Paul Tripp

"I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you."


The driven, watchful envy of a horizontal pleasure-oriented heart will drive you crazy. It will not only rob you of your satisfaction and joy, it will take your humanity from you. It will turn you into a bit of a beast. It will make you more of a brute than a friend. It will eat your heart and consume your soul.

You see, if you somehow fall into thinking that life is found in the pleasures and comforts of the physical; created people; things and experiences of this here and now world; then that is what you will live for. You won't live for God. You won't live for the good of others. You won't be motivated by what is loving, good, true and wise. No, you will live for you, and whether you know it or not, everyday will be a hot personal pursuit of your private definition of pleasure. You will have you at the center of your will. You will be your own king, seeking the control over people and circumstances that is necessary to ensure that you will, in fact, get the things that you have set your heart on. You will become a hyper-vigilant observer of your own life and the lives of others. You will be an incessant pleasure/comfort accountant; measuring your experience of these things over against the experience of those around you. You will daily measure who has the biggest pile of pleasure and you will not be happy if it is not you. You will naturally judge that you are more deserving than your comfortable friends and you will question the goodness of God and the moral good of obeying, if, in reality, at the end of the day you end up with the shorter end of the stick. You will do this with regularity and perseverance, but you won't know you are doing it. You'll know that you're unhappy, but you will tell yourself that God has failed you. You will say that it simply is not fair that bad people get blessed while good people like you have to suffer through life with little. You will struggle to hold on to your faith, wondering if it is all worth it in the end.

What has happened is that the architecture of your life is shaped by an infrastructure of personal expectation and self-focused demands. You know all too well what you want from people and situations and you know what God needs to do in order for you to name him as good. What all of this means is that at the deepest, most profound and life-directing level of your heart, you have lost your senses. In the biblical sense of what the word means, you have gone mad. Sin has simply made you crazy. Without realizing it, you have taken on a distorted view of reality. You have a distorted view of yourself, others, life and God. Life will never operate the way you want it to. People will not submit to the laws of your kingdom for very long. God will not get up and give you his holy throne. Your reality is irrational and your hope is hopeless. Your dreams are gas. And the more you work to fill your heart, the emptier it becomes. The more you work to get your dream, the more it vaporizes in your hands. The more you live for you, the more envious you become. It is socially acceptable madness. It cannot and will not ever work.

Asaph's confession is insightful and indicting. There is a way in which it indicts us all, because in his confession, he calls us to examine what sin does to each of us. God hardwired us to be kingdom-oriented people. We were designed to live with both king and kingdom consciousness, because we were designed to live for him. The architecture of our lives was to be shaped by all of the plans, purposes, words,and actions that would flow out of these words, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." It is inside the boundaries of these words that true and lasting peace of heart will only ever be found. Inside these boundaries is where real wisdom and real love lives. Inside this moral structure, life lives in gorgeous beauty. Outside is frustration, discouragement, anger, disappointment, and doubt. Sure, the temporary pleasures are pleasurable, but their shelf-life is short. The reality is that creation has no capacity whatsoever to satisfy your heart. Your heart has been wired to find its hope, peace and rest in God alone.

Living for the pleasures of here and now, as the principle quest of your life, is a a vain attempt to re-create the world and how it was designed to operate. No, it is not wrong to find pleasure pleasurable. It is not ungodly to desire comfort. It is not evil to desire good and loving relationships. It is not wrong to appreciate beauty. But here's what you need to understand; all of these things were beautifully designed by God to point and connect you to him. These created pleasures were not made to be an end in themselves, but a means to an end. All of creation is a finger pointing to the Lord of creation in whom life can be found. Creation was made to introduce you to him over and over again. It was not meant to replace him.

