What a joy it was to feast together with you this past Lord’s Day on Psalm 73. As Asaph came to learn through his experience, God is good…always!
Asaph’s candid testimony reveals his doubts about the goodness of God, brought on by his envy of the wicked (see vs. 2-16). The turning point which delivered him from embittered despair to exuberant praise is identified in vs. 17 – “…until I went into the sanctuary of God…”. When Asaph returned to the regular worship of God, with God’s people and under God’s word, he then saw the truth of God’s goodness more fully and accurately.
John Calvin paraphrases Asaph’s statement in verse 17: “Until God become my schoolmaster, and until I learn by his word what otherwise my mind, when I come to consider the government of the world, cannot comprehend, I stop short all at once, and understand nothing about the subject.” (John Calvin, commentary on Ps. 73:17)
Beloved, how necessary for our minds to continually be transformed by God’s word, rather than squeezed into the mold of this world’s godless thinking (Rom. 12:1-2)! And this is one of God’s primary reasons for having us gather weekly in corporate worship – that he might shape and mold us through His word.
Looking forward to gathering with you again this coming Sunday, even as we eagerly await that great and eternal gathering with Christ in heaven!
Greg