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The River ChurchSermons

Josh Combs · 14 Jun 2026

Josh Combs · Sunday, 14 June 2026 · 41:54 · 4,374 words

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

Psalm 73 shows Asaph wrestling with doubt after seeing the prosperity of the wicked. He almost gives up on God, but then enters the sanctuary, brings his questions, and discovers that God holds his hand and guides him toward glory. Pastor Josh Combs urges listeners to bring their doubts, fears, and struggles to God in prayer and Scripture, trusting that his ways are higher than ours. The message calls those who do not yet know Jesus to confess him as Lord, and it reminds believers to stay near to God.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

asaph 39 sanctuary 12 almost 14 wearisome 6 task 6 stricken 5 brutish 4 sing 13 sometime 17 success 6 prosperity 6 wrestle 6

Topics

Prayer 3 Sin 2 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 The Gospel 1

Scripture referenced 13

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Psalms 73 0:41 Psalms 73 1:04 Psalms 73 1:31 1 Chronicles 15 2:29 Psalms 73 3:07 Psalms 24 10:14 Psalms 24 10:18 Psalms 24 10:21 Psalms 24:3-4 10:21 Psalms 24:3 10:32 Psalms 24:4 10:47 Psalms 73 10:59 Psalms 73 34:46

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 13 lines, 0:40. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Pastor Phil.

Thanks for checking out one of our sermons today.

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to learn more about us and what we have going on as a church.

Thanks again for joining us.

We hope that you're blessed by today's message.

We opened our Bibles this morning to the book of Psalms, Psalm 73.

Psalm 73, if you don't have a Bible,

I want to ask you, encourage you to share with someone sitting next to you.

You take out your phone, you can download a Bible app

or the River Church app.

There's a Bible feature there.

I want to welcome you.

If you're a guest, thank you for being here with us,

for watching online.

If I don't know you, my name is Josh Combs.

I'm the lead pastor of the River.

So thankful to see you.

Thankful that each of you are here.

Psalm begins with the heading, A Psalm of Asaph.

We know a psalm is a song meant to be sung

while musical instruments play.

There are a variety of different psalms,

some very joyous, some very heavy,

some very sorrowful,

some contemplating, wrestling, struggling

with difficult truths of life and reality.

Asaph was one of the Levites.

He was part of the team of people,

team of men who cared for the tabernacle,

the place of worship in the Old Testament

that would then become permanent as the temple.

He was part of that group.

In 1 Chronicles 15, the Bible says,

David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites

to appoint their brothers as the singers

who would play loudly on musical instruments,

on harps, on lyres, on cymbals,

to raise sounds of joy.

So the Levites appointed,

and there's several names listed,

and one of them is the name Asaph.

So Asaph was appointed as a leader of the songs,

the singing in worship,

the worship to God.

So we know also from Psalm 73 and other psalms

that he was also a songwriter,

also an author.

So Asaph writes here in verse 1,

Asaph says,

Truly God is good to Israel,

to those who are pure in heart.

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled.

My steps had nearly slipped.

Asaph begins this song with,

the declaration that God is good.

God is kind and merciful to those who are pure in heart.

He says, but my experience, I had a crisis.

Something shook me.

Asaph says, for me, my feet almost stumbled.

My steps nearly slipped.

There was almost this catastrophe of faith in my life.

I want you to know, Bible,

people who have sought to follow God

generations before us.

And I want you to know that this church

is a place filled with absolutely imperfect people.

That there are many people sitting here right now

who are holding on for dear life.

Something happened this past week.

Something happened this past month.

And something came up this year that has shaken them.

And you might be one of them.

And I want you to know that you're not alone.

Asaph says, I know that God is good.

But there was a personal experience from my life

where I almost stumbled.

I almost gave up.

I almost threw in the towel.

I thought, you know what?

I'm done with God.

Asaph says in verse three,

where I was envious of the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

I know God is good, but I started to look around in my life

and I started to notice, verse three, key word,

I started to see the success of people who just ignore God.

I started to see the prosperity,

the success of people who do whatever they want

without any obligation to obey the scripture,

to live any sort of holy moral standard.

I looked around, I saw their prosperity.

Verse four down to verse 12,

Asaph begins to describe their prosperity.

