Sermon: Wrong Will Eventually Be Set Right
#1722
Martin G. Collins
Given 12-Aug-23; 63 minutes
description: After our original parents' decision to sin, we, as their offspring have conflicting wills because of a carnal nature that is enmity against God's law and the will of God, something that cannot be achieved without the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. Our Lord and Savior follows exclusively the will of Our Heavenly Father, but the rest of us have a difficult time resisting the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, making us feel invulnerable when we are actually quite vulnerable. God Almighty has perfected the skill of turning things around with an element of surprise, defeating human will, replacing it with understanding of the benefits of His will. The story of our Patriarch Abraham is replete with false starts and dead ends. Both the Psalms and Proverbs are replete with examples of God's sudden reversal of the human will. Psalm 73 is a candid confession of someone who had seen the apparent blessing and prosperity of the elite evil (then and now) and the seeming difficulty God's saints experience in comparison. Calamities seem to fall on most of humanity, but not on the evil elite, who superciliously regard the rest of humanity as useless eaters. Consequently, doubts about the usefulness of trusting God seep into our discouraged minds. Asaph had his initial doubts, but after God revealed the end of the wicked, he strengthened his wavering faith from preference to conviction. God has chosen the foolish things to confound the wise so no flesh will glory in His presence. God is systematically reversing our carnal human will conforming it to His will.
transcript:
Analysis of human history shows a direct conflict between human will and God's will. Nevertheless, God allows individual choices to make good and bad decisions. Inevitably, the human will seeks to create God in its own image. One major way that God deals with this is to reverse the direction of human will and human events.
Humanity has exerted its own will, that is, human will, to supersede God's will and expect submission of God's will to their will. Although one may pray to God, "Your will be done," often what they mean is Your will conform to my will and so let it be done. We have to be careful that is not the direction of our prayers as we offer them up.
What is will? (I do not mean will as in Bill Onisick or any of the other Will's that we have in the congregation.) Will has two distinct meanings in the Bible. On the one hand, it means wishing, desiring, choosing. And on the other hand, it refers to a legal declaration of how a person wants his possessions disposed of after death.
The "will" we are looking at today is the desire or choosing to do something according to human will or God's will. And that is a clear cut, I should say, decision. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word for will is abah, which means "to breathe after," "too long for," "to will, be willing, consent." It is common throughout the history of the Hebrew language and it occurs in the Old Testament over 50 times. It is a very important word there.
It is found for the first time in Genesis 24:5 where Abraham's servant, who is about to be sent to find a wife for Isaac, says, "Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land." In the New Testament "will" means wishing, desiring, choosing, especially in reference to the will of God.
Please turn with me to John 5. In the gospels, primarily in John, Jesus acted not according to His own will, but according to the will of the heavenly Father. And Jesus does nothing apart from God, from the Father's will. So Jesus overcame sin by replacing His human will with the will of God the Father.
John 5:19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner."
John 5:30 I [Jesus] can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me."
So what is the will of the Father who sent Jesus Christ regarding us? Flip over one chapter to John 6.
John 6:38-40 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; I will raise him up at the last day."
Also, doing the will of the Father is Jesus' nourishment. Flipping back two chapters to John 4,
John 4:34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work."
So the energy of Jesus Christ to complete the character building of the saints so that we can receive the gift of eternal life comes from the will of God the Father.
Now the struggle of will between man and man and man and God has permeated mainstream Christianity and has challenged the church of God. We are, of course, aware of the biblical warnings of false doctrines and how human beings have a natural enmity toward God. And as members of God's church, we fight against such attitudes continually.
But initially, Satan does not usually use a frontal attack. He usually enters through the back door of our minds where we are the most vulnerable: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. From relinquishing control to these worldly enticements, we see the fulfillment of the apostle Paul's prophetic warning in I Corinthians 10:12, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." That always gives me a shiver every time I read that and I have been reading it for, I guess, 60 years now off and on.
The demonic world instigates the natural hostility of the human mind to exert its own will against God's will. God has shown us through His written Word how He deals with the exertion of human will contrary to His own. And the Bible is full of examples of God's reversal of human will.
One biblical principle we see in the reversals of human will to conform to God's will is the mystery of God's provenance, grace, and election, as unlikely people such as us are chosen for favor while people impressive by worldly stand standards are scorned. Another biblical principle we see in the the reversals of human will is the judgment aspect, as people who think themselves secure are vulnerable. And as we go on, we will see what I mean by that.
