Honesty is refreshing. In our current culture people aren’t honest. I don’t think it’s because we’re intentionally dishonest. We just want to put forward our best selves forward and we do that by posting happy photos of ourselves on Facebook and Instagram. Have you ever posted a photo of how you’re actually feeling? How did people respond? Did people want to see it?
When I climbed Long’s Peak back in 2010 I posted this picture of my face from the top of the mountain. The beauty of this photo is that my face displays exactly how I felt after reaching the peak at 14,259 feet. I felt terrible. My friend Nick climbed the mountain with me and he said this when I posted it.
- Nicholas: Mom says, “I can’t believe he put this picture of himself on here.” (to which I replied…)
- Jonathan: I’m all about transparency Nick. I think this will also attract women.
Full transparency. I was single at the time and this photo did not attract any women. Although Monica says it’s cute. I’m going to put up a blank slide so my mountain face isn’t staring at you. We know it’s good to be honest but that hard part about being honest is that honesty often doesn’t make us look good.
Today’s Psalm is an example of honesty. It’s an example of a man named Asaph who lived 3,000 years ago taking a picture of his own heart and writing about it for others to see. It’s not always pretty, but it is authentic. This Psalm is written down for us to meditate and pray on, and can become for us a template of what it means for us to be honest in our prayers before God.
An Example of Honest Prayer
Before we begin to go through this Psalm, you need to know who Asaph is. He’s a musician who was employed by King David and was tasked with ministering before the ark of the covenant in Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 16:37). So when David writes at the beginning of many of his Psalms “For the director of music. With stringed instruments.” he was likely writing notes for Asaph and those who followed him. Asaph himself is credited with having written 12 Psalms; including Psalm 73 through 83.
By today’s standards he was a successful worship leader. We often assume those who lead us in worship, the singers, the worship leaders, the band, they must really love and enjoy God all the time. But that’s not fair because they’re human and they struggle too, which leads me to the first way Asaph sets an example.
1. Admit your struggle. (v1-12)
Asaph admits his struggle. As we read Psalm 73:1-3 watch for Asaph’s struggle.
1 Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
3 For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. (NIV®)
By our standard, Asaph has everything, a successful career, he’s a gifted and talented musician, but he’s still not happy. In fact, he’s envious (aka. jealous). Envy is wanting what others have. It’s coveting what doesn’t belong to you (Exod 20:17). Timothy Keller gives a fuller definition, “To envy is to want someone else’s life. It’s to feel not just that they don’t deserve their good life but that you do and God hasn’t been fair.” Envy, is ugly. Asaph’s envy is extra-tricky because he’s envying the wicked.
The wicked are people who live their lives in disobedience to God. They ignore God’s rules and God’s laws and live life however they want. And as Asaph looks at them, it seems like they’re not just getting away with it. They’re actually getting ahead because of it.
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- (v4) They’re successful and healthy.
- (v5) Their lives are easier than most.
- (v6-8) They’re prideful, arrogant, and greedy and aren’t afraid to use others to get ahead.
- (v9-10) They have it all.
- (v11) They deny God and don’t believe in him.
Verse 12 is a summary, “This is what the wicked are like—always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.” (NIV®) Do you struggle with whether God can be good and true when you look into this world and see evil people going unpunished? Maybe you have a coworker who doesn’t mind lying or cutting corners and they keep getting promoted when they should really be fired. They just bought a nice new car and it makes you a little jealous. Maybe you have a family member who has stolen money from you and lives life for themselves, making it hard on the rest of the family. Maybe you think of a politician or government official who lies and is corrupt and yet they keep getting re-elected. Can God still be good if he’s letting bad people get ahead? This is a struggle; and Asaph admits it. But this struggle leads him to confession.
2. Confess your doubt. (v13-15)
13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
and have washed my hands in innocence.
14 All day long I have been afflicted,
and every morning brings new punishments.