He says, for they have no pangs until death.

Their bodies are fat and sleek.

That line makes me laugh.

Culturally speaking, he's saying they are well-fed.

They have comfort.

They have physical beauty and appearance.

Says verse five, they are not in trouble as others are.

They are not stricken like the rest of mankind.

Their pride, therefore pride is their necklace.

Violence covers them as a garment.

Their eyes swell out through fatness.

Their hearts overflow with follies.

They scoff and speak with malice.

Loftily, they threaten oppression.

They set their mouths against the heavens

and their tongues struts through the earth.

So poetically, he's saying they do whatever they want.

They say whatever they want.

They plan, verse seven, follies, whatever they want.

They're violent, they're oppressive, they're vindictive.

They do all of these different things

and yet they're successful.

Asaph says, therefore his people turn back to them

and find no fault in them.

So they are gaining influence

where people are drawn to them

and the people that are drawn to these wicked,

violent, proud oppressors.

Verse 11, they say, how can God know?

Is their knowledge in the most high?

So this is pushing Asaph

and this is pushing people who believe in God

to a kind of a functioning agnosticism.

Yeah.

I guess there's a God,

but clearly he has no idea what's going on.

Look at the evil that's going on in the world.

And this is what, back to verse two,

this is what is shaking Asaph.

It is a belief in who God is

and then the rubber meets the road, so to speak,

and the reality of life causes him to question that,

causes him to doubt.

Does God know, verse 11,

is their knowledge with the most high?

One writer says, they seem the evil.

They seem to live above the frustrations of life.

It seems as if God lets the wicked get by

with their wickedness,

that God is letting them get away with it.

It seems to be those things.

Verse 12, behold, they are the wicked.

These are the wicked always at ease.

They increase in riches.

So influence is growing.

They look healthy and beautiful and well-fed

and like they are just living the high life.

They increase in their wickedness.

They seem to just always be succeeding

and they constantly are growing in their wealth.

Asaph sees that.

Verse 13, this is what he begins to think.

All in vain have I kept my heart clean.

And washed my hands in innocence.

For all the day long have I have been stricken

and rebuked every morning.

Asaph says, I have worked to keep my heart clean before God.

I have worked to honor God.

Go back in your Bibles to Psalm 24.

Psalm chapter 24, there's a reference to this as well.

Psalm 24, verse three and four.

Verse three, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?

Who shall stand?

Who shall stand in his holy place?

So who gets to go into fellowship with God?

He, verse four, who has clean hands and a pure heart,

who does not lift up his soul to what is false

and does not swear deceitfully.

Now go back to Psalm 73.

This is what Asaph is referencing.

He's saying, I did that.

I worked at keeping my heart, the core, the real me.

I worked at being honorable to God

and I washed my hands.

I washed my hands in innocence.

So I made sure what was going on the inside,

my motives, my thoughts, my intentions was right before God.

I tried to make sure that with my hands,

I was not doing anything wrong,

that I was being pure before God.

Verse 14, all the day long,

I've been stricken and rebuked every morning.

When I sin, I feel like garbage.

But these people don't feel anything.

This is terrible.

Yet they're successful.

They're wealthy.

They're healthy.

All of this is happening.

And I wake up feeling like garbage because I lied.

I wake up feeling like trash because I cheated.

I wake up feeling like trash because I looked at that or something.

I'm convicted of this.

And yet these people don't seem to be.

And I'm miserable and they're not.

Verse 15, if I had said, I will speak thus,

I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

If I would have said this out loud,

I would have wrecked some people.

Here's why Asaph, I think, is saying that.

He's saying, because I'm the worst.

I'm the worst worship leader.

I'm the guy like, hey, everybody, let's sing to God.

Isn't he so good?

And Asaph is saying, I don't know anymore.

I have my doubts.

I have my frustrations.

And I want you to know, that's part of the journey of faith.

So much so that Asaph writes a song about it.

God, you're awesome.

I know you're good.

We got to talk about some things.

Because I'm a little frustrated.

I'm a little confused.

I don't like it.

I don't like what I'm seeing.

The evil.

Look at how they're living, God.

And then here I am.

I'm stricken every morning.

I'm rebuked when I sin.

