Keeping Destiny inView: HelpingCounselees View Lifefrom the Perspectiveof Psalm 73
by Paul David Tripp
Mary sat in my office and said, “I’m discouraged, angryand envious.” She talked of watching her life comeunraveled as she lost her husband, her home, and evenher children. Mary came from a good church and knewthe Scriptures. But her situation made no sense to her.She said, “I have no reason to get up in the morning.”She talked of her jealousy toward people who seemed todo “whatever they pleased,” and yet all went well withtheir lives.
Most of all she struggled with anger toward God.“How can He say that He loves me?,” she cried. “Is thisthe abundant life He promised? I really thought that Hewould meet all my needs, and here I am—with nothing!I can’t read my Bible, I can’t pray, I can’t make it througha church service without tears or anger. I look at my life,and I look at the promises of Scripture, and it doesn’tseem to add up. I’m no better off than the average non-Christian.”
Now, Mary surely has suffered. But there are alsocrucial errors in the way that she looks at her life. DoesChrist promise to restore her to her former way of life?No. But Christ does promise to restore her.
Mary had a crucial gap in her thinking, one that iscommon in many counselees. It keeps Mary, and manylike her, from making biblical sense out of her life.Because of this, she did not formulate a distinctivelybiblical agenda for facing the situation in which she wasliving.
The critical missing perspective in Mary’s thinkingis the perspective of destiny or eternity. I am persuadedthat regardless of what their theology says, most of mycounselees have a functional view of life that lacks anysense of destiny. Yet it is impossible to understand whatGod is doing or to biblically respond to the troubles and
Paul Tripp is Academic Dean of CCEF, Glenside, Pennsylvania.
trials of life when eternity has been factored out of theequation.
Life looks radically different when viewed frometernity. God’s words and work are understood verydifferently. It is a critical perspective for the biblicalcounselor and becomes a critical point of instructionduring the counseling process. Without understandingour destiny, it is hard to avoid the agenda dissonancebetween counselor and counselee that often under-mines effective biblical counseling.
Psalm 73 demonstrates the importance of viewinglife from the perspective of eternity. This psalm pro-vides practical directives to be used with our counseleesas we seek to teach them to look at life biblically. Let mebegin by mentioning two background factors that shapehow we understand the Holy Spirit’s purposes in thispsalm.
First, notice the context of Psalm 73. Asaph describesan experience that all of us have had at one time or other.We look around, and it seems like the bad guys areprospering and the good guys are suffering. People whodon’t know and love God, who are not concerned withliving life God’s way, and who in many ways liveselfish, arrogant lives, seem to be enjoying life free ofburdens. Meanwhile, believers suffer. Who of us hasn’tat some point stepped back and wondered, “What iswrong with this picture?” Is God good to His people?Are His promises sure and trustworthy? Then how do Iunderstand the apparent success of the wicked and thesuffering of the righteous?
Psalm 73 speaks directly to this crucial question,providing practical directives for us as we minister topeople struggling to understand their circumstances.
Second, remember that Psalm 73 is a psalm, a poemabout life’s most significant relationship: relationshipwith God. In the Psalms, the wide range of the expres-sions of the soul is exposed—from joy and peace toconfusion and anger—as writers respond to God in themidst of various life circumstances. Specifically, Psalm73 is a lament. Here in great distress the psalmist criesout for God’s help. As he does, his confusion, doubt,fear, envy, and anger are revealed. Psalms such as thisone bring balance to the way that we think about theblessing and prosperity promised us in other Scriptures.They expose ways in which “Rejoice always” or “God isin control” can become numbing platitudes rather thana hard-won, deep-seated confidence. The laments causeour relationship with God to be honest, and they con-front us with our own struggle to understand the mys-
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teries of His goodness. They bring a humble integrity tothe way that we share His promises with those whosuffer. The experience of the believer is not neat and easyblessing. Rather, the soul responds to redemptive tur-moil lovingly administered by a God who is truly good.1
Psalm 73 models honesty regarding the struggles ofthe soul, and it models the process leading to resolutionand peace. It teaches both us and our counselees how toknow God. Let’s begin to look at how this psalm teachesus to view life from the perspective of eternity. We willwork through the psalm section by section, exploringfour practical directives:
1. Help your counselees examine their focus. 2. Help your counselees examine their conclusions.3. Help your counselees view life from the perspec-
tive of eternity. 4. Help your counselees focus on the eternal riches of
redemption.
I. Help Your Counselees Examine Their Focus(Psalm 73:1-12)
Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;I had nearly lost my foothold.
For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from the burdenscommon to man;
they are not plagued by human ills.Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.They scoff, and speak with malice;
in their arrogance they threaten oppression.Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance.They say, “How can God know?
Does the Most High have knowledge?”This is what the wicked are like—
always carefree, they increase in wealth.
Many of our counselees interpret God’s goodness onthe basis of their level of present, temporal, personal
1For further study of the nature of the Psalms, I heartilyrecommend Tremper Longman’s How to Read the Psalms(Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1988).
happiness. Their view of happiness has to do withthings that are physical, external, and immediate. It ishard for them to imagine that God could be good andnot give them their piece of the “good life.” There is nolong-term, big-picture focus here.
In Mary’s case, her eyes were on created things,personal happiness and the physical world of observ-able reality. But as long as she focuses on these things,Mary will continue to struggle. She will not understandwhat God is doing. She will envy the life of the unbe-liever. She will flag in her motivation for obedience.
To help her, let’s look more closely at the threeelements in Mary’s point of focus.
Created things. The tendency to define life as havingto do with possessing and experiencing the createdthing goes right to the heart of the struggle with sin.Romans 1:25 says: “They exchanged the truth of God fora lie and worshipped and served the created thingrather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.”The operative word in the verse is exchanged. We tend toexchange God for His creation. In so doing we defineabundant life as a happy, present experience of createdthings. Whether that means physical health, friend-ships, family, financial success, or a sense of emotionalwell-being, our focus tends to slip from the Creator. Weexchange His glorious plan and purpose for the createdblessing. We exchange the Giver for the gift.
