When Good Things Happen To Bad People
Psalms 73
Dr. Larry Halsey

Do you enjoy “Good-News — Bad News” anecdotes?” In this cartoon a doctor says to a patient:

“The bad news is you have a condition unknown to medical science. The
good news is we’re going to name it after you.”

Recently I happened upon one aimed at pastors:

Good News—The church offerings have increased 25 percent this quarter.
Bad News—Both the money and the treasurer are missing.

Good News—Mr. Troublemaker is finally leaving the church.
Bad News— He’s taking half the congregation with him.

Good News—The church voted to buy a new vehicle for you.
Bad News— It’s a bus and you get to pick up the children every Sunday.

Good News—Three children came forward during the invitation.
Bad News—They wanted to know where the restroom was.

Good News—There was a wonderful spirit during the communion service.
Bad News—The grape juice was fermented.

Good News—The church gave you a ticket for a trip to the Holy Land.
Bad News—It’s a one-way ticket.

In case you don’t connect with that…A lady came to her husband one evening and said:to her husband one evening and said: “Honey, I’ve got some good news and some bad news.”

“I’ve had a bad day,” he replied, “I don’t want to hear a word of bad news.”

to her husband one evening and said: he replied, “She thought for a moment and said, “Okay. You know that new car we got? The air bags work!”

The appeal of “Good News — Bad News” scenarios is that they jerk you around in the area “perspective.”

Perspective drives attitude; attitude drives actions.
Outlook determines outcome.

Someone said: “We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are.”

Maintaining a perspective that’s tethered to reality is one of your greatest challenges. It’s especially at risk when…

…Long-term Relationships are strained.
…Work or school is beating up on you.
…Finances are tight. (There is something unique about financial pressure.)
…Significant adversity strikes you or someone you love.

Do you ever find yourself muttering under you breath….

“But Father, I love you! I serve you. I don’t understand why this is
happening.”

Perhaps you can identify with Cory…diagnosed with cancer:

“Why me, and not that bum down the block who beats his wife and terrifies
his kids? Why me, and not that power-drunk vice president who heads my
department? Why me, just on the edge of achievement, rather than the
crazed old woman who fishes about in garbage cans along the alley for the
discards of our meals? Why me, and not the really evil people in our
world?”

The Good News is—You bear the image of God.

The Bad News Is— You bear the image of God, and therefore, you have
pulsating deep in your soul a sense of justice.

Even understanding that you live in a Fallen World, reality is sometimes tough to swallow.

In those times, perspective has the power to sustain you or destroy you. (Repeat.)

That’s what Asaph learned. Asaph was a high-profile musician at the Tent of Meeting, in David’s time, (before Solomon’s Temple). We would say, he was the worship leader, who became the father of a clan of Temple musicians.
He was probably the most famous musician in Israel.

Asaph’s psalm is a testimony about a crisis of faith he endured. After a dark season of the soul—weeks? Months?— obviously depressed and disillusioned, Asaph came back—back to God, his family, and his ministry.
And now, under the Spirit’s direction, he says, “Friends, may I share a word of testimony?”

Don’t you appreciate his transparent?

In Verse 3— “I was envious.” Is that something you’ve confessed before us all or your small group lately? Maybe you have. If that wasn’t enough, he says,

“Yea, I’ve believed in God all my life, I have served him, but I came to
place where I doubted what I always believed.”If you’re stunned by that, you’ve never been where Asaph was. If you’re stunned by that, you’ve never been where Asaph was.There are four scenes in Asaph’s journey from the pit to the pinnacle of praise.*Asaph rebounded because his perspective rebounded.Asaph rebounded because his perspective rebounded.*Asaph was found because he was discerning enough to know where he was, and humble enough to admit it

Asaph rebounded because his perspective rebounded.*Asaph was found because he was discerning enough to know where he was, and humble enough to admit it*He was real enough to bring all his “stuff” to God. Friend, the Father is unshockable. James says, “He’s not going to brow-beat you for your honesty.”

