Psalms 73:16–17

Hot and angry thoughts were rushing through his mind. But love for the people of God, the proof of faith in God, held his lips... But though he puts a seal on his lips, a turmoil of painful thoughts still disturbs his inner peace. He does not know how to reconcile God's goodness to His people with the suffering they live in. And all the while the wicked prosper.

The meaning of the word "meditation" is "to talk to oneself" about the subject filling the mind... In Psalm 73 we find that Asaph was troubled in his meditations on the prosperity of the wicked. He talked it over with himself, and could not see any way out of his difficulty. It was a stain, he was tempted to think, on the government of God, and he was filled with perplexity... The lesson is this. If meditation is to be of value and for blessing, we must carry it on in the presence of God, depending on Him and on the ministry of His Spirit. Otherwise we would be lost in the maze of human thoughts and speculations.

Before he went into the sanctuary of God, he was a miserable and restless man, and as ignorant as a beast, as he afterwards confessed. He understood nothing, and everything seemed wrong. His whole soul was in rebellion against the state of things, and so against God, who is behind everything. And this is the subtle and serious thing about judging things by our natural powers. The person who does so, whether Christian or unbeliever, becomes discontented and a grumbler. Nothing offends God like those two things, for they show a soul at war with the will of God.

Outside the sanctuary he looks at evil without God; inside he views everything, and everyone, with God. What a difference this makes! Outside, all had been viewed in relation to time; inside, all is viewed in relation to eternity. The wickedness of men, the goodness of God, the prosperity of sinners, the sorrows of the saints — he no longer sees these in connection with the passing moment. He sees them in relation to the great end towards which everything is moving.

That is, in the sanctuary of God everything is understood, no matter how difficult, trying and painful it may be, whether about ourselves or others. Once we enter there, we are in the place of God's light and God's love; and then, whatever the difficulty may be, we understand it.

Is there anything in the New Testament that answers to the sanctuary where Asaph found the key to all his difficulties? Yes, there is. We have a sanctuary in the New Testament, and the Minister of it. Hebrews 10 tells us that we have boldness to enter the Holiest — that is, the very presence of God. It also tells us of Jesus who is there. He is our great High Priest, and He delights to lead us in and keep us in that place of light and blessing.

It is no surprise that an ungodly world brings worldly prosperity to the ungodly. The surprise is that the godly are so often upset when they see it. There was some excuse for Asaph, for he lived in a day when heavenly things were not clearly revealed... We live in a day when heavenly things are clearly revealed. As Christians we have been plainly told that "through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."

There is a limit to the conflict of his soul. It goes on "until" he returns to the secret place he had wandered from in spirit — "Until," as he says, "I went into the sanctuary of God" (verse 17). The sanctuary speaks of the presence of God. Outside the sanctuary he looks at evil without God. Inside, he views everything, and everyone, with God. What a difference this makes! Outside, he had viewed everything in relation to time. Inside, he views everything in relation to eternity.

It looked, indeed, as if the Psalmist had been in the slippery places, for had not his steps almost slipped? The wicked, on the other hand, seemed to stand on solid rock. Did they not prosper in the world and grow rich? In reality the godly soul was on the rock though shaking; and the wicked were in slippery places, though prospering. Away from the sanctuary, the godly man looked at the prosperity of the wicked and was cast down. From inside the sanctuary, he sees that in the end they will be cast down.

The tendency of the human heart and affections is always downward — always toward earth and the things of earth... But let us think of the end! The end alone is the true test by which to judge in such matters.

If the sanctuary exposes the character of the sinner, it will also uncover the hidden springs of evil in the heart of a saint. The light of the sanctuary lays everything bare. "When my heart was in a ferment," he says, "then I was brutish and ignorant, I was as a beast before You" (verses 21, 22). A beast acts without the slightest reference to God. The saint comes to admit this: if he leaves God out of his thoughts, he will not only sink below what is proper to a natural man; he will fall to the level of a beast.

The discovery of what is in us opens the way for the revelation of what is in Him... He can say, "I was as a beast before You, nevertheless I am continually with You." When hot and bitter thoughts were raging in his heart, even then God's tireless care never left him.

He saw that you can only judge the course of the godless rich, or of the plagued and downtrodden saints, when the end of each comes into view... Asaph himself was one of the godly, plagued all the day long and "chastened every morning." Yet in the sanctuary he lifts his eyes to God with joy and confesses, "You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." The end of the one: brought into desolation. The end of the other: received to glory. The contrast is complete!

To us the sanctuary does not speak so much of God's hidden ways as it did to Israel. This is what marks Christianity: the veil of the sanctuary is torn from top to bottom, and we have "confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus" (Heb. 10:19). It is a blessing to know this! But it is a far greater blessing to truly draw near because we know it!