Now, as long as people have been telling stories, storytellers and audiences have been thrilled with tales that include an element of surprise in the form of a reversal of human will. Generally defined, a reversal is an action that produces or causes the opposite effect intended or expected. The account of the first sin of Adam and Eve is the first reversal story in the Bible. Thinking of becoming Godlike—reaching for everything—Adam and Eve lost everything.
God's reversal of human will, of course, did not stop there, but has continued down through human history as God carries out His careful plan to bring new sons into His Kingdom. Cain thought of ridding himself of his righteous brother Abel, whom he envied, only to find himself condemned to the life of a restless wanderer as a reversal there. Lot desired the well-watered plain of the Jordan River and chose a land that in his mind equaled material prosperity, only to lose his home and wife as the region was transformed into a wasteland.
Abraham waited for 25 years for God to produce the promised son Isaac, during which time Abraham experienced a series of false starts in which he undertook actions that seemed expedient, but instead resulted in dead ends. One of these humanly-reasoned situations involved Abraham and Sarah's decision to have a son by Hagar.
Jacob thought to better himself by stealing his dying father's blessing, only to find himself in exile for 20 years in a hostile foreign locale.
In the story of Joseph and his brothers, the happiest of the cheat-the-prophecy stories in the Bible, everything the brothers did to prevent the fulfillment of Joseph's dreams of supremacy led directly to their fulfillment. Another one: Gideon began his story with a fair case of inferiority complex, as virtually all the details in the story painted a portrait of a reluctant hero. But halfway through the story, our expectations were denied, and Gideon (with God's help) showed sheer mastery of everything that stood in his way.
In the book of Esther, Haman's story is based on the reversal of pride that goes before a fall. Over-extending himself in his pride and hatred of the Jews, he oversaw the exaltation of his enemy Mordecai and died on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. On a national level, the seemingly hopeless situation of the Jewish nation was reversed by a sudden victory.
Now, the psalms of lament present their own variation of God's reversal of human will. Nearly without expectation, these quests for consolation in the face of terrible crisis include a reversal or even a withdrawal.
Please turn with me to Psalm 73. Asaph had such a reversal and Psalm 73 is his record. Asaph was one of the members of the tribe of Levi whom David put in charge of the worship music performed at the tent of meeting before Solomon built the great Temple in Jerusalem. In time Asaph seems to have become the leader of this group and then the father of an entire clan of Temple musicians. David gave some of his psalms to Asaph which were performed by him and his associates.
Asaph also composed psalms himself and some of the psalms said to be by Asaph are Psalms 73 through 83, which lead off the Psalter's third book. One of Asaph's psalms illustrates God's reversal of human will. After presenting a portrait of the arrogantly wicked elite of the world, Psalm 73 reverses itself with a contrasting picture of the sudden fall of these same people.
Psalm 73 reverses itself with a contrasting picture, as I mentioned. So it speaks of the reversal of the prosperity and success of the wicked elite of the world, as well as the reversal in the minds of the saints who stumble and slip while trying to trust in God but eventually realize their short-sighted thinking is faulty. One thing that makes Asaph attractive is his honesty about himself and what he sees around him. It is a very honest picture that he paints and he holds nothing back, so to speak.
Now, what he saw, and what bothered him so much, is that the wicked seem to do very well in this world—much better than the godly. This is not what we would expect in a moral universe, so to speak, directed by a sovereign God. If God is in control of things, the plans of the wicked should struggle and fail. Or at least we would think from human reasoning they should even be punished openly. The godly alone should prosper.
But that is not what Asaph saw and it is not what we see either. We see extremely immoral persons like pedophiles, politicians, and depraved entertainers receiving wealth and fame. Why do the wicked prosper and the godly have such a hard time? This is the same question that was raised in Psalm 37 and in Job, and in each of these places, a different answer is suggested.
In Psalm 37 the answer is to wait to trust the Lord believing that the wrong will eventually be right, even in this world.
In Job, there is no answer, at least none given to Job. It is simply that God is above us and we dare not, indeed, we cannot question Him. Of course, there is more to it than that, but generally speaking. God makes this point in Job chapters 38 to 41, demanding in a chastising and exhaustive manner whether Job can explain even one of His vast works of creation, not to mention God's way with the righteous and the wicked. Job cannot answer that, of course, and the conclusion comes when he confesses in Job 42:3, "Surely I spoke things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know."