I. In Verse 1— Asaph Looks Back— Read.

When the dense fog lifted and faith was re-born, it sprang from a simple conviction: “God is good.”

It’s was a confidence in and focus on God’s character that led the way home.

When Satan slithered into the Garden, his first line of assault was on the goodness of God… “God is keeping something good from you…”If he gets a foothold there, it’s only a matter of time until he invades the soul.If he gets a foothold there, it’s only a matter of time until he invades the soul.Mary and I were privileged to be with Ron White in Japan, just months after his beloved wife, Odessa, went home after a six-year battle with cancer. Rarely had we witnessed such love, such chilling loneliness, and grief.

If he gets a foothold there, it’s only a matter of time until he invades the soul.were privileged to be with Ron White in Japan, just months after his beloved wife, Odessa, went home after a six-year battle with cancer. Rarely had we witnessed such love, such chilling loneliness, and grief. “Ron,” I asked, “what sustains you?” He snapped back:

“Three things: God is God! God is Good! God is Gracious!”

When the rubber meets the road, perspective will be driven by your answer to the question: “Who is God?” Is He loving, or unloving? Good or evil?
Is He actively aware? Is he involved?

He says, in verse 2, “I was ready to chuck it all…I was slipping fast into the abyss.”

Why?

(Asaph looks Back.)

II. Asaph Looks Around—Vv 2-12

You never do that right? You’ve never compare yourself to others, what they have; the kind of life and influence they have, right?

C. S. Lewis had significant insight:

“Pride is competitive in nature. Pride gets no pleasure out of having
something, only out of having more of it than the next man…It is the
comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.
Once the element of competition is gone, pride is gone.”

Just one episode of “Lives of the Rich and Famous” is about all it takes. To whom does Asaph compare his life? Verse 3—Bad people!

He studies their…

…Prosperity (Vv 3-5)
…Pride (Vv 6-9)
…Popularity (Vv 10-12)

“The Message” says:

“I was looking the other way, looking up to the people. At the top, envying
the wicked who have it made, Who have nothing to worry about, not a care
in the whole wide world.”

His description drips with vivid imagery…

*”They wear their pride like a necklace.” (V 6)
*”Their eyes bulge with abundance.’
*Verse 11— “How does God know?”

The Hebrew reads, “how can God know?” They demean and deny His
character, even His existence!

They’re arrogant, blasphemous…Yet, they seem to be exempt by the troubles that dog God’s people.

Chuck Swindoll drives the point right through the heart:

“The wicked appear to get away with murder. Haven’t you noticed? They
maneuver their way through life with relative ease, they get out of trouble
by lying and cheating; they can own and drive whatever, live wherever and
con whomever they wish out of whatever they want. And all this without
accountability or responsibility.”It’s more than Asaph can bear!It’s more than Asaph can bear!III. Vv 13-15—Asaph Looks Within

Now that’s a sure formula for hope and victory!

It’s more than Asaph can bear!Now that’s a sure formula for hope and victory! “I’ve lived a pure, committed live for nothing,” he laments. “What
advantage is there in living for God? It doesn’t pay to serve Him. I’ve
been a fool.”

If you’re over 50, you recognize this American Icon, Walter Cronkite.
A generation heard Cronkite conclude his nightly broadcast, “And that’s the way it is…”

From everything Asaph could see and feel, that’s the way things are! That’s
the real world!

He looks back
He looks around
He looks within

IV. Asaph Looks Up—Vv 16-22

Underscore the first word of verse 17— “until”

The ominous clouds that shrouded his soul begins to dissipate; It’s the dawn of faith, hope and moral sanity! He is reminded that there is more than the present, and the physical world!

“until I went into the sanctuary of God.”

Asaph went to church! Do you think he always felt like it? When you are going through the wringer, this may be the last place you feel like being. You don’t feel like smiling; singing. Someone says, “How are you?” And you lie right in ‘the house of God’”

But you need to be here. Not because of us; but because of Him. Asaph worshipped!

