When the Bad Guys Win

As we get started this morning, I want to roll some tape and show you something. Project Homeless Connect, this last Tuesday, was amazing. If you don't know what this was about, we had hundreds of Twin Lakes Church people volunteer to work with city and county agencies, and it was a way to try to get people off the streets and kind of back into the grid with dignity. You know, get them jobs, get them help.

For example, they had tables with job counselors, said, "Okay, to get a job, you need an ID, and you're not going to get a job without one. You need to wash those clothes. You need to get a haircut." And then they would just walk people right over to the volunteer barbers or the volunteer laundry people and the volunteers from the DMV who would connect them with IDs. They even had the Dominican Mental Health unit of people there saying, "Hey, do you think you might have a mental problem or a prescription that's out of date? Let's just get you connected right now." Very proactive thing. Let's get you going.

But what really surprised me was a couple of things. First of all, I expected to see people I knew from church volunteering, but many times I heard my name, "Hey, Pastor René," and I turned around and it was a client. It was a man or woman who's homeless who they told me were regular attenders here at Twin Lakes and recognized me and that shattered some of my own prejudices about who homeless people are.

And second, and here's something that really humbled me, I was reading about how Jesus washed the disciples' feet and there were dozens of Twin Lakes church people washing the feet of the homeless. And while they were washing them, many of them told me, "Pastor, they just asked me to pray for them." And so I did. And I thought, "This is what Jesus did and what he wants us to do, washing the feet of the least of these." I was powerfully impressed.

And I think we ought to thank those 200-plus volunteers who showed up to Project Homeless Connect. That was a very, very good thing. And I'm looking forward to that next year again, too. Hey, grab the message notes that look like this. Soul Food is the name of the series that we are doing in the Psalms. Today's topic, "When the Bad Guys Win." And while you're getting those notes out, let me tell you a story of something that happened to me a little while ago.

We were on a vacation down in San Diego. And I'd spent a couple of hours body surfing at a beach near Del Mar, San Diego. Anybody here ever been down to Del Mar? Very nice area, right? Very nice. Do we have anybody from Del Mar here, actually, right now? Is that why you were screaming? No, these are still people who are excited about David Brewer. But so I'm down there at Del Mar. And after it was all over, I went to head home, head back to my car, which I'd parked on a residential street there in one of these beautiful neighborhoods. Very nice neighborhood in Del Mar.

Only I get in the car and vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom. Wouldn't start. Battery completely dead. But I look up and right there at a gorgeous beachfront home right next to my car were two guys, apparently neighbors, and best of all, they're working on their cars. The hoods are up. Their beautiful top of the line tools are lined up on their beautiful tool mat, which was nicer than any carpet I've ever had in my house. Gorgeous tool mat. And one was a brand new Mercedes. One was a BMW. I think this is perfect. I'm stranded with a car that won't run, but I said, "The Lord would have it. I've got two amateur mechanics."

Literally, they were as close to me as I am to Howard, or closer. I'm literally right next to their driveway. I think this is going to be a snap. They were just wrapping up. They were standing there. They just popped open a couple of beers, and they were talking about landscaping services for the yards, which service is the best landscaper to get to mow your lawn, and so on. I speak up and I go, "Hey, guys, it looks like my car won't start. Can I bother you for a jump?" They look at each other, and then they look at me, and they go, "No." I thought they were kidding.

And so I kind of laughed, and they go, "No, we..." They look down at all their tools. They go, "First guy says, 'We don't have any jumper cables.'" And the second guy goes, "Yeah, we don't have no cables." And he goes, "But why don't you try to slip start it by rolling it down the hill?" I go, "Okay, I could do that. If you guys want to just give me a push to get it going, then I could sit inside and slip start it." And they look at each other again, take a sip of beer in unison, like, "Pfft," and go, "No." So I go, "All right." So I head back into my car, and I try to roll it myself, but I can barely get it moving.

