Where do you look for answers? Where do you go when all the little stressors form into a giant wave crashing across your life? It’s so easy for our first response is to develop a plan. Look at our account. Scheme a way to get through this. I make that sound a bit drastic, but it’s so easy. Read with me in the Message version Psalm 73. The author Asaph begins with grief and rage.
“No doubt about it! God is good— good to good people, good to the good-hearted. But I nearly missed it, missed seeing his goodness. I was looking the other way, looking up to the people At the top, envying the wicked who have it made, Who have nothing to worry about, not a care in the whole wide world.”
Psalms 73:1-5 MSG
I know He’s good. I know he’s good to me, but I look everywhere except His face I’m a mess. I envy. I wonder if God will do anything. Look at that person, all they have. It’s not fair.
“What’s going on here? Is God out to lunch? Nobody’s tending the store. The wicked get by with everything; they have it made, piling up riches. I’ve been stupid to play by the rules; what has it gotten me? A long run of bad luck, that’s what— a slap in the face every time I walk out the door.”
Psalms 73:11-14 MSG
Where is God? How do people get away with it? How can they treat people with such disregard? Look at my life, Lord. I’m trying to serve you. I am trying to teach others about your love and my life feels like it is crumbling. Oh, those thoughts so easily fall into my mind. So quickly. They are not truth.
“If I’d have given in and talked like this, I would have betrayed your dear children. Still, when I tried to figure it out, all I got was a splitting headache. . . Until I entered the sanctuary of God. Then I saw the whole picture: The slippery road you’ve put them on, with a final crash in a ditch of delusions. In the blink of an eye, disaster! A blind curve in the dark, and—nightmare! We wake up and rub our eyes.. . . Nothing. There’s nothing to them. And there never was.”
Psalms 73:15-20 MSG
Have you ever allowed yourselves to sit in the mud? Thrown it around? Asked others to come in and share the mud. Get stuck in it? Pain. Mud cracks and hardens. It’s hard to see.
In the last year, I’ve become a fan of the Survivor TV series and the image stuck in my head is after a competition that involves mud. The contestants can’t wash it off right away and it hardens on their face, bodies and clothes. It itches. They know that soon they will go to the ocean and wash clean. They have to keep going. And then when they are able to sink into the water, the mud and grime billow around them and disperse. And they are clean.
When we try to figure out on our own we get headaches and the mud cracks and dries all over our lives. Look what the author tells us…Until I entered the sanctuary of God. Everything changes when we bless God’s name. Our circumstances may not, but our perspective changes.
“When I was beleaguered and bitter, totally consumed by envy, I was totally ignorant, a dumb ox in your very presence. I’m still in your presence, but you’ve taken my hand. You wisely and tenderly lead me, and then you bless me.”
Psalms 73:21-24 MSG
Friend, we all have times like this. We do not have the whole picture. We suffer pain in loss, heartache, bodily, etc. When we sit still, cease our striving and allow the Lord’s presence to be our answer, He leads. He blesses. He gives us what we need in the midst of the storm.
“You’re all I want in heaven! You’re all I want on earth! When my skin sags and my bones get brittle, God is rock-firm and faithful. Look! Those who left you are falling apart! Deserters, they’ll never be heard from again. But I’m in the very presence of God— oh, how refreshing it is! I’ve made Lord God my home. God, I’m telling the world what you do!”
Psalms 73:25-28 MSG
Look at the change, friend, in the author. From the first sentence to the last, the lament turns into songs of worship. I am not the answer to my heartaches and issues, God, the rock-firm and faithful. When I FEEL like I am falling apart, I remind myself of where my God is right now. He is with me. And He is with you. He is your home. He is your rest. And He is your answer.
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