Sermon Notes
Psalm 73 – Overcoming Our Age-old Enemy
GOD’S PLAYLIST – Part 4
August 24, 2025
13 Surely in
vain I have kept my heart pure
and have
washed my hands in innocence.
14 All day long I have been afflicted,
and every
morning brings new punishments.
15 If I had
spoken out like that,
I would
have betrayed your children.
16 When I tried to understand all
this,
it troubled
me deeply
17 till I entered the sanctuary of
God…
Psalm 73
- Closely studying the psalms encourages a robust, honest faith.
- [The psalms give us] “examples of ordinary people struggling mightily to align what they believe about God with
what they actually experience.” – Philip Yancey in The Bible That Jesus Read
- They remind us to be ourselves before God, authentic and honest.
Psalm 73, a song of lament, is a sermon against envy.
God cares deeply about envy because it wreaks havoc in our lives.
“Over time, [envy] may give rise to mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia, and physical health problems such as infections, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. We are, quite literally, consumed by our envy.” – Neel Burton in Psychology Today
“Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy.”
1 Corinthians 13:4
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Exodus 20:17
The speaker’s feelings in Psalm 73…
- Deeply resonate with us because we’ve all felt this way.
- Reveal that he envies people who don’t even know God.
- Have blinded him to reality, and led him to despair.
Where does the psalm pivot, and what changes the perspective of the speaker? The turning point is in verse 17.
- The psalm transitions from despair to a renewed sense of God’s goodness, and an awareness of His plan and
ultimate purposes.
- Worship brings clarity, and leads to this change in the speaker’s outlook.
“It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to [people].” – C.S. Lewis
“The greater our nearness to God, the less we are affected by the attractions and distractions of earth.” – Charles Spurgeon