For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Psalm 73:3 (NIV)
You can hear the distress in these words, “I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” The wicked do their thing and God allows them to get away with it! The people who are most antagonistic toward God 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 who hate God and despise His Word moving forward. Why does God allow it? It makes no sense to me.
You can understand Asaph’s problem. Can you make sense of the way God rules the world? Asaph couldn’t, but the real problem lay deeper. Asaph couldn’t make sense of what God was doing in his own life. “All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning” (73:14). He poured out all this frustration about how God rules the world, but the real problem is that things were going wrong in his own life.
Remember that this is the confession of a godly man. Asaph is in full-time ministry. He is a spiritual leader. Other people look to him for leadership. This man has been reading his Bible and saying his prayers. He tithes his money. He has poured great energy into pursuing a holy life. He has made sacrifices for the advance of God’s kingdom.
But sometimes, underneath the bigger questions that we have about the world, there are deeper, more personal questions about what God is doing in our lives. You ask, “Why do the wicked prosper?” But the real question is: “Why hasn’t God prospered me?” You ask, “Why does God allow suffering?” But the real question is: “Why is there so much pain in my life?” You ask, “Does God really control the universe?” But the real question is: “Why is my life falling apart?”
Have you ever struggled to make sense of what God is doing in your life? When?