And as I grunt past their driveway, one of them says very loudly to the other, obviously wanting me to hear, "Maybe we should have said, 'We'll do it if you give us 100 bucks.'" And the other guy goes, "Yeah!" And they both look at me while I'm rolling the car past. I'm thinking, "Who are these people?" And so I can't get it slip started, and I rummage around in my trunk, and I find some jumper cables. So I go, "I know this is an imposition, the great trouble, but I'm late to family dinner down in San Diego, and since your cars are literally right there, I mean, we probably wouldn't even have to move them because I've rolled my car closer now. Can I just trouble you for a jump?"

And they look at each other in exasperation, and one of them says, "Look, buddy, can't you see that we've got other things to do?" And then the other one says, "And I'll never forget it." "Yeah, get a life!" And they stand in the driveway, and they literally do this. Just like that, just turn 180, like maybe he'll just disappear, and they keep sipping beer. So with the hood up, right in front of them, cables in hand. I keep trying to get people coming up from the beach to give me a jump.

But then finally, after a while, I hear this. One of the guys says to the other, "You know what? We've stood here and talked long enough. Let's go ahead and go to the Mini Mart and get some more beer." And the other one goes, "Sounds good!" And they stroll right past me. And while they're gone, eventually an Australian guy in a real beat up, rusted hulk -- I don't know how this car stayed together -- he stops and very cheerfully gives me a jump like, "No worries, mate. At least things are always breaking down and pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, kind of putts away." And so get the picture.

Now, my car's now running just fine. I'm about to leave. The two Delmar Dingleings are gone. They're on their mission to get a beer still. And I look over, and I see their brand new cars. And they're expensive tools all over their tool mat on the driveway. And I have to admit that I thought to myself, "Hmm... Justice must be done." And I have to admit, my adrenaline was just surging. Do you ever get this way? And I was totally just rationalizing and fantasizing. And I thought, "I could take that nice crowbar and just smash it into the beamer's windshield and just leave them. They'll never find me in Santa Cruz. They deserve it." And then I thought, "I'm a pastor. I can't do it. Should have stayed a DJ."

So I drive away, and as I'm going up the hill toward the highway, who do I see walking down the road toward me but the Jerk brothers themselves? So I roll down my window. They're getting closer. I'm trying to think of a good zinger to leave them with. They're getting closer. And Christians are kind of hamstrung here because I'm going through all my options of non-swear word put-downs, you know? And none of them's working. There's no strength. I'm coming up with things like, "See you later, dodo birds." You know? That's not what I want to say.

Meanwhile they've come up right next to the car, and one of them says, "All right, dude. Got it going again." And I summon all the poison in my system, and I start to say, "Yeah, no thanks to you." You know? But my throat's dry, and it catches the first word gets stuck somewhere down there. What comes out is, "Thanks to you." And I hear them as I roll past, "What did he say? I think he said, 'Thanks to you.'" And I look in my rearview mirror, and they're all waving at me happily. "Thumbs up!" And I was so mad all the way home.

I thought I know somebody who lives in Del Mar, a super nice guy, Christian in his 70s. He's very wealthy. I'm going to have him drive his rolls past their house and say, "You fools could have gotten $1,000 each for helping my son, but no, you know, that's what I'm going to do." But you know what kind of got me the most? I thought to myself, "I'm sure there were plenty of other people in the neighborhood who are totally nice and deserve their beautiful home right there in Del Mar, but these guys don't! These guys were mean to me! These guys wouldn't help me!"

And I thought to myself, "How is it that guys that mean can't be that successful? Do you ever wonder that about people you meet? How is it that mean people don't just sabotage their own success? How do they seem to keep advancing in a company when maybe you're looking at yourself going, 'And I'm trying to be nice and I'm not advancing as fast as the mean guy!' Now obviously I'm not saying that all successful people are mean, but I am asking the age-old question that everybody in every age has had, and that is, 'How come sometimes the wicked prosper?'"

