If you are like me, there were many times you heard your children say, “that’s not fair.” When they were young it was bedtime, limiting what they watched on TV, or not buying another toy. As they got older, monitoring who they could hang out with and the music they listened to did not incense them nearly as much as saying no to playing video games online with friends. Life growing up in a disciplined household could feel unfair. It was hard for our children to see we had boundaries because we loved them. Sometimes they wondered aloud why their parents had such antiquated rules that threatened their social existence. Other parents did not have such rules, and it didn’t seem fair that they did. Like our parents before us, we proceeded to respond with “life’s not fair.”
Life should be fair
There is something innate in us that thinks life should be fair. Things should be equitable. Justice should be served and preserved. Well, until we need mercy, that is. And then what we think is fair and just is tempered by wanting to escape the consequences of our actions. As I continue to grow in my understanding of God’s character, He truly is the only Righteous Judge Who perfectly tempers justice with mercy. And yet, that is what He says is required of man in Micah 6:8.1
He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
Why does evil prosper
I have been anticipating studying Psalm 73 for a while. It addresses something with which every child of God seems to wrestle:
If God is so good, why do the wicked prosper?
Why must I suffer when I am trying to be the best Christian I know how to be? Meanwhile I see wicked people all around me not being held accountable for the evil that emanates from their pores. And on top of that, those that perform the wicked deeds are successful beyond belief without a care in the world. All of their followers are chanting how great they are, like they are a gift to mankind, some kind of savior. God, that’s not fair! Why don’t You do something?
God is truly good
This is how the writer of Psalm 73, Asaph, felt. As I continue in my reflections of the Psalter, I read Psalm 73 and let all the questions come tumbling out.
It begins with the word Truly, and I am already pausing in reflective thought. Just when I think I have a grasp on Who God is, my understanding is challenged so that I grow to know Him all over again in a deeper way. All of Him, even the parts that challenge me because my finite mind cannot fathom the Glories of His character. Asaph has found God to be truly good.
I have a hard time defining Hebrew words. The lexicon I have access to as part of my Bible software says good is used elsewhere to say pleasant, desirable, usable, kind.2 God is good. It is a fact. It is Who He is. It’s not up for debate. In His goodness, God allows me to come to understand what good really means, in part by answering to whom is He good and why.
Grace extended to the pure in heart
God’s covenant of Grace is extended to all of Israel, this includes the Gentiles like me who were grafted in to the Faith Family. God called out a nation through Abraham so that He could teach them Who He is and what it meant for them to be His children. It was always God’s kind intention to bless all nations through the one nation with which He started. Anyone could come into the family of God if they were pure in heart.
Speaking of pure in heart, Psalm 73 uses the word heart six times. You could say it is a key word. Martin Buber has pointed out, that ‘the state of the heart determines whether a man lives in the truth, in which God’s goodness is experienced, or in the semblance of truth, where the fact that it goes ill with him is confused with the illusion that God is not good to him’.3
Is the basis of goodness a lie?
Asaph is tempted to think the basis of goodness is a lie. In his doubting, he nearly stumbled when he saw the foolishly arrogant wicked were prospering. He says he was envious that they seemed to not have a care in the world.
The Message vividly captures this scene:
Pretentious with arrogance, they wear the latest fashions in violence, Pampered and overfed, decked out in silk bows of silliness. They jeer, using words to kill; they bully their way with words. They’re full of hot air, loudmouths disturbing the peace. People actually listen to them—can you believe it? Like thirsty puppies, they lap up their words.
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.
Psalm 73:6-12 The Message4
At the height of their arrogance, the wicked deny God cares or even knows what is going on down here on earth. They blasphemously speak out against all things good and godly with their malicious words. And big crowds follow them. Even church people get caught up in it as they get well paid for their sin.
Is it worth it?
Asaph is asking what he has gotten out of struggling along trying to live a life of faith before a holy God. All it has gotten him is more pain and trouble than he knows what to do with. Just when he thinks it is all in vain, asking the question helps reframe his mind. As he allows God to search his heart, he remembers basic responsibilities and loyalties to God and his faith family.3 If he had given full expression to his feelings, he would have discouraged other’s faith. And yet it is a painful and wearisome task to try to understand. You can sense his struggle as he considers the wealth of relationships in the family of God.
Even though he is still frustrated, Asaph is starting to at least consider how his words and actions may affect others. That is when he enters the Sanctuary.
Tune in next week as I reflect on how entering God’s presence changes everything.
A Psalm of Asaph.5 73 Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. 3 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. 5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. 6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. 7 Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. 8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. 9 They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. 10 Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.[a] 11 And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. 14 For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children. 16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, 17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. 18 Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. 19 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! 20 Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, 22 I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength[b] of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. 28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
My daddy was drafted into WWII in May 1942. I was born in November 1942. I didn’t see my daddy until I was almost 3 years old when he came home in August 1945. My mom did a great job preparing me to know hom. She gave me an 8×10 picture of him to carry around. I still have it hanging on my wall. She read his letters to me and talked about him all the time. When he came home I went to to him and loved him so much. He died of a heart attack when I was 20. That is not long enough to have your daddy. I didn’t think it was fair. I grieved horribly until I finally had to give it to God. I was 3 months pregnant and I was afraid my grieving would cause me to lose my baby. He was so excited to know he was going to be a grandfather. I learned God is truly with the broken hearted. I delived a healthy beautiful baby girl six weeks early. God is good.
My daddy was drafted into WWII in May 1942. I was born in November 1942. I didn’t see my daddy until I was almost 3 years old when he came home in August 1945. My mom did a great job preparing me to know hom. She gave me an 8×10 picture of him to carry around. I still have it hanging on my wall. She read his letters to me and talked about him all the time. When he came home I went to to him and loved him so much. He died of a heart attack when I was 20. That is not long enough to have your daddy. I didn’t think it was fair. I grieved horribly until I finally had to give it to God. I was 3 months pregnant and I was afraid my grieving would cause me to lose my baby. He was so excited to know he was going to be a grandfather. I learned God is truly with the broken hearted. I delived a healthy beautiful baby girl six weeks early. God is good.
Thank you for sharing mom. I love you!