The shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival Sunday evening led me to Psalm 73. The songwriter was Asaph, and apparently, he was having trouble reconciling how evil seems at times to flourish, while the “righteous” are trampled upon. As he sorted through his thoughts, the Spirit of God led him to look into the future. There he saw the end of the wicked and compared it to the end of the righteous. He concluded that those who know the LORD as their Savior (AKA the “righteous”) have a far better end than those who don’t.
“Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.” [Psalm 73:25-28]
I hope some of the phrases in those four verses grab your heart the way they grab mine. “my flesh and my heart may fail but…God is the strength of my heart…my portion forever….it is good to be near God.”
Wow. It is good to be near God. When we draw near to God, He draws near to us. He gives us strength to face each day; He is our refuge when trouble draws near. When it seems as if life has stripped us of everything, He is still our portion. And what a portion the Almighty One is! We may not have much materially, but we have contentment and great joy in Him.
When I think of someone who never had much materially, I think of my father. He never had much of this world, but from the moment Christ came into his heart, he became a rich man. Joy and a smile never left him.