And that is the question that's on the mind of the Psalm writer and the Psalm we look at today, Psalm 73. If you have your Bibles open to Psalm 73, it's basically right in the middle of your Bible. It's on page 414 of those brown TLC Bibles that are right there in front of you. Why is it that sometimes bad guys get to win the game of life? Shouldn't it be the nice guys who always finish first?

Now that little Del Mar episode was a slightly annoying encounter, but sometimes this question gets very serious. Many times each year I hear a version of the question, "Pastor, how is it that that guy cheated me or my business out of thousands of dollars, didn't pay his bills to his suppliers and subcontractors, left us all in bankruptcy and he's famous and rich?" How is it that that happens if there's a God who tells me to live my life like this, and be honest and to be forthcoming and yet it seems like I always get squished under somebody's thumb for living like that?

How is it that I scrupulously have done the right thing my entire life and I cannot get ahead? Or maybe it's not a personal problem. Maybe you just feel like that every day when you look at the headlines on the news or in the newspaper or on the internet or however you get your news and you look at the headlines and you go, "How does this picture of oppressors getting away with it, of dictators getting away with all kinds of outrageous behavior, of murderers not being caught, how does that jibe with the picture I'm supposed to be getting out of the Bible of a God of justice and sovereignty and love?"

That's exactly how the psalmist felt in this amazing psalm. It was written by Asaph, one of David's music directors. He wrote a total of 14 psalms and I love the honesty of the psalms, the honesty of the whole Bible when the Bible writers had questions like this, questions about God's fairness or maybe questions about God's existence. Did they hide those questions? No. They wrote songs about their questions. They wrote poetry about their doubts. Much better, a much more healthy biblical way of dealing with your questions and doubts than burying troubling questions under a mound of reassuring religious cliches.

And the main question troubling Asaph here specifically is why be good if bad guys win? Look at this psalm. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold for I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. And there is the problem that is galling Asaph, the writer of this psalm in a phrase, "The prosperity of the wicked." Now he is not saying the wealthy are wicked. He's saying why are the wicked ever wealthy?

You know in case you look at this phrase and you say, "Hey, wait a minute. I know some prosperous people that are not wicked." So did Asaph. He did work for David and David was a nice guy. He's saying why is it that mean people ever win? He says when I look around in the world it seems to me like they have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens. They're not plagued by human ills. He's saying if there is a God who judges the evil people of the world, then what in the world is he waiting for?

And then he actually lists the kinds of bad guys that he sees winning to make his case stronger. He's sort of looking at the headlines of his day. This was written 3,000 years ago in the Bronze Age, but the headlines of his day sound like they could have been written in our day too. And I'm going to show you the parallels. Jot this down to the bullet points of your notes. He says, "I see violent bad guys." Verse 6, "Therefore pride is their necklace. They clothe themselves with violence." This week Rolling Stone magazine has a story, headline, "The Stoner Arms Dealers." About these two young American guys in their early 20s. In two years recently, they cleared $85 million, contributed to who knows how many deaths, and proud of what they did, here's a quote from one of them talking about how they were selling to both sides in one war. "All the bullets were coming from us. It was heaven. We were on top of the world." And they weren't. They had every one of the trappings of success, cool cars, chic condos, model girlfriends, personal drug dealers, and something like that was going on at Asaph State. That's the thing, that's his point. There's always violent guys making a killing literally at Asaph's going, "God, hello?"

And then he talks about immoral bad guys. Verse 7, "From their callous hearts comes iniquity. Their evil imaginations have no limits." I saw a report on CNBC's website this week about what they called "The Business of Porn." Here's a screen capture. This man, Steve Hirsch, is personally worth billions. I didn't say millions. I said billions according to CNBC because of the different pornography businesses that he owns. Very sad given that Wired magazine recently ran an article headlined, "Internet Porn Worse Than Crack." Now remember, this is Wired magazine. This is not focused on the family monthly, okay? And here's the lead to their article, first two sentences. "Internet Porn is the new crack cocaine, leading to addiction, misogyny, pedophilia, and sexual dysfunction, according to researchers testifying before a Senate subcommittee." Again, these are not uptight puritans saying this.

