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Jayson Combs · 14 Jun 2026

Jayson Combs · Sunday, 14 June 2026 · 39:01 · 5,392 words

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The sermon examines Psalm 73, where Asaph struggles with envy over the wicked’s prosperity and asks whether obeying God is worth the trouble. The speaker shows how Asaph’s focus shifts from earthly success to God’s presence, counsel, and strength, leading him to rest and renewed confidence. Listeners are challenged to set aside distractions, spend quiet time in Scripture, ask God to reveal hidden envy or sin, confess it, and seek His guidance. Those who haven’t trusted Christ are invited to place faith in the cross and begin walking with Him.

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 15 brutally 6 bike 8 lord 61 package 6 partial 5 clap 5 almost 10 amazon 5 closet 4 away 14 psalm 18

Topics

Sin 6 Atonement & Sacrifice 2 Prayer 1 The Wrath of God 1 Righteousness 1 Salvation 1

Scripture referenced 10

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

Psalms 73 0:44 Psalms 73 0:47 Psalms 73 1:52 Psalms 73 2:45 Mark 4:10 17:02 Psalms 73 17:42 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 27:16 Psalms 73 32:58 Psalms 73:21-22 33:14 Psalms 139:23-24 34:39

Transcript

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

Pre-service announcement — 14 lines, 0:38. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Dave Hudgens.

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Good morning, everybody.

Welcome to the River Church.

So glad that you are here and chose to come here this morning.

If you have your Bible, we'll be in Psalm 73.

I do always encourage you to bring your Bible

or if you read your Bible on your iPad, bring your iPad.

Whatever you can do to take notes and write things down

or highlight things, I think it will be helpful for you

in the week to see those things.

As Pastor Roy said, we have VBS.

The next Friday...

Four nights and looking forward to that.

I do want you to know, as Roy said,

we just don't have the program because we've always had the program.

We just don't go, VBS, it's what we do.

We have a purpose.

We want kids to know about Christ.

And so we work really hard at it.

This week, we have many, many people up here decorating.

We have leaders ready to go, crafts ready to go,

lessons ready to go, skits ready to go.

Somehow I got roped into the skits.

But it's just to be able to teach kids about who Christ is.

And so if you have neighbors, we want to ask you to invite them.

If you have grandkids, you may say,

well, they can't make it every night.

It's okay.

If they can make it one night, that would be great.

Two nights, that's great.

Whatever they can do to be here,

we would love to care for them and looking forward to that.

So Psalm 73, if you are new, my name is Jason Combs.

I'm the location pastor here.

But we are studying the book of Psalms this summer.

We're studying some 18 chapters.

And then we have a book we're walking through,

praying through.

We're going to go through the Psalms, just encouraging.

I hope it's been an encouragement to you.

For me, it has been challenging.

It's been encouraging.

And so I have thoroughly enjoyed it as we've looked through the Psalms

to see who God is, his character, how he responds, how to pray.

And then what I love is just the authenticity of the Bible

where we see a believer struggling, not knowing how to pray,

not knowing how to trust God.

And then we see them going back.

We see them going back to who God is and teaching us how to pray

and teaching us how to run to the Lord.

Psalm 73, we have at the beginning, it says a Psalm of Asaph.

Now, throughout the Psalms, you'll find there's different writers.

David writes many of them.

Asaph, there are 12 Psalms attributed to Asaph.

Now, he is a worship leader.

He is a musician.

You'll find in the book of Chronicles, you'll learn about him.

He stands next to Heman as they are worship leaders.

So he's a really, really good dude.

Sorry, my 80s came out of me.

And so we have Asaph and he here.

I love how each Psalm is a little different.

It reads a little different.

We can look at it.

This Psalm, as Asaph, he is to sing the song.

As we look at this poetic literature, we hear him singing.

We hear the battle inside the soul of a believer.

We see this awesome.

Authentic battle.

We see one where he doesn't understand some things.

He doesn't get why God would do things a certain way.

So he's struggling.