Look around and you will see the evidence that we have gone crazy. We are a culture that is deeply in debt because our cravings are bigger than our means, and so we have charged ourselves into financial oblivion. Our cravings are bigger than what is needful and healthy, so we have eaten ourselves into ill health; obesity becoming a national health crisis. We have lived for the buzz; becoming addicted to an endless variety of substances and experiences that give us short term relief. We reduce one another to vehicles of happiness instead of objects of love; living in cycles of relational dysfunction and separation. We stand before closets that would clothe the third world and tell ourselves that we have nothing to wear. We stand in front of stuffed refrigerators and tell ourselves that we really have nothing to eat. We are jealous of one another and threatened by the prospect that the good life will pass us by, and we cope with it all by numbing ourselves with things that are not healthy, or with hour after hour of the brain-deadening pleasure-porn that we call entertainment. And we wake up no more at rest or at peace than the day before; hoping to succeed more, acquire more, enjoy more, possess more, experience more, love more, and feel more; all so we can smile more. We are driven and crazy and Psalm 73 gives us the answer.

Psalm 73 powerfully reminds us that this is not all there is. The name of the game is not personal, temporal pleasure. There is an end coming. All that is now wrong will be made right. You see, we are not only kingdom-oriented beings, we are beings with a future. We were made to live with God and for God - forever. In pointing us to the final end of all things, Psalm 73 tells us what the drama of life is all about. Although we were made to have God as the one life-shaping treasure of our hearts, sin turns us in on ourselves. It cause us to forget who we are and that God exists. It turns us into little self-sovereigns, wanting to reign for our own glory. But God, in his grace, invaded our madness in the person of His Son. Jesus did not transgress God's boundaries. He did not live for his pleasure. He lived a life that was perfect in his Father's eyes. But he did more, he willing took the penalty of our selfishness on himself. On the cross he was punished for us and purchased our forgiveness. But there is still more. He gave us his righteous. In Jesus, all who believe not only don't get what they deserve (condemnation), they are given what they have not earned (righteousness). Because of this forgiveness and righteousness, we are accepted into God's family forever. Psalm 73 reminds us that the crisis of the human existence is not that we are horizontally unfulfilled, but that we are vertically cut off. Grace connects us once again to God, and in so doing, to the one place where are hearts can find rest and we can be given back our senses. Grace not only connects you to God, but delivers you from you and from the madness of you and your propensity to make life about little more than you in the here and now.

"For behold, those who are far from you will perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you." (v.28)

To transgressing of your boundaries
You will put an end.
To human thoughts of autonomy
You will put an end.
To delusions of self-sufficiency
You will put an end.
Grace forbids these going on forever.
To acts of violence and deeds of greed
You will put an end.
To the burn of lust
You will put an end.
To injustice and inhumanity
You will put an end.
Grace prohibits these going on forever.
To the silent writing of my own law
You will put an end.
To using others for personal pleasure
You will put an end.
To robbing you of divine glory
You will put an end.
Grace won't tolerate these going on forever.
To disobedience to parents
You will put an end.
To gossip and slander
You will put an end.
To the worship of comfort
You will put an end.
Grace wars against these going on forever.
To self-aggrandizing pride
You will put an end.
To self-oriented envy
You will put an end.
To subtle daily idolatries
You will put an end.
Grace will not permit these going on forever.
To desire-driven lawlessness
You will put an end.
To attempts at self-sovereignty
You will put an end.
To denial of what is true.
You will put an end.
Grace restricts these going on forever.
To denial of You and the elevation of self
You will put an end.
To mockery of what is good
You will put an end.
To the love of what is foolish
You will put an end.
Grace will not allow these going on forever.
What is now will not go on
forever.
This world is marching toward
an end.
We can embrace the hope of
justice.
Final judgment is coming.
Grace requires evil to die forever.
Those far from You will
perish.
Those unfaithful to You will
come to an end.
I have been unfaithful to you.
I have chosen to be far from you.
I have broken each of your laws.
But I am not afraid of what
You will put to an end.
Grace has drawn me near to you.
Grace has paid for my unfaithfulness.
Grace has made me clean in Your eyes.
Grace put my stripes on Jesus
so I would not face them
when you put what is now
to an end.

"But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord my refuge..." (v.28)


The experts say that there are only three things to consider when buying a piece of property; location, location, location. The same could be said about life. Life is about about location, location, location, and when you understand this you live in a radically different way. Confused? Let me point you to four ways in which location matters.

