When Life is Unfair, and God Seems Silent

SERMON JUNE 7

PSALM 73

What do we do when life is unfair and God seems silent? https://youtu.be/ls6zTqC1TAshttps://youtu.be/ls6zTqC1TAs

(This is an edited message I preached on June 7 2020 and uploaded to YouTube.)

My text comes from Psalm 73 and covers these five points: KNOWING, SLIPPING, BETRAYING, SEEKING, and once again, KNOWING.

“Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart!” (verse 1).

Yes, we know God is good. Of course, He is good. He cannot be anything else but good. And kind. And merciful. He is LOVE itself.

But knowing God is good is not good enough for some people to keep them on the right path when hell breaks loose against them. That path to the Celestial City is a narrow one. It is a rocky and arduous path punctuated by steep hills and deep valleys and treacherous detours. That road is not dissimilar from John Bunyan’s analogy in Pilgrim’s Progress.

Pilgrim is on his way to the Celestial City. But he encounters the same obstacles every determined Christian faces on the journey to heaven, such as The Slough of Despond, the Vanity Fair, the Doubting Castle, the Giant Despair.

Bunyan’s tale answers the question why so many people -- although they know God is good, they choose to remain immature babes in Christ – or to even turn away from what they once knew. It’s difficult to journey to that celestial city when it is so much easier to stay home.

Of course, they are not alone in their contentment to stay stuck where they are on their journey. The writer to the Hebrews wrote to those who faced the same temptation to be happy where they were in their journey of faith. He wrote this to his audience in Hebrews 5:12-3  “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.”

If we are happy with where we are in Christ, THAT is a problem. God is infinite. His call to us to be conformed to the image of Christ takes a LIFETIME of sitting at His feet, and also walking with Him.

As I said, knowing God is good is not good enough for many who slog decade after decade with the inevitable ups and downs, the joys and the sorrows of this life – the unfairness of life. But let me give you a news flash if you don’t already know this: LIFE IS NOT FAIR.

Which brings me to the second point of my message: SLIPPING. Slipping in our walk. Here is what the psalmist wrote in verses two and following:

“But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death, and their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued [with problems] like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; The garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulges from fatness; The imaginations of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression . . . They have set their mouth against the heavens . . . They say, “How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High?” . . . . Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence; For I have been stricken all day long and chastened every morning.

Before we go on, let me give you some important insight into the man who wrote this psalm. His name was Asaph. Bible scholars identify him as one of the musicians charged with the music and singing in the Temple during Solomon’s reign. He was a religious man. A holy man. A righteous man of the tribe of Levi.

He knew God is good, but this righteous man began to slip. He’d lost his balance. Just like so many other righteous and holy men and women of God through the centuries have known God and have slipped in their journey – even down to this very moment as I am speaking.

Have you ever been jealous of others – especially non-Christians whose lives seem to float along without so much as mild cross-current? Their families are united – while yours might be divided. Their children visit, they enjoy weekends with the grandkids while you rarely get a phone call. Their health is so good they don’t take more than an occasional aspirin while you have struggled for years with significant health problems. They drive Mercedes, while you can barely keep up on the repairs to your ten-year-old Chevy.

And worse, they make no secret of their disdain for your God. They boast of their atheism and humanism. And you wonder sometimes like the psalmist: Why does God treat me, His child, so badly while He blesses those who curse Him to His face?

If you have been jealous, even angry because of the easy and successful lives of the godless – you are in good company. Asaph the religious, righteous, God-fearing man was jealous. And if you remember the story of Job – another Godly and righteous man had the same questions as Asaph. And they had the same questions that I, myself, have had.

Let me say something that might sound surprising to many who sit each week in the pews: Those questions are good. They are good because they are real and honest and straight from the heart. They’re questions that slice through the false teaching that Christians never get angry with God.

God knows our thoughts before we give them words. And He wants from us honesty, and realness. He’s big enough – and He loves us enough – to handle our see-sawing emotions.

Not many people know that, and so they gunnysack their true thoughts. They try to bury their negative emotions. Many marriages have failed because one or both parties continued to gunnysack their annoyances with their spouse. And so, things fester until the root of bitterness grows up and destroys the marriage.

That’s what can easily happen to our relationship with Christ. We gunnysack our anger and frustrations with God. But we don’t tell Him we are angry because we foolishly and erroneously believe ‘good’ Christians don’t get angry with God. I will speak more about that in a moment, but for now let me simply give you this warning: If we gunnysack our anger and frustration, they will fester. Before we know it, the root of bitterness will have sprung up and poisoned our relationship with our most merciful and loving Father.

