“As For Me, It Is Good To Be Near God”
Psalm 73:1-28 NIV
KV 28
But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.
I thank the Lord for blessing ISBC 2023. It was full of grace of words of God, revealing the glory of Jesus who came to us lowering himself to the level of human being to save us from sins even though he is the creator of all thing in universe. He reached each of us in person with his divine grace, showing his glory as the Christ for all of us. Praise the Lord. And it is important for us to know how we should live our lives as his people from now on. I was thinking about what message I should deliver for today’s worship service, but I immediately thought of the verse, ‘It is good to be near God’. Some scholars said that the words of verse 28 corresponded to the conclusion of all the teachings of the Old Testament. Recalling what I learned from the Bible, I can agree that this verse is a summary of all the lessons of the Bible. If this is right, it will be good for all of us to learn this. So, I would like to share the grace of these words with you today. Then, what does it mean to be near God? I pray that we may set our mind for being near God according to today’s words.
PART I. How can I know this (1-16)
Now look at verse 1. ‘Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart‘ This was the faith the poet had deeply in his heart. And it is the premise of our faith in God as well. We set this word upright in the center of our hearts and fight against sin to live a pure life before God.
However, in verse 2, the poet sighs, almost wondering, “by the way, God, is verse 1 correct?”
See verses 2 and 3. The poet said, ‘But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.’ ‘Prosperity’ here is ‘Shalom’ in Hebrew. Generally we interpret the word as ‘peace’. But the original meaning is that there is nothing lacking because everything is perfect’. So, when you use the word ‘shalom’ for a wicked person, it means that he is living well without lack of anything. The poet was shocked at this. ‘Are the wicked in Shalom?’ If you really look around, the wicked do not suffer even when they are dying. Even though we want them to shout “ Oh, no. I shouldn’t have lived like that. Ah, I see firing hell in front of my eyes~’, but they die peacefully, without pain, and seem to be ‘in shalom’. They remain healthy and strong until death (4b). They seem to be free from common burdens, and they are not plagued by human ills (5). They eat all kinds of delicious foods in the world and get fat enough to make their eyes pop out, and their income from investment always exceeds the target they set in their heart (7). We frequently fail in business, but the wicked always hit the jackpot.
And the words of these wicked people are harsh. They sit on high and arrogantly insult God’s people and say(8), “Hey, do you still believe in God these days?” “Oh my gosh, trust in my fist rather than trust in God” “Are you a source of blessing?” “Then why in the world are you struggling slovenly like that?” How painful is it for the people of God who hear them saying such things? The Israelites were shaken by their mocking words and said frustratedly, “That’s right. We say God is the Most High. But what happens to us? He does not bless us. We are always poor, they are rich.”
What about the poet who has to look at this with his eyes open? Look at verse 12. ‘This is what the wicked are like. – always free of care, they go in amassing wealth.’ Didn’t we learn in Psalm chapter 1 that the righteous are like a tree planted by streams of water, and the wicked are like chaff that the wind blows away? However, far from being like chaff blown by the wind, the wicked are always at peace, prospering everywhere, and their wealth is increasing. So the poet came to say in verse 13, ‘Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence.’ (13). What will you say if your righteousness seems to be ignored by God? Look at verse 14, the poet’s
anguish does not end here. ‘All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.’ Of course, the poet in today’s passage was also a human being like us, and had his own shortcomings. So God might punish him. But why should he be like this when the wicked are always in shalom. Didn’t he struggle to live by faith before God anyway?
Do you know the word, ‘theodicy’. It means ‘God is always just and right’. Really? If God is just and right, why is the world wicked like this?’ We couldn’t get a persuasive answer about this, so the poet was frustrated at all these observations.
However, where did the poet go at this time? Did he go home to sleep, giving up on everything? Did he go on a long trip to cool his head, seeing the Niagara Fall? Or say, “Oh, I don’t know. I will watch YouTube to forget it all.”