All week you are pulverized by a culture that’s intensely present. It’s reminiscent of a researcher that found that it takes a high dose of amphetamines to kill a mouse living in solitude. But a group of mice will start hopping around and hyping each other up so much that a dosage twenty times smaller will be lethal—so great is the effect of “the world” on a mouse.
In fact, a mouse that had been given no amphetamines at all, placed in a group on the drug, will get so hopped up that in ten minutes or so it will be dead.

Society is “hopped up” on several things; one is worldview called existentialism. Ravi Zacharias says:

“The basic impetus for life in the existential worldview is to life with a
passion for the now, to make a choice in the face of despair.”

“No one knows about the future. This is all there is. Therefore, this is all
that matters.” One philosopher said:

“Life is a grasshopper dance to oblivion.”

One national survey showed that less than 1 percent of Americans are interested in the answer to the question: “How can I get to heaven.”

It’s in worshipping God that you keep your balance and your sanity; that keeps your focus on things that really matter. That keeps you from being lured onto the rocks of destruction.

Steve Brown says:

“Little gods have little worshippers and when big, bad things happen to little
worshippers, those worshippers fall apart.”

In God’s presence, Asaph saw three truths:

A. The Fate of the Wicked— V17—18

“…their end…”— Literally, “their afterward” (Eternal Destiny)

B. The Foolishness of His Own Ways— Vv 21-22

He concludes: “I have been living like a dumb animal. I had ”

…no awareness of God, I never looks up
…was living by basic instinct
…reacting to people and circumstances

C. The Faithfulness of God—Vv 23-25

The music leader looks Up

V. Asaph Looks Ahead— Vv 23-28

I’ve added verse 24 to my list of life verses… (Read vv 23-24)

In the present, His presence, His sustaining grace, and his guidance.

“…and afterward receive me to glory” The word translated “receive” is the same Hebrew word used of Enoch, who was raptured, in Genesis 5:24— “for God took him.”

A little girl misquoted Ps 23:1- “The Lord is my shepherd, what more could I want.”

In an atmosphere of worship, Asaph makes three resolutions:

1. Verse 28— “I will stay near God”— “It is good for me to draw near…”

He realized that the only thing that matters is a personal relationship with
God. Everything eternal grows out of that.

2. “I will trust the Lord”— Verse 28

Even when he didn’t understand.

3. “I will share with others what God has done in my life.”—Verse 28

…a witness…a servant.

That’s a formula for sure victory!

I read this week about a new law I was not aware of called “Gumperson’s Law,” maybe you have heard about it.

Gumperson’s Law stated simply is that “the contradictory of a welcome probability will assert itself whenever such an eventuality is likely to be most frustrating.”

Let’s say it differently: The outcome of a given desired probability will be inverse to the degree of desirability.

Dr. R. F. Gumperson, internationally famous physicist, began serious work in 1938 on a phenomenon long known to scientist up until them was considered a mere curiosity. This was the fact that the forecasting record of the US Weather Bureau despite using the most advanced equipment and highly trained personnel was not as good as the old Farmers’ Almanac.

In the following years of research Dr. Gumperson came up with some predictions that have yet to be disputed, such as…

…Since a raise in salary you have less money at the end of the month than
you had before.

…That…Children have more energy after a hard day at play than they do
after a good night’s sleep.

…That…a child can be exposed to mumps weeks without catching them but
can come down with a bad case the day before the family goes on
vacation.

…That good parking places are always on the other side of the street.

There’s no telling what further glittering heights Dr. Gumperson’s genius would have led had it not been for his untimely death in 1947. Strolling along the highway one evening he was obeying the pedestrian rule of walking on the left facing the traffic; he was struck down from behind by a car driven by an English visitor hugging the left side of the road.

Often things don’t make sense. But God is good; God is sovereign. He is worthy of your trust.