Day 8: The Sanctuary
Today we meet Asaph, the singer, poet, seer and prophet, and Psalm 73 describes him having a moment. Before we get to his moment, it is important to understand that Psalm 73 travels through three stages: orientation, disorientation and reorientation. Orientation begins with, “surely God is good,” and ends with, “it is good to be near God.” Orientation statements express what we believe about God and about life with Him.
We then enter Asaph's disorientation, which occurs when our experience of life does not match up to our faith-based expectations. This describes his lament with the 'godless' who seem to have everything going for them - the proud and the arrogant still prospering with health and wealth. Verse 21 describes some serious emotions: “When my heart was grieved, and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.” When our fellowship with God gets challenged, stressed and broken, like Asaph, we can start acting like “senseless animals”. We get anxious and critical, whine more than we worship, complain quicker and despair longer. The psalmist kept his heart pure but struggled with temptation, doubt and fear. He looked around and saw success, affluence, and healthy people and was envious of them. How refreshing to hear the honesty of this prophet poet; his fluency in lament is an important language we can learn from.
Asaph found his change of perspective and a new outlook, the capacity to view things through God’s lens, and verse 17 describes where he found it. “I entered the sanctuary; then I understood their final destiny.” It is interesting to notice the preserving effect of the worshipping community.
Prayer, worship and the word in the sanctuary, the house of God, helped him appreciate God and eternity in a new way, beyond his everyday life to an eternal perspective.
Even though he was full of doubt and questions and almost slipped (vs. 2) he still found himself in the sanctuary. Let that be our practice!
It is also important to note that the transformation occurs not in Asaph’s circumstances but in his perception of the circumstances.
All of Asaph's feelings and emotions are normal, but how we deal with them is important. In the house of the Lord, his community, Asaph found answers that he did not have before.
It was there he knew the conviction of God, found truth and was reminded of who he belonged to, resulting in his words, “Who have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever…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.” (v.28).
Asaph’s honest expression of the way in which he viewed life around him was essential to his reorientation, and his perspective only changed through his honesty with God.
Our crises and questions are best worked out with God in our community. Our community is essential to our life, a healthy life of faith.
Lord, may I enter Your sanctuary and see things from Your perspective. Thank You that “You are good to those who are pure in heart.... It is good to be near You. I have made You my refuge; I will tell of all Your deeds.” Amen.
Reflect and Respond
Read Psalm 73. Ask the Lord to highlight verses and use them in prayer.
Though our circumstances may not change, our perspective can. Ask the Lord if there are areas in your life where you need to gain His understanding or perspective.
A Sabbath Blessing by Pete Greig:
“May this day bring Sabbath rest to my heart and my home.
May God’s image in me be restored, and my imagination in God be re-storied.
May the gravity of material things be lightened, and the relativity of time slow down.
May I know grace to embrace my own finite smallness in the arms of God’s infinite greatness.
May God’s Word feed me and His Spirit lead me into the week and into the life to come.”
Prayer Focus
