I Will Tell Of All Your Deeds

This is what the wicked are like—always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.

Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence.

All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.

If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children.

When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.

Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.

How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!

They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.

When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.

Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.

Psalm 73:12-28

Think about shoveling snow in a snowstorm. You come back into the house, and instead of seeing more work to do, savor the beauty of frosted tree branches and the way the snow blankets the colorless landscape of winter.

We see a similar, but much more poignant, shift in Asaph when we read his words in Psalm 73. In the beginning he laments the way the world seems to work, how wrongs seem to be rewarded. He doubts the value of being different than the crowd and living for the good of others. But when he enters the sanctuary of God, his outlook changes; he remembers that God will deal with the world and its troubles perfectly and, more importantly, that it is good to be with God.

When we’re chilled by the seemingly ceaseless problems in our world, we can enter God’s sanctuary in prayer and be warmed through by the life altering, perspective-changing truth that His judgment is better than ours. Though our circumstances may not change, our perspective can.

God gives us the right perspective.

Our Daily Bread – May 3, 2018