Before I come back to anger with God, let’s examine the third point of this message: The first was knowing, then slipping, and now BETRAYING.

If we do not wise up to God’s love for us and that He does NOT want us to gunnysack our anger, then we can easily slip and fall into betrayal.

Now please hear me. This is really, really important. When we betray Christ, when we throw off our faith in Christ, WE ARE NOT THE ONLY CASUALTY.

Asaph tells us this in verse 15: If I had said, “I will speak thus,” Behold, I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.

As I prepared this message, I thought of two high-profile Christians who, in recent months, turned their backs on Jesus: Joshua Harris, who was a megachurch pastor and author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, proudly proclaimed his freedom from Christianity. He then promptly divorced his wife and shortly thereafter marched in a Gay Pride parade. 

In May of last year, David Gass, the pastor of a large church in Missouri, renounced Christianity, calling it caused him mental and emotional trauma. But before his renouncement of Christ, Gass was involved in a year-long adulterous relationship from which he refused to leave. 

It’s nothing short of tragic for them, their families, and for those who looked up to them that Satan can now do a victory dance at their fall. 

I am certain neither Harris nor Gass woke up one day and suddenly decided they no longer believed what they said they had once believed about Jesus. Their rejection of Christ started slowly and continued incrementally until they made their break from the One whom they once called their Lord and Savior. 

In the nearly 50 years I have followed Jesus, I have seen many turn away from their faith. And while their reasons for turning their backs on Christ might vary, I think there is most often only one of two fundamental reasons a person leaves Christ:

Either they tire of doing what Jesus wants them to do, or they grow angry, or disillusioned when Jesus doesn’t do what they want Him to do. In either case, they bristle at the idea that He is God – and they are not. They stumble at the realization that God is not a cosmic Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy. 

What do we do when we don’t like God’s answer to our prayers? What do WE do when the wicked prosper and we struggle?

Which brings us to out next point: SEEKING. The psalmist tells us in verses 16 and 17: “When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight, until I came into the sanctuary of God; Then I perceived their end. . . .”

You and I can NEVER fully understand why God does as He does – or does not do what He does not do. But – if we truly want to know Him and receive some insight into our lives and circumstances; if we TRULY and honestly are willing to walk with Christ wherever He leads and through whatever valleys He brings us, then the Holy Spirit WILL open our understanding sufficiently that we can walk faithfully and PATIENTLY with Christ through our circumstances. 

Seek Him! Get alone with God. Open His word and read it every day. And pray – not only rote prayers, but prayers born in a heart hungry for God, prayers that come from deep within your soul. Talk with Him – not AT Him, but WITH Him. He not only listens to you, but if you are quiet enough you will hear Him whispering back His responses.

Keep seeking Him like that, and you will not end up like the two men I mentioned a few moments ago.

Which brings me to my final point in this message, and I see I am out of time. The first point was knowing. The second, slipping. The third, betraying. The fourth, seeking. And finally, accepting.

Here is what Asaph wrote at the end of his psalm of complaint: When my heart was embittered and I was pierced within, Then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You. Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You will guide me, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.

First, recognize that when our heart is embittered, we cannot think clearly. Our emotions take over our higher brain function and we give the devil an open door to insinuate his demonic lies. That’s one reason St. Paul commands us in his 2nd letter to the church at Corinth to take every thought captive to Christ: (2 Corinthians 10:3-4).

And here is where I circle back to my earlier comment about anger with God.

When we recognize we have become embittered against God – REPENT. Our anger against God is never justified. God is God, and we are not. And God is GOOD. Always Good. His love for us is His ONLY motivation for bringing or allowing anything to come into our lives.

It is not possible for Him to be anything less than good, and for us to be angry with God is to be angry with Goodness and Love itself. That makes no sense on any level.

While a prisoner of the Giant Despair, it is common to doubt He loves us. But listen! We do not have all the pieces of the puzzle of our lives. God, who cannot lie, tells us again and again He is simply orchestrating circumstances for our good.

So, yes, repent of your anger – which will be much easier to do if we have first taken the preceding step of honestly SEEKING HIM.

And speaking of God’s love and patience with us, even when we are angry with Him – notice  what the psalmist says next in verses 23-26: Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You will guide me, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

The psalmist Asaph was godly and righteous man – just as so many of you listening to me are godly and righteous. But life tossed him some curve balls that hit him so hard they knocked him to the ground – just like you and I sometimes get knocked to the ground.

Learn to mature in your faith. Keep seeking Him as if He is the most important thing in your life. Read His word consistently and persistently. Pray from your heart as if He is sitting in the room with you – because He is.

And you will understand, as the psalmist finally understood: But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works. Amen.