Bible Talks - Family Church (9:45am)
Good God?
Sunday, 07 January 2007
Psalm 73 ESV or NIV
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In 1961 a book was published by a man named N.W. Clark. This was not the author's real name - it was a pseudonym. The book was titled "A Grief Observed" and it detailed the intense struggle the author had undergone following the death of his wife, after a long and painful battle with cancer.
"N.W. Clark" was a very prominent Christian in his day and it was for that reason that only after his death, in1963, that his true identity was eventually revealed. His name was C.S. Lewis. Well known to Christians all over the world.
It was because of who he was and what he said that the decision was made to publish the book under a pseudonym. For in the book C.S. Lewis is questioning the goodness of God.
And so, out of sensitivity to the Christian community. Out of a genuine concern for the damage such doubts expressed by such a prominent Christian might cause ... it was decided to withhold his true identity.
Question: What do you think of that? A good thing, bad thing . . .the decision to withhold his identity?
One can understand why such a decision would be made but personally I think it's a bad thing because it reinforces a common misconception that many people have about Christians and Christianity: namely that if you are a person of faith, you'll never question the goodness of god. You'll never experience doubt.
I mean, surely that would be a contradiction in terms, to say you are a believer and yet to experience doubt over God's goodness. And those who suggest that as a believer one should never experience a hint of doubt will often back their claims by turning to the Bible and citing examples of people there who seem to enjoy an unshakeable, unflappable, doubt-free faith in God.
For example take a look at v23-26 of our psalm today, Psalm 73
“23Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. 24You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. 25Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 26My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Question: What does such a passage say to you, or do for you?
Well for many people this places a question mark over the validity of their own faith. It says me "If this is the normal Christian life then there must be something wrong with me and my faith because there are times when . . . "
And so the apparent absence of doubt in others - both the Christians around me and those whose lives are recorded in the Scriptures - actually serves to increase the level of doubt in my own life.
That being the case it comes as something of a relief to discover that A Grief Observed is actually written by C.S. Lewis. In a strange way that's almost an encouragement to me.
And what's more, the writer of this particular Psalm is no different.
Come back to the start and read vs 1-2:
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.”
According to the first verse he's a believer. But he's looking back to a time when he came within a whisker of abandoning God altogether – “I had nearly lost my foothold.”
V15 tells us just how serious his doubts were: “If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed your children.”
- very similar to CS Lewis.
Yes! We do read of his great trust in God - vs 1 "God is Good" . and v23-26 "God is good to me", but it wasn't always like that. There had been a time when he had seriously doubted that God was good. And it’s at this point the Psalm becomes extremely relevant to you and me.
Two Questions
What caused his doubt?
What help him come through the other side?
1. The cause of his doubt
Similar to CS Lewis it arose out of the seeming contradiction he observed between faith and reason.
Look at vs 1 again. “Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.”
Sounds a pretty reasonable creed doesn't it? It was the affirmation of any faithful Jew of his day: "God is good to His people".
And yet this man's experience of life seemed to contradict what he knew intellectually about God. Things had happened which had caused him to say to himself: "My trust in God is a nonsense!"
Look at vs 3. “For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” That’s where his problems started. It's the age old question of :
1.1 Why do the Wicked Prosper?
Why is it that so many who have rejected God seem to be doing so well in life? V4-12 provides a description these people.
They clearly have no interest in God - .read v11 “They say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?” and yet, they seem to be enjoying the good life!
If you look at the whole section from v2-12, he's not saying that everyone who rejects God has this kind of life; he's just pointing out that it's often like that. There are so many ungodly people for whom life just seems to be so good.
Somehow, that doesn't seem right does it? How can God let them get away with it? “God is good to the pure in heart”, but look at the lives of the wicked!
However there's more behind this mans doubt than just that! Look at vs 13-14.
1.2 Why must I Suffer?
Here's the straw that broke this man's back.
The Real Issue was not simply why do the upright suffer? but rather why must I suffer? Now it probably shouldn't be this way, but isn't it true?
The issue of the innocent suffering can be purely academic - until you are the innocent that suffers!
You can read every day of people being hijacked in their cars it may make you angry but you can live with it - until you get hijacked.
I think it's this factor that brought the writer of this Psalm to the edge.
I would assume that CS Lewis must have been aware of hundreds of people dying of cancer before it struck his wife, but only when it happened to him did it really become a massive spiritual problem. Why me?
That's the real issue in Psalm 73.
That's the question being asked.
You might be in a similar position at this moment.
You may be questioning the goodness of God.
It may be because of the evil in the world that you see around you, but it's probably because of your own personal experiences of things going wrong.
Now hear me when I say: it not wrong to feel that way!
In fact, I want to argue it's to be expected.
God's people suffering is part of the normal Christian life. And the pressure of this experience is often of a nature that it may cause us to doubt that God is good. That’s normal.
But it's when that question is ignored and overlooked that our faith may come under threat.
So, what's the cure? How do we deal with it?
2. The cure for doubt
2.1 Negatively
Look at v16 “When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me.” It's not going to help to sit down and get all philosophical about it. The solution is not to be found in human reason. In fact, it's often the case that the more we turn to reason the more oppressive the situation can become.
