Is God Good? A Wise Response From Psalm 73

Truly God is good to Israel,

to those who are pure in heart. (Psalm 73:1)

Is that true? Is God good to the people who love him and follow Him? What about missionaries like Jim Elliot who are brutally massacred by a savage South American tribe? What about godly people like Job who loses his family, his health, and all his money? Or what about more modern examples like my two friends who have both been left by unbelieving husbands while they struggle to be godly single mothers to their three children? What about my seminary professor, Steve McKinion, whose son was recently diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia? What about the countless other stories of people who love Jesus and are living through enormous amounts of suffering and pain?

In Psalm 73, Asaph considers the suffering that God's followers go through and he says, "But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped" (Psalm 73:2). He knows he should say that God is good, but the evidence is making him question whether it is even true. And to make matters worse, he points out that those who don't believe in God, those who reject God and set themselves against him, seem to be much better off. Consider his complaint.

For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.
And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease,
they increase in riches. (Psalm 73:3-12)

The obvious question that Asaph is facing is, "if God is so good, why do his followers suffer while those who oppose him get all the rewards?" As adults we ask why non-Christians, who lie and cheat, and refuse to pay all their taxes, seem to make all the money. As a student at a Christian high school I used to wonder, why do the public schools have better sports programs that we do? Either way, the question was the same, is there any reward to following God? Is God truly good to those who love Him?

Asaph really struggled with this question. He began to think:

All in vain have I  kept my heart clean,
and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.

If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task, (Psalm 73:13-16)

He knows that he isn't supposed to say that obeying God is all in vain, but the evidence seems stacked against him. The more he thought about it, the more tired and defeated he became. How in the world can he agree that God is truly good?

Then something happened that changed Asaph's perspective for the better. He steped into the sanctuary of God (Psalm 73:14). It's here that he gets perspective. It is when he steps into the sanctuary of God that he becomes wise. And he shares with us three ways to wisely respond when we see suffering among Gods people.

A Wise Person Expands Their Frame of Reference
What Asaph had failed to realize is that he was only looking at a small part of time. He forgot that there was an eternity before him. He forgot that while God doesn't promise immediate judgment, he does promise complete judgment in the end. He forgot that God will always handle his business.

until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself,
you despise them as phantoms. (Psalm 73:17-20)

God is eternal, we are but phantoms. We are like wisps of smoke that appear briefly and fade away. We may think our little times on earth are long, but they are but a blink of an eye in the mind of God. Asaph's wisdom is that he moves his thoughts from the now, to the eternal. What happens now is a small thing, what matters is the end. An eternity awaits us. The wise man does not covet the temporary successes of today, instead he longs for the treasures that moths and dust will not destroy.

In our foolishness we think of Jim Elliot as a Christian who suffered a tragic, violent death and we question how a good God could allow this. However, Jim Elliot did not share in our foolishness. Instead he famously stated, "he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot was wise because he, like Paul, did not consider the sufferings of this present time to be worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18).

A Wise Person Repents of Their Lack of Faith
Several times I have heard someone offer the dangerous advice, "it is okay to be angry with God, He can handle it." Certainly that was the initial response of Asaph. However, that was Asaph's response when he was acting a fool. Watch what he says after he met with God.

When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you. (Psalm 73:21-22)

Asaph realizes that our lack of faith isn't natural or to be expected, it is sin. When someone we love gets sick or dies, it is not okay to be angry with God. When someone we trust hurts or betrays us, it is not okay to be angry with God.
 
It may be that you and I have already become angry with God for the hardships he has allowed in our lives. In this situation it is helpful to consider God's interaction with Job in chapters 38-40. God concludes by asking Job, "shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty" (Job 40:2)? Job, who like Asaph, had a encounter with God responded,

Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.
I have spoken once, and I will not answer;
twice by I will proceed no further. (Job 40:4-5)

If we are wise, our response to suffering will look like Job's and Asaph's. Our fear of God will keep us from being angry with him (Proverbs 1:7). If we have become angry, rather than seeking to justify our anger, we will quickly repent of it, confessing that we have become brutish and ignorant. Repentance is the response of a wise person.

A Wise Person Seeks a Better Reward
The root of Asaph's troubles, and ours, is that he misunderstood the rewards of the Gospel. Asaph thought that the reward of following God was that he wouldn't suffer as much as if he didn't know God. He thought knowing God should bring money, success, and peace. When I was in High School, I thought it would bring our soccer team more wins. How foolish we were to think that the rewards of the gospel were so meager.

But when Asaph meets God, he becomes wise. It's then he realizes that his reward is much greater.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:23-26)

Who needs money, or life, or more wins for your soccer team, or anything else this world can offer when you have God? Asaph explains, "there is nothing on earth I desire but you!" This completely redefines what it means to say that God is good. Why would we measure God's goodness by such small things as money, friends, spouses, or even our own lives when we have been given something that is so much more valuable than all of this? WE HAVE GOD!

John Piper once asked a great question that helps reveal if we have begun to understand this truth. He asks.

Would you be satisfied to go to heaven, have everybody there in your family that you want there, have all the health and restoration of your prime, and everything you disliked about yourself fixed, have every recreation you’ve ever dreamed available to you, and have infinite resources and money to spend, would you be satisfied…if God weren’t there?

If so, you have missed the Gospel. Heaven isn't great because we are reunited with our loved ones. Heaven is great because we get to be with God. The Gospel isn't great simply because we get our sins forgiven. It is great because when our sins are forgiven we get to be reunited with God. God is the great reward of the Gospel.

Being Wise When We Suffer
Suffering is a real thing. Christians really go through it, often in truly devastating ways. We must not underestimate suffering or trivialize it. At the same time, we must approach it with wisdom. If we are wise, we will expand our visions. We will not simply think of the present, but believe that all suffering fits into the eternal plan of God. If we are wise, we will not allow ourselves to become embittered against God. Instead, we will humble ourselves and repent of the arrogance of thinking that we know better than he does. Finally, if we are wise, our suffering will move us even closer to the only one who can provide true, eternal satisfaction. In Hosea 6:1, the prophet gives Israel some perspective for their suffering.

Come, let us return to the Lord;
For he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

When we face suffering we must be wise. We must not waste it. We must use it as an opportunity to be healed and sustained by God.