God is to be treasured ABOVE all else!

From the desk of Dr. Robert L. Taylor, Th.D. We read, (25) “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. (26) My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25-26). What do you treasure most of all in life? What do you spend your time and effort working for? Presumably, we exert the most effort to try to get whatever we think will bring us the most satisfaction! However, it’d be a great tragedy to spend your life looking for a treasure, only to find it and discover that it did not bring the satisfaction and contentment that you were hoping for! Asaph, the author of Psalm 73, has honestly shared with you and me how he almost slipped and fell from his relationship with God because he had been envious of the wicked (Psalm 73:2). He wanted what they had (their treasures). He looked at their prosperity, compared it with his own many troubles since he had begun following the Lord, and almost concluded wrongly that he was wasting his time to pursue God. Then he went into the sanctuary of God and perceived the end of the wicked, how God will sweep them away in sudden judgment. He came to realize that he was envying a supposed treasure that would crumble in his hands if he ever held it. This wonderful instruction (Psalm  73:15–28) gives a fitting resolution to Asaph’s conflict (Psalm 73:2–3). Many today feel the same conflict. However, an eternal perspective gave the answer he needed to those hard examples. In short, wickedness does come with risks, and earthly life is not all there is to our existence. Even in the context of the natural world, evil invites negative consequences and disaster. In eternity, judgment on godlessness is absolutely guaranteed. And so Asaph reset his perspective on the only treasure that can satisfy both for time and eternity, namely, God. In Psalm 73:21-28 Asaph gives us the vital lesson that…God is to be treasured above all else! In the first half of the psalm, Asaph went astray because the Lord had not given him the things that he desired. He wanted enough money to enjoy the good life that he saw the wicked enjoying. He couldn’t understand why all that he had gotten since he had begun to follow hard after God was pain and trouble. But in the second half of the psalm, he reveals how he came to find that God Himself is the treasure that we are to seek. Earthly treasures will be taken in a second at the moment of our departure from this life. But God alone is enough to satisfy the longings of our hearts, both in this life and in eternity. Be encouraged! Praise God forevermore!