Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end. Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! (Psalm 73:17-19)
I for one truly appreciate the sentiments expressed in this psalm because it’s real. Apparently, Asaph had contemplated the seeming injustice in regard to the peace and prosperity of the wicked as opposed to the suffering of the righteous. He struggled with these perplexing issues in the privacy of his own mind, at first, not daring to share them with others lest he be “untrue to the generation of Your children” (73:15). But as he relates here, the issue was a matter of focus. The apparent unfairness and the seeming injustice of life was the result of allowing his vision to remain on carnal and temporal things. As long as he measured success according to the world’s standards, everything seemed upside down.
That changed, however, when he entered God’s House. When he shifted his focus to loftier things and began to concentrate on the holiness of God and things eternal, his attitude about the matter reversed itself. He came to understand that, though suffering tears down the body, it builds up the soul. When we fix our eyes on the Holy One, we realize that the suffering which accompanies trials prompts the inner man — our consciousness — to be keenly sensitive to God’s Voice and purpose. The wicked, whose conscience has been seared with a hot iron according to Paul, do not discern these things.
Asaph, and by extension all who emerge from the same internal struggle, realizes that the wicked are bankrupt and are on a slippery slope heading toward destruction. When Asaph acknowledged the holiness of the Lord, he reset his thinking and his actions to willfully accept God’s purpose for his life. So, if He allows us to suffer in this existence, it is because He is prompting us to die to those things the wicked, in their folly, run toward. He is preparing us for greater things in this world, and in the world to come, as long as we keep our eyes on Him. Through Him, we can overcome the world. After all, it is not the comforts of this world that matter most, but the glory and richness of what is to come. Therefore, keep your eyes on the prize.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
Recent Comments