Asaph struggled with this as he envied the life of thewicked: “They have no struggles, their bodies are healthyand strong. They are free from the burdens common toman; they are not plagued by human ills. This is whatthe wicked are like—always carefree, they increase inwealth” (verses 4, 5, 12).
Many of the people whom you counsel want littlemore than to be happy, that is, to enjoy a life of relativeease in the created world. Mary summarized it point-edly as she said, “I’m tired of your telling me that Godloves me. I want a husband who loves me!”
If I focus on the “created thing,” and measure my lifeby how much of the “created thing” I now possess andexperience, then the work of God in my life is simply notgoing to make any sense. The ease of the unbeliever willbe a constant source of discouragement.
Present, personal happiness. What is it that God isworking on? What is His goal, His plan, His purpose forme? Is it that I would approach the day with a smilebecause my life has been easy and full of happy experi-ences of people, places, and things? What is the “good”that God is doing in my life? What is this “abundant life”of which Scripture speaks?
We too easily privatize and temporalize the gospel.We reduce its purpose and promises to whether or notwe currently experience individual happiness. We lose
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sight of the grand agenda of the gospel that is moreabout the coming of Christ’s kingdom than it is aboutmy individual happiness.
What is God working on? Peter tells us in his secondletter, “His divine power has given us everything weneed for life and godliness through our knowledge ofHim who called us by His own glory and goodness.Through these He has given us His very great andprecious promises, so that through them you may par-ticipate in the divine nature and escape the corruption inthe world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:3f). The chiefgood that God is doing is to deliver me from my bond-age to my own evil desires. These draw me into thecorruption of the world, but God is making me a partici-pant in His divine nature.2
God is at work to radically change me at the level ofmy heart—how I live and what fruit I bear (2 Peter 1:3ff).This is the redemptive good that He is doing. And He hasgiven me everything I need to live a godly life in themidst of the situation in which He has placed me. God’sfocus is redemptive, eternal, and spiritual. To the degreethat my focus is individual, temporal, and physical, I amat cross-purposes with God. Mary is at cross-purposeswith God in how she understands her life.
When Peter says that God has given us everythingwe need, he does not mean everything we need to fulfillour individual definition of happiness! The Bible re-peatedly teaches (e.g., James 1, 1 Peter 1, Romans 5) thatGod will put hindrances in your life to produce in youthe character that is His goal.
When our counselees conclude that as Christiansthey should have more reason for personal, temporalhappiness than the unbeliever, based on present posses-sion of created good, then they will have great difficultyin seeing that what God is doing is good.
The external, visible world. At times it’s almost as ifcounselees are comparing piles of stuff with the as-sumption that the Christian pile should always be big-ger. Mary came in one day saying how depressed she
2Psalm 73 has much to say about desire. We ought not toconclude that all this psalm says is that it is right to desireheavenly things and wrong to desire earthly things. To desireblessings from God is not wrong, and many earthly desires arelegitimate and godly–in their place. Psalm 73 (along withmany other discussions of heavenly and earthly desires) drawsattention to matters of emphasis, priority, control, and author-ity. What functionally rules the heart? Has desire become yourdemand and chief good? Does demand shape how you relateto God and man, and how you interpret your situation? Envy,anger, frustration, disappointment, fear–even happiness–allreveal what rules the heart. The contrast is not simply betweenheavenly and earthly objects of desire or between good andbad desires, but between a heart ruled by God and a heartruled by desire for the created thing.
had been that week. Her neighbor had invited her to abarbecue where she met this woman’s husband. Marysaid he was a wonderful guy. She spent the afternoonwatching him relate to his children and helping his wifewith the meal. Inside Mary seethed. It made no sense toher that this unbelieving lady should have such a greatman for a husband while she had been married to a“monster.” Why should her godless neighbor experi-ence marital bliss while she lived alone?
Many of our counselees are like Mary. They havefixed their eyes on what can be seen. Their inability toface life in a fallen world is a direct result. Paul discussedthis in 2 Corinthians 4:7-18:
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to showthat this all-surpassing power is from God andnot from us. We are hard pressed on every side,but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, butnot destroyed. We always carry around in ourbody the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesusmay also be revealed in our body. For we who arealive are always being given over to death forJesus’ sake, so that His life may be revealed in ourmortal body. So then, death is at work in us, butlife is at work in you.
It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spo-ken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believeand therefore speak, because we know that theone who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead willalso raise us with Jesus and present us with you inHis presence. All this is for your benefit, so thatthe grace that is reaching more and more peoplemay cause thanksgiving to overflow to the gloryof God.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though out-wardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we arebeing renewed day by day. For our light andmomentary troubles are achieving for us an eter-nal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix oureyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseenis eternal.
Paul fixes his eyes not on what can be seen but on whatis unseen. The passage gives three powerful reasonswhy Paul can do this.
First, Paul does not fix his eyes on the “seen” becauseof what God is doing (verses 7-15). The weakness, thetrials, the loss and the suffering that we face are not theresult of some divine omission or mistake! They arecrucial parts of the plan of God. If I tend to exchangehope in the Creator for hope in the created thing, thenGod must draw me away from security in anything elsebut Him. How does He do this? He makes me a jar of
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clay. I am but a weak vessel, capable of being cracked,yet through those very cracks my true source of powershows through. The source of power that will be re-vealed in weakness is God Himself! Also, God hasordained trials for me. They are not an accident but Hismeans of continuing His redemptive work in me. It is inthe midst of these trials that the life of Jesus is revealed.As I daily face death, His life is made known.