I think it has been pointless that I've tried to live for you.

Asaph says, but when I thought how to understand this,

it seemed to me a wearisome task.

I tried to figure it out.

I tried to put it together in my brain.

I tried to reconcile this.

I tried to put this in my head.

I attempted to make sense of it.

One writer says, keep in mind,

Asaph was not guilty of some gross, overt sin.

He had a problem.

He was guilty of only wrong thinking.

And his wrong thinking was going to lead him to wrong living.

He's like, God, I'm leading.

I want people to sing to you.

I want to lead them, as the Bible says there,

in shouts of gladness.

Raise the sounds of joy.

Like, that's my job in celebration of who you are.

And yet some doubts have started to creep into my heart.

That's why back to verse 2, Asaph says, I almost stumbled.

I almost slipped.

I tried to figure it out, verse 16, on my own.

And it seemed to me to be a wearisome task.

It was too high a mountain to climb.

It was too big of a problem to solve.

God, you're good.

What I see in the world, what I experience in the world,

I'm wondering if, oh, man, I don't know of what I've been singing about,

preaching about, talking about, reading about, believing in.

Yeah, it's real.

So I almost slipped and gave up.

I almost stumbled.

I almost threw in the towel.

Verse 16, I wanted to figure it out on my own.

It seemed to me a wearisome task.

Verse 17, I love the first word.

Until, until, until I went into the sanctuary of God.

Until I did that.

Asaph is having a crisis of faith.

I want you to know if that's you, you can bring all of those doubts, those fears, those frustrations, those questions.

You can bring them all to God.

He's big enough and gracious enough to answer them.

Maybe to a pastor or to a priest or to a spiritual leader, you felt hesitant or anxious to bring those doubts.

The way they made you feel.

I want you to know that God is, his mercies are new every morning.

You can bring him a whole truckload of your doubts and fears and anxieties and questions every single day.

And say, God, I just don't understand this.

God, I just don't get why this is my family.

We've tried to honor you.

We've tried to serve you.

These people haven't.

And look at the success.

Look at the material success.

Look at the material success.

Look at the physical success.

Look at all the things that their kids and their family are achieving.

We're over here trying to honor you, God.

And I know you haven't promised us like a big house and health and wealth and prosperity and all those things.

But maybe a little bit would be nice and maybe kind of put them down a little bit.

Asaph says, I was trying to understand that and I couldn't on my own until, until I went into the sanctuary of God.

Until I brought it all to you.

Until I came to you.

St. Peter, the apostle Peter in the New Testament.

He writes, cast all your cares on him because he cares for you.

Every single person in this room has cares.

Cares sometimes we try to figure out on our own.

We try to reconcile.

We try to process.

We try to come up with the solution on our own.

Asaph says, I tried to do that and it was just a wearisome task.

It just, it was just the wheels spinning.

I was making no progress on figuring this out until I went to the sanctuary of God.

Until I went and spent time with the Lord.

Sometimes in the sanctuary of God, it is just crying out to God.

God's not looking for you to show up in prayer with a prepared speech.

Sometimes I think if you grew up very religious, maybe Catholic or Baptist, which is just honestly the same, one coin, just different sides of it.

Just had different rules and different rituals.

Mine was, if I don't start a prayer, dear heavenly father or dear Lord, and end the prayer with in Jesus name, amen.

It, God doesn't accept it.

It's like receiving a letter without postage.

Sorry, we're not accepting that today.

Or if you're Catholic, it's like, I didn't cross myself.

I wasn't on my knees.

I wasn't in the right spot.

And we create these religious rules as if God's not going to accept our prayers.

Sometimes when, when life is overwhelming, we just have to rush in to the presence of God.

Sometimes that's why we're driving.

Sometimes that's why we're in bed and don't feel like we.

Can get out of bed.

Sometimes that's just at work.

Sometimes our eyes are open.

Sometimes our eyes are closed, but our heart is racing into God going, God, I don't understand this.

Please help me, God.

I'm afraid, God.

This infuriates me, God.

I don't understand why this crisis has happened.

A lot of well-meaning people have said, don't ask God why.

A few years ago, I wrote a book called Why God?

Because I think we have talked ourselves into this is Christian and this is not when in reality we have a writer.