Next, they quote, "Mary Ann Layden, co-director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Cognitive Therapy, who called porn, quote, 'the most concerning thing to psychological health that I know of existing today.'" Yet this guy makes billions off it happily, comfortably. A visit to any archeology museum will prove to you vile imaginations have unfortunately been a part of human commerce for a long time. And A.S.F. says, "How is it that these people with these calloused hearts are prospering?" And next he talks about oppressive bad guys. He describes these people in the next verse, verse 8, "They scoff, they speak with malice, with arrogance, they threaten oppression." Sadly, no lack of examples here, but the first person that popped into my mind was E.D. Amin. Remember him? He got it from '71 to '79. Number of people killed, estimates range on the low end, 100,000 people, on the high end, half a million. So whatever happened to E.D. Amin? He died in exile, where he lived in a palace on a pension and died peacefully in 2003. So where's the justice? Plenty of this going around in every era. A.S.F. says, "That's a problem for me, God."

And then he talks about what you might call heretical bad guys, people who blaspheme God. A.S.F. reasons, if there is a God, how does he not occasionally strike these guys down? He says, "Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance as they say, 'How would God know? How does the Most High know anything?'" People mocking God? You know, 3,000 years from now, it still goes on, Exhibit A, the rise of what they call the New Militant Atheism. Now I am not saying all atheists are like this far from it. I've had very civil, engaging, interesting conversations with people who were atheists about theology and philosophy, but there's a new brand of atheism of whom Richard Dawkins is sort of the poster child. He wrote the book, "The God Delusion," and he specializes in saying things that you'd think God might notice, like, "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction. A petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak, a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." He says, "Faith is one of the world's great evils analogous to smallpox, though more difficult to eradicate." He's famous for saying in his debates, "If there is a God, I blaspheme his name, he strike me dead now." And he waits and he goes, "Guess there's no God." His book has been translated into 31 languages, has sold millions of copies, he is now super wealthy because of his funny insults to religion, people flocking to him to drink up his waters in abundance. And Asaph is saying, "So does this kind of stuff even matter to you, God?"

Because when I look at all these kinds of people, here's what I see next, verse 12, this is what the wicked are like, always free of care. They go on amassing wealth. And if you look at all these categories, you might think, "Yeah, if there is a God, why do all these people succeed?" Apparently, kind of like without a hitch. In a way, think about this, in a way this is even more troubling than the question of why do innocent people suffer? Because you can kind of explain that by, "Well, you know, like sometimes bad things just happen. It's just natural disasters and so on happen." But more troubling than why do the innocent suffer is, "Why do the guilty not suffer?" And here is the heart of it all. Here's really where it gets personal with Asaph.

It's not just that these guilty people are succeeding. He says, verse 13, "Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure, and have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted." And kind of a twist on, "His mercies are new every morning." Every morning brings new punishments. I got an email from somebody in this church just a few weeks ago. He said, "René, I have been to every small group study. I come to church every weekend. I pray every day, and my life just gets worse." It kind of reminds me of something that you may have seen a few years back. I love this. I actually had it up on my office wall for a while. Lost dog, $50 reward. Black and tan dog of poodle and German shepherd descent. Flea bitten, left hind leg missing. No hair on rump. Blind and recently neutered. Answers to the name of Lucky. Ever feel like that? Seriously. God says, "I'm Lucky." One of his chosen, "But my life stinks. So what is the answer to all of this?"