Instead, what we need is God's understanding. And that's what vs 17 is all about: “till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny”
Now, this psalm is part of what we call wisdom literature. That’s books like Ecclesistes, Job, Proverbs, some of the Psalms. These sections of the Bible relate to our knowledge and understanding of life. The key to succesful living is wisdom, the key to wisdom is the Word of God.
And so the wisdom literature applies the Word of God to many of the big questions which plague us in life. That's what this Psalm is all about.
The "sanctuary" was the temple. Which represented the place where God dwelt. To speak of "entering the sanctuary" is to speak of turning to God. Turning to Him for counsel and guidance. Of allowing God to dominate our thinking. For example vs 16-17a (“When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God…”).
As he turned to God things began to fall into place.
But what did he learn?
I'm pretty sure these were not new lessons to him. No doubt these were things that had made him a believer in the first place but he had forgotten them and needed a reminder. There are three things he was reminded of. Firstly
A new Perspective on Human Destiny
Quite often, our trouble is that we have a hopelessly inadequate view of the world and life. We tend to ignore what we cannot see. We limit our thoughts to what we can see, touch, smell.
But the future cannot be known in this way and so we live as if it doesn't exist:
Think about the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:13-21). The context is that Jesus is talking about future things. Things like . judgement etc. A man in the crowd interrupts him, questions over a will.
Jesus responds with the Parable of the Rich Fool - A story of a man who was so pre-occupied with the here and now that he faced certain judgement in the future.
The person who lives their life with no regard for the future is a fool as far as Jesus is concerned. Because apart from anything else, the future reality is the Judgement from God!
This man writing our Psalm begins to see that he's forgotten all about that. “Then I understood their final destiny… surely you placed them on slippery ground. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.” (V17-20)
There's more to life than meets the eye!
Ever had a nightmare, where you wake up in a cold sweat, petrified? You switch the light on, and then you realise it was a dream, and you feel foolish to get so worked up over a dream.. That's the prosperity of the wicked, when viewed in the light of eternity.
One day we'll wake up and realise just how insubstantial that prosperity was. The Psalmist begins to see that.
And so he begins to now develop a:
A New Perspective on Himself
Read vs21-22 “When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.”
Part of our trouble once we get into the self pity trip, it quickly develops into a vicious circle.
We don't feel like turning to God
We don't feel like reading His Word.
We would much rather feel sorry for ourselves and feed our resentment against Him, with the result that we become more and more self absorbed and our darkness grows deeper and our doubt turns to despair.
All of which is one reason why the habit of church is a good thing. If we don't discipline ourselves to hear His word regularly, then when the times of doubt comes, how will we ever be brought to see things from God's perspective?
[What is it that Hebrews 10 says? “24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”]
That's this man's story.
It was in God’s presence that he began to see himself as he really was. “I envied the arrogant” “I was senseless and ignorant (ignoring reality)…”.
And something else he began to see about himself: Namely that he remained a child of God.
Vs 23-24 “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.”
So long as we are kept from God's Word we can hide this truth from ourselves… We can be our own worst enemies can't we? We think: ‘You're not really a Christian? A Christian wouldn't feel that way about other people!!’
But it's as we read God's word, that we begin to see ourselves as God sees us. And that can be a rebuke and an encouragement.
To be reminded that my Christianity depends not upon my performance but upon God's faithfulness.
A New Perspective on Real Values
This man had come to question the goodness of God back in v1 But that all depends on what you mean by ‘good’.
Does that mean healthy, wealthy, popular?
If that's what you mean then of course you have to come to the conclusion that God is very often not good to the pure in heart!
But you see, the truth is, that those kind of benefits, though they may be good in their own way, are not really what goodness is about.
It's one of the great tragedies of the modern church that people have allowed the pursuit of such things to rob them of the best things. The thing that v25 speaks of: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you”
Many people here, in the enthusiastic flush of youth held someone's hand and said "For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, for better for worse".
What were you saying? [You may well be asking yourself that very question]. You were saying that having that person in your life was more precious to you than any other good thing you could think of.
Now, if human love can be such a precious commodity that it makes you indifferent to material welfare, where should love of God fit on our scale of values.?
Look at v26. "richer, poorer… better worse…”
Some day we may have actually paid off our mortgage, but the house will eventually crumble.
We may get that car we so badly desire – but it will rust.
Are those really the things that make life good?
Well here's what this man discovered from God's Word:
“God is good to the pure in heart”. But let me define goodness.
Read v28: “But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.”
That's real value. As our psalmist thought of God's deeds: the promise to Abraham, thought of how God had remained faithful to that promise all throughout Israel's history.
Of course, as Christians we have so much more to look back on. We look back to Jesus His birth, his whole life, and his death on the Cross. [Romans 5:8-9.]
Conclusion
This Psalm is a source of great encouragement to me during times of doubt.
It reminds me that this is part of the normal Christian experience.
It tells me that I don't have to live under a pseudonym, like C.S. Lewis did, in such times.
By the way, Lewis, like our psalmist, never did lose faith in God. In his book A Grief Observed, there are a few pages in which Lewis speculates that God might be wicked, followed by the following line. “I wrote that last night. It was a yell rather than a thought”.
And so like the psalmist, like C.S. Lewis, as I express my doubt I am to be looking to God's Word - for it's there and there alone that I will find wisdom and a new perspective of life and human destiny. Wisdom about who I am, on what the good life really is.
And the good life for us is, in the end, to be found only in relationship with God through his Son, the Lord Jesus.