So the Bible says in verse one, truly, God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

Verse two, it says, but as for me, now, I want you to look at this in my Bible.

It is circled.

But as for me, the Hebrew here literally means and I, but it's pointing to he's saying God is good.

So we see verse one.

What is he doing?

He's showing us.

This is one who believes in God.

It's not one who goes, I don't know if there's a God.

I'm not quite.

He's he's God is good.

I believe in God.

But as for me, we see the picture of a believer.

And because he's a believer, there's some questions.

If somebody is not a believer, they're not going to have these same doubts.

They're not going to have these questions.

So we read this.

But as for me, my feet.

Had almost stumbled.

My steps had nearly slipped.

He's telling us.

I almost fell away.

I came to a spot where I was in such doubt and such struggle.

I almost fell away.

Now this, but as for me, I want you to see this because it's circled in verse two.

And then the last verse is the same Hebrew meaning chapter 20 or verse 28 starts out.

But as for me, and so I want you, we'll come back to that when we get toward the end.

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled.

My steps had nearly slipped.

And he says, why?

He says, why?

I almost went down.

Why?

I almost lost the faith.

Why?

I almost didn't continue the course to follow the Lord.

He says, for I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

When commentary says that he is brutally honest about his seething envy for evil people who prosper.

In this life, pastor said that everyone coming from Asaph, everyone else seemed to be prospering and enjoying in a life that I wasn't.

We see this brutally honest that he is struggling.

He's seeing what's going on in other people's lives.

People who don't follow the Lord, people who don't obey the Lord.

And he's going, why is their life going good?

They don't follow you.

They mock you.

They reject you.

They do everything you say.

Not to do.

They do.

But I look at them and they seem, sure seem happier than I am.

They got more stuff than I do.

God, why?

If you're a good God, if you're righteous, if you see them do them garbage, like you see them do that.

Where's the lightning?

Where's it?

I want to see what God, they just reject you.

Now I want grace and mercy, God.

But those people, here is the honest battle going on.

When I am doom scrolling on my phone, watching some videos that are wasting my life away.

The channels is there's these guys that they take a bicycle and they put it in a park where

they know somebody will steal the bicycle.

I love looking out there because some of you have seen the video.

So you're like, oh yeah, I know what's happening.

All right.

So they put a bike in a park and they know that somebody is going to steal.

So don't lock it up, chain it up.

And so then they video it.

The guy comes walking up and goes, jumps on the bike, starts pedaling away.

What he doesn't realize is that they have tethered it to a metal line, right?

They've tethered it.

And they're going to get about 20 yards away going as fast as they can.

And that line is going to hit.

And all of a sudden we enjoy videos like that.

Then they get creative.

They do different things like they, what they do is they don't have the tether.

What they do is they have a bike that when they ride away, it'll get far enough away.

And that bike will completely fall into, and they'll fall down on top of that bike.

And you know what it's, you know, hitting their shit.

I mean, shins and just awful.

And so they'll ride away and boom, you like that video, don't you?

Or the person with the Amazon.

They'll put it on the porch where they know somebody will steal it.

And they grab that Amazon package.

And right when they get in the car, it's a wonderful exploding Amazon package that these colors just come exploding out of the package all in their car.

We like that.

God, when somebody does something wrong, we want to see the penalty.

We want them to see the consequence.

In the store the other day and watch the guy walk out with a bag of things, alarm going off and just cross the parking lot.

He goes, like, where's the car?

And you know, like where they get the package, right?

It doesn't always say like there are some, they, they take the Amazon package, but they get the package.

There are some, they steal the bike, but you're like, but they got to keep the bike.

And then they sold it on Amazon.

They made money from the bike.

God, why, why do you allow like the evil to prosper?

I look, they do these things and they, they, they get these things.

Why are they the ones that have the jet skis and the boats?

Like, I know.

I know what he does for a living.

I know he doesn't tell the government of the stuff, money he's made.

There's some, there's some slimy things going on.

There's things where he's making money.