Well, I'm going to give it to you here. I hope it doesn't sound glib because I want you to write it down, but then we're going to backtrack and see how Asaph gets to this point. Because the answer really can be only one thing, and it's this. Get perspective. You got to somehow try to put it all in eternal perspective. Verse 15 is where Psalm 73 turns. Asaph says, "If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children." Now watch this. When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply until I entered the sanctuary of God, and then I understood their final destiny. If you've got a pen or a pencil, would you just circle those two words? Final destiny. Key words in this Psalm and in the Bible. Would you agree with this? They're often swayed by subjective, earthly definitions of happiness, right? We start to believe that somebody's a success if he has a mansion and a reality TV show of his own and never gets to go to prison for his misdeeds. And sometimes we even crave these things so much that they become our definition of success.

We need an objective, eternal view of what it means to prosper, of what it means to succeed. What Asaph is saying is, check this out on screen, this life is only a blip. Imagine a dot on the left hand side of the screen. He's saying that's how long your earthly life is, you know, 70, 80, 90 years, and believe me, turning 50, this is becoming more and more real to me. But it's just a blip, and then after that, forever. And this line represents eternity. And Asaph says something interesting that'll get you to think. Asaph says next that compared to this, compared to eternity, this life is like a dream. Now that does not mean it is an illusion. Not at all. This life is not an illusion. But he says like a dream, it's short and it's transitory and compared to eternity, it's almost that short lived and sort of ephemeral.

Look at these next verses. He says, "Surely you place them, the wicked, on slippery ground. You cast them down to ruin how suddenly they're destroyed, completely swept away by terrors. They are like a dream when one awakes. When you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies." Compared to God's eternity, all their apparent riches are like a dream, like a fantasy. They are over that quickly, like a bad dream. This is perspective. And on the other hand, those who follow the Lord and turn to him for his mercy will receive from him a gift that goes on forever.

And before you turn your page over, I got to tell you something. This is an old story, but this is something that's become part of my sort of motivation pack in my heart. Everybody I think has a little piece of luggage almost that's in their heart and packed into that are things about their lives, are truths that either motivate them or hold them back. And this is packed very firmly in that piece of luggage in my heart. It's the story of a missionary who served in Africa for 40 years. And while he was there, he not only spread the gospel, but he also brought medical care and open clinics and libraries and taught literacy to this group of people. And he has been gone for a generation. And then after retirement, he comes back in a big steamer into the New York Harbor.

And as the ship pulls in, he wonders what kind of a welcome he'll get. And as it comes closer to the dock, he starts to see signs reading, welcome home and banners and confetti and streamers flying and people cheering. And he thinks, ah, what a welcome. It was all worth it. But as he steps off the ship, a man pushes past him and opens his arms. It's some movie star and the crowd erupts. And he realizes they were all cheering for that guy and not for him. And he looks around, no one there for him at all. And some of you are going, how is this a motivational story, René? Well, there's an end to this. Because then the man hears a voice and the voice tells him, you're not home yet. You're not home yet. Your greatest reward comes when you're finally home.

And you know, we get a glimpse of that sometimes. When we see people talking about what they see in their last few moments in this life. I love collecting the final words of people who've died in the faith, finally going home. Like speaking of missionaries, Adoniram Judson's last words. He was a famous missionary. Imagine having the presence of mind and the joy of spirit to say these words to his gathered family. And in those words he said, "I go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school. Goodbye all." He died. I love that. That's just awesome. The tireless pastor and college president Dwight L. Moody's last words. He was surrounded by his daughters. And they said, "Dad, you're dreaming," when he started talking about things that weren't in the room. And he insisted, "I am not dreaming. I've been within the gates. I've seen the children's faces. This is coronation day. It is glorious." And he died. And some of you know my own father's last words. It's like a dream. God is all around me. Two deep breaths and he was there. Man, that's motivation. These are people who are finally home.

