Victory Over The Sin of Envy

"But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.  For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked...Behold, these are the ungodly, who are always at ease; they increase in riches.  Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence.  For all day long I have been plagued, and chastened every morning...When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me-Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I  understood their end." Psalm 73:17

The words of the Poet are timeless and timely because they capture a powerful struggle.  Real godliness is never easy.  In this world there are endless distractions and pseudo-roads that seem to offer more satisfaction but alas they lead into treachery and harassment.

The poet had taken one such road and found himself smarting because of self-induced misery.  The Poet would come to intimately know the perilous seduction of envy.  We ourselves may envy the beauty of a woman or man, the wealth of another, the education or advantage of another, or the friends or power of another.

Envy is not jealousy.  Jealousy is the feeble cousin of envy.  Jealousy is merely obsessed with being replaced by its object, but envy wants to possess, replace, and  seek to harm its object.  Envy is insatiable.

The poet had manufactured self-induced misery because he had acquired mental attitude sin.  He stopped abiding in God and his peace that passes all understanding, and became infected by mental attitude that produced the vile sin of envy.

The poet was in for a rough ride upon the seas of discontent.  He had believed that he could understand the 'world' apart from God.  He had come to believe that the cult of the self as practiced by the those embedded within the fragmented constructs if the 'world' offered more than what he possessed in God.

Is this not the desire of the Enemy?  Is this not the work of the Devil (Lit. "One who Divides"), to foment discontent within the breast of the child of God?  How often we find ourselves enslaved by what our eyes perceive and we come to forget the prosperity of our souls in the Iesous.  In the book of Judges in the Old Testament Literature the Samson champion was led astray by what he 'saw.'  The enemy of Samson's soul was within not 'out there.'  His vision of life became fatalistic because of poor seeing as with the Poet in this telling psalm.

He was mired in subjectivism and the lie of envy.  He could not extricate himself of this sin.  Not one of us can extricate himself from sin.  Some, however, may believe that they are immune to such sin, but that is their sin.  It is a self molesting type of deal.  One can become addicted to self molestation.  The poet had become addicted to being his own adversary!

One might think that these are hard words, and I would agree, but look how far the Poet had wondered from God.  He could no longer worship the true God because he is confused by the cult of the selfish eye.  Envy had stained and cut off his ability to worship and find contentment.  He has lost more than he had gained by the poisoned orbs (eyes) within his head that have invited him to drink bitter water.  He does not like the wicked, and nor does he like himself.

What a price is extracted from ourselves when we practice sin.  God did not abandon the Poet, but the Poet abandoned himself.  However, he will learn the heavy price of the pretending as though God was not there.  This is the illusion that one can extract God from the world and yet have a complete perception of the world. The poet believed that the rich had no troubles and that from cradle to grave all was well.  The Poet mused within his skewed and darkened perception concerning the wicked"...they have more than heart could wish (v.7b)."  The Poet's heart is weakened by false perceptions.  He bears deep wounds.

He regrets the practice of godliness."Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence (v. 13)."  He is hurt, and wounded.  Yes, there are times when one is tempted to embrace this belief, but God has been in his life, and allowed the Poet to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  That is, the valley of shaken faith.

Have you been tempted of late to remove yourself from the watchful care of God because of envy of the wicked ones?  Have you been tempted to surrender true faith and exchange it for the watchful mischief of the eye?

Beloved, all of us are tempted at some point.  The Poet found himself floundering until he went back to God. It was only when he went back to God that he discovered a compelling truth.  He discovered that the way of the ungodly will perish.  He learned that he really had 'it all' but it had been obscured by the lie of the selfish eye.

Beloved the Word of God is our 'medicine' and the Word of God has cleansed many eyes with the eye salve of redemption through the Iesous.  He is our Great Physician and Wonderful Counsellor.

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