What Do You See?

Psalm 73:1-28

I read somewhere that where you stand determines what you see!

There is an old story that I heard many years ago in a psychology class about six blind men
and an elephant.
One day, six blind men decided to go to the zoo.
They hired a guide to tell them about all the exotic animals which they couldn't see.
When they came to the elephants, the zoo keeper wanted them to have more than a verbal description;
so he allowed each of them to feel the elephant.

Since the elephant was large, and since the zoo keeper had limited time,
he let each man touch one part of the giant elephant.

The first blind man reached out and his hand grabbed the elephant's tail.
"Aha," he exclaimed, "the elephant is like a big rope."

The next man felt the massive leg of the elephant.
He looked strange, no rope was that big.
"No, the elephant is like a large log or tree."
He was sure of this.

The third blind man walked forward and place his hand on the elephant's side,
whereupon he pronounced that, "The elephant is really a big wall."

Next, another blind man reached out and took hold of one of the elephant's ears.
It must have tickled, because the elephant wiggled the large ear,
causing the fourth man to exclaim, "Oh, see this, the elephant is like a big fan."

The fifth blind man decided that the first four were slightly off, and that they couldn't be describing
the same creature, so he carefully walked up and put out his hand,
the elephant raised his trunk to the man who felt it, and grinned in wonder.
"My friends, it is obvious the elephant is like a huge snake."

The final blind man was totally confused, he walked forward and reached out, hoping to find the truth,
and he encountered a tusk.
He paused and brightened as he said, "I understand, the true nature of the elephant is this,
he is a sword."

The zoo keeper and guide smiled at one another, knowing that none had seen the big picture.

This was the problem which confronted the writer of this Psalm.
He was looking at his situation from the wrong vantage point.
We are often guilty of doing the same thing.
There are times when terrible things come our way during our lives.
When this happens, we tend to only look at what we can see.
However, there is far more to the picture than what these mortal eyes can behold.

This Psalm teaches us how to get our eyes off of our circumstances and place them
completely upon the Lord.
Asaph was ready to quit.
He was ready to throw in the towel, and walk away from God.
However, he had learned to look at things, not from a faulty human perspective,
but from the perspective of God.
You see, like those six blind men -- where a person stands determines what that person sees.

There is something about Psalm 73 which sounds as if it was written for today.
In this Psalm we find that the same man as he looks at four different sets of circumstances.
The man is looking out on life, and as he changes his vantage point in the way that he looks,
his inward response is changed.

He is like people today who are looking and wondering and waiting.
We should compare ourselves with this man, and see how far we have looked
and see if our reactions are the same as his.

His first look is one of distress.
This is seen in verses 1 - 12.

Psalm 73:1-12: "A Psalm of Asaph.
Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
There are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.

Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.

Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
They say, How doth God know? Is there knowledge in the most High?
Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches."

We know where he is looking for he mentions "they" and "them" and " their".
Their eyes are on the ungodly.
15 times he uses the personal pronoun referring to the wicked.
All that he says is true in his own experience, and it is also true in our experiences today.
The wicked still seem to prosper.
They still have more than they would ever need.
They are still corrupt, and they still speak wickedly.
We read in verse 9: " They set their mouth against the heavens,
and their tongue walketh through the earth."

This is a dramatic picture.
It states that it is a " walking tongue."

Today, the tragedy is that corruption and wickedness is what often occupies the minds
of many Christians.
They feed on the newspapers with their lurid stories, and, on the TV with its pitiful procession
of crime, sex and rebellion.

Their favorite topic of conversation is how bad the world is, and how much worse can it get,
and that things were not like that years ago.
And that is absolutely true.

But, if this is where we look most of the time, and if our heart continues to worry over the wickedness
all around us, then such a person becomes a useless, negative person.
We should see these things and recognize them, but we must not settle for this first distressed look.

The second look is the disappointed look.
We see this look in the following verses.
Psalm 73:13-16: "Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; "

Here the writer of this psalm has changed his direction from looking at the world
and the wickedness around him.
He now looks within himself, and his mind is filled with himself, his needs, and his problems.
Notice, the complete change in the emphasis of the pronouns.
In the first look, it was all "they" and " them" and " their".
Now it is all about " I " and " me."

Here we find that he uses the personal pronoun referring to himself 9 times.
This is a strong indication of where his interest are.

He has measured the wickedness in the world around him, he has seen the prosperity of those
who live godless lives, and now he sees his own insecurity, and his own insufficiency.
He becomes sorry for himself, and has a " poor me" attitude to life.
He measures himself against a restless world, filled with increasing evil,
and becomes crushed in his own soul.

The Bible tells us to take a good look at ourselves and see if this is our own attitude to life.
As I meet with many Christians, this seems to be the common cause of their failures.
So many Christians seem to spend their life alternating from " the distressed look" to " the disappointed look."

The increasing failure around them, plus the increasing frustration within them
wears them down and wears them out.
The first two " looks" are definitely negative in cause and effect,
but the last two "looks" become completely positive.

In verses 17-22 we find the third look.
It could be called the discerning look.

