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Guest (Male): Jesus is Lord. But I've got to tell you, I almost gave up believing it. My feet had almost slipped. I nearly lost my faith. I nearly gave up my ministry. I almost lost my foothold. I was nearly gone. I need you to know that. But I want to tell you how God turned me around.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, today we're beginning a new series looking at Psalm 73. And as we just heard right there, this is a psalm for a person who's discouraged in their faith.

Pastor Colin Smith: Yeah, it's a real-life story. A man by the name of Asaph, a godly leader, a good man. But he came to a place where he was so desperately discouraged. He said, I nearly lost my footing altogether. That can happen to a really good person, to a godly person.

Just circumstances come together and you think, am I achieving anything? What is the point in what I am doing? And there will be folks listening to us right now, Steve, who are there, and this is the word of God for you.

And it's a word of tremendous hope because God did not leave Asaph in that desperate position. He did draw near to him. And he did establish him and did turn him around. And God is faithful. He'll do the same for you.

I'm so glad we've got this psalm. I have known times in my own life where I've desperately needed it. I no doubt will again. That happens for every Christian. And that's where we're going in the Bible today.

Steve Hiller: All right, so open your Bible if you can and join us in Psalm 73 as we begin a message simply entitled Stop. Here's Pastor Colin.

Pastor Colin Smith: Psalm 73 is really a personal testimony about a man who came to a great crisis of discouragement in his own life. He tells us about how he nearly lost his faith, despite the fact that he was known as a mature believer.

But God helped him, and he found his way through the crisis to an even stronger faith than he had known before. Psalm 73 has been described as the Book of Job in a nutshell. That's what it is and that's going to be our theme over these next weeks.

Now, if you look at the top of Psalm 73, and we're going to read the first half of it in a few moments' time. But if you look at the top of it, you will see there that we're told that this was a psalm written by Asaph. And I think we're going to come to know this man Asaph as a familiar friend.

Asaph was one of the men who King David put in charge of music in the house of the Lord. You can read about that in 1 Chronicles chapter 6 and verse 39. He was in the procession when David brought the ark of the covenant back to the city of Jerusalem.

And after that, the Bible tells us that David appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to make petition, to give thanks, to praise the Lord, the God of Israel. And then it says Asaph was the chief. So he was in charge of prayer for the whole body. He played the cymbals. He led the music.

So Asaph was a man in full-time ministry. He was a mature believer. He was a godly man, and God had put him in a position of great responsibility. But what he tells us in this marvelous psalm that he writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is that he came to a point when even in the middle of ministry, he nearly lost his own faith.

And I have to tell you, I find it very, very helpful to know that even the greatest believers have experienced times of great crisis where it seemed that everything was falling apart in their lives.

I have to tell you personally that over the years, God has used this psalm more than any other part of scripture to get me through some of the hardest times in my own life. Asaph has become a friend who has been a means of God's grace to get me out of a black hole more than once.

I think of times down the road where I've said, I need to go back to Psalm 73. And I hope that as a result of this month that we will be encouraged, that we will be strengthened, and that we will feel that we have found in this psalm and in God's servant Asaph, a faithful friend who can help us persevere when we hit some of the most difficult times in our lives.

So to the text then, and we'll take it verse by verse as we read it together. Psalm 73 and verse 1. I want you to notice that the psalm begins with a statement of faith. "Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart."

Now this in Old Testament terms was a kind of creedal statement. It was the sort of thing that you would recite in the congregation every week at worship. For New Testament believers, it would be rather like saying "Jesus is Lord" when we meet for worship. You know, "God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart."

Now Asaph is saying right at the beginning of this psalm, "Look, this is what I always believed. I've been brought up with this. I've always believed it. I have built my life upon it. This is the faith of God's people," he says. But verse 2: "I have to tell you that as for me, my feet had almost slipped."

So if Asaph had been a New Testament believer, his story would have been something like this: "Jesus is Lord. But I've got to tell you, I almost gave up believing it. My feet had almost slipped. I nearly lost my faith. I nearly gave up my ministry. I almost lost my foothold. I was nearly gone. I need you to know that. But I want to tell you how God turned me around." That's what the psalm is.

And you know its relevance every Sunday when we meet for worship and we confess our faith and we sing the hymns and we read the scriptures. There are some folks in this congregation and that's right where you are. You don't find it easy to sing.

You struggle as we focus on the word, all the time pounding in your mind. You hear something said and it's, "Yes, but. Yes, but. Yes, but. What about?" And your faith that once was strong is now hanging by a slender thread.

What was once strong to you now seems distant. What seemed wonderfully real to other people seems remote from you. And somewhere in the back of your mind there is this voice that says, "You know, I could quite easily walk away from this altogether. My feet had almost slipped."