God is at work creating eternal changes at the levelof my heart, in my true desires and hopes. He is drawingme away from hope in this present world to hope in Himalone. He is revealing true life to me, life that consists ofthe all-surpassing power of Christ Jesus living withinme. And He will use the things of this present world—often the loss of them—to accomplish this grand re-demptive agenda. His goal is not the abundance ofearthly things, but the abundance of hope in God.
Second, Paul does not fix his eyes on what is seenbecause the world of physical things is passing away (verses16, 18). Physical, visible things are temporary. The healthybody of one’s youth grows old and weary. The newhouse begins to creak with age. The plant withers.Institutions pass their period of usefulness and dissolve.Clothes wear out. The world is passing away.
We need to help counselees address the delusionthat the things of this earth are permanent. To hope inthe things of this present world is a temporary and futilehope at best. Our counselees need us to ask them toexamine how much of their life is founded on things thatare by their very nature wasting away. This can be a wayto examine both the hope and the hopelessness of ourcounselees.
Finally, Paul does not fix his eyes on what is seenbecause of the reality of eternity (verses 17-18). What Godis doing now, in ordaining experiences for me, has anultimate goal: the eternal glory revealed in my life. Lifeviewed from the perspective of eternity looks radicallydifferent. Paul characterizes his life in this fallen worldas “light and momentary affliction.” How many of uswould look at Paul’s life and conclude that, yes, hisaffliction was, indeed, light? Listen to Paul recountsome of his experiences.
I have worked much harder, been in prison morefrequently, been flogged more severely, and beenexposed to death again and again. Five times Ireceived from the Jews forty lashes minus one.Three times I was beaten with rods, once I wasstoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent anight and a day on the open sea. I have beenconstantly on the move. I have been in dangerfrom rivers, in danger from bandits, in dangerfrom my own countrymen, in danger from Gen-tiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the coun-
try, in danger at sea; and in danger from falsebrothers. I have labored and toiled and have oftengone without sleep; I have known hunger andthirst and have often gone without food; I havebeen cold and naked. Besides everything else, Iface daily the pressure of my concern for all thechurches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak?Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? (2Corinthians 11:23-29)
Yet Paul looks at this and calls it light and momen-tary trouble. He can say this because he places all ofthese experiences on a scale and weighs them againstanother reality, a reality that far outweighs all of theseexperiences put together. This is the reality of the never-ending glory of eternity. When weighed against eternityand its glory, the hardest of lives will be seen as light andbrief.
What a significant contrast exists between the waylife is viewed in the first twelve verses of Psalm 73 andthe way life is described in 2 Corinthians 4! What acontrast there is between what Mary’s experiences areand what they can become! The difference is focus.Where are your eyes fixed?
Practical Counseling Agenda to Examine Focus
1. Help your counselees understand the power of theinterpretations they are making. In Psalm 73 Asaph ini-tially placed an interpretation upon the prosperity of thewicked—an interpretation that plunged him into envyand despair. In a similar way Mary is not simply expe-riencing what happened to her. She also experienceshow her heart interacts with those situations and howshe interprets her sufferings. As a human being Mary isalways thinking and evaluating. She is always seekingto organize, interpret, and explain her life. These inter-pretations shape how Mary experiences what God hasordained for her. Furthermore, the interpretations Marymakes are based on a system of values. These valuesstructure the interpretations that shape Mary’s reac-tions to events in her life. Mary lives for something. AsChrist states in Matthew 6, Mary has some kind of“treasure” and “where her treasure is, there will herheart be also.” Whatever is her true, functional treasurewill shape her interpretation of life and thus her experi-ences. It will also dictate the way Mary responds to thosecircumstances.
Mary was quite self-disclosing. She said in one of oursessions, “I thought that abundant life meant my hus-band, my children, our house, our family times to-gether, and our church. When all these things weretaken away from me, I thought that God had broken Hispromise. I thought that He had removed the things Ineeded for life. I was angry at Him, and envious of
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others. I was left pretty much without hope and a reasonto go on.”
I suggest that there are only two systems of valuethat spawn the varied interpretations that we humansmake of our lives. It appears that all systems of value aresimply variations on one of these two fundamentalsystems. Option number one: life consists in possessingand experiencing things seen. Option number two: lifeconsists in possessing and experiencing things unseen.Obviously, these opposing systems lead to opposinginterpretations of life and of what God is doing, andfinally to radically different agendas for response.
Mary needed to face the fact that her heart wasactive. She never comes to any life experience in neutral.She always brings thoughts, desires, motives and valuesof the heart with her. Her heart always interacts withlife, shaping the way she experiences and responds to it.Asking “Where are your eyes fixed?” is not so muchtalking about the focus of the physical eyes, though thatis part of it. (Mary watched her neighbor’s husband.) Itasks about the focus of the desires, thoughts and mo-tives of the heart. The interpretations that your coun-selees actively make are very powerful, for they giveshape and meaning to life.
2. Help your counselees recognize the symptoms of wrongfocus. Psalm 73 points out four symptoms of fixing one’seyes on that which is seen.
First, there is a struggle with envy. Asaph says, “ForI envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of thewicked” (verse 3). Mary’s experience at the barbecue isanother good example. Mary was focused on the cre-ated thing, and particularly on her loss of it. Because ofher assumptions about what the blessing of God mustlook like in her life, she was unable to enjoy the after-noon. She was unable to be thankful that her neighborwas married to a man who was a loving father andhusband. Rather, Mary seethed with jealousy.
Second, there is a struggle with confusion. Asaphsays, “When I tried to understand this, it was oppressiveto me” (verse 16). If I have wrongly concluded that theblessing of God has to do with present, personal happi-ness, with a life free of burden and common humantrouble, the work of God in my life will make no sense.I will look around and conclude that the wrong peopleare being blessed. Mary said, “I’ve sought to obey God,I’ve studied His Word, I’ve shared the gospel with otherpeople, and look at what has happened to me. Where isGod? People who don’t care at all about Him have betterlives than me.”
