God is My Strength and Portion Forever

My flesh and my heart may fail,but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psalm 73: 26 (ESV)

Have you ever felt as though the whole world was against you?

When we look at the prosperity of the wicked, it can feel that way. The rich get richer by cheating the poor, the powerful grab for more power and trample the weak, and the wicked feed on the innocent like lions on a fresh carcass. And where is lady justice? She's been removed from her pedestal; her scales broken and thrown in the rubbish heap.

In these times, we feel all alone, as if God has completely abandoned us and nothing will remedy our situation. While it is a comfort to read Psalm 73 and know that we are not the only ones who have felt this way, it is a greater comfort to realize that the end of the righteous is not the end of the wicked.

For those of us who belong to God, we have the comfort of knowing that He is with in our struggles. If you are struggling today, may you find strength in the words of Psalm 73.

Truly God is good to Israel,to those who are pure in heart.

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,my steps had nearly slipped.

For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.

They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.

Therefore pride is their necklace;violence covers them as a garment.

Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.

They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.

They set their mouths against the heavens,and their tongue struts through the earth.

Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.

And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.

All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.

For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.

If I had said, “I will speak thus,”I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
But when I thought how to understand this,it seemed to me a wearisome task,until I went into the sanctuary of God;then I discerned their end.
Truly you set them in slippery places;you make them fall to ruin.

How they are destroyed in a moment,swept away utterly by terrors!

Like a dream when one awakes,O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

When my soul was embittered,when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.
Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,and afterward you will receive me to glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you?And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.

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