15 If I had spoken out like that,
I would have betrayed your children. (NIV®)
Asaph puts all of his doubt on the table before God. He doesn’t sweep it under the rug. He says it’s vanity. In the original vanity means “emptiness” or “nothingness.” In other words, he’s saying, “It’d done me no good to live a life of obedience to God.” In fact, in verse 14 he suggests that this decision has actually made his life worse, “All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.”
See we can do everything right. We can live moral lives. We can love Jesus. We can read our Bibles and pray. We can go to church and give tithes and offerings. We can serve on missions trips and tell our frontlines about Jesus We can obey Jesus in all things and we still get sick, our loved ones still die, and we still experience disappointment, heartache, and loss. I think we’ve all had those moments where we’ve looked up into the sky and shaken our fists and asked “Why?”
God would rather have us confess our doubts to him than for us to run away and hide. God is not interested in our Instagram or Facebook faces. He’s interested in our haggard beat-up honest faces. What does your honest face look like? Where are the creases and the worries? Are you willing to come before God and to say, “Here’s my envy. Here’s my doubt.”? If I wasn’t willing to let Nick see me at my worst, I couldn’t have gone on that hike with him. We couldn’t have experienced the beauty of the summit together. Honesty allows us to enter into relationship. Honesty creates intimacy.
3. Go into God’s presence. (v16-28)
16 When I tried to understand all this,
it troubled me deeply
17 till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny. (NIV®)
Asaph goes to the sanctuary of God. This is the tent that housed the ark of the covenant (1 Chron 15:1). The ark was a chest made of acacia wood and overlain with gold. According to Hebrews 9:4b, “This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.” On top of the ark were two cherubim with outstretched wings that served as the Lord’s throne. So the ark acted as a footstool for God. It’s in the sanctuary near the ark that Asaph encounters the presence of God. He worships God and it completely changes him. God’s presence:
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- (v18-20) Helps him see God’s final plan for the wicked.
Asaph realizes that the wicked aren’t going to get away with it. Have you ever had a dream and you were absolutely convinced it was real? I really can fly! And then you wake up and just as quickly realize it wasn’t real? That’s how it’s going to feel one day when all who follow Jesus wake up and the wicked go away like a bad dream. God is going to judge the wicked. They may get away with it in this life but not the next.
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- (v21-22) Helps him see his own sin and repent.
Just like Asaph had enough courage to express his struggle and his doubts he has enough confidence to express his sin and repent. “I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.” (v22) When we’re open and honest with God, it opens up a space for him to work in our heart and change us from wanting sin for seeing what it really is, worthless.
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- (v23-28) Helps him see God has always been with him.
23 Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand. […]
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever. (NIV®)
God has not left Asaph and God has not left you. God isn’t scared by our envy or doubt. If you know him, he’s always been with you and will never leave you no matter what. When we remember that, it changes us.
Today we can’t go to the ark of the covenant to sense God’s presence, but we have something even better. We have prayer. We have the Holy Spirit inside of us who speaks to the Father on our behalf. We have Jesus. We have Jesus who stepped into our struggle and was exposed to our doubts. He was the best of men who suffered the worst of fates at the hands of wicked men. He died on a cross, but God used that for good to win our salvation. Jesus promises eternal life to all who repent of their sin and believe in him. He died to change wicked men and women into children of God. He brought God’s presence down into this world so we could step into God’s presence.
I hope today’s Psalm will encourage you to bring your honest face before God. When we’re honest with the ones we love it gives us the opportunity to be in relationship with them. The same is true of God. We come before him honestly in prayer to be in relationship with him. Bring your honest prayers to God.
Pastor Jonathan Romig preached this message at Cornerstone Congregational Church.
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Church Service
Pastor Jonathan Romig baptized Meaghan Tiano and Caleb Bradshaw at the end of the service. You can watch the full service on Facebook or only the sermon on YouTube.
Sermon Slides
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