Psalm 73
Scripture:
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.
Devotion:
We began this week with a worshiper who was honest enough to say that his feet had almost slipped, and by the end of the psalm he was standing on high places. That is the arc Asaph walked, and it is the arc this week has been inviting you to walk as well.
You watched Asaph sit with a question that had no easy answer and find his footing again, not through better circumstances but through a change in perspective that only the sanctuary could give. You stood with Habakkuk in the ruins of everything he counted on and heard him say "yet I will rejoice," not because things got better but because the God of his salvation was reason enough. And Jesus confirmed, plainly and without softening it, that the narrow road is harder and the narrow road leads to life, and that is a fact that changes everything.
The whole week has been pressing on the same place: where are you looking for the reward of faithfulness, and have you considered that God Himself is already the reward? Your response to that question is what matters now. It may be a confession that you have been looking in the wrong direction. It may be gratitude that has been building and needs to come out. It may be a commitment to actually do what Friday's application asked of you. Whatever God has said, write it honestly and bring it to worship on Sunday, because that is where people who have been in the sanctuary all week gather to say together what Asaph finally said: it is good to be near God.
HEAR about it:
Respond:
Write your response to God. What has He spoken to you this week through Psalm 73? What will you do about it? A prayer, a commitment, a confession? Make it honest and make it yours.
Prayer and Reflection:
Take a few minutes to sit quietly and reflect on the passage you read today. Let the Holy Spirit bring to mind what stood out to you and why. Then spend some time in prayer. Pray for the people around you, for your outlook on this day, and for the needs you are carrying in your own life.
Lord, You held Asaph's right hand when his feet were slipping. You gave Habakkuk the feet of a deer on high places when everything around him was failing. You are the same God this week that You were then. I come to You today not with a performance but with whatever this week has turned up in me, the envy I named, the narrow road I nearly left, the question I have been sitting with alone instead of bringing to the sanctuary. Take it all, and let what is real in me meet what is real in You. In the name of Jesus, who is the narrow gate, Amen.
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