I read things like this and I think, "I've got to start working on my final words." What would be a good one? Don't tell me that didn't pass your mind. I've got a guy. I've got to get one. Hey, if you're…and it's not going to be, "See you later, dodo birds." It's going to be something good. And this is something you're interested in studying further. The whole idea of what happens after I die. What is the reward the Bible promises? You know what? You might want to check out this class. It's called One Minute After You Die. It starts this Wednesday night when our Wednesday night classes kick off again. They're just a four-week session and it's taught by Julie Perez. It's based on a book by Erwin Lutzer who was my wife's pastor when she lived in Chicago. And he talks about what the Bible says about heaven, about what happens after you die. It's a very interesting thought-provoking book and I'd encourage you if you want to get more info about the final destiny to check that out.

Now you might be saying, "Well, all that is great for those of us who are awaiting a reward, but this all begs the question, why does God wait to judge the bad guys?" You know? I'm happy to wait for my reward if you say I've got one, but it really bugs me when I see people getting away with stuff. Why does he wait so long? Well, the Bible says next page, "God waits because God has hope even for the wicked." There was an interesting prophet named Ezekiel in the Old Testament. In many ways, he's sort of the stereotypical Old Testament prophet. You know, you can imagine him being an old grizzled guy who's sort of angry with a white beard and he's pronouncing judgments against Israel. But once in a while in the book of Ezekiel, God steps in to sort of season Ezekiel's attitude.

And he says things like this in Ezekiel 18:23 to Ezekiel, "Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?" declares the sovereign Lord. Rather, "Am I not pleased when they turn from their wicked ways and live?" And then in Ezekiel 33:11, "Say to them, 'As surely as I live,' declares the sovereign Lord, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked,' but rather that they turn from their ways and live." Turn, turn from your evil ways. Think of somebody right now. Think of Paul the Apostle, right? You know, the Apostle Paul, Saint Paul in the Bible. Now, I want some audience participation here. Here's a question. Before Paul was an Apostle, what were some of his crimes? Just shout it out.

Well, he was certainly an accomplice to murder, right? If not a murderer himself, presided over murder, approved a murder, egged people on to murder. Why? Why did he want to murder people? For what crime? They were Christians, right? So he was a religious persecutor, religious oppression. What sort of people did he oppress? Was it all, you know, like pastors of churches? What sort of... How does the Bible describe the people that he was dragging away and putting into prison? They were men and women and children. So this was a pretty bad guy who was trying to squash the Christian movement by imprisoning and persecuting men, women, and children by giving his approval to people stoning people just for being Christians, and he was leading this whole movement.

Now, second question. Do you think that just possibly a few of the early Christians might have begged God in prayer to take care of the Apostle Paul? You think that prayer might have been prayed once or twice? God, why are you waiting? This man is our oppressor. Third question. If God had answered their prayer instantly, what would we today be missing? Practically the whole New Testament, right? 80% of it. Corinthians 13. Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 3. All, not a part of history, not a part of the Bible. It's quite remarkable, isn't it? This is why God waits, because only God is able to see this kind of potential. And by the way, aren't you glad God waits? How many of you are glad that God does not judge you instantly in your worst moment? Anybody here happy about that? Right?

I like this quote from George McDonald. If God satisfied our immediate desire for justice, he would be settling for a lesser good. All we can see is their current state. God sees what they can become in Christ. And of course, as Christians, we believe the ultimate example of this justice side of God's nature and the mercy side of God nature being brought together in one place was in Christ's death for us on the cross. So a couple of reminders as Asaph wraps up this psalm. First he says, remember that bitterness makes me numb to God's truth. Bitterness makes me numb to God's truth. He says, this is a great verse, verse 21. When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant. I was like a brute beast before you.

What is he saying about when his spirit was embittered? He says, it makes me senseless, like numb. I can't sense what God is doing. Anybody here ever run down on the beach? Anybody here ever go running down on the beach ever in your life? I was talking to a woman right here at the front of the church a while back and she told me how she had really been struggling with bitterness in her life. But then she asked me, she said, "René, do you ever go for a run on the beach?" I said, sure. She said, "Well, I was running on the beach the other day and I was listening to music on my headphones and I'm listening to them. I work out music pumping and I'm looking at the ocean and she said, I was running along and I thought to myself, that is the biggest feature on our planet, that Pacific Ocean right there. Look at those waves crashing. And then it dawned on me that I couldn't hear a thing of the ocean. I couldn't hear the waves crash.

