“My mind and my body may grow weak, but God is my strength; he is all I ever need.”
— Psalm 73:26 (TEV)
It just doesn’t seem right. Everywhere we look, girls are practically getting away with murder. They cheat and get good marks. They’re snotty to teachers and never get punished. They’re stuck-up, yet still popular.
What’s wrong with this picture? You gotta wonder.
Back in David’s time, a man named Asaph (a talented music director in the temple) was way bummed about this. So he wrote up his experience in a psalm (73). Asaph believed that God is good, and yet he admits that for a time, he “nearly” lost faith in how God operates. Simply put, he complains: “God, these wicked guys don’t follow your rules and they prosper. Me? I behave, but have nothing to show for it. What good is being good? Phooey!” (Psalm 73:4 – 14 TLB, paraphrased).
Now, Asaph felt that way because he did something we all do sometimes: He took his eyes off God and put them on himself. And the more he thought about what he perceived was his unfair treatment, the more jealous and disgusted he became. He felt confused, but didn’t know what to do. “I tried to think this problem through,” he wrote in the Psalm, “but it was too difficult for me, until I went to your Temple. Then I understood what will happen to the wicked. You will put them in slippery places, and make them fall to destruction!” (Psalm 73:16 – 18 TEV).
Returning to God’s house snapped Asaph out of his self-pity. Away from worldly distractions, he was better able to reconnect with the Lord and receive the grace to refocus on the truth he knew from the start: God is good.
We can almost see him smacking his palm to his forehead, thinking, What a dummy I’ve been. I might not have as many riches as the wicked, but I’m way better off because of what I do have: the Lord.
And “since I have you,” Asaph thought in this “ah-ha” moment, “what else could I want on earth?” (Psalm 73:25 TLB).
After that, Asaph admitted he’d been wrong to complain, and marveled that even then, God still loved and guided him. With that, came joy and praise. “ . . . as for me,” he writes in the psalm’s last lines, “how wonderful to be near God, to find protection with the Sovereign Lord, and to proclaim all that he has done!” (Psalm 73:28 TLB).
Lesson learned: Wealth and success can be here today and gone tomorrow. But when you’ve got God, you have everything.
More To Explore: Philippians 4:11 – 12
Girl Talk: Feeling whiny? Read the rest of Psalm 73.
God Talk: “Heavenly Father, when I see others who do wrong and seem to get away with it, help me remember Asaph. Amen.”
From Whatever: Livin’ the True, Noble, Totally Excellent Life by Allia Zobel Nolan