Keeping Your Gospel Mind
Psalm 73
Main Idea: The remedy for spiritual myopia is a gospel-centered view of eternity.
"This passage is an Old Testament case study about what happens to the life of a believer when he loses sight of eternity. It demonstrates graphically how it is nearly impossible not to lose your gospel mind when you fail to live with eternity in focus. I think Psalm 73 has never been a more important passage than it is for us today. It speaks to the anger, angst, and discouragement in many of us. It addresses a question that burdens and disheartens many of us. Why does it seem like so many ungodly people prosper, while so many believers seem to have such a hard time? Why does it seem like my commitment and obedience are for nothing? Where have all the promises of God gone? Where is God in all the chaos? Psalm 73 lives in the gap between the 'already' and the 'not yet,' the very place where all of us live. If you're not going to lose your gospel mind, you need to make Psalm 73 a very familiar friend."
~ Paul Tripp, Do You Believe?
I. Is God Just? (73:1-12)
“The wicked not only flaunt God’s commands, instructions, and boundaries, they boast and brag that they have escaped his knowledge, implying that he is not up to the task of enforcing his own policies. They despise God and think themselves superior to him, and thus their ability to evade him.”
~ James Hamilton, Psalms: Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary
II. Is God Worth Following? (73:13-17)
“The psalmist’s logic in 73:13–14 is straightforward: if the wicked are not going to suffer for their misdeeds, why should the righteous punish themselves and endure God’s discipline as they strive for holiness?”
~ James Hamilton, Psalms:Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary
"You cannot properly understand the moment that you're in unless you are making sense of it in light of what is to come. The terrible spiritual tension that Asaph is experiencing as he is trying to understand himself and others, with all of its envy and discouragement, is resolved only when he begins to look at the very same things with eternity in view."
~ Paul Tripp, Do You Believe?
III. Is God Satisfying? (73:18-28)
A gospel-centered view of eternity corrects my vision by telling me …*
I have been designed with bigger concerns than a right-here, right-now focus on my wants, needs, and feelings.
The goal of this moment is not to use all of my resources to turn now into as much of paradise as I can afford.
Where and when my only true satisfaction will be found and what is truly important.
What I should be investing my resources in today.
The danger of giving way to the temptation to worship the creation and not the Creator.
Of the grace I need to fight the value battles that will wage war in my heart.
Of the hope I have when I get my values completely wrong.
*Adapted from Paul Tripp, Do You Believe?