Now in the first half of the psalm, which we're going to cover this morning, Asaph tells us why it was that he became so troubled. He tells us what brought him to the point where he almost gave up. It really comes in three parts.

The first is that he could make no sense of what God was doing in the world. And here I'd like simply to read for you verses 3 to 12 as we get the flavor of what he was experiencing. So follow with me as we read together here from verse 3.

"For I envied the arrogant," he says, "when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They're free from the burdens common to man. They are not plagued by human ills. Therefore, pride is their necklace. They clothe themselves with violence. And from their callous hearts comes iniquity. The evil conceits of their minds know no limits. They scoff and speak with malice. In their arrogance, they threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore, their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. They say, 'How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?' This is what the wicked are like. They're carefree and they increase in wealth."

Now there's real distress in these words. "I saw the prosperity of the wicked. I see those who have no integrity in the world of business and they're doing very well. I can make no sense of that. Why does God allow it?

The people who are most antagonistic towards God in our country, they act as if no one can touch them and God does nothing about it. And here I am trying to serve the Lord in ministry, to promote what is pure and what is right, and all I see is that the agenda of those who hate God and those who despise His word is moving forward in the land. Why does God allow it? It makes no sense to me."

Now you can understand his problem. Which of us hasn't been there? Can you make any sense of how God rules the world? Can you? Why do the wicked prosper? It makes no sense.

Asaph couldn't make any sense of what God was doing in the world, but actually, the real problem was deeper. It was that he could make no sense of what God was doing in his own life. Look at verse 14. We'll come to 13 in a moment.

"All day long I have been plagued. I have been punished every morning." You see, it's personal now. He's poured out all his frustration about how God rules the world, but actually, the real problem is that things are going wrong in his own life, and it just makes no sense to him.

Now remember that this is the confession of a godly man. Asaph is in full-time ministry. He is a spiritual leader. Other people are looking to him for leadership. This is a man who's reading his Bible. This is a man who is saying his prayers.

This is a man who tithes his money. This is a man who has poured great energy into pursuing a holy life, who has sought to live with integrity. He's made sacrifices for the advance of God's kingdom. But now it seems that everything's going wrong in his life. And just why would God allow that to happen?

See, sometimes underneath the grand questions that we ask about what's wrong with the world, there are much deeper questions that are personal about what's wrong in my life. You ask, "Why do the wicked prosper?" But the real question is, "Why hasn't God prospered me?"

You ask, "Why does God allow suffering?" But the real question is, "Why is there such pain in my life?" You ask, "Is there really a God who controls the universe?" But the real question is, "Why is it that it seems my life is falling apart?"

This man could make no sense of what God is doing in the world. He could make no sense of what God's doing in his life. And therefore, thirdly, he could no longer see the point of pursuing a godly life. That's where he came to and that's verse 13. "Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure. In vain I have washed my hands in innocence."

Now you see what he's saying. If you go back to verse 1, "I've always believed, I've been brought up to believe, that God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart." But what I'm seeing as I look out at the world is the prosperity of the wicked. Then I look at the problems of my own life and I've tried to be pure in heart and the whole thing just doesn't make sense to me anymore.

Now you see these problems are very real. Some of you have colleagues in business, competitors in business, who have very little integrity and they're doing very well. You have tried to do business in a way that honors the Lord and you are facing all kinds of trouble.

And that leaves you saying, "What's the point? In vain have I tried to keep my heart pure. Where did it get me?" Your colleague at work was fooling around with someone in the office and he got promoted. You were loyal to your wife and you lost your job. It leaves you saying, "Lord, you blessed the wrong guy here. Makes no sense."

Now this was Asaph's problem and he'd lived with it too long. And he says, "Honestly, my feet had almost slipped. I was nearly gone. I almost gave up." Now if a godly man like Asaph could be tempted like that, would you be surprised that that might happen to you?

The apostle Peter tells us that we have an enemy, Satan, and that he's like a roaring lion and that he's always prowling around looking to see who he can devour. It was like that before the time of Jesus and it's been like that since the time of Jesus.

And quite honestly, the more you pursue integrity and the more useful you are to Jesus Christ, the more he will want to devour you. That is what was happening here. Satan wanted to spoil Asaph's testimony. Satan wanted to end this good man's ministry. Satan wanted to devour Asaph in a storm of confusion and of despair.

You need to know that there will be times of special testing in your life. And that your future usefulness to Christ will depend in large measure on how you handle these times when they come.

It was the apostle Paul who said that we are to put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, we may be able to stand. See, not all days are the same in the Christian life. There are some days where Satan makes a special attack.

