January 27, 2008

 "Trusting God's Providence"

Psalm 73

Sometimes things in our lives just seem to fall into place.  I remember when I lost my job during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college.  I had been working at a local McDonald's.  And to put it mildly the store manager and I weren't getting along.  And finally one afternoon he told me I was through.  I really needed the money, so I immediately went out the next day to find work.  The first place I tried was Coca Cola.  They receptionist told me there were no openings, but that they would be happy to keep a copy of my application on file.  While I was filling out my application the first shift foreman walked by. He told me to stop by his office when I finished filling out my application   When I came in, he said, "How would like a job for 6 weeks.  One of my employees is out; he was stepped on by a horse."  So, I got the job.  But, a week after I started, the employees went on strike.  The foreman told me that he would give me a call when the strike ended.  Because I desperately needed work, I went to a local temp agency and received a temporary two week job assignment at AMWAY.  The day I finished there the phone rang.  The strike had had ended and I would be returning to work with a raise, boosting my pay to almost double what I had been making at Macs. "And just count on working until you start college," the foreman told me.  But that's not the end the story:  Not only did I work there that summer, but for next two summers, until I graduated. 

So, what do you think?  Some people would say I was lucky; this was just a happy coincidence. But, as Christians, we know that the Bible teaches us that there is no such thing as luck.  We know that it was God who gave me that job.  The Bible teaches that after God made the world, he didn't just leave the scene and let things just muddle along as best they could.  Instead, he continues to look after world.  In Psalm 145: 16- 17 the Psalmist declares to the Lord,

                The eyes of all look to you,

            and you give them their food at the proper time.

                You open your hand

            and satisfy the desires of every living thing

And there's even more to it than that.  The Bible teaches us that God controls everything and that nothing happens by chance.  The wise writer of Proverbs exclaims,

                The lot is cast into the lap,

            but its every decision is from the LORD.  (Proverbs 16: 33) 

In that culture, some people would make decisions about the future by casting lots.  So, essentially this verse is saying what the Psalmist did in Psalm 31: 15,

My times are in your hands;

God controls all things.  And so it was right and proper for me to thank the Lord for that job and I did.  God had provided. 

And yet, I am being a little self-centered here, aren't I?  What does this all say about the guy who was stepped on by that horse?  That brings up another memory.  I graduated college in 1977 with a degree in secondary education; but I couldn't find a job in teaching.  So, I decided to go back to school.  But to do that, I needed to make some money to pay my tuition.  So, I began searching for a job.  Coke wasn't hiring.  After searching much of the summer, I finally landed a job at Conway Lumber Company.  I was really excited.  I would be working second shift and could go to school during the day.  It was perfect.  But, that night on the 11:00 news there was a report of a huge fire.  Guess what company burned to the ground?  Conway Lumber Company.  The next day they were laying off.

Now, if God's providence was the reason I received my job at Coke, was his providence also the reason I lost that job with Conway Lumber?  If God controls all things, then does he not also control the bad things that happen to us?  And again I'm being a bit self-centered here.  Think of all the people who were dependant on their jobs at that lumber yard?  Was God responsible for their being laid off?

A similar question bothered the Psalmist in the Psalm we read for this morning.  The Psalmist certainly assumes God is in control.  And in verse 1 he declares his faith that God is good to his people-- to upright and to the pure of heart. 

But, then when he began to consider what God was allowing to happen his faith began to fail.

But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Now certainly part of his problem was this sin of jealousy-being envious of those who have it better.  Make no mistake about it.  That is a sin that can be very destructive, most often to the one who engages in it. But, it would seem that Psalmist also had a legitimate concern about the terrible effect this was having and how it was actually promoting evil.  Listen to verses 4- 9 again.

(Psa 73:4- 9 NIV)  They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.  They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills. Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence.  From their callous hearts comes iniquity ; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.  They scoff, and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression.  Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.

Think about people like Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt, publishers of pornographic smutty magazines.  They are millionaires and getting richer every day.  What real incentive do such people have to mend their ways?   By prospering them, isn't God actually promoting evil in their lives?   And then look at verse 10- 11

(Psa 73:10- 11 NIV)  Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.  They say, "How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?"

When others see how unjust people prosper, they start accepting their behavior and actually begin to listen to them and become attracted to their lifestyle.  Did you know that Flynt and Hefner are some of he most popular speakers on college campuses today? 

And people also begin to doubt that God is really all that concerned about this world.   In our day and age, it has led some to doubt that God even exists at all. 

That having been said, the Psalmist also had a legitimate concern about justice.

This is what the wicked are like-  always carefree, they increase in wealth. Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued;    I have been punished every morning.

The Psalmist point was not just that bad people had it good, but also that good people had it bad.  He had tried to serve the Lord.  And what did he get for all his efforts.  He was suffering.  God, are you sure you know what you are doing?  How can I believe in your providence? 

Often when we think about some of the things God allows to happen, it just doesn't make any sense to us.  Some time ago, I remember reading an article--- I think it was in Christianity Today magazine--  about the explosion of the gospel in the Muslim country of Jordan and how many Jordanians were coming to know Jesus as their Savior.  One very effective evangelist and his wife came to the United States to recruit more people and money to help them with their efforts. While they were here, his wife, who was having some pain in her throat went to the doctor and found that it was filled with cancer. So rather than being able to return to Jordan with money and volunteers, he was stuck in the United States, while his wife went through cancer treatment.  In the meantime, his effective mission activity ground to a halt.   In the article the writer quoted this man's frustrated words, "God, that's stupid. That s dumb!. That doesn't make sense."