Of the Bible and inspired writer going, yeah, I was trying to figure this out and almost gave up on God.

But then I went into the presence of God and I started talking to him.

I started fellowshipping with God.

I started wrestling back and forth with God.

Sometimes that's in prayer.

Sometimes that's in the scripture.

Sometimes it's reading the scripture and going, I don't get this.

God, I don't understand this.

I need you.

And it's continue to read the Bible.

And then that moment comes.

Verse 17, I love that first word, until there was this wearisome wrestling task.

And finally, he just gave up on his own resources, went into God's presence and said, God, I have a huge mess going on.

I'm going to go sing songs to you, but I'm kind of doubting you right now.

I need your help on that.

Goes in to the sanctuary of God for you and I.

It might be going in a prayer.

It might be going in and reading the Bible.

Sometimes it's what we just did a few minutes ago.

Singing to the Lord, singing with other believers, saying, I know this is true, but my week has stunk.

I was growing up.

We used to sing the song.

It is well with my soul.

I like that song until I became an adult.

Because when you're a kid, it's like when peace like a river.

Oh, this is so nice.

This is wonderful.

And then you get it is well, it is well with my soul.

And you're like, oh, this is nice.

Now, as an adult, you sing it like it is not well.

It is not well with my soul.

That's what I want it to be.

Sometimes we should do that.

We'll have a verse for the it is well people.

And then you can sit down and the not well people can angrily sing it.

A lot of guitar.

It'll be nice that I make that suggestion.

But we don't think God allows that.

But sometimes your soul or my soul isn't well, hurts, is afraid, is burdened.

Where's the invitation?

It is to come into the sanctuary.

Of God.

And sorry to burst some bubbles here, but that is not a building.

It may have been and probably was for Asaph.

For us, it is just our hearts coming into the presence of God wherever we may be.

What is a sanctuary?

Sanctuary is a place of peace, place of rest, place of quiet, the sanctuary of God.

And it is in that moment, Asaph says, then I discerned their end.

My mind, my mindset was fixed.

You know, for Asaph.

Asaph, circumstances did not change.

But he did.

He did.

It's okay to pray, God, please change these circumstances.

But if you're not going to change these circumstances, please change me and how I see them.

Asaph starts to get some clarity.

Truly, you set them in slippery places.

You make them fall to ruin.

How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors like a dream.

When one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as.

You despise them as phantoms.

Looks like they're successful.

They are in for an actual nightmare.

Now, Asaph says, verse 21, when my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart.

So, I was struggling on the inside.

I was depressed.

I was down.

I was gloomy.

I was, and I put this in my Bible, still something I wrestle with.

I was mad at God.

Verse 22, here it was.

Asaph says, I was brutish and ignorant.

I was like a beast toward you, towards God.

One of the great challenges for my faith over the last several years, I've shared this at

different times, is settling in my mind and heart that God is God and I am not.

That God is writing the story of my life.

And I get really annoyed when he does not take my suggestions.

That God is the one writing the story.

The book that I wrote, Why God?

And this is not a.

Plug for the book, because I do not get a dime from it.

You can stop at guest services and buy one on the way out the door.

But it was birthed from a really difficult conversation and some study in the Bible.

And it kind of culminates with this bracelet that I wear most every day.

It has four symbols on it that I need to be reminded of every day.

First of all, that God is in complete control.

That all things exist for God's glory and my good.

But often it is the compass symbol that bothers me the most.

God's ways are not my ways.

And I just want to be like, God, can't they be my way for like a little bit?

I got some good ideas.

I got some good rewrites on the story.

And the wrestling with my faith has been knowing that God writes the best stories.

That God is in complete control.

All things exist for his glory and my good.

And God's ways are not my ways.

And the last one helps me embrace it.

Just to be really honest, when I struggle being angry with God, wrestling with God,

those are the things I have to remember.

Asaph says, I.

I was brutish and ignorant.

I didn't know.

I was rude to you.

I was like a stubborn animal.

We've had lots of animals over the years.

And sometimes you're just like, hey, cow, there's green grass.

It's beautiful.

You have to walk 10 feet.

And the cow just looks at you, turns around, and walks away.

And you're like, you are a moron.