Third, there is a struggle with discouragement and alack of motivation for obedience. Asaph says, “Surely invain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washedmy hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued;
I have been punished every morning” (verse 14). If thegoodness of God means that I should experience a life ofpersonal happiness and ease, I lose all motivation forobedience if I don’t experience that kind of life but anunbeliever does. Personal devotion and prayer evapo-rate. Attendance at worship services ceases. We with-draw from contact with God’s people. Such was the casewith Mary, revealing her focus and revealing her heart.
Finally, there is a struggle with anger. Asaph says,“When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered,I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast beforeyou” (verses 21-22). In our first few sessions Mary saidmany of the right things theologically about God, Hisplan, His promises, and His sovereignty. But this theol-ogy seemed distant from her everyday life. What beganto emerge as counseling continued was deep bitternessand anger with God. Although Mary had never verbal-ized it aloud, in her heart she was saying, “I follow you,and this is what I get? I don’t believe your promises, andI don’t believe that you are good. I have wasted manyyears of my life seeking to obey you! Don’t tell me thatyou love me. Give me back my husband and my chil-dren because if you don’t, your love doesn’t meananything!”
Envy, confusion, discouragement and anger are allsymptoms of eyes focusing on the created thing. Theyprovide a window into the heart of the counselee.
3. Help your counselees identify and confess the truetreasures of their hearts. Most of the people you counsel donot come to deal with issues of the heart. Most likely,they don’t think in terms of the heart at all, let alone havea scriptural understanding of it. Most counselees havean external focus. They come to talk about the peopleand situations in their lives and how they feel. Theyhope that if somehow these things can be fixed, thenthey will be happy. They don’t like being sad, upset,discouraged, or depressed, and they don’t like the situ-ations that have produced these feelings.
One of your primary functions as a counselor is toturn them from this external focus to an internal one.God wants to enable them to “stand up under” what-ever He has ordained for them. As a biblical counselor,you want to be part of that agenda.
Identifying what is really going on is a critical taskbecause the heart is deceitful. Sin is deceitful. We needothers to help us break through those walls of deceit sothat we can accurately see our hearts.
Below is a series of questions that I use with mycounselees to help them recognize what they are really,functionally living for.
1. When does the counselee tend to experience fear,worry, or anxiety?
2. Where has the counselee struggled with disap-
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pointment? 3. What are the situations in which they regularly
struggle with anger? 4. Where do they encounter problems in their rela-
tionships? 5. What are the situations of life that they have found
particularly difficult? 6. Where are their patterns of avoidance? What
things do they regularly seek to avoid? 7. What is their true agenda for others? What is their
definition of a good relationship? What are their expec-tations for others? What silent demands do they make ofthe people around them?
8. Where in their life have they struggled with bitter-ness?
9. Where have they struggled with regret, beingtempted to say, “If only...”?
10. When do they tend to experience problems intheir lives of prayer and personal worship? Where havethey tended to experience problems in their relation-ships with God?
11. Where have they tended to struggle with envyof others? What have they tended to covet?
These questions can “draw out the purposes of theheart” (Proverbs 20:5). As a counselor, I look for thethemes of the heart, that is, themes of thought, motive,and desire. I want to function as God’s instrument inbreaking through sin’s deceitfulness, to help thecounselee become aware of the true treasures of hisheart. This knowledge sets up the subsequent move-ment of counseling.
II. Help Your Counselees Examine TheirConclusions (Psalm 73:13-16)
Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.
All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning.
If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed this generation of yourchildren.
When I tried to understand all this,it was oppressive to me....
What do I mean by “conclusions”? I mean the func-tional belief system of the counselee, the operating set ofassumptions that shape the response to life. Conclu-sions are ideas that are believed. Everyone has ideas thatthey, for whatever reason, assume to be true. Theseassumptions carry a practical behavioral agenda withthem. Mary actively drew conclusions that structuredhow she felt about and then responded to what wasgoing on in her life.
I pointed out one of Asaph’s conclusions earlier:“Surely, in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain haveI washed my hands in innocence” (verse 13). He issaying, “I wasted my time trying to keep my heart pure.It’s been useless to be careful to obey God. What have Ireceived as a result of all of my faith and obedience?”
Mary believed a theological syllogism that had morepractical impact on her life than her professed confes-sion of faith. It went this way:
1. God, if He is good, will bless the righteous andpunish the wicked.
2. The wicked have been blessed by God while therighteous have suffered.
3. Therefore, God is not good.
Mary’s practical conclusion was that it was vain toworship and serve God. Mary said, “If those people atchurch had experienced what I have, they wouldn’t beso excited about serving God.” How did Satan put thatsame conclusion? “If the Lord takes away Job’s hedge ofblessing, Job will curse God.” People have always foundthis conclusion attractive. But all this is based on afundamental misunderstanding of what God is doing.
Most of our counselees want results. They want theirservice of God to result in a nice spouse and nice kids ina nice house in suburbia. Maybe their dreams are notmuch bigger than a good marriage and children you cantake to a restaurant without being embarrassed. ButGod is working on something much deeper and grander.
Here is another way to say this. We tend to focus onthe good result. But God focuses on the process ofmaking us good. We are tempted to judge His faithful-ness on the basis of how many of our desires for this lifeHe has delivered. But He is working to free us from ourbondage to the desires of the sinful nature.3 The processof trial and suffering is no indication that God hasforsaken His promises to us and is, therefore, not good.Rather, the process of trials, loss, and suffering that Heordains for us demonstrate His unshakable, faithfulredeeming love. He loves us enough that even in the faceof us not “getting it” over and over again, He will notforsake the work of His hands until that work is com-plete. These experiences preach His goodness for theyare the delivery system of His sanctifying work, whichis, in fact, the good that He is doing. God is relentlesslycommitted to this good. It is only because our coun-selees are committed to something else that they find itso difficult to call good a God who administers such aplan.