Shouldn't be doing that.

And, and I know he's doing it.

And I'm trying to be a man to like, okay, I got to give to Caesar.

What's Caesar?

I'm trying to be righteous and upright, but why God do then they get the toys?

Why God does that kid there, there, that kid over there?

Why know him?

See my son, he's, he's honoring the Lord and he's serving the Lord and he's obedient.

To the Lord, but he gets cut from the basketball team.

Yet that kid who doesn't practice, doesn't do anything.

And I know the things he's doing.

Cause I won't let my son hang out with him.

Why does he make the basketball team?

Why does he make the shots?

And my kid gets cut.

God, why does that family have lots of children?

But yet, Lord, you, we come and ask over and over for more children, a child.

What, why Lord, would you bless there?

What I love about Psalms is it's so straight.

To the point it is so brutally honest of things that we can struggle with in our soul and

in our heart here, the writer brings us to the brutally honest place that we'll look

at the world and go, why does God allow this?

One says, is he not powerful enough to stop this?

Is it, if he is just, then why doesn't he put an end to wickedness?

In verses four through 12, you'll find the vivid description of his struggle.

Verse four, he says, for they have no struggles unto death.

And then it says their bodies are fat and sleek.

Now in our culture, we don't put fat and sleek together.

Those words usually don't go together.

But what here it's saying, it's describing they are healthy.

They have no struggles.

Verse five, they are not in trouble as others.

They're not stricken like the rest of mankind.

They're not plagued with problems like I am.

Verse six, it says, therefore pride is,

their necklace, they walk around God,

they boldly sin and they wear it as a necklace of pride.

They are cruel.

Verse seven, their eyes swell out through fatness.

Now it took me some time to figure out what that means.

One of the paraphrases says it like this,

and I think it is explaining the tone of the writer.

It says this, these fat cats have everything their heart pleases to have.

Verse eight, they scoff and speak with malice

Verse 11, they say the wicked say, how can God know?

Is their knowledge in the most high?

The writer says, God, I don't get it.

I don't get why I look and they don't follow you yet.

Why?

Verse 12 is the conclusion of this.

He says this, behold, these are the wicked.

Always at ease, they increase in riches.

The conclusion, God, the wicked, they're always at ease.

Lord, they have prosperity.

I don't understand.

Lord, they are carefree.

They are unconcerned.

They don't regard your commandments.

They mock you.

They say, where's God?

Like God's going to do anything.

They're prideful.

And God, doesn't your Bible said like those who are prideful will fall?

Doesn't Psalms one, we studied Psalms one.

Doesn't it say in verse three and four that a follower of you is like a tree

planted by the streams of water that yields its fruit and its season

and its leaf does not wither.

And all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so.

They're like a chaff that the wind drives away.

And then 13, he gets to the straightforward question.

In vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocent.

For all day long, I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.

He asked the question, Lord, is it all in vain?

Is living for you?

And when we as believers, right, we would look and go, man, there are some extreme things the Lord calls us to.

Extremely different than culture.

Lord, is it worth it?

The extremes of how God calls us to run from sin.

How God calls us to live differently when it comes to marriage, when it comes to sex.

The things that the Lord says, hey, here is what is righteous and holy.

Here is what's not.

Here's what you need to stay away from.

Our culture would scoff at that.

With money and God telling us, hey, don't hold on to money tightly.

It is a gift from the Lord to enjoy, but use it to work.

Worship the Lord.

Trust in him.

One says, we wonder whether it's really worth it to live in radical obedience to the commandment of Christ.

The writer says, but as for me, I almost fell.

It is a temptation then and a temptation now.

It is a temptation to look at worldly things and to think that is our hope.

That's where we'd be fulfilled.

And think, man, if I could just have that, it is the temptation.

Paul tells us in the New Testament of one of his friends, Demas.

He says, but Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

Mark 4.10 says, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things

enter in and choke the word and it proves unfruitful.

He's saying there are those who hear the excitement about the gospel of Jesus.

