Why God?

WHY GOD?

Sermon Text - Psalm 73:1-28

Have you ever sat and read the newspaper, or watched the news on TV and wondered why does God allow such things to happen? Small children are kidnapped and murdered, and not just those from ungodly homes, but Christian homes as well. The case of the recent serial killings of women in our area, or the serial killings in the Washington D. C. are prime examples of people who are undoubtedly demonically inspired to commit their heinous crimes. Drunken drivers who not only take their own lives into their hands every time they get behind the steering wheel of a car, but they put the lives of every innocent person they pass on the highway.

Why does God allow those things to go on? Why doesn’t God bring judgment upon them quickly and stop much of these evil deeds? Why, God do you allow those things to go on and on? Why don’t you come quickly and rid this world of the power of sin that rules in the hearts of men?

It sometimes seems that those who defy God and shake their fists in his face, daring him to do anything to stop them, are the most prosperous people on earth. They seem to be prosperous; sometimes more than those who do everything they can to serve God.

If we will look at Psalms 73 we will find that we are not the only ones who have wondered concerning these things. Some say that Asaph actually wrote Psalm 73 –83 since he was supposed to be very gifted in poetry and music, but most agree that it is more likely that David wrote this Psalm and sent it for the benefit Asaph.

Perhaps David saw in Asaph some of the same mannerisms and same questions that David had within his own heart. David had come to realize the answer and now it was time to share his knowledge with Asaph and the rest of God’s people so that we all could understand God’s ways just a little better.

First David gives praise and glory to God because God had chosen both himself and the nation of Israel for God’s own people. What a blessed and wonderful place to be in. What a place of honor! To think that God would choose you and I, among all the people on planet Earth to be his child. To pick us out of the billions of souls that walk this planet right now, lift us out of the miry pits of sin and say to himself, “now that’s a keeper”. I choose you and you and you. What a mighty miracle of love and compassion that is! Praise God forevermore for choosing me!

John 15:16, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you."

God has chosen each of us and given us the chance to have a clean heart before him. He has washed us in his own blood and given us his righteousness. We are a people most blessed.

Even so, there are times when we lose sight of what God has done for us. We are so very prone to getting our eyes on the things of this world and upon those who live wickedly and still seem to prosper. Sometimes those temptations are almost more than we can bear, especially if we dwell upon them for very long. Our foot begins to slip and before we know it we are sliding back into that same miry clay that God delivered us from in the first place.

Every thing in this world tends toward the downside. It takes a committed and consecrated life to remain strong in the Lord. You won’t stay there by accident. Either you will be working to remain strong or you will be growing weaker by the minute. Don’t ever think that you can coast your way into Heaven. It’s going to require hard work and dedication along with some “sweat equity” as you constantly strive to keep your relationship with Jesus as strong as ever.

Psalms 73:2 - But as for me my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped

David knew what it was like to feel that way too. He had gotten his eyes off of the pure things of God and began to see the false prosperity and the indulgent lifestyle of those who lived worldly. He became envious at their lives; envious that they didn’t seem to care about anything; envious that they could live their lives, day to day, year after year, and never see any great consequences for their disregard of God’s ways.