Skip to content 2. It Starts with a God Encounter Sep 7 · 27 min ...more
0:10 Shall we give the Lord a clap offering, Church? Hallelujah! It is a joy to see you through this video and to study the Word of God together. Psalm 73 is what we are0:22 going to focus on today. It starts with a God encounter. Let's read verses 1 and 2 together. The Word of God says, Truly God is good to0:33 Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. I0:45 want you to pay attention to these 2 verses. Truly God is good to Israel and to those who are pure in heart, but as for me, my feet had0:57 nearly stumbled. I want you to listen to me carefully. In those days when the psalmist writes a song, it is sung throughout the nation,1:10 people who would take that song and sing it in different villages. But imagine this with me, as they are hearing a psalmist sing this, Truly, God is1:22 good to Israel. They will say Amen to that. But when it comes to verse 2, But as for me, there is a contrast there. It will be almost like a1:34 jarring to their ears, isn't it? I want you to listen. Why is there a contrast here? What could be the contrast? See, I already established this with you. When you study the word,1:45 look for the contrast. There are 3 possibilities of contrast here. Contrast number 1, God is good, but I'm not good. So the psalmist who pens this,1:57 his name is Aesop. He could have realized that God is good, but I'm not good. That could be the contrast. Or the second contrast is, They are pure in heart, but I am not pure in2:09 heart. Or the third contrast could be, God is good to Israel, but God is not good to me. See, I want you to realize this. The first 2 is a contrast between2:20 God and God is good, a goodness of God and myself that I am not good. The purity of the Jews and my purity. But the third 1 is about the religious cliche2:32 and my personal experience. So what do you think is the contrast here? The contrast here, I believe, is the religious cliche. Understands and everybody says, Amen to God is good to2:44 Israel. But as for me, it is not my experience. Why do I say this is the possibility of the contrast? Because look at how the Psalms2:55 end. This Psalm ends in verse 28, and this is what it says, But for me, it is good to be near God. It's the same language. But as for me, he's talking about3:07 his personal experience. So here is a psalmist who is going through something, and he says that God is good to Israel, but that is not my experience.3:19 My personal experience is otherwise. Like, for example, if I say to you, God is good, what would you say? You would reply by saying all the time. It's like a religious cliche. But how many of you truly believe that3:31 God is good all the time in every moment of your life, even when you go through challenges? That's exactly what the psalmist was feeling. So the reason why he was feeling this way is given to us3:43 in verse 3. Verse 3, the Bible says, For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Look at that.3:55 There was a struggle that was going on within him. His heart, there was an inner struggle, and in his mind, there was a depression. And the depression is caused by this inner struggle. There's an inner4:06 conflict. And the inner conflict is because, he says, I saw the prosperity of the wicked, therefore I was envious. For. The word4:18 starts with for. That's the reason. Want you to pay attention to this. This is 1000000 dollar question, people have always wrestled with it. What is it? The question is this:4:30 Why do good people suffer and bad people prosper? Isn't it? I believe the psalmist, in this case his name is Asap, watched the4:42 wicked in Jerusalem prosper, but the good go through suffering and pain. And his question, the perplexity that he was going through, caused him to4:54 have an inner conflict. And this was his struggle. As a result, the Bible says, he elaborates what he saw among the wicked.5:06 What did he see about the wicked? Verse 4 all the way to verse 12 explains what he saw about the wicked. There are 3 things he sees about the wicked.5:18 The wicked were prosperous, the wicked were proud, and the wicked were powerful. Look at this in verse 4, he says: For they have no pangs until death their5:30 bodies are fat and sleek. Underline that, their bodies are fat. Now, you can't go to someone and say, You're fat. They will slap you. But this is a Middle Eastern5:42 idiom. The idiom is they are fat, meaning they are prosperous. Just like in the Chinese, even in the Indian, some cultures, when they see somebody,5:54 put on a little bit more weight, they would say, Oh, prosperous, isn't it? Or there are some good things happening in your life. Listen, that's exactly what he's saying. Their bodies are fat, meaning there is a that is6:05 they are going through prosperity. In verse 6, pride is their necklace. Violence covers them as a garment. Look at that. Pride. Because they are so prosperous, they are wicked and6:17 they are prospering. Pride. That means they think that nothing can bring them down. And so, as a result, they are proud. Thirdly, in verse 8, he says, They scoff and6:29 speak with malice. Lofthily, they threaten oppression. In other words, they are violent towards the weak and the poor and the marginalized. In other words, they threaten oppression. That means6:41 they are powerful. So 3 things he looks at the wicked. Why he was envious, why he was, looking why he was envious of the wicked because they are prospering, they are proud, and they6:53 are powerful. And this almost stumbled him. That's what he says. So just pause there and recollect what we just read. First 2 verses says, Truly God is good to Israel, but7:05 for me, that's not my experience. Why? Because I was looking at the wicked and I was envious