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Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. \u2026 This is what the wicked are like\u2014always free of care, they go on amassing wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments. \xa0If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. \u2026 Those who are far from you will perish\u2026 But as for me, it is good to be near God. (Psalm 73:1, 12-17, 27a. 28a)

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That\u2019s a long and complicated selection of text that I picked for today.\xa0 Jesus said it a lot more simply in his Beatitudes from Matthew 5 when he said: \u201cBlessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.\u201d

But it is hard to keep a pure heart, and that\u2019s what this psalm is all about.\xa0 The psalmist confesses early on in verse 2 that their foot had nearly slipped\u2014they had nearly given up their pure heart as they envied the wicked.

Why this envy?\xa0 Because the wicked are carefree, rich, and healthy.\xa0 They don\u2019t follow any rules: they do what they want and they get what they want\u2014they chase their desires and fulfill them with all the money, entertainment, property, sex, and power that they can get their hands on.\xa0 And it works.\xa0 Despite the fact that we people of faith believe that doing things God\u2019s way is what gets the blessing: it never quite seems to turn out that way.\xa0 Whereas those who take the short cut, elbowing their way through any way they can get away with, seem pretty successful and blessed!

So why should the pure in heart bother to keep their hands clean?\xa0 Why should they follow the rules?\xa0 Why do they keep suffering affliction when they too, could easily just jump the que to grab the blessings they desire for themselves?\xa0

Well, it frankly doesn\u2019t make any sense at all.\xa0 Or at least, it didn\u2019t until the psalmist stepped inside God\u2019s sanctuary.\xa0 Then he remembered. \xa0And that\u2019s true for us all: entering into God\u2019s presence invites us to remember.

The psalmist may not have had all the blessings his heart desired.\xa0 He may not have even had much health in his body.\xa0 But what the psalmist did have that the wicked didn\u2019t, was God.\xa0 Despite all the wealth and health in the world, the wicked remained far from God.\xa0 And ultimately, God is what makes the difference.\xa0 God and being near to him is what holds the ultimate value.\xa0

This is where the Psalmist ends.\xa0 \u201cThose who are far from you will perish,\u201d for who has any life that\u2019s really life without God?\xa0 But God\u2019s people who have had their hearts and hands made pure through the work of Jesus?\xa0 They are the ones who find life, and blessing, and eventually also that promise of shalom that we heard about yesterday, because they are the ones who have God.\xa0 The ones that God has come near to. \xa0This is true life, life as it was meant to be\u2014life with God.\xa0

So says Jesus: \u201cBlessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.\u201d

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