Psalms 73:16-17 (ESV)
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.
The writer of Psalms 73 (Asaph) is finding himself in an odd place. He is envious of the wicked. By his personal observations he is noting that the wicked seem to have advantage over those who serve God. He states earlier in the chapter:
1. They have to pangs in their death (v. 4)
2. They are not in trouble as others are (v. 5)
3. They are covered with violence with no regard (v. 6)
4. They are so full of fatness their eyes bulge out (v. 7)
5. They scoff and speak with malice (v. 8)
6. They set their mouths toward heaven (v. 9)
In all this, God seems to allow them to live the way they want. This is making Asaph jealous and bitter. This is where the above passage comes into play. He was in total confusion and in total weariness trying to understand this. His mind could not wrap around this injustice. It was not until he went into the sanctuary of God that he understood. It is in God’s presence that we can understand the world and what God is doing in the world. God has not closed His eyes to the wicked. Once Asaph comes into God’s presence he understands their end. When He sees God’s holiness he knows that God, in the end, will deal with these presumptuous people. They can laugh and rejoice now, but in the end, God will deal with them. Note what Asaph concludes at the end:
Psalms 73:18-20 (ESV)
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.
It is only when we understand God that we can understand the world. Let us not envy the world. Let us have pity and prayer because their fate is sealed by the holiness of God. To do that we must come into the sanctuary of God.
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