Few counselees see suffering in this way. Most comeoverwhelmed by personal trials. They are almost unableto imagine that it’s possible to say that God is good and
3 See Ephesians 2:1-3, Romans 8:5-17.
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at the same time affirm that He has purposed for us toendure difficulty.4 Many counselees are surprised bythe trials that they are facing and, contrary to what Petersays (1 Peter 4:12), they do think that something “strangeis happening to them.” They conclude that God hasforgotten or forsaken them. He hasn’t! Or they concludethat He is not in reality the God they thought Him to be.He might not be; He’s better. Yet their false conclusionslead them to run away from God rather than towardHim. They agree with Asaph that following God is vain.And their response to God and their situation is directlyshaped by this conclusion.
We need to be careful that we are not relaxed by thetheological perspectives that our counselees profess toembrace. Many of them may be able to give us the rightanswers. We need to probe for their functional conclu-sions, their functional theology, for this is the systemthat really provides the reason they have for doing whatthey do. We need to teach our counselees the impor-tance of biblically examining these conclusions.
Practical Counseling Agenda to Help PeopleExamine Their Conclusions
1. Help your counselees to uncover and evaluate theirfunctional conclusions. I worked with Mary, helping herto identify the conclusions she was making and toidentify how they shaped her responses. I asked her totake several situations each week and think them throughon paper. I then helped her to identify the conclusionsshe had drawn and to look at the way they conditionedhow she responded to each situation.
There are five fundamental areas of conclusion thatform a person’s view of life. I sought to highlight thesefor Mary as we worked through her journal.
1. Conclusions drawn about her past. 2. Conclusions drawn about her present situation.3. Conclusions drawn about her future. 4. Conclusions drawn about herself. 5. Conclusions drawn about God and what He is
4 Psalm 34 offers one of Scripture’s clearest discussions of thissubject. It can be a very helpful Bible study for counseleesstruggling with the relationship between the goodness of Godand the reality of personal suffering. What is interesting andimportant about the Psalm 34 discussion is that the declarationof the goodness of God is placed right next to the fact that therighteous have many troubles. The Psalmist does not seesuffering as anomalous in a world ruled by a good God.Perhaps the fact that we so often do see an anomaly captureswhat is wrong with our thinking. Let me say also that thisPsalm makes a nice Bible study triad with Psalms 37 and 46.Together they provide valuable assistance as the counseleedeals with primary issues that arise in the midst of sufferingsuch as fear (Psalm 37), the goodness of God (Psalm 34), andhope (Psalm 46).
doing. If the conclusions drawn in these areas are not bibli-
cal, there is little hope that the counselees will respondin biblical ways to situations in which God has placedthem.
2. Help counselees to understand what it means to thinkbiblically about their lives. Here I wanted to help Maryexpose and jettison all her unbiblical conclusions. Manycounselees do not understand that the Bible is what Godhas given us to make sense out of life. Scripture is meantto exegete life for us. But many of our counselees havereversed the process. They use the experiences of life todictate what they believe about God, His work, and HisWord.
Here, again, there are only two systems. Either Scrip-ture explains my life or something else does. God’sWord is the great interpreter of life. Its conclusionsshould determine how I organize and explain my expe-rience. This is a critical biblical life skill that we shouldbe giving to our counselees. Sadly, for many of themfalsely interpreted experience is far more authoritative.Each time their experience seems to contradict the con-clusions of Scripture, their confidence in and practicaluse of the Word weakens.
With Mary I found a particular Bible study to behelpful. I had her study Numbers 11, the account ofIsrael in the wilderness grumbling about manna andcrying out for meat. I asked Mary to identify the conclu-sions that Moses and the Israelites were making in thefive fundamental areas I mentioned above. Further, Iasked her to identify what agenda for response logicallyflowed out of those conclusions. This study was eye-opening for Mary. She was able to see the reality ofexperiential, unbiblical conclusions and the power theyhad to shape her responses. We then applied theseinsights to the way she had been responding to hercircumstances.
3. Help counselees to recognize and confess where theyhave blamed God for their disobedience. Whenever a personwho believes that God is in control says, “If only I had...,then I would be able to ...,” he essentially lays blame atGod’s feet. Our counselees often conclude that it isimpossible for them to do what God has called them todo because of the evil they have experienced.
Mary was full of “if onlys.” “If only I hadn’t grownup in such a driven family,” she said. “If only I couldhave afforded to go to college. If only God hadn’tallowed me to get pregnant so soon. If only I had a lovingand understanding husband. If only I had been part ofa church that ministered to my needs.” What is Marysaying? “God, it’s your fault. I was ready to obey, butyou didn’t fulfill your part of the bargain. If I hadexperienced the blessing that my non-Christian neigh-
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bors have, I would be able to be what you want me tobe.”
Jay Adams powerfully addresses this in his com-mentary on 1 Peter 3:1-6. In this passage Peter addresseswomen with unbelieving husbands. Adams comments:
Notice, Peter doesn’t allow the wife to say, “Ifonly I had a Christian husband, then I could live asa Christian wife should.” No! No excuses arerecognized in a context that presupposes suffer-ing... the emphasis falls solely on the wife’s re-sponsibility. Living as a Christian does not dependupon anyone else. If her husband never comes toChrist (or if he trusts Christ at her funeral), she canlive a fruitful, righteous, satisfying life. The pointof the passage is that when she does, God may useit to point her husband to the gospel; it is not theother way around! Yet many women continuallycomplain, “I could be different if only....” Forgetthe “If onlys...” and the “If...thens,” God says. It ispossible to live an exemplary Christian life withan unsaved spouse—who persecutes you! This isa vital point to make. A key factor in counseling isto sort out responsibilities. Bad behavior cannotbe blamed on someone else.5
Many of our counselees have drawn conclusionsthat not only blame others for their behavior but alsoGod. It is very important, therefore, to point out thosesystems of unbiblical thought that have made theirdisobedience acceptable to their conscience.6
4. Help counselees to face the idolatrous nature of theirconclusions. Help them to see that their conclusionsreveal their hearts. False conclusions expose treasureson earth.
