Asaph is not saying that there are no other legitimate desires on earth. He is simply saying that, besides the Lord Himself, all other desires are secondary.

This is the same thing the apostle Paul said: “I count everything as loss because o...

Imagine Tom and Mary, a young couple engaged and about to be married. The wedding is just five days away, and Tom takes Mary out for a candlelight dinner. “Five days to go,” Tom says, “I can hardly wait for Saturday to come.” Mary smiles as she lo...

The first thing you need to know about heaven is that it is God-centred. When the Apostle John was given a vision of heaven, he saw that the Lamb of God (Jesus Christ) was at the centre (Rev. 5:6; 7:17). God wants you to know that He is the centre...

Notice how Asaph moves from the misery of preoccupation with himself to the joyful freedom of confident faith in God.

Biblical faith is utterly God-centred. It’s not about some capacity for believing that may or may not lie within you. If fa...

In the first half of Psalm 73 (verses 1-14), Asaph was completely absorbed with himself. “Why are things going wrong in my life? Why is God blessing other people more than me? What’s the point in pursuing a godly life?”

Asaph was convinced t...

What would you expect the outcome of Asaph’s confession to be? “My spirit was bitter, my heart ruled my head, and I was acting on impulse… Therefore, I am a total failure”? Or “Therefore, God has no place for me”?

No! Look at the outcome of ...

“My soul was bitter. My heart ruled my head. I was acting on impulse.” This is a serious confession of sin.

Asaph’s confession goes beyond anything that he said or did. It uncovers the hidden movements of his heart.

There really is an ...

The point about the beast is that animals act on impulse.

One of the great gifts God has given to men and women is the gift of reason, logic, reflection, and analysis. This gift was not given to the animals. Animals act on impulse.

Asa...

“Ignorant” is a word that describes the mind, so Asaph was saying, “When my heart was grieved, everything I knew and believed about God seemed to fly out of the window.” In other words, Asaph was talking to his friends in gloomy terms, as if there...

Confession has always had a central place in Christian worship. Catholics confessed their sins to a priest. Protestants confessed their sinfulness to God. But it seems that confessing our sins is disappearing from worship altogether.

We cele...

This is a godly man’s confession of sin, and confession is a normal part of a healthy Christian life. The Apostle John says: “If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” ...

This is Asaph confessing his sins to God. He is admitting to things that are wrong in his life. As soon as Asaph gets his thinking straight, he begins to pray.

Prayer flows out where truth flows in. We hear the truth every Sunday as we liste...

Asaph’s story tells us how God brought this man through a crisis of faith by taking him through a number of turns.

The first thing Asaph discovered was that he needed to STOP. “If I had gone where my thoughts were leading me at that time, I ...

Asaph was a godly man. He was a spiritual leader. This is the kind of man we would all look up to with great respect.

Asaph didn’t just read the Scriptures, he was chosen to write some of the Scriptures under the direct inspiration of the Sp...

Asaph uses a second picture here, waking up from a dream, to show us what he discovered in the sanctuary about the ultimate outcome of the wicked.

Imagine a beggar who has a dream. And in his dream, he wins fifty million pounds in the lotter...

When Asaph came to worship, he remembered God’s truth, and he met with God’s people. That was where God straightened out this man’s thinking. Remember, Asaph’s problem began when he wondered why the wicked prosper (73:3).

So how did God stra...

You see what Asaph is saying: “Here I am struggling with my problems. But my questions and struggles are part of something much bigger.”

It’s a great thing to have personal faith, but behind your faith there is the faith. Behind your little ...

Asaph was saying, “When I looked at the problems in my life and at the problems in the world, I kept asking, “Why is this happening?” My mind went around and around, trying to figure it all out, but I couldn’t. It was oppressive to me. I couldn’t ...

Asaph knew that if he were to give up, he would betray God’s children, and that stopped him in his tracks. Now, there is more to climbing out of a black hole than that, but this is where it begins—with a decision, a commitment: Lord, I will not be...

You would think that the turning point of his life would begin when he gets some answers. But that’s not Asaph’s story.

Asaph wants us to know that the first step to turning our lives around is not finding an answer but making a decision. Hi...

Asaph was saying, “If I had followed where my confused thoughts were taking me, I would have let everybody down. I would have become the Judas of the Old Testament. I would have betrayed your children.” Asaph doesn’t want to go there, and so he ta...

Maybe you have coworkers who have very little integrity, and yet they seem to be thriving. You, on the other hand, have tried to do business in a way that honours the Lord, but instead of thriving, you are facing all kinds of trouble. It leaves yo...

You can hear Asaph’s distress in his words, “I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” The wicked act as if no one can touch them, and God does nothing about it. But here I am trying to serve the Lord in ministry, and all I see is the agenda of those w...

This psalm begins with a statement of faith. It was like a creedal statement, the sort of thing you would recite every week at worship. It is rather like us confessing “Jesus is Lord” when we meet for worship. “Truly God is good to Israel, to thos...

Psalm 73 is the personal testimony of a man who came through a great crisis in his life. He tells us how he nearly lost his faith, but God helped him, and he found his way through the crisis and into a stronger faith than he had before.

If y...

When you come to faith in Jesus Christ, God puts His Spirit within you. That’s His promise.

The first evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life will be that you have a deep desire to please God and to serve Him by being a channel o...

You see what the apostle Paul is saying: “I saw myself as a morally upright person.” But then Paul says, “All that changed,” and he tells us what led him to a complete reevaluation of his position: “If it had not been for the law, I would not have...

Coveting happens in the secret places of your heart. It is known only to you and to God. Your neighbour would know if you stole his car, but he would never know if you coveted his car. Nobody knows the secret desires of your heart. Nobody knows yo...

The essence of lying is saying what will achieve the desired result, irrespective of whether it is the truth.

Gossip: This involves passing on news about another person that may or may not be true. Someone has likened gossip to ripping open ...