Light in the darkness.
Flip on a light and something amazing happens: darkness dribbles away . . . quickly! Jesus is the light of the world; this is a fact God shares with us (John 8:12). The question in front of us is this: How does the light of Jesus scatter the darkness around me and in me? Answer: it’s a journey of introspection and rescue.
Introspection reveals inner turmoil
To help each one of us in our own search we are accessing God’s truth from Psalm 73. Here we have a raw and beautiful exposure of a believer’s thoughts on darkness. This psalm is a blunt and vulnerable expression which might initially seem to be an out of place trope in the liturgy of God’s people; it sounds like an expression that should not grace the worship setting. But what it declares makes worship more worshipful. Psalm 73 takes us into some backburner thoughts of the believer and it shouts out about certain feelings of bitterness that can rise when evil reigns. Psalm 73 is a form of confession. The believer confesses that hatred and violence seem to be doing well! Apparently those who do what is right do not fare as well as those who are bent on evil.
The Psalm 73 believer takes a shot at expressing what he really feels and his language resonates with Christian hearts today. Today’s believer might see no apparent end to injustice or dark and abusive language. The believer sees violence and the life of the violent person materializes into apparent good. How can we rectify this in our Christ-centered minds? Doesn’t this upset our understanding of the way things should be?
We see the strong pushing over the weak and stealing their daily bread with no apparent consequences. After years of examination, any righteous person might cry out, “I give up; I am done with trying to do the right thing because evil, violence, hate speech, and rage in the streets pay more dividends than right living.”
And on the flipside, my own wrestlings and searchings reveal questions about living as God asks us to live. Can God’s peaceful approach to living actually be better? Can speaking and acting appropriately bring a more right outcome? My believer’s heart has questions and doubts and Psalm 73 helps me to express vexation over the reduced profits of godly living.
We are vulnerable to the darkness
“But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (Psalm 73:2-3 ESV).
A believer is vulnerable to being caught up in the darkness: “my feet had almost stumbled” (Psalm 73:2). It would be arrogant, prideful, and even foolish to think that our own Christian self cannot get wrapped up in the same darkness that is circling in our city. When we see hatred and rage and our reaction can equally match the vitriol of evil. We see injustice and our outcry can have as much venom and bite as the unjust act.
It is dangerously precarious to walk the line of right living without also looking inside to see our vulnerability. May God keep us humble enough to see that darkness is still captivating to our natural self; “Old Adam” is the term from Catechism. Being a believer does not erase the darkness of our own hearts. This is why God calls us to “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires” (Ephesians 4: 22 ESV).
The Psalm 73 believer looks at this rage, anger, hatred and thievery; he sees those who work violence and oppression but then he enters the sanctuary of God. In the sanctuary there are pictures and symbols of how God deals with evil. The sanctuary is the temple of the Jews. In that sanctuary, just beyond the opening, is an altar of consuming fire.
Every day a sacrifice is completely burned up on this altar to reveal to all that God’s wrath is a consuming fire. God’s wrath will consume all forms of darkness and evil. “I was envious of the arrogant . . . until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end” (Psalm 73:3, 17 ESV).
We are rescued from the darkness
God deals with all sin and all forms of evil. There is no expression of evil that is not consumed by the fire of God’s wrath. This is why we fall prostrate in front of a holy God. Because it is not just the evil that is out there in the world that will and must be consumed. It is our evil as well. All evil must be eradicated. How is my evil dealt with? Jesus took my smallest to largest expressions of evil on himself. With the full weight of my guilt he then became the burnt offering on the altar of God’s wrath; this is the cross of Christ. This is what happens to the evil of all who trust in Jesus. It is removed.
And that grand sacrifice changes you. It changes you to want to act in more appropriate and God-pleasing ways. It changes you to endure challenges and move farther into right living and walk further and further away from darkness. When the light of Jesus enters us, darkness must flee. At that point, we can now clearly recognize that evil does not really pay except in death to all who still hold onto it. We don’t want that end. And we thank Jesus for rescuing us from that end!
Psalm 73:1-3; 5; 16-19 (ESV)
Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
Blessings on your week of celebrating the goodness and rescuing love or our Savior Jesus!
Pastor Al