Now, in Psalm 73 the answer is neither ignorance nor trust in the eventual judgment of the wicked in this life. It is discernment and insight into the ultimate end of the wicked beyond this life and the blessed reality of God experienced by the righteous here and now. In providing this answer, Psalm 73 is one of the most insightful explanations of why the wicked prosper and the godly have such a hard time.
But the reason Psalm 73 is so perceptive is that Asaph is so honest in his questioning. He looks at the world with open eyes and then comes to God for the answers to his problem. Asaph takes us step-by-step through the quandary in human reasoning about the fairness of God. This is an example of faith honestly doubting what it does in fact believe. So it is not the kind of arrogant doubting we hear in the conversation of proud people. Some people think it is clever to be able to raise questions the people of God have trouble answering. We ministers run into that quite often actually, but that is not what the psalmist is doing. The proof of this is in the point from which Asaph starts.
Psalm 73:1 Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are pure in heart.
The goodness of God is truth. And for that reason, Asaph begins by stating it and finishes by stating it as well. God is good to His church and to those who serve Him. Now, He is faithful to His covenant with us. He has not forgotten us and never abandons us; neither is He indifferent to us.
Now, the psalm begins with the truth of verse 1, descends into personal doubt and turmoil in verses 2 through 15, reaches a turning point in verses 16 and 17, and then re-ascends where the psalm started out in verses 18 through 28. That is the general outline of this chapter.
Psalm 73:2-3 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
(There is a direct tie into the sermonette today. I very much appreciate Hunter's [Swanson] coverage of that because it was so helpful because coveting is an unstated thread throughout this sermon.)
The phrase "but as for me" is literally, "and I." The meaning is, "And I (that is, who confidently now trusts in God and believes that He is good) was formerly in a far different state of mind. I was so hesitant and so troubled that I had almost lost confidence in Him as a wise and just moral Governor." I am sure no end of people in the church have come to this point and it is a serious trial. And so you are not alone and have not been alone.
Even going back thousands of years, man had the same dilemma. The psalmist admits he was green with envy of the foolish and arrogant. So the "prosperity" of the wicked is more literally the "peace" of the wicked there. And in verse 3, the reference is not as much to their prosperity in general as to their peace and consistent feeling of safety, as if they felt like they were untouchable. It refers to their freedom from trouble, especially in calmness, and freedom from suffering and death.
In observing this about the life of the wicked elite, the psalmist temporarily doubted whether there was any benefit to obeying God. He did not really actually come to that point because it says he nearly slipped. He almost did this. But the thought crossed his mind and he asked himself if God was just, and if He befriended the righteous any more than He did the wicked, seeing all of their prosperity.
Psalm 73:4 For there are no pangs in their death [meaning the wicked elite], but their strength is firm.
The word rendered pangs here means pangs, pains, torments, as if they were twisted or tortured with pain. So they do not have any of that. They might occasionally, but as a way of life, it does not seem that they have those things because money can almost buy you out of anything, including pain in a sense. They live in prosperity and seem to die in peace. They enjoyed this world and their sinful life seems to be followed by a peaceful death. They do not even suffer as much in death as relatively "good" people often do.
So, the psalmist is asking himself, what then is the advantage of goodness? How can we believe that God is just or that He is the friend of the righteous or even that there is a God? It is obvious that many of the wicked prosper and die in this way.
These types of thoughts, maybe not specifically, but in general, were going through his mind, and they often go through a true saints mind as well. This fact has puzzled relatively good people throughout all of man's history.
Psalm 73:5 They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men.
The phrase "not in trouble" as other men is literally "in labor of men." They are exempt from the common burdens and troubles of humanity. They have servants, they have people to clean their house, they have people to clean their pool, they have people to drive them somewhere that they might want to go, they have people to fly them somewhere so they do not have to worry about transportation, or any of the other things of taking care of themselves.
Now, the phrase "nor are they plagued like other men" is literally "and with mankind, they are not afflicted." The calamities that come so heavily on humanity do not seem to affect the wicked. Some seem favored, prospered, and even seem happy while others are afflicted.
