Tuesday
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. If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me.
– Psalm 73:12-16
Asaph (the author of Psalm 73) has been expressing his struggle with the injustice he sees in the world. He cannot understand how God can allow people who reject him to do so well in life. He is admits his inability to reconcile how God can be good and faithful and just, and yet allow such unjust things to go on. Asaph is not the first guy in history to struggle with this by the way. Many people (Christians and non-Christians) have wrestled with this problem. We have to admit that the existence of injustice is a difficult and troubling problem for those of us who believe in God.
However, if you look closely at the passage above, Asaph gives us a peek at the real root of his struggle. He is not just objecting to the injustice that he sees “out there” in the world around him, he is objecting to the injustice that he is believes he is experiencing in his own life. Notice how many times he talks about himself in the passage. He says “in vain I have kept my hear pure…all day long I have been plagued.” In other words, it is not just that the wicked are winning that bothers him, it is that he is not getting what they have! Ahh, now we see the heart of the matter. Asaph thinks that life (and God) are not fair. How have you struggled over the apparent unfairness of life? Asaph feels that he doesn’t deserve the troubles he is facing. If anyone should be struggling, it should be those who reject God, not those who are faithful believers like him!
Asaph himself does not deny this, in verse 3 he says that he “envied the arrogant when he saw the prosperity of the wicked.”. He was envious of them. He wanted what they had (wealth, fame, power, beauty, etc.) and he felt that he deserved it more. He knew about injustice before this. He was aware that good people sometimes suffer and wicked people sometimes prosper in life. However, it was not until he was one of those “good people” suffering that it really began to cause him to doubt God.
I have a friend who has been out of work for over a year. He lost his job when his company restructured and it came as a total shock to him and to his family. He told me that he thought his position with the company was safe because his employers told him that he would not be affected by any changes. My friend also told me that he knew about job losses and the rising unemployment numbers in our economy long before he lost his job. He said that he was only mildly interested such economic statistics…until he became one of those statistics! He has shared with me how he has dealt with feelings of personal failure, bitterness, inadequacy as a father and husband, and insecurity about the future, all because of losing his job. He has cried out to God in anger, and confusion. He has asked God why a thousand times. He has pleaded with God to help him find a job. He said that God has his attention now in a way that He didn’t have it before he lost his job. He is asking God questions and listening to God more than ever before.
Perhaps this is what God has really been after all along in my friend’s life. Perhaps it is what God is after in your life too. Our doubts and questions and struggles can either become a barrier between us and God or they can become the bridge by which we connect to Him in a deeper way.
– Amen.
Jeff Frazier
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