Sermons on Psalm 73:26
The various sermons below converge quickly on a few pastoral anchors: an unvarnished admission that "my flesh and my heart" are failing, the hinge-word "but" that turns honest depletion into an active appeal, and the twin theological claims that God is both the believer’s sustaining strength and their personal portion. Preachers share practical aims—reorienting identity and ministry in weakness, cultivating contentment apart from circumstances, and urging communal and scriptural means to resist despair—while offering sharp exegetical and illustrative differences as rhetorical tools (a lexical nod to a Greek “thorn/stake,” attention to the Hebrew present-tense verb, and appeals to stories like the feeding of the 5,000, Gethsemane, Joseph and David) that shape how the verse lands pastorally.
The contrasts are clarifying for sermon shape: some readings treat persistent suffering as providentially retained so God's power is displayed in ongoing weakness, others insist that naming God as our portion promises overflowing sufficiency and even miraculous reversal; some cast despondency primarily as unbelief requiring communal, scriptural resistance, while others press an expectation of “but God” interventions and paternal covenantal restoration—differences that affect whether you preach endurance, contentment and witness, a faith-counterattack in community, or anticipatory deliverance from present weakness
Psalm 73:26 Interpretation:
Finding Strength in Weakness: Embracing God's Grace(Pursuit Culture) reads Psalm 73:26 through the lens of Paul's thorn-and-sufficient-grace theology and gives a striking linguistic note (the preacher cites the Greek skolops for “thorn,” describing it as a pointed stake): she interprets "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" not as a sentimental consolation but as an existential rule—suffering can be a persistent, sharp stake in the side that God deliberately leaves in order that his power be displayed in ongoing weakness, so the verse means that even when bodily and emotional resources are exhausted the believer experiences God's sustaining presence as the decisive, personal strength and possession that enables continued faithful ministry and witness.
My Portion: Finding Contentment in God’s Overflow(Raices.Church) reframes Psalm 73:26 by zeroing in on the word "portion" and overturning its typical negative connotation (a small, insufficient share): the preacher argues that when God is named as "my portion" the speaker is claiming that God's presence is the believer’s satisfying allotment—not a mere crumb to be fought over but the source that fills and overflows, illustrated by the feeding of the 5,000 story to show how God multiplies limited human "portions" into abundance; thus the verse is read as an affirmation that when flesh and heart fail, God as my portion supplies full, overflowing sufficiency.
Overcoming Despondency Through Faith and Community(Desiring God) (John Piper) treats Psalm 73:26 with close linguistic attention and pastoral application: he emphasizes the Hebrew verb force (pointing out that the Hebrew reads as present/factual “my flesh and my heart are failing,” not hypothetically “may fail”), explains kala as “to come to an end / be exhausted,” and contrasts the frank admission of depletion with the immediate spiritual counterattack “but God”; Piper therefore interprets v.26 as the pattern for Christians under despondency—honest acknowledgment of bodily and heart failure joined to an active, faith-filled appeal to God as the immutable strength and eternal portion, exemplified and reinforced by Christ’s response to temptation in Gethsemane.
Transforming Lives: Embracing God's 'But God' Moments(Cornerstone Church Owosso Michigan) places Psalm 73:26 within the ministry motif of divine intervention—“but God” moments—and reads the verse practically: when the preacher says “my flesh and my heart fail,” he insists the proper response is to expect God’s intervention as the strength and portion that re-centers identity and mission (he links this to God's fatherly role and to narratives like Joseph and David), so the verse becomes a pastoral assurance that physical/emotional collapse does not negate God’s personal sustaining presence nor his capacity to rewrite one’s story.
Psalm 73:26 Theological Themes:
Finding Strength in Weakness: Embracing God's Grace(Pursuit Culture) emphasizes a theological theme that suffering is sometimes providentially retained by God so that divine power, not human competence, is displayed—the sermon pushes the distinct claim that the “thorn/stake” is not merely punitive or accidental but instrumental in God’s pedagogy and mission, and so v.26 points to a theology of "the miracle in the keeping" where God’s sustaining presence across unresolved affliction is itself redemptive and revelatory.
Overcoming Despondency Through Faith and Community(Desiring God) (John Piper) advances a theological theme that unbelief is the proximate sin in despair and that Psalm 73:26 prescribes a twofold pastoral remedy: radical honesty about depletion plus an immediate, active faith-counterattack anchored in God as “strength” and “portion”; Piper further frames this as communal and liturgical work—Scripture and trusted friends are means by which one resists despondency.
My Portion: Finding Contentment in God’s Overflow(Raices.Church) proposes a nuanced theological theme about contentment: being “content” (as Paul describes) hinges on locating satisfaction in God-as-portion rather than in circumstances, so Psalm 73:26 undergirds a theology of contentment that is independent of material sufficiency and rooted in God’s personal presence, which then produces overflow that blesses others.
Transforming Lives: Embracing God's 'But God' Moments(Cornerstone Church Owosso Michigan) frames a pastoral-theological theme that “but God” interventions are expressions of God’s covenantal love and mercy—Psalm 73:26 functions theologically as evidence that God’s role as the believer’s portion transforms suffering into a stage for divine deliverance and paternal restoration, a theme pressed into fatherhood and ecclesial leadership.