Psalm 73:6 Therefore pride serves as their necklace, and violence covers them like a garment.
The wicked elite are proud, and they are arrogant, and they are domineering, and they put on the ornaments and trappings of pride in their excessively expensive clothing and their elaborate decorations are indicative of egotism and thinking they are better than others. They expect special favors.
In the original, a single word is rendered as "serves as their necklace." The word means to adorn with a necklace or collar. And the idea is that pride surrounds them as with a necklace or a collar around their necks. They are so full of pride they cannot even hide it. They wear pride as an ornament. They make it conspicuous on their self-aggrandizing stiff neck.
Now, the phrase "violence covers them like a garment" speaks of the injustice or cruelty that seem to be their covering. It is manifested in their cocky way of walking and appearance that they are people of self-importance and smugness, that they are destitute of tenderness, sympathy, and mercy. And we certainly see this when we see these leaders of this world and the decisions they are making for each and every eater. That is what they call them—useless eaters of the world. That is the rest of us and how they view us. There is no mercy in the way they handle us. What was that Klaus Schwab said recently, "You'll own nothing and be happy." That is their determination for us and so you can see very vividly in the elite of the world today these characteristics.
Psalm 73:7 Their eyes bulge with abundance; they have more than heart could wish.
Because of the fruit of their high living, they are not weakened and emaciated by work and lack of necessities as other people often are.
The phrase "they have more than heart could wish" is literally "the imaginations [or thoughts] of the heart pass." That is, passed along or passed forth. This phrase does not express that they have more than their hearts could desire, as in the King James version and the New King James version translates it, because these people are never satisfied, they never have enough.
So the phrase in verse 7 describes that their thoughts, plans, and purposes pass freely along without any obstruction. Their desires are continually gratified, their plans are accomplished, and they keep getting what they want time after time after time. And whatever desire comes into their minds is usually obtained without difficulty. They seem only to want something and they get it with ease. How many of these elite are able to just say, "I wish I had this," and somebody brings it to them because that is what they expect.
Psalm 73:8 They scoff and speak wickedly concerning oppression; they speak loftily.
"They scoff" or as some translations have, "they are corrupt," literally means "they mock." Barnes' Notes says that the word rendered scoff or corrupt never has this significance. The original Hebrew word from which the word mock is derived means the same thing.
The idea is that they ridicule religion or mock all that refers to God and His future punishment of the world. They do not believe that God will punish people for sin, but that is not enough. They have to ridicule the idea and everybody that believes it as well.
Psalm 73:9 They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walks through the earth.
The phrase, "they set their mouth against heavens" is literally, "they set their mouth in heaven" or "in the heavens." The idea is that they speak as if they were in the heavens, as if they were with clothed with all authority, as if they were superior beings and had a right to command the universe. And they certainly show that they think they have a right to command this earth. You can see that in this environmental "green movement" and how ridiculous it has become with all of the wokeism.
Notice the similarity of attitude in the beast power of Revelation 13.
Revelation 13:5-6 And he [that is, the beast power] was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.
Going back to the phrase, "their tongue walks through the earth" means it has no limit. It is as if their tongue roams all over the earth and the wicked elite speak without any restraint of law or decency; without any regard to the commandments of God or to what is good and fair for people.
Did we see that in the COVID-19 pandemic or what? How they just did nothing for people. They did it all for money, for the pharmacies and Big Pharma, and also anyone else that could make money off of it. What a shame. And now we are seeing the results of that and the numbers of people that are dying and suffering from the vaccine. The CDC just came out this week and said that they are going to advise, recommend it as a daily event, everyone get the vaccine every year. That is, the COVID-19 vaccine. That is what was in the news yesterday. We will see what God has in mind because He is sovereign. He controls everything.
In other words, they set themselves above the law and they act as if there were no one in heaven or on earth to control them.
Psalm 73:10 Therefore his people return here, and waters of a full cup are drained by them.
"His people" are the pure in heart that he mentioned in verse 1 that truly love and obey God. At this point, the pure in heart return to their minds, in their meditations on spiritual things, and they come back to their questions because the subject of why the wicked prosper still perplexes them as something that is incomprehensible. So they think about it over and over again and are more and more puzzled and frustrated. The difficulties that these facts suggest about God and His government are such that the pure in heart cannot come to grips with them.