They hear about who Christ is, that Christ died on the cross and rose again.

And offers life in him.

But the cares of this world choke out the word, choke out the truth.

This is the battle.

See, when you read through Psalm 73 and you hear, what happens is he's not even speaking truthfully.

Sometimes I think we read scripture and go, well, that scripture is there, so it's speaking of truth.

No, what is happening is he is saying how he feels.

He is saying they have no struggles.

Their bodies are always healthy.

They are healthy.

We are plagued with problems and they have none.

They're always at ease.

I get nothing but trouble all day long.

He's not hearing clearly.

We know Satan to be a liar and a manipulator.

And he is falling for the fleshly lie, hearing those things going, oh, they have it all.

And he's falling for it.

I nearly slipped.

2 Corinthians, speaking of how Satan works, it says, in their case, the God of this world,

has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.

A brutally honest passage, speaking of the struggle in the soul.

And God, I just see some things.

I don't get it.

Now, verse 15, for me, it's kind of a pause here.

Verse 15 is like, Asaph gives this verse and there's such, there's a great truth and wisdom sitting.

It's like a golden nugget sitting right in the middle of this passage that I want you to see.

See, Asaph says this.

If I, verse 15, had said, I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

Asaph is saying, if I would have taken these things and said them out loud,

if I'd allowed these thoughts in my mind, which weren't truthful, and I was just being persuaded,

and I wasn't seeing things clearly, if I would have just allowed my mouth to spew these things,

I could have hurt a lot of people.

I could have hurt a lot of people around me.

Charles Spurgeon says it this way.

It's not always wise to speak one's thoughts.

He dared not, therefore, come to such a resolution, but paused and would not decide to declare his feelings.

Spurgeon goes on to say, we ought to look at the consequences of our speech to all others and especially to the church of God.

To me, there's this wonderful truth in here that Asaph said to the believers around.

If I would just start to say.

If I would just start to say something and just pour all the, just to vomit all of this out,

but I didn't speak truthfully, carefully, it hurt many people.

Years ago, some 20 years ago, the church here, we had, I don't know how to put this.

We had a little conflict.

We had a little conflict with the township.

Had a little conflict with, we had, there was a youth night and we had police come into the building.

And so, I'm not going to give you any more, okay?

But we just had this.

This incident that happened and it kind of, it made news and really national news and things that happened and had to go to court and stuff like that.

But it was interesting.

But I was the youth pastor.

I was in the middle of it.

I was in the time when those things happened.

And I tell you the story because I remember after that happened, shortly after that, I turned on the radio and there was a Christian broadcast and there was a guy who was talking about what had happened.

And he began to say all the things that had happened.

And he wasn't happy with.

He wasn't happy with how we handled things.

And so, he began to say all of these things.

And I remember sitting there.

I believe I was sitting in my car and just listening and going, oh.

And he said this.

And I go, well, that's not how it happened.

And I knew because I was in the room.

And I go, no, that didn't happen either.

No, that's not true.

And I just remember going, that, you don't, you're not speaking all the truth.

And I thought I, you know, the many people that heard that, what would happen is every time that they would hear about the church, they would think about their judgment.

Judgment would be on the untruthful things that were spoken by someone who proclaimed to be a Christian.

Now, I'm not so much worried about a radio guy.

I'm not worried about that.

Here's what I am worried about.

Us in here.

I'm worried about us and being careful with our mouths in here.

I'm worried about us as a church, that we are careful to not speak untruthful things to each other.

I'm worried that we have to be careful to not let our emotions.

Or let partial facts, which means lies, be said.

Why?

Because Asaph said here, I could have hurt so many people.

I could have hurt so many people.

And he even says children, which we know when Jesus speaks of children, he says, don't offend the children.

And he goes on to why and the consequence of offending a child.

And so in the middle of this chapter, just a warning to go, hey, we sometimes can get revved up in emotion.

Let's change that.

I sometimes can get revved up in emotion and partial facts.

I can hear something.