Psalm 73:26 Historical and Contextual Insights:
Overcoming Despondency Through Faith and Community(Desiring God) (John Piper) supplies linguistic and situational context for Psalm 73:26, noting that the Hebrew verb is forceful (literally “are failing” rather than a tentative “may”), explaining kala as “to come to an end / be exhausted,” and then situating the psalmist’s crisis alongside the Gethsemane narrative to show how even the Son experienced an analogous shock wave of temptation—Piper uses these lexical and Gospel contexts to argue that the psalmist’s despair is theologically normal and that the psalm offers scripture-rooted remedies.
Finding Strength in Weakness: Embracing God's Grace(Pursuit Culture) brings a lexical (Greek) contextual insight to the discussion by invoking the precise Greek term skolops for Paul’s “thorn,” defining it as a “pointed piece of wood or stake,” and uses that detail to sharpen the reader’s sense of the seriousness and persistence of afflictions that Psalm 73:26 addresses; that lexical move colors the verse as speaking into sustained, brutal hardship rather than minor irritation.
My Portion: Finding Contentment in God’s Overflow(Raices.Church) uses the feeding-of-the-5,000 narrative (John 6) and the disciples’ comment about “200 denarii” as contextual background to explain first-century perceptions of scarcity and how Jesus’ multiplying of a small “portion” reframes what “portion” means culturally—Raices treats the miracle story as the cultural-historical counterpoint that explains why calling God “my portion” in Psalm 73:26 is not settling for scarcity but confessing access to supernatural supply.
Psalm 73:26 Cross-References in the Bible:
Finding Strength in Weakness: Embracing God's Grace(Pursuit Culture) ties Psalm 73:26 to 2 Corinthians 12 (Paul’s thorn and “my grace is sufficient”), Galatians (as a witness to Paul’s condition), and the general New Testament theme that power is perfected in weakness; these cross-references are used to read Psalm 73:26 as the heart-sustaining corollary to Paul’s teaching that God’s grace enables ministry amid persistent affliction.
Overcoming Despondency Through Faith and Community(Desiring God) (John Piper) connects Psalm 73:26 explicitly to Psalm 19 (the law of the Lord revives the soul), Matthew 26 / John 14 (Jesus in Gethsemane and his words “let not your hearts be troubled”), Ephesians 6 (spiritual warfare imagery), and the broader psalm (73:21–26), using these passages to build the argument that honest admission of exhaustion must be met by Scripture-driven, Christ-modeled resistance and communal spiritual warfare.
My Portion: Finding Contentment in God’s Overflow(Raices.Church) weaves Psalm 73:26 into a cluster of texts: Philippians 4:11–12 (Paul on contentment), John 6:5–13 and the feeding of the 5,000 (the miracle that reframes “portion”), and general affirmations like Hebrews 13:8-style claims (“God is the same yesterday, today, forever”), using those references to argue that being content with God as “portion” aligns with New Testament teachings about sufficiency in Christ.
Transforming Lives: Embracing God's 'But God' Moments(Cornerstone Church Owosso Michigan) places Psalm 73:26 among several “but God” passages—1 Corinthians 10:13, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 2:4–5, Genesis 50:20, Psalm 34:19, Exodus/Red Sea deliverance narratives, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and Jeremiah’s mercies—using the cross-references to show a biblical pattern: human failure or desperation is the stage for God’s merciful intervention, and v.26 exemplifies that covenantal rescue.
Psalm 73:26 Christian References outside the Bible:
Overcoming Despondency Through Faith and Community(Desiring God) (John Piper) explicitly invokes a Christian devotional tradition by mentioning V. Raymond Edman’s devotional collection titled But God (the “old prexy down at Wheaton”), using that published, non-biblical devotional as a historical-literary echo to underline the longstanding Christian practice of spotting “but God” turning points in Scripture and life and to encourage readers to see Psalm 73:26 as part of that devotional pattern.
Psalm 73:26 Illustrations from Secular Sources:
My Portion: Finding Contentment in God’s Overflow(Raices.Church) uses the everyday secular image of sharing pizza—the competitive scramble for the “last slice”—to illustrate the human tendency to treat “portion” as scarcity and competition; this concrete, culturally familiar example is then contrasted with the biblical claim of God as a portion that overflows rather than being a last scrap, making Psalm 73:26’s promise practically accessible.
Finding Strength in Weakness: Embracing God's Grace(Pursuit Culture) employs secular/natural-world imagery—how olive oil is produced by repeated crushing and how grapes are stomped—to drive home the point that being “crushed” is the process by which oil and wine (parallels for anointing and joy) are produced; these tangible, non-biblical production metaphors are used to help listeners see Psalm 73:26’s assurance as the strength that emerges through repeated crushing rather than absence of suffering.
Transforming Lives: Embracing God's 'But God' Moments(Cornerstone Church Owosso Michigan) draws on a secular rescue analogy of a rock climber whose grip fails until he finds and trusts a rope, using that vivid scenario to model the existential posture Psalm 73:26 requires—release of self-reliance and grasping God as the lifeline—and thereby makes the verse’s theological claim about God-as-strength concrete and emotionally relatable.