You couldn't hear this mightiest feature of the planet because of the tinny little buzz coming from two little iPod sized headphones. And she says, I just stopped dead in my tracks as I felt God saying, that's what your bitterness has been doing to your relationship with me. She said, I've been pumping the sense of life's unfair. God is unfair into my head. And although it was didn't amount to much, she said, it was drowning out God's majesty and God's power and God's very presence in my life. Does that ever happen to you? I need to remember like Asaph says, God is there even when I don't sense him. He says, my embittered spirit made me yet numb, yet I am always with you. You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel and afterward you will take me into glory. God's always with me.

And then he starts to wrap it up. He's building this song to a crescendo. Here's the big finish. And I want you to see how like all the Psalms we've looked at in this series, this is a theme with the Psalms. It's really not about solution, it's about orientation. He starts out being obsessed with all the stuff that's going wrong in the world. And the world's going to hell in a handbasket and God, how come you're not paying attention to this? And he ends with shifting his orientation to the greatness of God. He says, who have I in heaven but you? Earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

He says, there's nothing I desire besides you. What do you desire deep down? Where's your focus? And then he wraps up what he's learned. He says, those who are far from you will perish. You destroy all those who are unfaithful to you. But now watch this here. Who does this? God. That's God's job. And then he says, but as for me, all that stuff's God's job. That's not my job. That's God's mess to figure out. That's God's, you know, tangled uncomb. But as for me, it's just good to be near God. I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge. I will tell of all your deeds. In other words, I will stop telling of all their misdeeds and I will focus instead on you, God.

Now, ASAF had a struggle focusing on the prosperity of the wicked 3,000 years ago. Today you and I have even more of a struggle because this kind of information is pumped into us by talk show hosts and news anchors who get bigger ratings if they can evoke outrage from you. They're trying to get you worked up, trying to make you angry, not trying to make sure that you tell of all God's wondrous deeds. They're trying to make sure you rehearse all the wicked people's misdeeds. Now this does not mean that Christians have to ignore social injustice. Of course, we help people through things like Project Homeless and the many other things that we do here as a church and as individuals. But as we do those things, we do them because we're focused on communicating the love of God. People in a spirit of outrage really don't end up doing much. People who have a spirit of love are the ones who end up washing feet.

Now let me close with this. One family had a hobby of putting together jigsaw puzzles. Anybody here ever like to put together jigsaw puzzles? Well, these guys are working on this puzzle and one night they're working on one with over a thousand pieces. Hours later they are still so frustrated they just cannot get it to make sense. And it was then that they discovered that the dad had accidentally switched the box top with the top from another puzzle. The picture that they'd been looking at wasn't the puzzle they were working on. Kind of like life. If you feel frustrated with God or with life because it's just not living up to the expectations you've got, maybe you're trying to make the pieces of real life fit with the wrong box top picture.

The box top picture from God does not say, "Yes, people who are mean to you will be instantly punished and you will be instantly rewarded." The box top picture from God says God is sovereign. In his time he'll know who to punish when, who to reward when, and he loves being merciful because he loves seeing sinners turn to saints. So the bottom line is, what is my big picture? Do I see the big picture that God gives me in scripture? In passages like Psalm 73, especially when I see the bad guys win. Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for giving us the big picture like this in scripture. Thank you for your love for us. And God, I in no way want to minimize people who are struggling with this in a real personal way right now. And they're wondering, how come it seems like I never get ahead and yet I'm trying to do the right thing. God, I pray that they would take that verse from Psalm 73 very personally right now, that you are with them, that you hold them, that you guide them, and that you will carry them home. God, thank you for those truths. Thank you for the reality of our final destiny. May it become more and more real to us. In Jesus' name, amen.