Understanding their end...

Psa 73:1 A Psalm of Asaph. Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
Psa 73:2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
Psa 73:3 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Psa 73:4 For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
Psa 73:5 They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
Psa 73:6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
Psa 73:7 Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
Psa 73:8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
Psa 73:9 They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
Psa 73:10 Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
Psa 73:11 And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
Psa 73:12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
Psa 73:13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
Psa 73:14 For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
Psa 73:15 If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
Psa 73:16 When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;
Psa 73:17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.


People bemoan their fate all the time wondering why they're not prosperous, why fortune doesn't favor them but seemingly favors those who are wicked. The bad people having all the luck seems all too common. The ungodly rising in fortune and fame, we see it all the time and we don't understand. Throughout time it's been that way - the poor and honest man struggling to make ends meet, while the rich, liar wallows in prosperity. That's not to say that God's beloved haven't had fortune- Abraham had great fortune. David, Solomon had great, great wealth as well as Job, but those were the exceptions to the rule.


Reading this psalm reveals this in a special way. Here we have the bemoaning of this situation and then these words… 'Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.'


What does it mean to go into the sanctuary of God? What is the sanctuary of God? What happens in the sanctuary of God?


Psa 77:13 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?


God's way is in the sanctuary and until we go into the sanctuary we can't understand the end of the wicked and in understanding that, we can understand the end of those who are not wicked, those who are God's.


The whole sanctuary set up was for mankind pointing the way of reconciling between God and man. Only those who understand their need of reconciliation, only those who go into the sanctuary of God can find the way of God. The understanding of the sanctuary service didn't stop when Christ died, in fact Christ was full revelation of the Sanctuary. In Christ we can understand the meaning of the Sanctuary.


I've studied the Sanctuary before, but I feel the need to study it again. We know that there is a Heavenly Sanctuary and it's a Sanctuary that unlike the earthly Sanctuary, it cannot be destroyed.


Heb 8:1 Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
Heb 8:2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man


May God bless us as we seek to understand the way of God in the sanctuary, as we seek to understand the life we live in surrounded by the prospering wicked, a world that is not our world, a world filled with evil. Let us go into the Sanctuary so we may understand.


By the grace of God, by the mercy of our Lord, through the Holy Spirit's enlightening may we understand.


Amen.