Paul says it's the day of evil and when it comes, you need the armor of God so that you will be able to stand. Now, that's what Asaph did. And God brought him through. And his story really is a model for us as to how we must act when we come to these points where we feel like giving up.

Now the rest of the psalm tells us Asaph's story. And we're going to walk with Asaph on his steps to recovery from this crisis and there are really five steps and we're going to follow them over these next weeks.

We're really just going to take the first one only today. And that's the step that we find in verse 15. Look at what he says there and this will be the focus for the remainder of our time. "If I had said, 'I will speak thus,' I would have betrayed your children."

Now he's poured out in this psalm, you see, reflecting back on this experience what he was thinking at this dark time in his life. And what he's saying here is very simply, "Look, if I had gone public with what I was really thinking at that time, I would have let everybody down.

If I had spoken thus, I would have betrayed your children. If I had followed the thoughts, the inclinations of my heart at that time, if I had gone where these thoughts were taking me, I would have betrayed your children.

If I had gone where my confused mind was going, I would have become the Judas of the Old Testament," that's what he's saying. But Asaph does not want to go there. So he takes himself in hand and he puts on the brakes.

Last week, our family had the joy of a few days away in Door County where we've enjoyed a break after Christmas on a number of years. And the place where we were staying in Sister Bay, some of you know that area well, was, if you get the picture, off a road that was off a road. You get the idea.

We arrived in the evening, pitch dark, and you know how it is. "It's somewhere up here on the right." And my wife said, "I think it's this turning here." "Oh no," I said, "I think it's further on."

Well, a mile down the road it became very clear that there were no more turnings on the right further on and that we were right out in the sticks. Graciously she said, "I'm sure it was back there." "Yes, I know," I said, "I'm just looking for a place to turn."

Problem, of course, in the dead of night out in the sticks on a very narrow country road is that there just wasn't a place to do that. We were on one long, straight, narrow road. No crossroads, no houses with nice drives. And the only thing to do was to pull up and to make a three-point or in this case, a five-point turn.

There are some places in life where turning round isn't easy. And you may have been looking for some nice easy opening when you can swing your life lazily round with style, and you're not finding one. That's how it was for Asaph.

Now what he tells us in Psalm 73 is how he had to make a five-point turn. But if you are going to make a turn like that, you can't do it at 50 miles an hour, right? What's the first thing you have to do? You've got to stop. You've got to stop.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called Stop. And we do have to stop the teaching right here, but we'll continue our message from Psalm 73 next time. Our message is from a series called I Almost Gave Up.

You see, Psalm 73 was written by a godly man, a worship leader in the time of David named Asaph. And it's really a personal psalm about his struggle when he saw the wicked or the ungodly seeming to thrive, while here he is trying to follow God as a godly man and he's struggling in his faith.

It's really about what do you do when you're facing a spiritual crisis. And if you're interested in getting a copy of this series, ask about I Almost Gave Up when you contact us at 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365, or you'll find ordering information online at openthebible.org.

Well, Open the Bible is a listener-supported program. We're able to be on this station, make the podcast, the website, and all the ministry tools available because of your generosity. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to offer you a copy of Pastor Colin's brand new book.

It's a beautiful hardcover book called 30 Days with Jesus in the Lord's Prayer. And Colin, what is this book about?

Pastor Colin Smith: Well, it's exactly what it says, Steve. It is a book about prayer, and most of all, it's opening up the model prayer that Jesus gave to us, the Lord's Prayer, which is kind of a template that shows us how we should pray.

I mean, this is a marvelous thing that the Son of God Himself should tell us how we should speak to God. Well, every Christian will want to be learning from that. And what we find in the Lord's Prayer is that there are six requests, six things that we should ask of God.

Three of them relate to God's glory: hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done. And three of them relate to our good: give us our daily bread, forgive our debts, deliver us from evil.

So that's what we have in the Lord's Prayer. Jesus Christ Himself teaching us how to pray. And anyone who wants to learn how to pray will benefit greatly from taking in this wonderful teaching of the Lord's Prayer.

Steve Hiller: Well, we want to send you a copy of this brand new hardcover book from Pastor Colin, 30 Days in the Lord's Prayer, as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can give online at openthebible.org or call 1-877-673-6365. That's 1-877-OPEN-365. Or again, the website is openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.

This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Pastor Colin Smith: Hi, this is Pastor Colin again and I want you to know about Watch Your Life. Watch Your Life is a six-session course that is geared for leaders, but accessible to every believer.

The six sessions will show you how to grow in godliness, how to feed on Christ, how to pray in the Spirit, how to battle temptation, exercise faith, and discern God's will. There are questions at the end of each session and you can use them on your own or you can discuss them with a friend.

For more information, visit openthebible.org/courses. That's openthebible.org/courses.