1. Location, location, location: You live in a dramatically fallen world.
You simply have to be prepared. You simply have to understand. You simply have to live with realistic expectations. You simply must bring a biblical understanding to the place where you now live or you will be constantly unprepared and disappointed. You and I live in a very, very, broken world where there is trouble on every side. Your body and your mind are affected by the fall and don't always work the way they should. Your family and friendships will not work as they were designed. The government over you does not function as it was created to function. The physical environment is broken and suffers under the weight of the fall. The Apostle Paul says it very well in Romans 8; "the whole world groans, waiting for redemption." There's no escaping it; you are located in a place where trouble of some kind will greet you every day. You live in a place where somehow, someway, temptation will greet you every day. The more you face the harsh reality of how broken your world is, the more you will live prepared for the troubles that come your way.

2. Location, location, location: The big battle is fought in your heart.
In acknowledging the brokenness of the world where you live, you do not want to give way to spiritual environmentalism where you blame all of your struggles on things outside of you. That was the mistake of the medieval monastery. The thought was that the way to live a righteous life was to separate yourself from the evil world around you; so the monastics built walled communities of separation. But as it turned out, these communities tended to repeat all of the ills of the surrounding world from which they had separated. Monasteries were a failure because they neglected one very significant biblical truth; the biggest danger to every human being is located inside of him not outside of him. There is something dark and deceitful that still lurks in the heart of every one of God's children who has not yet been fully glorified; sin. It is only ever the sin inside of me that draws and hooks me to the sin outside of me. The big battle for righteousness is always fought inside of you and not outside of you. Every day there is a war fought for control of your heart and your jealous Savior, with the zeal of gorgeous redemptive love, will not share your heart. He will not rest until your heart is ruled by him and him alone.

3. Location, location, location: You will run somewhere for refuge.
In the middle of trouble, when you are in the heat of the battle, you will run somewhere for refuge. You will run somewhere for rest, comfort, peace, encouragement, wisdom, healing, and strength. Asaph gets it right at the end of this psalm of trouble and hope; there is only one place to run where true protection, rest, and strength can be found. You and I must learn to make the Lord our refuge. The are many false refuges that we tend to run to. Perhaps in trouble you run to another person, hoping that they can be your own personal messiah. Perhaps you run to entertainment, hoping to numb your troubles away. Maybe you run to a substance, trying your best to turn off the pain. Maybe you are tempted to run to food or sex, fighting pain with pleasure. Since none of these things can provide the refuge which you seek, putting your hope there tends to just add disappointment to the trouble you're already experiencing. God really is your refuge and strength. Only he rules every location where your trouble exists. Only he controls all the relationships where disappointment will rear its head. Only he has the power to rescue and deliver you. Only he has the grace you need to face what you are facing. Only he holds the wisdom that, in trouble, you so desperately need. Only he is in and with you and for you at all times. He is the refuge of refuges. Do you run to him?

4. Location, location, location: Where you are heading, trouble will be no more.
You could argue that the biblical story is about three locations. The Garden in Genesis that was a location of perfection and beauty, but became a place of sin and trouble. The hill of Calvary that was a place of horrible suffering and transforming grace. And the New Jerusalem, that place of peace and refuge; lit by the brightness of the Son, which will be our final refuge forever. Because of the cross of Jesus Christ, your story will not end with daily trouble and temporary refuge. No, your final location will be utterly unlike anything you have ever experienced, even on your best and brightest day. You are headed for the New Jerusalem, where the final tear will be dried and trouble will be no more.

Today you will face trouble of some kind. Today you will run somewhere for refuge. Today there is hope and help to be found. May God be your refuge, and as you run to him, may you remember that he has promised you that there will be a day when you trouble is no more.

"But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord my refuge, that I may tell of all your works." (v.28)


It is a grace to get it right because so often I get it wrong. No, I don't mean that I fall into gross and willing sin and I don't mean that I am seduced by the old arguments of new atheism. No, I don't mean that I occasionally question the tenets of my faith or question whether ministry is really worth it. No, getting it wrong is much more subtle than that. Getting it wrong is not about the big, dramatic, consequential moments of life. No, getting it wrong is much more about the little mundane moments of everyday life. It is very easy to let up your guard and be all too relaxed in these moments precisely because they are little moments. It is also tempting to minimize the wrong choices that you make in these little moments because they are little moments. But the opposite is true. The little moments of life are profoundly important because they are little moments. Little moments are the moments we live in everyday. The character and course of a person's life is not set in three or four grand, significant moments of life. No, the character of a person's life is shaped in 10,000 little moments of life. It is the character that was formed in the mundane that you carry into those rare consequential moments of life.

