“Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.” Psalm 73:17
May 8, 2023
The prosperity of the wicked may not be a moral problem to some but it was to Asaph the writer of Psalm 73. He bears his soul as he expressed his confusion about God’s justice. His faith went out to low tide as Asaph considered the apparent prosperity of evil people while God’s people suffered. This crisis of faith was almost a loss of confidence in God’s goodness. However, the psalmist climbed out of his disillusionment by a mental visit to the tabernacle (v. 17). In pondering the symbolic meaning of the furniture of the sanctuary of God, Asaph came to his spiritual senses. His faith-tide came in. Eschatology saved his faith. The ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies with its mercy seat, where God’s justice was satisfied in blood atonement, cleared up flawed thinking. The wicked will be held accountable to a holy God. There will be a pay-day someday when everything God-rejectors have lived for will be undone in judgment. God will set everything right. Count on it. God is good to those who are pure in heart (Psa. 73:1). Think of the power of the “wordless book” of the tabernacle and its story. Get near God. This is our strength (73:28).
H
“Look, as our greatest good comes through the sufferings of Christ, so God’s greatest glory that He hath from His saints comes through their sufferings.” Thomas Brooks