What's this all about? Part 2

So, after a brief hiatus let’s get on with part two of our journey through Psalm 73.

Last time (verses 1-5), the psalmist began to tell us how he almost stumbled. He said he “envied the arrogant when he saw the prosperity of the wicked”. He had seen wicked (the Hebrew for wicked means “hostile to God”) people prosper, and he saw how their prosperity brought them freedom from suffering, struggles, and illness. As he noticed these things, he did what we all do when we see these them. He envied.

We do the same thing. When we see a jerk succeed, a womanizer charm women, a cheater not get caught, or anything along those lines, we’ll do what the psalmist did and say, “Man! I would never do something like that, but they’re way ahead of me!” Sometimes we’ll look up to heaven and say, “God, don’t you see what’s going on here? Where’s my share? I’ve been good!” I bet God laughs when we try and give Him information. As if He doesn’t already know!

See, but a lot of times we don’t stop at just getting jealous. Sometimes we’ll act on that jealousy. We see that this whole wickedness thing seems to produce results, so we start compromising. Do any of these phrases sound familiar?

All my competitors practice these shady business practices.

Everyone else copies the homework in that class.

The IRS will never figure out that I fudged my taxes.

We’ll latch onto this quest for comfort and prosperity and pursue it by any means possible. What’s the result of that? The psalmist has some bad news.

"Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence"
Psalm 73:6

Huh? But we’re just trying to get ahead in life! Sure, we bended a few rules to get there, but pride is our necklace? We clothe ourselves in violence?

See, when wealth and comfort at any cost becomes our life, some terrible things start to happen. As we achieve, we buy into one of the most dangerous beliefs that exists: belief in ourselves. We start taking credit for our prosperity. Our comfort and lack of worry place us in a mindset that we’ve built a kingdom and that we’re the king. So, pride becomes our necklace.

Alright, alright, so the pride thing makes sense, but violence? Surely not. Think again:

"From their callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.'
Psalm 73:7

As king of our kingdom, we get a callous heart. We’re in control, so obviously we’re more important than other people. They’re just in the way of our goals! So, treating them poorly (violence) ensues. He’s still not done.

"They scoff, and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression"
Psalm 73:8

Hmm…

We’ve all seen this before. We’ve seen outwardly beautiful people who seem to have it all that are vicious on the inside. Scoffing, malice, and oppression spring from their words and deeds. So, is it so hard to believe that we could head there too?

This all sounds pretty rough. But as bad as this is, it only gets worse!

To be continued…