Book III

Jul 25, 2022

This week, we conclude our Psalms for the Summer devotionals.

Today’s devotional is from Psalm 73. Psalm 73 is the first Psalm of the 3rd Book of Psalms (Book III). Wait a minute, you wonder… I thought Psalms was one book! Well, it is, but it is divided into five sub-books to imitate the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch or Torah. The first five books of the Bible comprise the Law that God gave us through Moses. The Psalms were divided into five books to remind the people, including us, that the Psalms have the same authority as the Torah. They are the Word of God.

As I reflect on the past three months of Psalms for the Summer, I can’t help but smile. Sure, there is a lot of lamenting over enemies attacking, friends betraying, and God seemingly on vacation. But every time, and I do mean every time, the Psalmist, often being David, reminds himself and us that God is our Rock, our Fortress, our Stronghold, our Deliverer, and our Salvation.

Just as often as we read the laments, we read and sing the songs of praise to our God, for He is good - all the time.

And even when it seems like He has gone on holiday, He is always with us, for to leave or forsake us would be in violation of His character, for He is a faithful God. In 2 Timothy 2:11-13, the Apostle Paul tells the young Pastor, Timothy, just as he tells us,

Here is a trustworthy saying:

If we died with Him [Jesus], we will also live with him;

If we endure, we will also reign with him.

If we disown him, he will disown us;

If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

- 2 Timothy 2:11-13

Paul reminds us that, when we die to ourselves, we will live with Christ, and when we endure the challenges and struggles of this world, one day we will reign with Him forever. However, if we disown Him (reject Him), He has no choice but to reject us. But, if we are faithless (claiming to know Him, but not walking with Him), He is still faithful, for anything else would be in violation of who He is.

In Psalm 73, written by a man named Asaph, who wrote 12 of the Psalms (50, 73-83), he admits his struggles with being faithless. He is tempted by the prosperity of the wicked and feels himself slipping into a desire to live as they do. He is drawn to their lifestyle when, in verse 12, he writes, “This is what the wicked are like – always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.”

That is spot on!

Yet, in his desire to remain pure, Asaph does lament in verse 13:

“Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.

- Psalm 73:13

But, in verse 15, he comes to terms with the potential consequences if he were to succumb to the temptations before him. He writes:

If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply…

- Psalm 73:15

And, because God was faithful to Asaph through his temptation, in verse 17, he writes:

...till I entered the sanctuary of God, then I understood their [the wicked’s] final destination.

- Psalm 73:17

In the end, like David and the other Psalmists, Asaph proclaims the goodness and faithfulness of God as he writes in verses 23-26:

Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

- Psalm 73:23-26

Friends, when we struggle with the temptations of this world, know that God is always faithful and is there to carry us through it. And what awaits on the other side will be more than worth it, for there is nothing this world can offer that comes close to spending eternity with God in His Glory.