New Morning Mercies #175

Grief is good when it mourns what God hates, but it’s dangerous when it questions God’s goodness and love.

Who can’t relate to the struggle of Asaph? Admit it. You’ve been there:

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,

my steps had nearly slipped.

For I was envious of the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For they have no pangs until death;

their bodies are fat and sleek.

They are not in trouble as others are;

they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. . . .

Behold, these are the wicked;

always at ease, they increase in riches.

All in vain have I kept my heart clean

and washed my hands in innocence.

For all the day long I have been stricken

and rebuked every morning. . . .

When my soul was embittered,

when I was pricked in heart,

I was brutish and ignorant;

I was like a beast toward you. (Ps. 73:2–5, 12–14, 21–22)

Asaph is mourning, all right, but it’s all the wrong kind of mourning. He is filled with grief, but it is a dangerous, angry, and accusatory grief. I’ve been there. I’ve felt Asaph’s feelings. I’ve said similar words. In a fallen world, you have reasons to grieve. You should mourn your struggle with sin. You should mourn the sorry, broken condition of the fallen world that is your home address. You should mourn corruption, injustice, poverty, pollution, and disease. It is right to mourn these things, but you had better guard your mourning. Your mourning is never neutral; you are either mourning with God, who weeps for the condition of the world he made, or you’re mourning against God, questioning his goodness, wisdom, and love.

It’s tempting to do this because you hit moments when the contrast between what you are facing as a child of God and what the person next to you—a person who ignores God—is facing is almost too much to take. It seems that the good guys are being hammered and the bad guys have it easy. In the face of this reality, Asaph essentially says, “I’ve obeyed, and this is what I get?” It’s an angry charge against the goodness of God. When you don’t understand what’s going on, run to God’s goodness rather than questioning whether it exists. Say with Asaph, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (v. 26).

For further study and encouragement: Psalm 74