at heart. What did he see about the wicked? That the wicked is powerful, the wicked is proud, and the wicked are7:16 prospering. So he wonders, what is the point of this all. So there's an inner churning. There's a churning within. I want you to embrace those 2 words. You will hear us talk about it7:28 in some of the lessons in this series. The churning within. In other words, the inner life is so churned. There's some bitterness. There's some angst. There's some concerns. There's some problems.7:40 And he's saying, how am I going to deal with it? Now, why would I say that he had 2 inner struggles? Because he lists it. Look at this. In verse 13, he7:52 says, All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. In other words, he's basically saying, what's the point of me being religious? What's the point of8:04 me doing all these righteous things and then go through suffering when the wicked are prospering? What's the point? What's the point of serving God and doing all this? At the end, I didn't get the promotion. What's the8:14 point of doing all this and my marriage failed? What's the point? I want you to listen to me carefully. All in vain have I kept my hands clean and washed my hands in innocence.8:27 So, basically, his inner struggle is, I want to give up. But the problem is, he can't give up. So, that was his inner struggle. I want to give up, and yet I can't give up. Why? Look at verse8:38 15. If I had said thus, I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. Look at what the psalmist says. If I had said like that, I want to give up,8:50 I would have betrayed an entire generation of your people. What does that mean? It means this. This psalmist is not just any ordinary psalmist. This psalmist, Asap, is the worship9:02 leader for the entire nation of Israel. He's the worship leader of King David. So if he had stood up and said, I give up on being religious, I give up on pursuing9:14 God, what would have happened? A whole generation of young people, the whole generation would have been stumbled. That's why he says, I want to give up, yet I can't give9:26 up. Can you feel the tension? You know, story was told on a Monday morning in his kitchen. The mom calls the son and says, Son, get ready for school.9:39 The son says, Mom, I don't want to go to school. The students hate me. Son, get ready for school. And the son says, Mom, I don't want to go to school. The teachers9:51 hate me. Son, get ready for the school. Mom, I don't want to go to school. You have to go to school. You are the principal. I want you to listen to me. You have10:02 no other choice but to step up and do what you don't enjoy doing. Why? Because there is a responsibility. That was his struggle. You know, God has given me grace to journey with so many church10:14 leaders and pastors all around the world. Sometimes they are going through a dry spell in their life. They are disillusioned or disappointed or going through a despair or discouragement. This10:26 is what happens. They just go through the motions, but there's no real life in what they do. That's exactly what he was feeling. There was a inner inner conflict. What he was doing on the outside10:38 meant nothing to him on the inside. What was the second inner struggle? The second inner struggle is, I want to understand, yet I can't understand. Look at this. He tried to reason it out. Verse 1610:49 says, but when I thought how to understand this, it seemed a very some task. Look at what he says. When I tried to understand this, analyzed it, I wanted to I wanted to study it, and I want to11:01 make sure that I understand why I'm going through all this. He said it was a worrisome task. In other words, it was too much, too difficult for him to handle. So here11:13 is a man of God who is going through an inner struggle and churning within but he doesn't know how to handle it. He wants to give up but he can't give up. So what's the solution?11:25 I want you to see whenever you read the scriptures I want you to pay attention to these lenses. Whenever you see the, see the story building up, there is a biblical tone I want you to pay attention11:37 to, the tone in which things are said. Secondly, I want you to pay attention to the biblical tension in the narrative that is building up. Every good story there's a tension, isn't it?11:49 Not only that, wait for a Biblical twist. Every narrative there is a narrative twist that happens. But finally, every good story ends with a theological purpose,12:01 biblical theology. So watch for the tone, the tension, the twist, and the theology. In this case, there's a twist, and the twist, the tension is building up, but there's a twist happening. And you know where12:13 it happens? In verse 17. Verse 17, the Bible says, everything shifted once Asap entered into the sanctuary of God. Look at this. Until I went12:24 into the sanctuary of God, then I discerned their end. Who's there? The wicked's end. The Message translation says it like this. Eugene Peterson wrote, Until I12:36 went into the sanctuary of God, then I saw the whole picture. I want you to pay attention to this because until I entered into the sanctuary of God. That's why I want you to catch this principle church.12:49 Everything changed when Aesop, the psalmist, entered into the presence of God. Hallelujah. Everything shifts. You know how many times we13:01 mutter and sputter, we fume and we spurt, and our ego gets hurt when all we know is that we need a moment with Him. That's all13:13 we need. We need to go into His presence. The moment you go in His presence with the Word of God and with prayer, when you enter into His presence and empty your soul, that's when everything shifts. So here in verse13:25 17, the Bible says, he entered into the sanctuary of God and everything shifted. What