Psalm 73:17-22: "Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedest them down into destruction.
How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.
As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.
So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee."

Here the writer of the psalm takes his eyes off the world around him, and the self within him,
and begins to see something of the majesty and holiness of God.
The psalmist is now directing his eyes to God, and everything around him is beginning to make sense.
God is still on the throne, and all that happens here on this earth is seen and noticed by Him.
The boasting blasphemer and the proud, cruel person will someday come to a reckoning with God.

So, in a very definite way, the discerning look takes care of the first look, the distressed look.
Here is an answer to the wickedness all around.
But, how about the disappointed look within -- this " poor me" attitude,
this personal sense of present failure and present need?

It is good that we know that some day God will have a settling up of the world and its wickedness.
But this doesn't meet the immediate attention and frustration in the day-by-day life of the disappointed Christian.

It is in the closing verses of Psalm 73 that we find a wonderful and mighty words rich in blessing
for all of us who have the disappointed look has a daily image of the way we live.
I believe that the writer of Psalm 73 was expressing his own involvement with Jehovah God.

Verses 23 to 28 could be called the delighted look.
These verses tell of the psalmist's joy and peace in God who is the strength of his heart and his portion forever.
But when you take a closer look at the words, you can begin to see that what is expressed here
could only find its ultimate fulfillment in the risen, victorious Christ

Psalm 73:23-28: "Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.
Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
For lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.
But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD,
that I may declare all thy works."

In these verses we can find Jesus Christ being real to our own hearts.
Our eyes are on the Saviour and we begin to see all that is ours, here and now, in Him.
This is the answer to the second look, the disappointed look, when his eyes were on himself
and the words, " I" and " me" came so easily for him to write.

Look first at the wonderful opening words of verse 23: " Nevertheless I am continually with thee."
This is a bold statement of definite assurance.
Compare these words with the words of Jesus himself in Matthew 28: 20:
"Lo, I am with you away, even unto the end of the world."

I believe the words of Jesus Christ.
I'm sure that He is with us always, as He promised.
I know this because He lives within me.
Knowing that this is actually true, it follows that I am continually with Him.
These two statements become the two sides of the coin of comfort -- He with me, I with Him.

It is strange that there are many Christians who have accepted the words of Jesus Christ:
"Lo, I am with you alway," as a belief in their mind,
but it has never become real in their actual living.

Look at the wonderful significance of the end of verse 23.
" Thou hast holden me by my right hand."
This is such a little phrase, yet, it is so full of great significance.

There can be tremendous comfort for the troubled Christian who recognizes the presence
of Christ as real, and even though it may be dark all around, that Christian can reach out
and find that "Thou hast holden me by my right hand" is true

A simple pattern for daily living is seen in verse 24.
We are being guided by His counsel -- guided by the One who is always there,
and who will never leave us.
And we have this constant guarantee ahead of us, that He will " afterward receive me (us) to glory."

We live in a very impersonal world, where people have become merely numbers in this computer age.
It is absolutely wonderful to know that He will receive me -- it will be a personal reception for me
with the Lord Jesus who I love.

There is a tremendous treasure of truth in verse 25.
We must look into it carefully.

It speaks of a Person who is in heaven on my behalf, but, who, at the same time, is here also on earth,
and also on my behalf.
Only Christ could could do that.
Verse 25 says, " And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee."
The One who is in heaven on our behalf is also here on earth.
We can truly say that Jesus lives In Us in the person of His Holy Spirit.

This is the whole significance of the delighted look.
That is why the fourth look is the complete answer to the second look of utter personal disappointment.
We are nothing but failures, that is what the Bible teaches, and we always will be failures,
for " they that are in the flesh cannot please God." (Romans 8:8)

But God has given us the answer to our failure.
That answer is Jesus Christ our Saviour who lives in our hearts and lives to be Himself in us,
if only we will step aside, and let Him be the Lord of our life.

This is the significance of Psalm 73:26:
" My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
This could be true only in the risen, victorious, indwelling Christ.

You and I can list all our failures, and then we can say, " But God,"
and the whole picture can change as we rest in our Lord who is always there.
It is no wonder that the psalmist ends with the words:
" But it is good for me to draw near to God."

Have you seen the living Christ in this way?

The psalmist continues: " I have put my trust in the Lord God."
Have you come to know the Lord Jesus in all His fullness.
Have you come to know Him as the One who died for you on the cross to save you from your sins
-- then know Him as the One who lives in your heart to save you from yourself, your failure, and your fear?

How far have you looked in the experience of this Psalm -- distressed -- disappointed -- discerning,
and hopefully, now delighting in the Lord Jesus Christ who ever lives in your heart?
Life is always radically and marvelously changed every time a Christian discovers that Christ is real
and lives in his heart and his life.

"O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s a light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!

Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there;
Over us sin no more hath dominion —
For more than conquerors we are!

His Word shall not fail you — He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace."

This sermon was influenced by a study of Psalm 73 by John Hunter,
who wrote Finding Christ in the Psalms.