Our counselee’s problem with drawing wrong con-clusions is not simply a philosophical or theologicalproblem. It has moral roots. The practical conclusionthat God is not good is fundamentally rooted in a lovefor the things of this world, a desire that He would useHis power to deliver them to us, and disappointmentthat this has not happened. This is idolatry, rooted in“exchanging worship and service of the Creator forworship and service of the created thing” (Romans
5 Adams, Jay E., Trust and Obey, (Phillipsburg, New Jersey:Presbyterian & Reformed, 1978), page 95. 6 Since the heart of the believer is no longer stone but flesh, itmeans that the believer is in possession of a sensitive con-science. Therefore, for the believer there are only two waysthat he can deal with the sin in his life. Either he will placehimself, once again, under the justifying mercy of Christ as heconfesses his sin or he will involve himself in some system ofself-justification. Self-justification takes many forms, such asrecasting the event in one’s mind, shifting blame to someoneelse, appealing to the particular difficulty of the circumstance,and so forth.
1:25). It is rooted in “loving the world and the things thatare in the world rather than loving the Father” (1 John2:15).
We need to treat this as a more significant problemthan the correction of some wrong belief. We need to seethat particular wrong beliefs are rooted in a more funda-mental problem. They root in patterns of personal idola-try, which need to be lovingly exposed so that they canbe confessed and forsaken.
I used James 4:1-10 with Mary to get at this issue.James is discussing human conflict, and he groundsconflict in desires that rule the heart. “You want some-thing, but you don’t get it” (verse 2). He moves then todescribe how a heart fixed on the things of this worldrelates to God. These desires shape one’s relationship toGod. What do I want from God? What will declare to methat He is indeed a good God? Give me that upon whichI have set my heart. James puts it this way: “When youask, you do not receive because you ask with wrongmotives, that you may spend what you get on yourpleasures” (4:3).
James goes on: “You adulterous people, don’t youknow that friendship with the world is hatred towardGod?” (verse 4). The whole idolatrous system is rootedin spiritual adultery. Adultery means giving love thatbelongs to one person to someone else. The wholesystem of false focus, false interpretations, and falseconclusions leaves a person disappointed with his life,disillusioned with God, and unmotivated for obedi-ence. Beneath it all, the system is driven by spiritualadultery. It is driven by exchanging the love of God forlove of the created thing.
Mary’s heart had a well-defined set of personaldesires that shaped the way she thought about her life,related to other people, and thought about and relatedto God. Fundamentally, Mary had given up praying.She said that she had prayed and prayed, and things hadonly gotten worse. When Mary did pray, her prayerswere driven more by love for things of this world thanby love for God. Her prayers were demanding, shapedby a focus on personal happiness or, as James says,“...that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”The more she prayed this way, the more her disappoint-ment and anger with God grew. With Asaph she con-cluded, “Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure...”(Psalm 73:13).
It is not enough simply to point out false andunbiblical conclusions to our counselees. We must alsopoint out the idolatry that drives the whole system.Mary needed to be lovingly confronted with her selfishdemand that was rooted in exchanging God and Hisglory for worship and service of the created thing. Sheneeded to face her idolatry. To use the Matthew 6
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metaphor, I needed to show Mary the corruptible trea-sure she was hoarding.
III. Help Your Counselees View Life from thePerspective of Eternity (Psalm 73:17-24)
...till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.
Surely you place them on slippery ground;you cast them down to ruin.
How suddenly are they destroyed,completely swept away by terrors!
As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.
When my heart was grievedand my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
The remarkable thing about the way people typi-cally think about life is that it is devoid of the mostcritical perspective of all: eternity. It is impossible tomake biblical sense of what is going on with any one ofGod’s children at any time without factoring in thisessential perspective. Yet it is my experience that whenI introduce the discussion of destiny, of eternity, coun-selees often respond as if I am changing the subject.They respond as if I have quit talking about their life andam talking about something distant and unrelated. Buttalk about eternity is the only way to make sense of thehere and now. It is practical. It is essential.
Psalm 73 takes a dramatic turn in verse 17. Asaphbegins to consider destiny and to look at life from thisperspective. What does eternity do to the way I viewlife? Here is the powerful point towards which thispsalm builds. Eternity confronts us with the delusion ofthe permanence of the created thing. Without this per-spective the believer looks at his little pile of createdgoods, compares it to the unbeliever’s huge pile, and isdiscouraged. How different it is when he looks at thesame picture and realizes that what the wicked hasacquired is already in the process of fading away whilewhat God has given him is an inheritance that will neverfade! What a difference results in the way our coun-selees deal with life when they take seriously the per-spective of Psalm 73.
Asaph uses two metaphors to graphically depict thisdelusion of permanence. First, he says that the ungodlyare like people standing on a slippery slope. They may
be standing now, but they are going down. It is likewatching someone crossing a patch of ice in leather-bottomed street shoes. You are not surprised when theyfall because you never bought into the delusion thatthey were on sure footing.
Second, Asaph likens the life of the wicked to adream or a fantasy. Dreams seem like real life. They arepowerful and can leave us shaken. But dreams are notthe real thing. They are the fleeting fantasies in oursleep. Real life follows and continues. Such is the pros-perity of the unbeliever; it is but a dream. It seems somuch like real life. In the midst of the dream, it seems sopermanent; but it is a flash that will soon be followed bythe lasting realities of life awake.
The view of life of many of our counselees is exactlythe opposite. The here and now happiness of the createdworld seems like the real thing, and talk of eternity tothem is like talking about a dream. They do the oppositeof what Asaph and Paul did. They fix their eyes on whatis seen rather than what is unseen. They crave thedream, calling it real and permanent. They find littleattraction to the glories of eternity.