And then in me, it can just start rolling.

And I start thinking, anybody else do that?

Who in here?

Who does that?

All right.

All right.

We'll have altar call after for everybody who didn't raise their hand.

Just runs the path.

What is great is God is gracious to us.

What is so awesome is we see Asaph.

He's working through this.

We see a man in doubt.

And how he deals with it and how he seeks.

So we're going to find how he seeks the Lord.

And we don't see at the end, go, God condemned him for working through that.

No, this is what God was using in his life to grow him and knowing him.

But he had the wisdom to go, man, I got to work through these things before I allow my emotions and partial truths to be spewed out to other believers.

It hurt them.

He says, but when I thought how to understand this.

It seemed to be a wearisome task, hard, not easy, heavy.

He says this until I went into the sanctuary of God.

Then I discerned their end.

What is the answer?

What did he have to do to figure it out?

What did he have to do?

He went to the presence of the Lord.

He went to the temple, the Lord, and sought the Lord and sought his truth and sought what he had.

Then things changed.

He says, I discerned their end.

See, verses 16 or 18, 19, and 20 talk about the consequence of sin.

That God is a just God.

God will judge sin.

God does not look lightly on sin.

You will see.

And so in his misconceptions of what God is doing, if God is being just,

he had to come to the presence of God.

Then he had this discernment to understand, oh, yeah, God's got it.

He says,

He says how they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by tears.

He speaks of a dream.

He says that it's like a dream.

Things that are going are but like a dream, short, but truly what is happening.

When you wake up, you see the Lord is in control.

Now, there are some people who will read this and go, wait a minute.

Why do I feel like the Old Testament, God talks about being just, that justice is going

to be poured out.

Like there's this wrath of God that's coming.

You find in this poetic literature, you see that God is going to pour out his wrath.

That is not just an Old Testament thing.

The Bible is very consistent that God is just and will judge sin.

Go to the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 through 11.

It says,

You can go to Revelation.

It speaks the same in the end.

If we do not come to a place of repentance and turning to the Lord, there's a consequence

for our sin.

That because of sin, the wages of sin is death, the Bible says.

Penalty is a just penalty.

That because all of mankind has sin, our sin is upon us.

But those of us who are good.

No, those of us who have received Jesus Christ as our savior, that we have looked to the

cross, that we know that Jesus took the penalty for us, that the wrath of God, instead of

being poured out on us, is poured out on, was poured out on Christ on the cross, that

my sin was nailed to the cross and I have forgiveness, redemption.

God looks at me as righteous only because of Jesus.

And we see.

We see what Christ did for us.

This is salvation.

So when we look at God, he is righteous and just.

He is so righteous and just that he would send his only begotten son to die on the cross

to take the penalty of sin because of his great love.

See, we don't view verses 18, 19, and 20 as, yeah, get him, God.

No.

See, 1 Corinthians says it so well that I just read that, speaking of the unrighteous

and those who will not inherit the kingdom, verse 11 says,

And such were some of you, but you are washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in

the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

It is because of what Christ did.

And the Bible says that we who are saved are those of us who made a profession of faith.

We've repented of our sins and we have believed in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and

we've received the salvation of the Lord.

But it does not stop there because we have received the salvation of the Lord.

We now have the strength to live differently, to look differently, to know his goodness,

to know this world is not the end, to know that is not what's going to truly fill me.

See, salvation changes it all.

Nevertheless, going into the presence of God, I am continually with you.

Look at the intimacy of the Lord.

You hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel.

And afterward, you will receive me to glory.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Asaph gives this brutally honest, a struggling until I found the Lord and met with the Lord

and could rest.

He could find rest and peace even when this is a mess, even when we don't understand everything.

He found rest and he saw some of the

things, you know, and I'm not seeing things clearly or truthfully.

Now I can see things better and now I can rest in the Lord.

And that takes us to verse 28, where he says,

But as for me, same Hebrew term here, but as for me, it is good to be near God.

I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works.

