"If God is Good, Why is Life so unfair"
Illustration: At the San Diego Padres baseball games, between innings once in a while, they put a little puzzle on the score board. They have the outline of a baseball player and a trivia question; you try to guess who the player is. They start off by filling in one piece of the puzzle, and it’s usually the bill of a ball cap. Nobody can figure out who it is; everybody’s trying to figure out who it is. As the pieces come together people start to talk. An excitement begins to mount. Why? They begin to see a face, and they’re beginning to hone in on who that baseball player is.
I’m here to tell you that we usually get one piece of the puzzle. In God’s sovereignty and God’s timing, many of the things that happen to you and many of the things that happen to me make us just shake our heads and say, "I don’t understand. I don’t understand this in my life."
Citation: John Maxwell, "God’s ’Troublesome’ Timing," Preaching Today, Tape No. 147
Life is a lot like that. We can’t really understand it until we see the whole picture. Last week we began to look at Psalm 73 which was written by Asaph. In the first half of this Psalm he looked at life and came to the conclusion that life was not fair, and that maybe God wasn’t so good. It began to think that it might not be worth it to serve God faithfully. Asaph thought these things for the same reasons that people do so today. He looked at life and things just seems backwards. It seemed to him that bad people received good things and they good people receive bad things. For example: He saw the prosperity of the wicked and the poverty of the righteous in verse 3 and is disturbed him. He saw the peaceful lives of the wicked and the often troubled lives of the righteous as he noted in verse 5. He saw the unjudged pride of the wicked while the righteous were punished every morning. He saw all these things: The prosperity, peace, pride of the wicked, and the punishment of the righteous and that led him into doubt about God’s goodness and Life’s fairness.
He began to wonder "If God is Good, why is Life so unfair?" When Asaph doubted and when we doubt God’s goodness and fairness it is often because we are making a judgment before we have the complete picture. The result is that we, like those at the Padres game, are often wrong in our assessment. Asaph had only he viewed life from a human perspective in verses 2-16 but in verses 17-28 he views life from a heavenly perspective. Then he then sees the whole picture and is able to say with sincerity and confidence "Surely God is Good!" (verse 1)
Tonight we will look at verses 17-28 and discover four things that Asaph saw from a heavenly perspective that restored his faith in the ultimate fairness of life and goodness of God.
Read Psalm 73: 17-28
I. A heavenly perspective leads to faith in God’s goodness and fairness because we will see the ruin of the wicked.
Asaph had started this Psalm envying the wicked because they seemed to have it all, but now when he entered the sanctuary of God, when he had a heavenly perspective his envy disappeared. Why? He says it was then that he understood their final destiny. This is a clear reference to the final and eternal judgment. There are many roads to hell for the wicked. Some of the wicked experience hell on earth and hell in eternity, while others may live prosperous peaceful lives here on Earth but still arrive at the same destination. It is the final destination that makes the difference no matter how one may have gotten there. Their final destination shows us that life is fair when all is said and done. As Jesus said "what good will it be for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul" Matthew 16:26. Eternity is what matters!
Illustration: If you ever get the opportunity to visit Egypt and the tombs and pyramids, study what was required to construct some of those monuments. Some studies revealed that it required the efforts of one hundred thousand workers for forty years to build one of the great pyramids. As you tour the area there, you can’t help but ask why. Why so much effort? Why would somebody put that amount of emphasis on a tomb, on the afterlife?
The answer is that the Egyptians understood full well they would spend a lot more time in the afterlife than they would spend in this life. Granted, some of their conceptions of what would happen in the afterlife were a little skewed. But the point is, they understood to the core of their being that the afterlife was a whole lot more important than this life, and so they prepared for the afterlife during this life. God had placed eternity in their hearts.
Citation: Bill Hybels, "Your Ever After: Heaven," Preaching Today, Tape 34.