shifted? What happened in the presence of God? I want to ask you this fundamental question. What did the13:36 psalmist learn in the presence of God that turned his desperate struggle into an absolute surrender and gave him a spiritual compass for his pilgrimage? That's the key question I want you to13:48 ask. And you know what was the answer? The answer is 3 profound lessons the psalmist learned. Psalmist learned 3 profound lessons. What are they? Number14:00 1, his evaluation of life was from the wrong perspective. First thing he recognizes that his evaluation of life was from the wrong perspective.14:12 I want you to pay attention to verse 18 and verse 19. He says, Truly, you set them in slippery places. You make them fall to ruin. Who are they? They are the14:24 wicked. He comes into the presence of God. Suddenly, perspective is now shifted because he was evaluating life from a temporal perspective rather than an eternal perspective.14:37 And so when he comes into the presence of God, his perspective shifted. As a result, he says, Truly, You, meaning God, You have set them in slippery places, and You make them fall to ruin. Verse 19,14:49 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors. In other words, the destruction of the wicked comes suddenly upon them. It's almost like they are walking15:01 in marble floors, and the floors have oil on it, so it's slippery. I want you to listen to me carefully. Many times we view15:13 life from a temporal point of view, temporal perspective. That's why we get so churned on our inside. We look at the arrogant, we look at15:24 the wicked, and we say, how can they prosper like that? How can the righteous suffer? Because we are looking at temporal viewpoint. Can I humbly say this? Believers ought to always15:36 evaluate what perspective we function from. See, the problem with us is there are 2, there's a term, theological term,15:47 ontological inversion. God created us as spiritual beings, and then he placed us in a physical body. But we are first a15:59 spiritual being that have physical experiences. But, you know, we have inversed it. We have now become more of a physical being who16:11 have spiritual experiences every now and then. When you come to a life group, you're having a spiritual experience. But when you go back, you're back to your physical being a physical being. That's the ontological16:22 inversion that happened because of the fall of man. But can I humbly say this? You are first and foremost a spiritual being. That's why you need to understand eternity. You have been created for eternity.16:34 You need to see everything through an eternal perspective. And the Bible says when you come to that place of embracing an eternal perspective, you recognize this world, along with all16:46 its desires, will pass away, and it's temporary. That's exactly what you and I need, isn't it? Otherwise, if we don't catch that this world is temporary, we will be16:58 crying for things that do not need to be cried about. A little boy came back from preschool. He has a dog named Patty. He usually plays with the dog after he comes back from17:09 preschool. But on that day, the Patty ran into the road and was struck by a car, and the Patty died. So the mother wasn't sure how to tell the little boy17:21 that his dog died. So when the little boy came back home, he said, Mommy, where's Patty? And the mom said to him, Patty died today. And the boy said,17:33 Okay. And then he went to the backyard to play. And the mother thought, Wow, he took it well. A few minutes later, he ran back into the house and says, Mommy, where's Patty? And he17:44 says, Boy, I told you already, Patty died. And the boy started screaming and crying and wailing. So the mother paused and asked him, What happened? The first time I told you there was no17:56 reaction, second time you're yelling and crying. What happened? He said, I thought you said daddy. I thought you said daddy died. I want you to listen to me. Many18:08 times we cry for the patties of this world and we fail to recognize the cry of our own father. The father who loves you is calling for you. That's why embrace the eternal perspective. So18:20 he evaluated his evaluation of life was from the wrong perspective. Secondly, his goal in life was of the wrong pursuit. Read with me verse 21 and verse 22. The18:32 Bible says, When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast toward you. Look at what he18:43 says. My soul was embittered, and I was pricked, he says, and as well as I was senseless and ignorant. I was a beast. I was like a18:55 beast. When you ask yourself this question, what does he mean by that? My soul is embittered. In other words, he had wrong desires, wrong pursuits. He19:07 was measuring life with the wrong measuring yardsticks. And as a result, there were so much fatal attractions, sinful desires, unworthy loves and pursuits in his life.19:19 And they were causing him to be like a beast, he says. Why would he say he is like a beast? A beast doesn't know the difference between right and wrong. A beast doesn't think, is19:31 this wise or unwise? Is this essential or nonessential? Is this valuable or not valuable? The beast doesn't think like that. The beast just does what it feels like doing, the19:43 indulgences. That's exactly the beast always moved by instincts. And that's what he's saying. I was moved by all these wrong, sinful, fatal attractions and sinful19:55 desires. You know, in Mark 4 19, Jesus said this: The cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the pride of life, or20:06 desire for other things, they choke in and they remove the Word from us. These are the fatal attractions. We need to evaluate our heart. Is our heart longing for the20:18 things of the world? Is there desire for other