sin.

“But as many received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His Name.”  (John 1:12)

Is it, therefore, any wonder that the genuine Christian sometimes falls into the fault of looking all around us, and beginning to subtly ‘envy’ the ‘prosperity of the wicked’, unsaved?  God’s Word teaches us that we must always lay aside such envious practice.

“Wherefore (a conclusion) laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speaking, as new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby: if so that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”  (1 Peter 2:1-3)

Self-honesty is always the best policy for true, Spiritually regenerate, Christians – for we can never adjust a personal fault, if we refuse to honestly accept that we have it.

We Christians do often become quite envious of non-Christians.  They don’t seem to have the same level of stresses daily; they seem quite content to watch the world and all around them deteriorate into a quagmire of sin, and lust, and perverted filth.  It gives them little offence, because deep down where it matters in their hearts, this is the kind of sinful world they really desire to live in. 

Heaven would be Hell for those not Spiritually enlightened and saved by the precious Blood of Christ Jesus!  Sinners must be made fit to dwell in a Holy Heaven, wherein no sin dwells.  Christ Creates us ‘new creatures’ fit to dwell Eternally with Him in Heaven.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he/she is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold (Look, and fully understand), all things are become new.  And all things are of God, Who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation (the glorious Gospel of Christ, and Him Crucified for sinners).”  (2 Corinthians 5:17-18)

Verse 3. “For I was envious at the foolish. It is a pitiful thing that an heir of Heaven should have to confess, ‘I was envious,’ but worse still that he should have to put it, ‘I was envious at the foolish.’ Yet this acknowledgement is, we fear, due from most of us.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 313)

Furthermore, I would humbly add, that we Christians should never be envious at the foolish, unsaved, world all around us – for their foolishness in not receiving Christ as Saviour and Lord is, for them, an Eternal foolishness; a foolishness that will haunt their every thought as they languish, forever tormented, in the Lake of Fire.

There are no unbelievers in Hell, dear Reader.  They all now believe there, but also know it is Eternally hopeless for them to do anything about it, once death escorts them to their Eternal habitation.  Oh that men/women would cry out to the Lord NOW for Salvation!

“Who would envy a malefactor’s going up a high ladder and being mounted above the rest of the people when it is only for a little and in order to his being turned over and hanged?  That is just the case of wicked men who are mounted up high in prosperity; for it is so only that they may be cast down deeper into destruction.” (John Willison 1680-1750)

Verse 4. “For there are no bands in their death. The notion is still prevalent that a quiet death means a happy hereafter. The Psalmist had observed that the very reverse is true.  Careless persons become case-hardened and continue presumptuously secure, even to the last.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 314)

 “Men may die like lambs and yet have their places forever with the goats.” (Matthew Henry, 1662-1714)

Thought: “We suffer with Him, that we may be glorified together.” (Romans 8:17-18)

2. Christians on the Edge of Despair! Psalm 73:2

Text: “But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.  For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.  For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.  They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.”

Psalm 73:2-5.

Good morning, perplexed and weary Christian!  You have not taken a back seat on the Spiritual Battlefield in our Holy war with sin, Satan, and self.  You have been contending for the faith of Christ at the very frontline of the raging Battle, and have proven yourself - by God’s good strength, protection, and grace alone – to be a soldier in the army of the Living and Loving Lord Jesus.  Well done, Christian warrior!  Yet, at times you also, like the author, have felt that inevitable weariness of those that have fought and endured a long Spiritual war.

If you can relate to this scenario this morning, dear Reader, then you know what it is like to feel perplexed and weary in your continual warfare.  This lesson is for your encouragement, beloved brother/sister in Christ Jesus.  Take heart anew!  The Battle is not ours but Christs, and He is always the truly Victorious One.  Hallelujah!  King Jesus reigns Supreme!  Amen.

Hear the Master’s Voice in His Word: “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.  And the things that thou hast heard of me (Paul the apostle) among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.  Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth (makes war, and continues to make Spiritual war) entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him Who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”     (2 Timothy 2:1-4)

Verse 2. “But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.  For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.  Here begins the narrative of a great soul-battle, a Spiritual marathon, a hard and well-fought field in which the half-defeated become, in the end, wholly victorious.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 313)

What was the obvious reason for the Psalmist's temporary despair, and what becomes the same reason for your temporary despair/weariness, and mine?  It is obvious when we take time to look, dear brethren – we take the eyes of our faith off the risen Christ Jesus, and begin to pay too much attention to what the worldlings lot all around us currently seems!  Peter did something similar while permitted to walk on the waters with Christ in Galilee.

“…And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.  But when he saw the wind boisterous (strong), he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord save me.  And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”  (Matthew 14:29-31)

We sinners, who by God’s Sovereign grace are redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ from our sin, are never called to a life in which ‘all things will be rosy in the garden’.  No!  We are called to endure hardness, as good soldiers of the risen Christ.  Professing Christians today, all of us, need a good dose of REALITY!

The Lord Jesus suffered infinite sufferings upon that cruel Roman Cross on the day of His Crucifixion – all Hell was let loose upon that dear Lamb of God; all God the Father’s Holy wrath against all the sin of ‘His people’ was pressed upon God the Son as our Substitute, to appease the wrath of an Almighty Lord God of Holiness and hatred of all sin! 

This was done to show Christ’s redeemed, that the way of the Cross would not be an easy path to walk, it is by taking up our own personal crosses and enduring, that we prove to ourselves and to a world of unbelievers that we are indeed the genuine redeemed children of the promise of God – true Israel!  Praise God for His grace!  All hail the Lamb, Jesus Christ!

“And she (Mary) shall bring forth a son, and thou (Joseph) shalt call His Name JESUS: for He shall save His people (not all people!) from their sins.”  (Matthew 1:21)

Verse 2. “But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.  For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.  Let such as fear God and begin to look aside on the things of this world, know it will be hard even for them to hold out in faith and in the fear of God in time of trial. Remember the example of David; he was a man that had spent much time in travelling towards Heaven; yet, looking but a little aside upon the glittering show of this world, had very near lost his way, his feet were almost gone, his steps had well-nigh slipped.”  (Edward Elton, 1620)

Mature Christians, of many years walking with the Lord, can also recall such perilous times of personal conflicts – he/she who has never been severely wounded, had never really been in the Spiritual war. Fact!

Verse 2. “But as for me, my feet were almost gone. Errors of heart and head soon affect the conduct.  There is an intimate connection between his heart and the feet.  Asaph could barely stand, his uprightness was going, his knees were bowing like a falling wall.  When men doubt the righteousness of God, their own integrity begins to waver.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 313)

If we have sought to genuinely serve the risen Christ Jesus, we too will know the times of weariness in well-doing, the constant strains of upholding a sound Christian witness in a world of increasing depravity, anti-Christianity, and evil.  If we are honest with ourselves, we shall swiftly accept the fact that during such extremely testing times, we have been sorely tempted to just give up and put our Spiritual armour in the wardrobe for a while. 

However, that is when the good Lord God Whom we love and seek to serve in Christ, undertakes for us, supplies His extra grace, mercy and matchless love; and secures our faith in Himself.  Praise and all glory to His Holy Name!

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Thought: Verse 2. “My feet were almost gone. There is to be noted that the prophet said he was almost gone, and not altogether.  Here is the Presence, providence, strength, safeguard, and keeping of man by Almighty God, marvellously set forth.  That although we are tempted and brought even to the very point to perpetrate and do all mischief, yet He stays us and keeps us, that the temptation shall not overcome us.” (John Hooper 1495-1555)