The phrase "waters of a full cup" is literally "waters of fullness" or "full waters." Chaldee renders this "many tears flow from them," that is, the pure in heart.
Psalm 73:11 And they say, "How does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?"
His people are compelled by these facts about the wicked to start painful inquiries about God. This is a distressing investigation because of the doubts that they involve. These thoughts pass through their minds, but they keep them to themselves because they do not want to appear faithless or be a stumbling block that causes doubt in other members of the church.
These bewilderments were not confined to the psalmist. These questions have been asked by all kinds of people, both good and bad, and no one yet has been able to completely provide a solution to them that is completely free from difficulty because even God's church only has a glimpse of the awesomeness of God. He is so awesome, so great, so supreme, so superior, we just cannot imagine with our human minds.
Thankfully, God's Holy Spirit helps us to understand somewhat. Sometimes He seems detached and not interested in preventing the evils to the human mind. It does not seem consistent that He knows what is happening but does not intervene or attempt to check these evils. And this is why the these pure in heart are struggling. It is because these thoughts every once in a while come into their mind in the middle of a trial or something like that, as they see the massive prosperity of the wicked, and it crosses their mind and the saints push them out. Sometimes it takes a little bit of meditation and thinking.
Psalm 73:12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who are always at ease; they increase in riches.
In this verse, we hear a puzzled good man discouraged by the fact that the wicked elite are prosperous and seemingly happy in their evil thoughts and actions. In other words, the psalmist thinks these are wicked people, people of undisputed decadence, people who live sinfully regardless of God, and yet they seem peaceful, secure, happy, and wealthy. I have had people in the church ask me before why in the Bible does God say that He blesses people for obedience? But in the New Testament, it seems like He does not?
Well, He does; He blesses us so much all the time. But the greater blessing, I think, for us today in the New Testament period, we will call it The New Testament church, is that we get spiritual blessings that we do not even see and notice. They are so far greater than any physical blessing we could get. So we are being blessed more than ever and we should acknowledge those blessings. Not just the physical ones we believe we see, but the spiritual ones that we do not see as well, and take note of them because they are happening all day long.
Psalm 73:13-15 Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence. For all day long I have been plagued, and chastened every morning. If I said, "I will speak thus," behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of Your children.
So the psalmist draws the wrong conclusion of verses 13 and 14. Asaph is asking, "What is the point of being godly then?" Or as we would put it today, "What is the advantage of being a Christian if those who are not Christians get what I want and I don't get it."
Now, that is the extreme. We do not really say that or think that outwardly, but the thought can cross our mind. But the situation is even worse than that because not only do I not get what I want (this is the confused person speaking), I also have troubles. It even seems I am being punished for trying to be good. So all of us feel that way whenever we take our eyes off God. If you are feeling that way at all you know that your eyes have strayed from God and you begin to compare your condition with the circumstances of the wicked.
A very familiar scripture that we almost have memorized, I think, is Paul's words in II Corinthians 10:12.
II Corinthians 10:12 For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves, but they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
So what do we do is what our human nature pushes us to do, compare ourselves with others, compare ourselves with the others in the world. The world calls it "keeping up with the Joneses." But we cannot fall into that pit.
Yet, even at this low point when Asaph is unhappy with what he sees and is jealous of those for whom he should not envy, Asaph still is still a believing child of God. One way he shows it is by what he says next. He says that although he felt this way, he did not want to say what he was feeling out loud because he did not want to harm the faith of other people, those he calls "Your children" in verse 15. And those "Your children" are God's children of course.
That is an interesting point because it shows that having doubts like Asaph is not incompatible with responsible Christian living. It may have been true, as he says, that his feet had almost slipped. Remember he said they almost slipped, they had not quite fully slipped, but they had not actually slipped or at least they had not slipped so far as to make him forget his responsibilities as a leader of God's people.
So Asaph states what his preferences are and where his heart is. His preference to serve God must be made a conviction because, up to this point, it was a preference and now he faces making it, turning it back to being a conviction. It is implied in verse 15 that he had not stated his thought out loud, but had kept them to himself. In paraphrase he says, if I were to state what is on my mind, others might be led to feel as if I had no confidence in God. So he was concerned that this might give them the idea that he was faithless, which could offend or bother them and hurt their faith and hope.
