CLOSE TO GOD, THE BEST LOCATION
Psalm 73:25-28 NKJV
25 Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
26 My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish;
You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry.
28 But it is good for me to draw near to God;
I have put my trust in the Lord God,
That I may declare all Your works.
To get the most out of this devotional, go back and read this psalm again. It's not long. I'll wait...
Alright, now that you have reread this psalm, let's take a closer look.
This is a psalm of Asaph. Not ASAP, but Asaph with an h. Asaph was a skilled musician and prophet during the days of David and wrote Psalms 50 and 73-83. In our psalm for today, Asaph starts with the goodness of God and how he almost made a major mistake by being envious of the rich. And Asaph was not just envious of any rich person; but he had seen rich people who had no regard for God. These rich were disrespectful of God, full of pride, and spoke of God as if He was nothing.
Asaph was lamenting that these boastful rich were not in pain and seemed to have no problems. He had almost concluded that he had lived clean and righteous before God, and it was no advantage. Asaph believed that he had lived for God, yet he was still having to deal with problems that these prideful rich were not troubled by. Asaph was dealing with thoughts that were too painful for him, until.
Asaph said until I went into the sanctuary of God and understood what was the end result of those rich people who opposed God. And their end was not good. These people were set in slippery places, and their desolation would be swift. Asaph has to repent for thinking that serving God was not worth the effort. And our verses for today are the summation of his thoughts.
Asaph expressed his heart for God. That he had a God in heaven and no one on earth came close to Him. That even though he could be weak, God was the strength of his heart. And those who lived far from God were not in a good place but rather a dangerous place, a place of perishing. But to be close to God was good. And to trust in God was the right thing to do in order that he could declare all of God's works. Asaph had to process some wrong information but came to a good conclusion that close to God was the best place to be, both here on earth and in eternity.
APPLICATION
One of the schemes of our enemy, Satan, is to try and convince believers that living for God is a worthless pursuit. He will call our attention to all the people who are not serving God yet seem to be doing great. Social media has been an effective weapon in this area.
Satan would love to remind you of how much you could do with the money you give to the Lord's work. That your neighbor is driving a nice car, but not you because you tithe. But don't buy into his lies. What he is not showing you is the areas where other people are having problems. Very few use social media as a means of advertising all their fears and failures.
But as you come close to God, you'll begin to gain His perspective. That He is able to help you and strengthen you and putting your trust in Him is right. But as you come close to God, you also gain the benefit of an eternal perspective. That this life is not all there is. Not even close. And that an eternity with God is better than anything this temporary world can offer.
The proud, boastful rich who mock God may appear to be better off, but they are in a slippery place. But you are close to God and standing on the rock. And that's the place to be!