In verses 18-20 Asaph sees and understands that his earlier assessment was wrong because those with apparent prosperity, seemingly trouble-free lives and unjudged pride were actually all on "slippery ground". They are but one step from destruction, one breath from ruin, one heartbeat from hell. Their judgment will come! It will come suddenly and it will be totally complete as it says in verse 19, "how suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!" They are not to be envied, but rather they are to be pitied and prayed for because all their success which seemed so real will disappear like a dream does when one awakes. All of their prosperity and peace disappears when God says "Thou Fool this very night your life is demanded of you." Asaph’s faith is restored because his perspective has changed. He now understands that in the end the scales are balanced.
I. A heavenly perspective leads to faith in God’s goodness and fairness because we will see the ruin of the wicked
Read verses 21, 22
Asaph admits how stupid had been when he only looked at life from a human perspective. He was like an animal that does not have the ability to look into and consider the future. He was senseless and ignorant because like an animal he was only thinking about the present situation.
I I. Second a heavenly perspective leads to faith in the goodness and the fairness of God because we see the riches of the righteous.
Read verses 23, 24 a
While the Psalmist had focused on what the wicked had now he failed to notice the many blessings that the righteous enjoy now. Now that he sees from a heavenly perspective, he understands that he and other godly people have the riches of untold value. He had envied the glitter of the wicked while he had the gold. In these two verses he considers three riches that he had now that the wicked did not. He had God’s Divine Presence, God’s Divine Protection, and God’s Divine Piloting.
First notice that the righteous are blessed with God’s Divine Presence as he says in verse 23, "yet I am always with you." What is more valuable than God’s presence? What brings more joy? Can anything give us more peace? His presence is both a comfort to us and the most fulfilling thing in our life. Truly we are rich with God’s presence. For $1 million I would not even consider trading God’s presence! The righteous are blessed now! First of all the righteous have the blessing and the riches of God’s presence.
Secondly the righteous are blessed now with God’s protection as it says in verse 23, "you hold me by your right hand." Whereas the ungodly have been placed on "slippery ground", the godly are secure, held and protected by God’s mighty hand. Many times God protects us and sometimes he does so in unexpected ways.
Illustration: In her book, The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom tells about an incident that taught her the principle of giving thanks in all things. It was during World War II. Corrie and her sister, Betsy, had been harboring Jewish people in their home, so they were arrested and imprisoned at Ravensbruck Camp.
The barracks was extremely crowded and infested with fleas. One morning they read in their tattered Bible from 1 Thessalonians the reminder to rejoice in all things.
Betsy said, "Corrie, we’ve got to give thanks for this barracks and even for these fleas."
Corrie replied, "No way am I going to thank God for fleas." But Betsy was persuasive, and they did thank God even for the fleas.
During the months that followed, they found that their barracks was left relatively free, and they could do Bible study, talk openly, and even pray in the barracks. It was their only place of refuge. Several months later they learned that the reason the guards never entered their barracks was because of those blasted fleas.
Citation: John Yates, "An Attitude of Gratitude,"
Preaching Today, Tape No. 110.
Every believer can say, "I have security that is greater than that of money or success." I can have peace even during troubled times because I am held by his strong right hand. I have the riches of Divine Protection. I can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil because God is my protector. The wicked has a peace that is temporal and fickle. It has a habit of disappearing when trouble ultimately comes. The believer is always protected therefore the believer can have continued peace. As a believer I can have cancer and still have peace. As a believer I can be unemployed and still be at rest in my heart. As a believer, because I and protected by God’s mighty hand, I can be surrounded by trouble and still sleep at night with a quiet heart. Surely we have two great and wonderful blessings that have been given to us now: God’s Divine Presence and God’s Divine Protection.
There is a third blessing that restores Asaph confidence in the fact that God is Good and Fair. This third blessing reminds us that God does indeed bless the righteous and that he does indeed judge the wicked. The third blessing that the righteous have now is Divine Piloting. Asaph could say that his life as well as our lives are not being led by our own insight or wisdom but they are be being guided or piloted by God as it says in verse 24 "you guide me with your counsel." In verses 6-14 he had complained because it seemed that the wicked were left alone while the righteous were punished but now he understands that surely the righteous were blessed in not being left alone to do their own thing. Their punishment was actually a part of God’s loving discipline which was a part of God’s blessed guidance. That discipline was an act of God’s Divine Piloting. The wicked have no Divine pilot therefore they do not arrive at the destination that their heart desires rather their final destiny is to be "cast down to ruin" as it says in verse 18. The godly, on the other hand, are blessed by Divine piloting so they are guaranteed to arrive in glory as it says at the end of verse 24.