He kept these things in his thoughts. If he complained to anyone, he would not be true to them, he would not be faithful to their best interests. So here he was a child of God, a saint, looking out for others, even as his mind had slipped somewhat. This is not to say that if a person is having doubts, that we should not mention them to another to get help to remove them. These types of questions occur to sincere and devoted people.
There is nothing improper about asking for help from someone, let us say, of a greater age, longer experience, or wider knowledge. It is certainly proper for a child to ask advice or answers to questions from a parent, or a church member to ask advice or answers to questions related to doubt from a minister. We are told to do that.
After painting a picture of a seemingly unconquerable threat, the psalmist suddenly begins to recognize and understand the fair judgment of God.
Psalm 73:16-17 When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me—until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end [meaning the wicked, the end of the wicked].
Overwhelmed by the greatness, glory, and majesty of God, the psalmist regained a true perspective of his situation and he rediscovered something he had known but had forgotten, or at least let slip. God is just, and in the end, evil is not and never will be victorious. The wicked will be severely judged.
Now "their end" in verse 17 is literally "their after things." That is the things that will occur to them hereafter that solves the whole problem. There will be a judgment hereafter and dark as things may now appear, it will be seen in the end or in the result that exact and equal justice will be done to all according to God's righteous will. That is a fact it is going to happen as if it already has.
Psalm 73:18-20 Surely you set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one wakes, so Lord, when You awake, You shall despise their image.
Whereas God had not allowed the psalmist to slip into sin, he had him in His hand all along, the wicked were doomed to fall. Their fall is always characterized by the element of surprise and by the evident judgment of God who has set them up for the fall. The when is not as important as the certainty that they will slip and fall. So the destruction of the wicked is sudden and unexpected and there is no security from their apparent prosperity.
Their end must be seen to form a correct calculation of their punishment. The punishment will equal their wickedness, their evil. The wicked are like a dream that has a sense of reality when we are asleep but is gone the moment we are awakened. The coming of God's righteous judgment brings all things into perspective. In the meantime, we live with the vision that the lives of the wicked are nothing but fantasies.
Psalm 73:21-22 Thus my heart was grieved, and I was vexed in my mind. I was so foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.
"Was grieved" is literally "was soured deep inside." The psalmist was distressed and disillusioned, resulting in depression. Vexed in my mind is literally "pierced in my kidneys." In this condition, he was irrational and devoid of wisdom, at least temporarily, and without wisdom, he was like a fool and he was plagued with worrying questions of self-pity. But he had to go through the experience before he could truly appreciate the sovereignty of God and enjoy a close relationship with Him.
God does the same with us today. He puts us through trials or just through pain to reset us, to reboot us, so to speak, in computer language. Quite often questions and anguish and the sense of stupidity is used by God to mature His servant spiritually. The same type of thing was experienced by other psalmists and by Jeremiah.
Psalm 73:23-26 Nevertheless I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Verse 23 begins the transformation of pain and anguish to the joy of God's presence. Because of God's presence, the psalmist is also more assured of His protection and guidance. God protects him by holding his right hand, by giving him internal strength and courage, and by providing all his true needs. He stopped murmuring, complaining, relinquishing his own will, preferring rather to submit to the will of God humbly.
Now the psalmist understood that. And after all this complaining and his doubt, there is no one, not even in the heavens, who can fill the place of God or be to us what God is. Asaph's warm affections of the inner being of his heart are truly toward God now. Since God is the strength of his heart, he is more prepared to face his present life with all its problems. He is prepared to grow older and experience failing health, and even persevere through hard times because God is his Strength and his Sustainer.
Psalm 73:27 For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish; You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry.
So the psalmist places himself in the future and speaks of this as if it were already done. If it is God's will, it will be done! It will be so certainly done that he could speak of it as if it were already accomplished. A departure from His will is compared with spiritual immorality against the marriage contract, there speaking of harlotry. Spiritual fornication and adultery are manifested in the religious syncretism embraced by so many Christians today. And it is one of Satan's greatest wiles or greatest methods of deceiving people. He is constantly putting those thoughts in God's people's minds or at least in the tares that are within the congregations.
Psalm 73:28 But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all Your works.
To draw near to God is pleasant and eternally rewarding. A saint finds joy in his intimate relationship with God. Others find or attempt to find happiness in material things or fantasies of mind, but they never arrive at that joy.
