If you’ve heard me preach much you know I love the Enduring Word online commentary https://enduringword.com/ . It’s a powerful tool to help us understand the Bible and I use it regularly in my sermon prep. This week’s sermon was from Psalm 73 and titled Almost slipped. The climax of the text and sermon is in verse 17:
17till I entered
the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.
Now that verse points us to the reason we worship. I tried to bring all I could into the sermon on this but the commentary had SO MUCH MORE GOOD STUFF! So I just had to give it to you somehow-like putting it on the ole blog :)
So here’s the excerpt, hope you are blessed by it!
(Underlining and bold is by me, as it was stuff I really liked-like the Spurgeon quote-WOW!)
c. Until I went into the sanctuary of God: The crisis seemed
to build and build for Asaph, until he went into the house of the Lord. There
he gained a perspective on his problem that he did not have before. There he
was able to see things from an eternal viewpoint, and he then understood their
end.
i. “What then did the psalmist do? The answer to some will
seem perfectly childish. He went to church…. Just what others got out of this
service we are not told. But the psalmist came into possession of certain
gripping convictions that steadied him and enabled him to walk in the after
days with firmness and assurance.” (Chappell)
ii. What did going to the house of God do for Asaph? There,
he could gain understanding in several ways.
· By prayer and worship in the sanctuary, he understood that
God was at the center of all things, and he gained a fresh appreciation of both
God and eternity.
· By hearing the word of God in the sanctuary, he understood
that there was a truth that went beyond what he saw and experienced in everyday
life.
· By observing sacrifice at the sanctuary, he understood
that God takes sin so seriously that it must be judged and atoned for, even if
it is by an innocent victim who stands in the place of the guilty by faith.
iii. This is one of God’s great purposes in establishing
a place where His people come to meet with Him. It is never to imply that there
is only one or only a few places where man can meet with God, or that they must
be ornate or glorious buildings. It is to emphasize that it is good to have a
place separate from other places where we focus on a heavenly, eternal
perspective.
iv. For Asaph, this was the sanctuary of God. It was the
temple in Jerusalem, or the tabernacle that existed before the temple. For us,
it is the place where we meet with God’s people for worship and fellowship and
hearing the word of God.
v. When Asaph went to the sanctuary of God, he received
understanding. It wasn’t only a place to impact the senses and the feelings,
but the understanding of a man. Asaph didn’t remark on how he felt their end or
even experienced their end; he understood their end. It isn’t a bad thing to
feel and experience the right things in the house of God, but there must also
be understanding – the communication of truth in ways that can be received.
vi. When Asaph went to the sanctuary of God, it only did
him good because he connected with eternity, something that made him understand
the end of the wicked. He didn’t need to go to the house of God to hear about
the news of the day or the same talk one would hear in the marketplace or the
business office. Asaph needed the ultimate relevance, the relevance of
eternity.
vii. “Their end is literally ‘their afterward’, their future
which will unmake everything they have lived for.” (Kidner)
ii. “Sinner you may fall now, at once. The mountain
yields beneath your feet, the slippery ice is melting every moment. Look down
and learn your speedy doom. Yonder yawning gulf must soon receive you, while we
look after you with hopeless tears. Our prayers cannot follow you; from your
slippery standing place you fall and you are gone for ever. Death makes the
place where you stand slippery, for it dissolves your life every hour. Time
makes it slippery, for every instant it cuts the ground from under your feet.
The vanities which you enjoy make your place slippery, for they are all like
ice which shall melt before the sun. You have no foot-hold, sinner, you have no
sure hope, no confidence. It is a melting thing you trust to.” (Spurgeon)
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