And that's what Asaph is saying.

When we're not spending time in the sanctuary of God and we,

we are, verse 2, almost stumbling, nearly slipping.

Something also is happening in our heart.

We're becoming embittered.

Something's happening in our heart.

We begin to act brutish and ignorant like a dumb animal towards God.

And thankfully, God is not like me.

God is not like you.

Because look at who God continues to be for Asaph and continues to be for us.

Nevertheless, nevertheless, I love the word until.

I love the word nevertheless.

I'm a dumb, brutish, ignorant, animal, stubborn.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you.

And you hold my right hand.

Verse 24, you guide me with your counsel.

And afterward, you will receive me to glory.

So all of my life, God, I can trust you.

Because I'm continually with you.

And you are with me.

And when I'm struggling, you're holding my right hand.

And you guide me with your counsel till the end.

And afterwards.

The story doesn't stop.

You receive me into glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you.

And while I'm here, there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail.

I'm going to stumble.

I'm going to be weak.

I'm going to do dumb things.

But God is the strength of my heart.

My portion forever.

Asaph struggled with reality.

He came to the restorative sanctuary.

Of God.

And it completely transformed his heart.

He says in verse 27.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish.

You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.

People who don't know you.

They're in for eternal judgment.

But for me.

I want you to see the end caps here.

He says.

Asaph says in verse 2.

But as for me.

Now in verse 28.

The end of it.

He says.

But for me.

It is good to be near God.

I got to stay near to God.

Because my eyes and my mind start to wander to all these things that are overwhelming.

That become wearisome tasks.

I have to stay near to God.

He ends the psalm by saying.

I have made the Lord God my refuge.

That I may tell of all your for me.

Maybe you're here and you're a Christian.

You're a follower of Jesus.

You have turned from sin.

You've repented of your sin.

You've believed in Jesus.

Jesus is the Lord of your life.

But I want you to understand.

Maybe someone lied to you and told you.

Jesus will be Lord of your life.

And everything will be smooth after that.

And you keep waking up like Asaph.

Stricken and rebuked.

And you're like.

This Jesus following thing is hard.

That's because people have preached a false gospel.

Here's what Jesus said.

Jesus said.

Come to me.

All you who are heavy laden.

I will give you rest.

You have a heavy burden.

I'll give you rest from that.

But the end.

The invitation to follow Jesus was to deny yourself.

Take up your cross and follow him.

So there needs to be a reorienting in your mind of what it means to wake up daily and follow Christ.

Maybe you're here and you are trying to make sense of the world.

Here's the most important truth.

That God loves you.

And he sent his only son to die on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin.

Sin meaning our rebellion, our disobedience against God.

So Jesus goes to the cross.

He dies.

He's buried.

And Jesus rises from the dead.

That's the good news of Jesus.

Sometimes we call it the gospel.

The Bible says that if you will confess with your mouth.

Believe in your heart.

God raised Jesus from the dead.

You will be saved.

Your sins will be forgiven.

You will in that moment receive the free gift of eternal life.

There'll be a mindset change.

Paul says set your minds on things that are above.

Not on things that are on earth.

Maybe sitting here.

Right now you need to call on the name of the Lord.

I'm going to ask you to bow your heads to close your eyes just across the room.

An opportunity for quiet reflection.

An opportunity for you to spend some time with God thinking about this truth.

Maybe you're here and you don't know the Lord.

Bible says again, if you'll confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord.

Believe in your heart.

God raised Jesus from the dead.

You'll be saved.

God, thank you for today, for your word, for the encouragement timing of this song.

That you would move in our midst.

I pray that your truth would anchor and encourage folks.

Pray that those, Lord, who do not know you would call out to you to be saved.

Jesus name. Let's stand together.

Let's sing to the Lord of great.

Is Jesus my Redeemer?

There is no more for heaven now to give.

He is my joy, my righteousness, freedom, my steadfast love, my deep in boundless peace.

To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus born totally bound to him.

Oh, how strange and divine I can sing.

All is mine, yet not I, but through Christ I stand with joy before the Father.

Prayer to encourage you to head over to our prayer team.

They'd love to pray for you, whether it's big or small, whatever it is, they want

love and care for you. If you're a guest