The last verse of Psalm 73 is a manual on getting it right and because it is, it is also a manual on what it looks like to get it wrong. Getting it right means acknowledging God's presence, remembering his rescue, and obeying his call.

Getting it right: Acknowledging God's Presence. Perhaps there are no more important words to have constantly ringing in the ears of your heart than these, "...it is good to be near God." "Near God" is something you could never have earned, deserved, or personally achieved." "Near God" is the exact opposite of where sin takes you. "Near God" brought Jesus to earth and required him to die. "Near God" restores to you what sin destroyed and what only grace can restore. "Near God" is where you were designed to live. It is very important that grace has brought you close to God once again. Grace means he is in you and you are in him. Grace has made it impossible for you to be alone. You see, God's greatest gift to you is the gift of himself! But you and I don't always acknowledge his presence. There are moments in life when we get it wrong; where we live as if he doesn't exist and is not near. When we do this we either panic in the face of the normal difficulties of life in this fallen world and in the face of the perplexities of God's sovereign plan or we fall into trying to do God's job, and in so doing, complicate our lives all the more. Are you getting it right; does your daily living celebrate that grace has brought you near to God and God near to you?

Getting it right: Remembering God's Rescue. In a fallen world, that does not operate in the way that the Creator intended and where temptation and danger are encountered every day, these words are vital as well, "...I have made the Lord God my refuge." Under the heat of life in this broken world you will become weary, wounded and discouraged and when you do you will run somewhere for refuge. It is vital to remember that God is the only hiding place worth running to. It is he and he alone who can heal the wounds of your heart. It is he and he alone that can give you the strength you need to get up once more and continue. It is he and he alone that can give inner peace when there is little peace to be found around you. It is he and he alone that can forgive you when you have sinned and strengthen you when you are weak. But often we forget that grace has given us refuge. We forget that God welcomes us to run to him. So we run to the creation rather than the Creator for refuge, and when we do, we never get the solace for which we are seeking. We may successfully numb ourselves for a while and we may distract ourselves for a while, but our hearts are not strengthened or encouraged. Because the replacement refuges of people and things cannot relieve our burdens, but only distract us from them, we have to go back to them again and again. Sadly, when we get it wrong, forgetting that God is our refuge, while running to people and things, we never end up strengthen and encouraged. No, we only end up fat, addicted, and in debt. Are you getting it right? When you are weak, weary, and discouraged do you run to the one refuge that can provide refuge; your Lord?

Getting it right: Obeying God's Call. Getting it right is not only about living in the comfort of God's presence and refuge, but it is also about answering his call. Getting it right is about constantly remembering that God gives you himself and his grace not so that you can make your little kingdom work the way that you want it to work. No, he gives you the grace of his nearness and the grace of refuge so that you will have what you need to give you to the thing to which he has called you; the big sky work of his kingdom of grace and redemption. "...That I may tell of his works," says it very well. No longer do I live for my own glory; the glory of getting what I want, indulging what I feel, and satisfying my needs. No, I now live with the recognition that I have been sovereignly gifted and positioned so that all that I do and say would point the people around me to the one glory that will only ever satisfy their hearts; the glory of God. And I live looking for opportunities to point to his work as Creator, his work as Sovereign, and his work as Savior. But sadly, I don't always get it right. Often I live as if there were few things as important as my schedule, my plans, my comfort, and my success. Where the rubber meets the road in daily live, I put myself in the center of my world and forget that that place had been reserved for God alone. When I make it all about me, I live in low-grade frustration and irritation and I miss the daily opportunities that God gives for me to connect myself to something that is vastly bigger and fundamentally better. Are you concretely living for something bigger than your own daily agenda?

Because of God's grace, we often get it right; but because of remaining sin, we so often get it wrong. In which place are you living today? May your hands be productive because in your heart you get it right (God is near, he is my refuge, and I will obey his call.)