PART II. Entering God’s sanctuary (17-28)
Let’s read verse 17 together. ‘till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.‘ God’s sanctuary refers to the place where God is present. It may also be ‘the temple’, the place where he could be ‘going out to God and praying’ or ‘going to the word of God’. He went out before God, and prayed, wrestling to get the answer from God. He didn’t try to find the answer with worldly knowledge or philosophy. I pray that we too may come before God like the poet in the passage when we have problems however hard it is to bear. In the past, we were cut off from God because of our sins, but God established Jesus as a mediator between God and us. When we enter our sanctuary, Jesus, and pray, God hears us from the throne of grace in heaven and speaks to us. God loves his chosen people. God, who knows all about the pains in our hearts, always welcomes us whenever we go to Him. God is always waiting there. He comforts us by saying, “Oh, my son, my daughter, I know how great your pain is and how hard your sufferings are.” And He listens to us and comforts us warmly with the Holy Spirit.
What happened when he entered the sanctuary? See verse 17b. ‘…then I understood their final destiny‘ (17b). God helped him realize how the final destiny of the wicked would end up. Look at verse 18. God surely places them on a slippery ground and casts them down into ruin. Suddenly they are destroyed and completely swept away by terror (19). Justice is an eternal attribute of God. God sees all the humans on earth from above and judges them according to their deeds when the time comes. The wealth and glory of the wicked are all like dreams, and just as we forget our dreams when we awake, so the wicked will disappear and be forgotten forever when God’s judgment comes (20).
When the poet realized this, he came to confess how much he had been senseless and ignorant. He found himself like a brute beast before God (22). And he repented deeply that he had doubted God. God is the Almighty and knows all. He will judge the wicked someday at His time according to what they did. If we doubt God like this and complain, we are nothing but senseless and ignorant beasts. Do you want to live like ignorant beasts by complaining senselessly? Don’t be beasts before God.
Now the poet praises God highly. Let’s read verses 25 and 26 together. “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.” Who else can we long for besides God the Creator and the Redeemer? Who else can we long for besides God the Provider of all things and the Ruler of mercy and justice? As time goes by, both our bodies and our minds become old and fail, but God is the strength of our hearts and our eternal portion. Look at verse 27 ‘Those who are far from you will perish; you have destroyed all who are unfaithful to you‘. The destiny of the wicked is not ambiguous, but clear like this.
Now the poet stood on faith again. Let’s read verse 28 together. ‘But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.’ In the saying ‘it is good to be near God’, the word ‘good’ essentially means ‘best.’. There is no better choice in the world than God. The poet now fully trusts God. For him, to be near God was the greatest safety, peace, and blessing. Therein lies the answer to everything. So now the poet said that he would spread the word of all the Lord’s deeds to the world by taking refuge in the Lord. Before entering the sanctuary, he complained about God and could not help doubting God. But now the poet was proud of God and determined to share what He had done with the whole world. It’s an amazing change in the poet. In the end, we come to know that the real victor in the world is the one who enters God’s sanctuary, draws himself close to God and listens to His voice.
I pray that we may live a blessed life by being near God like the poet of today’s passage. For this, first, we should pray. That is the way to be near God. People argue with one another when the trouble happens. They want to fix their problems by holding onto someone and complaining. Of course, there are times when such a method is necessary. However, that is not the way God wants for us to solve problems. It is merely humanistic. When trouble comes to us, the trouble is the sign God gives us to come to God. So people of faith go out to God and pray. Prayer seems to be the weakest thing in the world and looks like a passive and slow way to solve problems, but that is not true. Going before God and praying is the wisest and most active way to solve our problems. Some people say God doesn’t answer their prayers however hard we may pray. No, that’s not true, either. God is pleased with our prayer and always listening to us. Those who pray to God consistently know well that Our God always responds to our prayer faithfully. If our prayer topics are wrong, God corrects them gradually and answers our prayer with something better than we ask. God even gave His only begotten Son to save us, so why would He not listen to our prayer? Above all, we should know that through prayer we come to meet our God personally and become sure that God is with us, He is for us, and He will lead us to His Glory. So, do not lose heart in any circumstance and keep praying. Then He will come to you. Prayer is our blessing.