So this is the conclusion the psalmist arrived at after his bewilderment. With all his doubts and difficulties, his real desire was to be near God where his true joy is found.
The psalmist had finally concluded that he had truly confided in God and that is where he loyally relied. The doubts he had were not real doubts about the outcome of God's will. There was an underlying trust in God during all his consideration on why the wicked elite prosper and the saints suffer. He did not want to dwell on such doubts and he still did trust in God. He arrived at the reason for drawing near to God and putting trust in the Lord. He understood why human will had to be reversed—so that in a saint's life, God could be glorified, and all His works be made known as a witness to the world as well as to the fellow saints.
The psalmist's concerns and puzzlement were not because he was an enemy of God, nor because he doubted His power, but because the fairness of God's will appeared to be against the pure in heart. It appeared on the surface, but we have to look below the surface to see God's hand sometimes, or often. Therefore, Asaph wanted to understand how the things that happened to benefit the wicked elite could be explained consistently with a proper belief in the goodness and justice of God. He wanted to know the answer so he could better understand and increase his own faith and explain it to others. In this light, his concerns and perplexities were not as inconsistent with true love for God and genuine confidence in Him as it first seemed as we were going through this.
So we see in Psalm 73 a good man who wants to put his confidence in God, momentarily meditating on why he must suffer and be poverty stricken while the wicked prosper and appear to be happy, even though they have a total disregard for God—even a fierce rebelliousness for God's way of life and for those who are pure in heart.
God uses such a reversal of these conditions of the wicked and the pure in heart to show His absolute sovereignty, to test and refine the understanding of the saints. So obviously, though the wicked do not always get off without penalty, eventually their sins find them out, and eventually they do receive the penalty.
The book of Proverbs is an unforgettable book of sudden reversals, sometimes in the form of predictions about the wicked of the world. For example, Proverbs 1:10-19 predicts that people who get gain by violence will be trapped in their own schemes. Proverbs 6:9-11 foresees that the sluggard will find that his excuses for not working will bring him to sudden poverty. Proverbs 6:12-15 foretells that the person who undertakes elaborate means to avoid being brought to account for his evil will be broken in a moment, he will be shocked, surprised when it happens.
No "type" in the Bible is more saturated with reversals than in biblical prophecies. The predictions of judgment are filled with visions in which current conditions are reversed. Contrary to all present evidence, those going through the tribulation will be more than shocked. Above all, the nations that are currently powerful will have their prosperity snatched away from them.
But in keeping with the mysteries of God, these same books, despite all their predictions of judgment, end with a sudden reversal, not prepared for, in which the nation that has been corrected throughout the preceding visions is portrayed as being restored to prosperity.
Prophetic stories spring reversals on us, especially the book of Daniel, where Nebuchadnezzar cast Shadrack, Meshach, and Abed-Nego into a fiery furnace only to find them miraculously spared. And where the same king suddenly fell from power now when he least expected it, and where Belshazzar received the prophecy of his imminent death on the night he threw the biggest party of his life.
God loves to do reversals on people to make a very clear point. In the New Testament, reversals of human will are illustrated in the many conversion stories in which a person's whole pattern of life was reversed by God's calling. Please turn with me to I Corinthians 1, verse 26. Now the disciples are the best examples in one sense. But the timeless expression of the principle is Paul's statement here in I Corinthians 1.
I Corinthians 1:26-31 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord."
So God declares His sovereignty and His will using reversals and He has done it in our lives through our conversion initially, and in many other ways that we slip and have to be brought back around.
The most well known New Testament reversals occur in the sayings of the parables of Jesus. Jesus' sayings regularly reverse usual standards or expectations. Just to name three of them: the first is declared to be last and the last first; the person who loses his life is said to save it and vice versa. The blessed person is the one who is meek, who mourns, and who suffers persecution.
Now, a similar reversal of human will occurs with the reversals in Jesus' parables as well. I will give you four examples of that. The wealth of the rich man and the beggar are ultimately reversed. The enterprising farmer's plans for retirement are dashed the day after his building venture is completed. The religious elite passed by the wounded man, while help came from the last expected source: a despised Samaritan. And then, a Pharisee going home is condemned while a tax collector is justified.
So we see these reversals or these paradoxes in one sense in many cases throughout the Bible. It is such a common theme that God uses to make His point.
