Sermon: The Core Values of Apostles - Liturgy

Psalm 73

A Psalm of Asaph.

[1] Truly God is good to Israel,

to those who are pure in heart.

[2] But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,

my steps had nearly slipped.

[3] For I was envious of the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

[4] For they have no pangs until death;

their bodies are fat and sleek.

[5] They are not in trouble as others are;

they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.

[6] Therefore pride is their necklace;

violence covers them as a garment.

[7] Their eyes swell out through fatness;

their hearts overflow with follies.

[8] They scoff and speak with malice;

loftily they threaten oppression.

[9] They set their mouths against the heavens,

and their tongue struts through the earth.

[10] Therefore his people turn back to them,

and find no fault in them.

[11] And they say, “How can God know?

Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

[12] Behold, these are the wicked;

always at ease, they increase in riches.

[13] All in vain have I kept my heart clean

and washed my hands in innocence.

[14] For all the day long I have been stricken

and rebuked every morning.

[15] If I had said, “I will speak thus,”

I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

[16] But when I thought how to understand this,

it seemed to me a wearisome task,

[17] until I went into the sanctuary of God;

then I discerned their end.

[18] Truly you set them in slippery places;

you make them fall to ruin.

[19] How they are destroyed in a moment,

swept away utterly by terrors!

[20] Like a dream when one awakes,

O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

[21] When my soul was embittered,

when I was pricked in heart,

[22] I was brutish and ignorant;

I was like a beast toward you.

[23] Nevertheless, I am continually with you;

you hold my right hand.

[24] You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will receive me to glory.

[25] Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

[26] My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

[27] For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;

you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.

[28] But for me it is good to be near God;

I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,

that I may tell of all your works. (ESV)