Sometimes we come to point in our lives when it just doesn't seem like God makes any sense.  But that's exactly the point Psalmist needed to be in his life, before he came to faith.  Look at v. 16- 17

(Psa 73:16- 17  NIV)  When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.

We don't really know what it means to believe God's providence, until all our pride is striped away and we face our fears and frustrations and we have to throw up our hands and say, "God, that's stupid. That s dumb!. That doesn't make sense. Lord, I just don't understand your ways."

Think about the apostles in the boat with Jesus.  Would they really have known what it meant to trust in Jesus' power if they didn't first face their own fears and doubts.  It was only after they knew they no longer could trust in themselves and their own understanding that they finally cried out to Jesus, "Lord, don't you care that we perish."  But, humility and admitting our weakness is not enough.  Like the disciples we need to turn to the Lord in faith.

Notice where the Psalmist found his answer.  He found his answer "in the sanctuary of God."  The sanctuary is the place where God meets his people.  In Psalmist's day that place was the temple.  Today, we talk about a church sanctuary-- this place here is where God meets with us in a special way as we worship him. Sometimes when we face stubborn problems are struggling with our faith we stay away from church.  But, is that wise?  The Psalmist found his comfort in God's sanctuary.. 

 Yet as we consider that, let us also not forget the words of Paul

(1 Cor 6:19 NIV)  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

We must never forget that our very bodies are sanctuaries of God's Spirit.  Anywhere-- at anytime, we can come to our God in prayer, we can meditate on his Word-- we can know his power and strength in our lives.  For God, the Holy Spirit lives in us.  If we really want to believe in God's providence, then we have to get on our knees in prayer to him and open his Word and let him speak to us.

What was the answer the Psalmist found?  Look at verse 18- 19

God first shows him the end of godless people who seem to be prospering.  Look at the word he uses to describe that end...(Psa 73:18- 19  NIV)  Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.  How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!

 Now, sometimes evil people experience the terrible result of their evil in this life; But, they surely will experience it in the life to come.  And then note what the Psalmist says in verse 20,

(Psa 73:20 NIV)  As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.

They are like a dream...a passing nightmare.  In God's sanctuary the Psalmist is reminded that the time an unjust and evil individual spends here on earth is short.  Larry Flynt and Hugh Hefner-- just like all of us are only going to be on this earth for a few short years-- and then they will be gone.  And everything they gained will be gone with them.   Unless they turn to faith in Jesus Christ and receive him into their lives, all their works, which may for a while they might seem lucrative, will have no eternal value.  And their lives will have no eternal meaning.  Everything they lived and worked for will die with them.   Unless you have Jesus in your life, the words of the preacher in Ecclesiastes are true, vanity of vanities all is vanity.

But, when you do, even death has meaning.  Look at verse 24,

(Psa 73:24 NIV)  You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

Ninie Hammon is the executive editor for The Southeast Outlook in Louisville, Kentucky, but in 1988 she worked as a reporter for a small newspaper in Lebanon, Kentucky. On May 14th of that year, there was a terrible bus crash near there. Twenty four children and three adults died in what was called the worst drunken driver accident in Kentucky history.

The bus carried the youth group of the First Assembly of God church in Radcliff, Kentucky.   Witnesses who survived the crash told of one particular passenger, Chuck Kytta, the youth minister of the church. Chuck was seated in the front of the bus behind the driver, and when the gas tank exploded a heartbeat after the collision, he was instantly encircled in flames.

When Chuck saw the flames around him, witnesses said, he looked up, lifted his hands and cried out, "Jesus, I'm coming home!" Some of the kids said he was smiling.

Ninie wrote, "I was not a Christian in 1988, so I couldn't make any sense of what Chuck did. Here's this guy so cool a bunch of kids call him "Banana," standing in flames moments from a horrible death and he's smiling?"

No matter how hard she tried, Ninie could not erase Chuck's image from her mind.  She went on to say, "The only way to explain how a man could calmly accept, almost welcome, a painful death was to acknowledge that he understood some great truth I didn't, that he had something: faith? hope? God, maybe? something! I didn't have. And try as I might, I couldn't help yearning for whatever he had that made death a thing to embrace rather than to fear."

Two years later, Ninie received Jesus as her Savior.  

 In her testimony she wrote, "Chuck Kytta planted a seed in me that took root in my heart. One day, I will see Chuck in heaven. I'll tell him how the manner of his death pointed me toward eternal life."

We cannot truly God's providence unless we first come to know Jesus Christ as our Savior.  But, once we have, we know despite what we see, God will never leave us and indeed he will direct our path and in the end lead us home.

The writer of Hebrews after writing about the faith of Old Testament believers and of how they struggled and suffered and yet "none received what had been promised, " begin chapter 12 with these words,

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

We cannot believe in God's Providence until we first trust in Jesus.  And trusting him, we are assured that if we suffer with him, we will someday reign with him.

AMEN!