Maybe this morning you hear of drawing close.

And if you were honest, you'd be like, Pastor, I don't know how to do that.

You talk about Asaph went to the temple.

We don't have a temple.

Does that mean coming into church?

What does it mean to draw near to the Lord?

How can I find the Lord?

Let me challenge you to do something this week.

Just a practical, specific challenge to go meet with the Lord this week.

Go find a closet.

Now, maybe not a closet.

Maybe Jesus says find a closet, but it's a picture of go find a place.

By yourself, it may be a closet.

They work really well.

Go find a place and take your phone and put it somewhere else and turn it off

and take your watch and put it away and make sure nothing.

Go put everything away and find a place with you and the Lord.

I want you to take your Bible with you.

I want you to open it up to Psalm 73.

And I just want you to start and say, Lord, help me to listen to you right now.

God, help me to hear what you have right now and begin to read.

And when you get to.

Verse 21 and 22.

Asaph being so real, he says, when my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in the heart,

I was brutish and ignorant.

I was like a beast toward you, God.

In that moment, say, Lord, is there any envy in my life that I need to get rid of?

Lord, is there a way that I've treated you as like I'm an animal toward you, Lord?

I'm not hearing what you have.

Lord, is there anything?

Is there any sin in my life?

God, please reveal that.

Ask him.

The Holy Spirit is really good at revealing that sin.

And when you're convicted of it, tell the Lord, please forgive me of that sin.

Lord, I confess it.

And Lord, help me to run away from it.

And it may not be envy, whatever it is.

Lord, is there anything between our intimate?

Is there any sin standing in the way that I need to repent of?

And then read verse 23.

Ask the Lord for the help.

I'd like to give you one other verse to read and to pray over.

Psalms 139, 23 and 24.

The verses search me.

O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts.

And see if there be any grievous way in me.

And lead me in the way everlasting.

Lord, don't lead me.

Lord, I don't want to have my eyes on things that aren't going to last.

Help me to have my eyes set on those things that are everlasting.

Those things that are eternal.

You'll see ASAP what happens.

His eyes move from being on the things of the earth to being on the things of the Lord.

His joy changes.

So ask the Lord.

Lord, may I know your closeness.

May I know your counsel.

God, please be my strength.

This week, just take some time to seek the Lord.

Seek who he is.

Can I tell you, if you're here and you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,

can I tell you, this is the place to start.

It's to humble yourself and to look at Jesus and the cross.

God sent his son, Jesus.

Who had no sin.

And he went to the cross.

And may take our sin.

He takes the wrath of God upon the cross.

And being a Christian isn't coming to church.

Being a Christian isn't reading your Bible.

Being a Christian isn't saying the Lord's Prayer.

Being a follower of Jesus Christ.

To be a Christian is to put your faith in the cross of Jesus Christ.

To ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior.

That is salvation.

And that is where we start.

And if you know Christ, then walk the journey of seeking to be in the presence of the Lord.

But as for me, wherever you're at, maybe you feel like on that slippery path right now.

But as for me, maybe it's a warning of those little things that pop up in your brain and your mind

to cast them out and go, I'm not going to believe that lie today.

But as for me, there will be a church that knows it is good.

To be close to the Lord.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for this morning.

Thank you for our church.

Thank you for how good your word is.

So long ago, you knew church would meet to read these words.

May we continue to grow in your word.

To know you.

We thank you, Lord, in Jesus name.

Thanks for joining.

I feel like I always give this disclaimer.

We are a clappy church.

But can I tell you, just clap for the Lord.

That's who we clap for, right?

We praise the Lord.

And you're excited about the word.

That's what we do.

I like that we get excited.

Phil will tell you, when you get done with a worship song, you want to clap.

Don't clap for them.

Clap for Jesus and praise him and thank him.

That's what we do.

We'll give him honor and glory.

Thanks for coming.

If we can help you in your walk, help you in drawing close to him, we will do whatever we can.

But have an awesome week, everybody.

See you at church.