Second, meditating and reading the Word of God is the way to be near God. From time to time, we think we are smart, but in fact we are ignorant. When we go before the Word, we realize what God’s will is and gain wisdom on how to live and serve God correctly. Just as the poet got out of ignorance and realized it when he entered the sanctuary, we can get wisdom, overcoming our ignorance when we go before the word of God. The Word of God is the light of our lives. Psalm 119:130 reads, “The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” (Psalm 119:130). “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105). Is
there darkness in our life? No, there is no darkness in life at all . The darkness comes to us only when we are far from the Word of God. God is the God of the Word. Our God is God who is always speaking. The only problem is that we do not want to hear God’s word obstinately. All things in the world are created by the words of God. So, our life is in the word of the Lord without exception, whether or not a person believes in Him. God responds even to those who do not believe, but according to His Words. God blesses those who believe according to His Words, too. There is no one in the world who could live escaping from the authority and the power of God’s words. So we must always go back to the Bible. “Back to the Bible’ was the motto of the Reformation. And this is one of our spiritual legacy we inherited from the late Dr. Samuel Lee the founder of UBF.
Third, obeying God’s word is the way to be near God. Obeying and keeping the word of God is not so easy as we may think, because there always follows self-denial and hardship. The world hated Jesus because He obeyed the Word of God absolutely. So we cannot say we are near God unless we obey God’s Word. Those who are near God always keep God’s commandments in their heart. Those who deny themselves to obey God’s words take care of the poor and the sick according to the teaching of God’s words, and preach the word of God. Those who love God always try to put God’s words into practice even if suffering or some real losses follow them. The book of James in the New Testament tells us about a secret of blessing: ‘ Come near to God and he will come near to you ‘ (James 4:8).
When I was young, I wandered here and there because I could not know the truth of life. I did not know where I came from, why I should live, what I should live for. So I was always caught with the emptiness of life. My aim when I entered university was to read a thousand books and find the truth
of life through this.
However, God had mercy upon me and led me to UBF. I began to study the Bible. Through the study of Genesis I came to believe in the Creator God and found I was created for God’s purpose. And I learned Jesus died for my sins shedding his blood on the cross. After I received Jesus as my savior, my heart was filled with the truth and life. The sense of emptiness which had given me so much pain before disappeared from my heart forever. From that time my life changed, and God led me to live the life of a shepherd. Then my life was centered on these three things: prayer, Bible reading, and preaching.
Through prayer, I came to experience God’s power and personal love. I set the direction to pray three times a day. God blessed my shepherd life abundantly, bearing much fruits. God responded to my prayer with many good things. How merciful he was in my life! ‘As for me. It is good to be near God,’ Whenever I remember this word, I am always encouraged to go before the Lord and pray with a joyful heart. And the best answer from God to my prayer is myself. Every time I pray, God pours grace and power on me and makes me joyful and enables me to do God’s work.
I like to read the Bible. From time to time I think, ‘if it had not been for the Bible, how could I have lived this life.’ It is the word of God that helps me to stand firm in truth and grace. No matter how complicated and difficult the world is, the world’s problems cease to be problems any longer
when we enter our sanctuary, that is, the Word of the Lord. Our real problem is always whether or not the words of God are in us.
And preaching words of God became my life. The psalmist says, ‘I will proclaim to all the deeds of the Lord our God as our refuge.’ As for him, it is his pleasure to spread the justice and love of God. Justice and love is what the Lord always does. The Lord sent His one and only Son Jesus Christ to show His love and justice. He died on the cross shedding his precious blood to redeem us, which is good news to be claimed to all in the world.
And now, it is clear for us what to do. ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ ‘To preach the gospel all over the world’ is the great mission we receive from God and the best gift we can give to the world. And now I agree with the statement that today’s key verse is the conclusion of all the teachings of the Old Testament. These days many people are wandering here and there because they do not know God. Let’s preach the gospel to all the people in the world. I pray that New Jersey UBF, and many visiting coworkers, and children of God here today may stand firm on the gospel by being near God and be used for world mission.