things? Is there desires for the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches? And that was the language he was using. I was embittered. I was20:30 senseless. I was pricked. And I was like a beast. In other words, he needed to shift his not only his perspective, but he20:42 needed to shift his pursuit from material to spiritual. He needed to shift in his pursuit from material to spiritual.20:54 You know, sometimes we, we don't take time to really evaluate what we are learning. We don't reevaluate how is our life, what are we longing, where are, what is our, what are we21:05 yearning for, what are we longing for. We don't take time to evaluate. Sometimes you are going after the wrong thing and hoping that this thing will satisfy. But21:17 then you recognize even if you get everything you desire, it doesn't ultimately satisfy. Story was told of a pastor who went to an asylum and, in a mental21:29 asylum. He was taken into the asylum by the chaplain, and he went from 1 corridor to the next. And in 1 of the corridors, he heard a man was yelling,21:40 Lulu, Lulu. And so the pastor asked the chaplain, what happened to him? He said, Lulu jolted him. So he went to21:52 another corridor and another guy was also yelling, Lulu, Lulu, what happened to him? Oh, he also was jolted by Lulu. Then they went into the facility even further22:04 in deeper in where there are severe cases. And there was 1 guy banging his head on the door and scratching his fingers on the wall and he was yelling, Lulu,22:16 Lulu. So the pastor said, did Lulu jolt him? The chaplain said, no, he married Lulu. In other words, just because you get what you desired, sometimes22:28 it doesn't satisfy. Recently, I was having a chat with 1 of the very successful business owners. And this person,22:40 during the time of our meal together, shared with us how even though successful in business, lost marriage, failed22:52 in marriage, and as a result, what's the point? I want you to listen to me carefully. Sometimes you're pursuing things without realizing what is it costing us on the other aspects of23:04 our life. So we need to take time to evaluate. Are we pursuing material things? Are we pursuing spiritual things? Are we looking at life from a temporal viewpoint or an23:16 eternal viewpoint? Thirdly, he talks about his foundation in life was in the wrong place. Look at what he says in verse 23 and 24. Nevertheless,23:28 I'm continually with you. You hold my right hand. Nevertheless, you're continually with me, and you hold my right hand. I love that. It's a it's an idiom23:40 again. You hold my right hand. What does it mean to hold my right hand? It's an idiom for sponsorship. That God is the 1 who sponsors you. He protects you. He provides for you. And He23:51 says, Behold, you're with me. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward, you receive me to glory. Hallelujah. I want you to listen to me. Here is the24:03 dilemma that this man of God was going through. In the first 16 verses, if you read it carefully, a lot of the word that is repeated is the word I. Mark24:15 every time you see the word I. You will see that it was all about self. It was all about Him. Me, myself, and I. But when it came to this, in the shift happened in the presence of God in verse24:27 17, From verse 18 onwards, you will see the shift that it's all God's perspective. He shifts his perspective from God's perspective, and he says, You, You.24:39 Again, you read here. It says, You hold my right hand. You will lead me into glory. In other words, God, You have become my foundation.24:51 Earlier it was self, but now the shift has taken place. A shift of foundation from man to God, from self to God. Now, this is fundamental and vital for25:03 us. You and I, we need to understand that the psalmist went through 3 shifts, and these 3 shifts for us are very vital. So read with me the verses 2525:15 all the way to verse 28. When you read verses 25 to 28, you will see how he makes these shifts. Verse 25 says, Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on25:26 earth I desire besides You. My strength and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. And then in verse 27, he says, For behold, those who25:38 are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. Hallelujah. And verse 28, But as for me, it is good to be near God.25:50 I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works. Praise God. So whom have I in heaven but you? There is nothing on earth I desire besides you.26:02 He's talking about a shift in his desire, in his pursuits. Look at the next verse. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my26:13 portion. In other words, my foundation is no longer in myself, but it's in God. Thirdly, he talks about, You will deal with the wicked. Those who are far from you will perish. You put an26:25 end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. Can you see the picture? There's a shift in his desire. There's a shift in his pursuit and his perspective and also in his foundation. I want you to listen to26:37 me. There are 3 shifts that you and I need to make constantly in our journey as a disciple of Christ. The 3 shifts are: we need to shift in perspective from temporal to eternal.26:50 We need to shift in our pursuits from material to spiritual. And we also need to make the shift in the place of foundation, place of hope from man to God,27:02 from self
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Rev. Paul Jeyachandran leads the Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC) Movement, which is all about calling churches back to its disciplemaking roots. Visit us at idmcmovement.com
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Paul Jeyachandran
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