This is exactly where Mary was. To her it seemedcruelly unreal for me to talk about the unseen love ofGod or the unseen glories of eternity, the classic Chris-tian cop-out. Mary believed the lie and was angry that Iwould say that God was working on something morewonderful than the loving husband she craved. Perhapsmore of our counselees have bought the lie than wethink. Perhaps many find little hope in what God isactually doing in His redemptive love.
These two metaphors point us toward what God isdoing as He expresses His redemptive love for Hischildren. What is God working on? Is He working hardto provide us with the biggest pile of this world’s stuffand this world’s happy experiences? If so, He has miser-ably failed. Even worse, He has used His creative andredemptive power to give us only that which is doomedto pass away. Would this be the work of a good God?Would a good God motivate us to hope in things that areby their very nature temporary? Would He want us tostand on a slippery slope? Would He want our lives tobe the passing fantasies of our sleep? Would He be goodif He did anything less than to confront our powerfuldelusion of the permanence of this world?
That is what trials and suffering, death and loss do.Trials don’t change the rules. Trials confront us withwhat has been true all along. They explode the myth thatthis is all there is and that the goal of life is to get as muchas you can. In a trial I am confronted with the fact that themost blessed of human situations and experiences passaway, sometimes quite suddenly. And, more impor-tant, as I suffer in the midst of the trial, I realize how
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deeply I have believed the lie, how much hope I haveplaced in the permanence of the created thing, and howtightly I have held onto the things of this world. Moreimportant still, I realize who God is and the meaning ofthe gospel of Christ.
So, rather than trials, suffering, want and loss chal-lenging the truths of the love and justice of God, theypreach them! It is because of His justice and love that Godwill not have me believe the lie that life is found in thethings of this world. It is because of His justice that Hecauses the bounty of the wicked. Their very prosperityis a curse. It is His love that makes Him ever faithful tocall me back from hope in the created things to hope inHim. His love causes Him to lay away for me the realthing, an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs anypainful experience of this present life.
God is at work delivering to us what is eternal. Godis at work changing us at the level of our hearts. Ourlives are His workroom; the painful experiences are Histools. He will stay in the room using His tools until weare finally full partakers of His divine nature. To doanything less would be unjust and unloving.
If all of this is understood by our counselees, wouldthey envy the unbeliever in his prosperity? Would theycall God unjust and unfaithful because He has not giventhem what the wicked have? No. To bring the perspec-tive of destiny to bear on present life circumstancesradically alters how we see and respond.
Practical Counseling Agenda to View Life from thePerspective of Eternity
1. Help your counselees to use 1 Corinthians 10:13-14 asa means of exposing where they have believed the lie of thepermanence of the created thing. First, Paul has anticipatedthe way we tend to think in the midst of difficult circum-stances. “No temptation has seized you except what iscommon to man. And God is faithful; He will not let yoube tempted beyond what you can bear. But when youare tempted, He will also provide a way out so that youcan stand up under it.” We tend to think that oursituation is uncommon, that we have been singled outfor particular difficulty. We tend to think that God hasbeen unfaithful to us; that is why we are in the situationthat we are in. We tend to look at the difficulty and thinkthat it is more than we can bear. And we tend to look forways of escape that will separate us from the situation.Because this passage so anticipates the typical way wethink about difficulty, it provides a helpful diagnostic tobe used with our counselees.
Second, when Paul goes on to say, “Therefore, mydear friends, flee from idolatry,” (1 Corinthians 10:14)he is not beginning a new thought (as he appears to dowhen our translations begin a new paragraph at this
point). Rather, he delivers the punch line of the passage!This phrase makes sense of all he has just been saying. Itexplains Israel’s problem, as discussed from the begin-ning of the chapter, and it defines the common tempta-tions we all face.
Why do we struggle? Why do we give up hope? Whydo we question the faithfulness of God? Why do wethink we are enduring more than we can bear? Why dowe look for any escape we can find? Why are we notcomforted by God’s presence and promises? Why doesfuture hope still leave us envious, angered, and embit-tered?
The answer is idolatry. To the degree that I hold ontothe created thing, thinking that life can be found there,to that degree any situation that removes my heart’sdesire will seem unbearable to me. The God who hasplaced me in that circumstance will appear unfaithfuland unkind, and His presence will offer me little com-fort.
Here 1 Corinthians 10 intersects Psalm 73. My struggleis not actually with what I am able to bear; my struggleis not really with God’s faithfulness. My struggle is withhow my idolatry alters the way I think about what I canbear and how I perceive the faithfulness of God. So, inthe midst of the seemingly unbearable situation, I cryout, “Surely, in vain have I kept my heart pure” (Psalm73:13). I grumble, become angry and unbelieving, be-cause I live for an idol.
Do our counselees bring the perspective of eternity,of destiny, to their understanding of everyday life? FirstCorinthians 10 can help us show them where they havefailed to do so and what has, in turn, resulted. I do thiswith my counselees by asking seven questions that flowout of the passage.
(1) Where have you been tempted to envy the lives ofthe people around you because you thought that youhave been singled out for a particularly difficult life?
(2) In what situations have you been tempted tothink of God as being unfaithful?
(3) Where have you thought of circumstances asbeing beyond what you could bear? What things in yourlife do you tend to think you could not live without?
(4) What false “ways of escape” have you tended touse to get yourself out of the circumstances that you feltyou could not bear? (Control, manipulation, escapism,avoidance, etc.)
(5) What are the difficult situations that God iscalling you to stand up under right now? What re-sources has He given you so that you might stand?
(6) What are the things of this world in which youhave tended to place your hope? What are the things ofthis world that have tended to keep you going?