I. First a heavenly perspective leads to faith in God’s goodness and fairness because we see the ruin of the wicked.
I I. Second a heavenly perspective leads to faith in God’s goodness and fairness because we see the riches of the righteous.
I I I. Third a heavenly perspective leads to faith in God’s goodness and fairness because we see the reward of the righteous.
Read verses 24-26
He realizes that the righteous are blessed now with the riches of the Divine Presence Divine Protection and Divine Piloting but also they will be rewarded later as the Divine Pilot takes us to glory. Verse 24 is a clear reference to heaven and eternity with God. When Asaph looks at things from a heavenly perspective he is looking at things correctly, from an eternal framework. Certainly believers are much better off than the wicked, God is good and life is fair because he will reward us with eternal glory that we do not deserve. The glory and joy of our eternal heavenly reward is so great that it is incomprehensible and indescribable. After considering the riches that the righteous have now and the reward that they experience later in heaven the Psalmist stand in awe and in appreciation of the many blessings he has. The basic message of verse 25 is that in heaven with God the believer has the best that there is available and that on all the Earth there is nothing greater or better than God himself. As Asaph says "Earth has nothing I desire besides you." Nothing is better or more valuable than what he already had. The believer is blessed on earth with God’s many riches but unlike the wicked the believer will also be blessed in the future with a reward that cannot be comprehended. In verse 26 he is basically saying that even if he were to experience trouble and sickness all the days of his life, even if his heart and his flesh were to fail he was still better off than the wicked because God was "the strength of his heart" and God would be to him "his portion forever." The word "portion" is another word for his reward or his inheritance. God is better than health, wealth, houses, success, earthly pleasures, etc.
Read verses 27-28
The final destiny or the final outcome is clear and reassuring for our confidence in God’s fairness. As these verses say it is the wicked "who are far from you will perish." The righteous on the other hand will be "near to God" as it says in verse 28 because they have made the sovereign Lord their refuge. After considering life from a human perspective the Psalmist was tempted to express doubts, anger and frustration as we saw in verse 15, but after seeing the whole picture from a heavenly perspective he says "I will tell of all your deeds." He is of course referring to God’s good deeds and the blessings that the believer alone experiences. His situation has not changed, but his perspective on his situation has. His perspective had changed so much that his doubts about God’s goodness had now become a declaration. His protest now becomes praise. Perspective changes everything.
Illustration: Inspirational speaker and writer Barbara Johnson tells this story:
The day had not started out well for a certain woman. She had overslept and was late for work. Then some things happened at the office that only contributed to her harried condition. By the time she reached the bus stop for her trip home, her stomach was tied in an intricate knot. As usual, the bus was late and packed, and she had to stand up. The bus started, stopped, turned left, then right, pushing and pulling her in all directions. The day wasn’t improving even as it came to an end.
Then she heard a man’s voice up front proclaim, "Beautiful day, isn’t it?"
Because of the crowd she couldn’t see the man, but he continued to comment on everything the bus passed that added to his joy: a church here, an ice cream store there, a baseball diamond here, a library there. The atmosphere in the bus grew immediately more carefree as did the woman’s heart. The man’s enthusiasm was so winsome, the woman found herself smiling. When the bus reached the woman’s stop, she worked her way through the crowd to the door. As she did so, she glanced at the "tour guide"—a plump man, wearing dark glasses, and carrying a white cane. He was blind. He had seen what she hadn’t because he had a different perspective. As her perspective had changed, her attitude changed with it.
Citation: Barbara Johnson, Stories of Hope for a Healthy Soul (Zondervan, 1999), p.17
The same is true of us. If we will look at life from a human perspective our lives will be filled with sorrow and our faith will be weak, but if we will look at life from a heavenly perspective we will be filled with joy and hope and a strong faith in God. Even though we will have some difficult times and we will see some disconcerting things in our life, we will be able to say with Asaph "Surely God is Good!"