We have seen at least two biblical principles emerge from the examples of reversals of human will to conform to God's will. The first is the mystery of God's providence, grace, and election, as unlikely people are chosen for favor while people impressive by worldly standards are scorned. The second general principle is the aspect of righteous judgment, as people who think themselves secure are vulnerable.
Both biblical principles promote the sovereignty of God and the absoluteness of His will. How much excellence could be accomplished if our wills were always conformed to God's will. We are so busy getting in our own way so often that we seem to not arrive at the excellence of character that we really should be striving for. We are all in the same boat. We are all trying to work with God to improve our character. Ultimately, it is God who does it, but we have work to do as well, as you know.
We know that human will accomplishes amazing things. It drives us through a way of life that without God's Holy Spirit leads to destruction and pain because it is driven by pride. God's Holy Spirit, in a sense, is the tool that gives us compliance with the will of God. Without God's Spirit how can we comply? How can we understand, how can we have the actual spiritual power to be able to do that? We cannot. You have heard the saying, "Where there's a will, there's a way." Well, there is a lot of truth in that, especially if it is worded, "Where there's a will, there's a way of life."
Please turn with me to II Timothy 2. Much of the time the human will is influenced by Satan and the will of Satan is a horrific way of life. Now, Paul explained this in,
II Timothy 2:24-26 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient in humility, correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
So God explains it that when a person is not behaving as a Christian that they are allowing themselves to get very close to a snare of the Devil or even be snared by the Devil. And so we have to be very careful not to allow our minds to go that far.
If our will conforms to God's will, then we are being steadfast in the truth. But if our will does not conform to God's will, by default our will may conform to Satan's will. So it is very dangerous to allow our will to take over.
Let us turn to Romans 12. God warns us against devotion to a world system that is opposed to Him. The world's appearance of permanence is deceptive. History is not an endless cycle but is speeding to a conclusion willed by God! The love of the Father implants in us through His Spirit a desire to break with the idolization of the world. We prove what is the good and acceptable will of God by not conforming to the world's Babylonish system, but by submitting our minds to God's inspiration.
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
So we can know God's will and still not conform to it completely. Paul was also inspired to write that the Jews knew God's will yet they did not live by it, they lived by pieces of it.
Romans 2:17-18 [the caption in my Bible here for this section is The Jews Guilty as the Gentiles] Indeed you were called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boasting in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law.
Although they know God's will, they were hypocrites because they taught it but did not live it themselves. They formed their own guidelines and rules and laws that superseded God's own rules.
Please turn to Psalm 143. This is David's appeal for guidance and deliverance for the present and the future. And there must be a desire to know the way we should go and to be taught that way.
Psalm 143:8-10 Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust; cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You. Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies; in You I take shelter. Teach me to do Your will, for you are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.
So if God instructs and guides us, we will receive inspiration through the Holy Spirit of God to do the will of God. He tells us to ask for it and David sets the example.
Through our calling and conversion, God is reversing the tendency of our human will and replacing it with His own will.
Reflecting back on what we learned about Asaph's testimony, the psalmist used the progression of dominant pronouns in Psalm 73. First, he emphasized the pronoun "they," referring to the wicked as Asaph zeroed in on them. Second, the dominant pronoun is "I." Having seen the prosperity of the wicked, Asaph looked at himself and slipped into unjustified comparisons. Third, is the dominant pronoun "You." Asaph stopped comparing himself to other people and thought, "How about God?" And fourth, the dominant pronouns "You" and "I" are combined.
So Asaph is acknowledging to God that, "You," meaning God, "have set 'Your' hand upon 'me,' and 'I' for my part want nothing on earth but 'You, God!"
Asaph's message shows us that the wicked will perish in the end and that God will be with the righteous and they will be with Him. The lesson for us to learn in the deepest possible way is that if we "want nothing on earth, but 'You,' God!" our lives will be transformed and we will find ourselves always content in the Lord as we do His will.
Matthew 24:35 reminds us that "heaven and earth will pass away," but those who know God and do His will, will abide forever. It will be awesome to do the will of God for eternity. Because eternity and eternal life is not a length of time, per se, as it is a quality of life so beyond anything we can imagine.
It should be our main goal to be able to work with God and do His will so that we can have the joy of the Lord forever. May God grant you the conviction always to do His will!
MGC/aws/drm