(7) What personal patterns of idolatry lie at the
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bottom of all of this? 2. Help counselees to recognize, admit, confess, and for-
sake all patterns of discontent, anger, and bitterness towardGod that result from a view of life that forgets destiny. Thiswas hard for Mary. She seemed unable to face up tomany things. It was even more difficult for her to faceher own anger with God. But it was a real turning pointwhen she said, “I was thinking about how difficult itwas for me to pray and wondering why. Then I realizedthat I didn’t pray because I was angry with God.” Thisis a foundational spiritual dynamic that many of ourcounselees deny. It is important to put it on the tablebecause anger at God reveals the personal agenda thathas replaced Him.
IV. Help your counselees focus on the eternal richesof redemption (Psalm 73:23-28).
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you? And being with you, I desire nothing on earth.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heartand 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.
If I am not to concentrate on the things of this worldand if I am not to compare my pile of this world’s stuffwith the pile of the wicked, on what am I to concentrate?This is the final point of this powerful Psalm. What do Ihave that makes me rich? This question can be answeredwith a single word: GOD! What makes me rich is not acircumstance or a collection of possessions. I am richbecause of a relationship with a Person who is alwayswith me. His name is Immanuel.
I look at the wicked and I can say, “Yes, they haveburden-free circumstances. Yes, they always seem to beincreasing in wealth. But I HAVE GOD! I am held by Hisright hand, and I am guided by His counsel. When myheart fails, He is my strength. He is taking me towardeternal glory. He is what makes me rich. Nothing com-pares to what I have. I can look around and honestly say,“There is nothing on earth I desire besides you. You aremy refuge.”
How many of your counselees are here? How manyof us are here? How many can honestly say, “What Iwant out of life is God.” How many counselees would
say that the important difference between them and thewicked is not in the amount of this world’s goods thateach possesses? Rather, God is near, and therefore, thereis hope, while God is far off from the wicked, andtherefore, they will perish.
As biblical counselors, we need to confront ourcounselees with the amazing realities of redemption.We need to challenge their estimation of poverty withthe reality that they are rich, for they have God. We needto call them to the only hope that is really hope. We needto show them that their sins have been shaped by heartsruled by the desire for the things of this earth. Thesedesires have structured the way they have related toGod and man. God will change them and give them trueriches. They can have joy in the midst of the storm asGod becomes what they desire rather than God beingbut the means to other ends.
This psalm powerfully analyzes desire. It graphi-cally depicts how our desires set the agenda for ourlives. It explains how personal desire shapes the inter-pretations that I make about God, myself, and mysituation. It reveals how ruling desires lead me to focuson one thing while virtually ignoring another. Psalm 73is a powerful warning as to how distorted the perspec-tive of a believer may be. It demonstrates how failure toinclude one essential biblical perspective—eternity—can radically alter the way life looks. It confronts us oncemore with the importance of rooting our work with ourcounselees at the level of the heart.
Are we encouraging our counselees to be motivatedby the glories of relationship with God? Are we unwill-ing to let our counselees persist in their poverty lan-guage? Are we zealous to confront lovingly the “ifonlys” of counselees like Mary? Are we faithful to keepsaying, “But you have God”? The world and everythingin it are passing away, but God is forever; and He is mineand I am His. These truths are not mystical unrealities,as many of our counselees believe. They are real life. Thepower of Psalm 73 is that it confronts us with howessential these truths are for making biblical sense out oflife and for fashioning practical biblical responses. No-tice how the psalm concludes. A new way of viewing lifealways leads to visibly changed actions. In this case,words expressing confident faith (73:25-28) replacedwords of grumbling complaint (73:4-15). As counseleeslike Mary learn to think from the perspective of eternity,their words and attitudes can similarly change.
Practical Counseling Agenda to Focus on EternalRiches
1. Help your counselees to understand the practical mean-ing and benefit of God’s presence with them. For example,consider biblical case studies of Moses (Exodus 3-4) and
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Gideon (Judges 6) or passages such as Psalm 46 andIsaiah 40-45.
2. Help your counselees to understand how God’s Wordcan help them to make sense out of present experience and torespond to it properly. Teach them how to make practicalbiblical interpretations. This was important work forMary. Generating unbiblical interpretations came aseasily as breathing for her. I encouraged her to step backagain and again to ask what the Bible had to say aboutthe various things with which she was dealing. She alsoneeded to keep asking what agenda for response couldbe found in Scripture.
3. Encourage your counselees to understand their iden-tity in Christ. Fashion Bible studies for them out ofRomans, Galatians, Ephesians, or Philippians. Thenhelp them apply these truths to the way they under-stand themselves and their situation. Get your coun-selees to do a two-column comparison between howthey tend to view themselves and what Scripture de-clares their identity to be as a child of God.
Conclusion
Psalm 73 generates four practical directives for bib-lical counselors as you work with the people God hasbrought your way:
1. Help your counselees examine their focus. 2. Help your counselees examine their conclusions.3. Help your counselees view life from the perspec-
tive of eternity. 4. Help your counselees focus on the rich realities of
redemption. The stakes are high in all of this: nothing less than the
hearts of those you counsel. God’s agenda is at stake, to
recapture the hearts of His people who desert Him fortheir idols.
What is God working on? God would have Hispeople put their hope in Him and Him alone. What inthe final analysis do you have to offer the suffering,discouraged, embittered counselee? More principles? Away to make life work so they can attain the things theywant? No, much more and much different. What youhave to offer is God Himself. He is their identity, theirriches, their strength, their future, and their hope. He iswhat they need. And He is working so that they wouldbe able to say with Habakkuk:
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,though the olive crops fail and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the penand no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,He enables me to go on the heights.
(Habakkuk 3:17-19)Don’t let the poetry fool you. Habakkuk is talkingabout suffering: starvation, deprivation, war. He’s talk-ing about Rwanda and Serbia. He’s talking about what
happened to Mary when her husband betrayed her.Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,He enables me to go on the heights.
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