Psalm 73
There is much about the world around me I don’t understand. I am confused. Why do some people appear to have all they need while others struggle mightily to survive one day at a time. The Psalmist struggled with the same question. (Isn’t it interesting the questions people ask don’t really change over time.) The psalmist goes into quite the detail of how some appear to have it all.
Years ago as my family traveled from the Pacific Northwest to the Midwest for vacation we used paper maps – some of you remember those large, neatly folded maps from service stations and AAA. Once unfolded they rarely every could be folded again! My wife navigated those trips. Reading the map meant knowing which direction we were headed. Orienting the map properly meant turning the map this way and that. The wrong orientation could be costly in time and gas.
“Then I entered the precincts of God’s temple, and understood the destiny of the wicked.” (Psalm 73:17, NET). Unfairness and inequality dominate. The solutions offered by people around us almost always begin with the wrong orientation. Most of the answers offered begin with self – what would bring me to an equal level as someone else. The solution the psalmist experiences begins when God’s perspective is sought. God’s presence, God’s purpose are the proper beginning place.
The answer may continue to elude us, but the answer is clear: “Yet I am always with You; You hold my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me up in glory. Who do I have in heaven but You? And I desire nothing on earth but You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:23–26, HCSB).
WINSTON COMMUNITY BAPTIST CHURCH 