TLIC Psalms. June 17. All in vain.

Read Psalm 73:10-14.  ¹⁰Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. ¹¹And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” ¹²Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. ¹³All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. ¹⁴For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.

The psalmist’s spiritual discouragement is verging on faithlessness. Not only does he see the prosperity of the wicked, but also the near worship of the wicked – his people turn back to them and find no fault in them – alongside the rejection of God himself – they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

These observations have now become his own disillusionment with God – All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.

In vain?

Asaph’s entitlement is pitiful. YOU have kept your heart clean? Clearly not, Asaph. Your heart has dissolved into self-righteousness, the ultimate sin. If there is any resolve left in you, any faith, it is because God has preserved you. Yes, he has stricken and rebuked you, not because you are clean, but because you are actually still dirty, not because you are innocent, but because you are truly guilty.

Have you ever suffered Asaph’s same spiritual discouragement? Did it reveal your own entitlement? Your own self-righteousness? If so, praise God. Christ in you is at work.

To live is Christ is to live in an upside down kingdom where the sinner comes in first and the saint comes in last. But union with Christ allows us to fight against our own resentment of God and “sinners.” In Christ we can stop resisting God’s fierce attack against our remaining self-righteousness, as he replaces it with the righteousness of Jesus. 

You: Where can you see self-righteousness creeping into your heart? Do you ever feel like your faith is in vain?

You in Christ: Why does the life of Christ often feel “upside down.” That is, harder for Christians than for the unbeliever?

Christ in you: In what way will you stop resisting the work of Christ in you, the work of rooting out pride?

Prayer. Father, if I am clean and innocent it is only because you have made me so. May I trust what you are doing in the world and in my own heart. Amen.