An enigma elucidated

"I made the arrogant envy ... I was beaten all day, and my punishment returned each morning ... When I meditated to know this, it was hard work for me, until I was entered the sanctuaries of God ... I understood their end ... My flesh and my heart are consumed ; God is the rock of my heart, and my sharing forever." Psalm 73. 16, 17, 26

It is hard to wake up every morning, if sleep is granted, to get up, if the strength is sufficient, and to find yourself day after day facing the same ordeal, as Asaph.

It is hard to start the day without knowing if it will end, so much suffering is great.

How hard it is to end a day in bitterness, comparing his suffering to the carelessness of those for whom all is well and who voluntarily ignore God : "they prosper in the world, they increase their riches" (v. 12), beyond what they even imagined (v. 7).

Asaph, who suffers so much, concludes bitterly that it is pure loss that he has purified his heart (v.13).

In his agitation, he compares his situation to that of the bad guys for whom apparently everything is fine. He does not find an explanation, until the day he decides to turn to God, to enter his sanctuaries. Then the divine light springs forth, its torments of spirit vanish. His consciousness awakens, his intelligence comes back to him, his will intervenes. He understands that the prosperity of the "wicked" is his loss and that nothing will remain of his glory and success.

Better, he finds that God has seized him by the right hand to lead him in glory (v.23). Asaph is even astonished at having felt so unhappy, when he had the privilege of being with God.

" What change ! Will we say ! No, yes !

No, because the test has not disappeared, it is always present, perhaps harder than before : its flesh and its heart are consumed (v.26).

Yes, because he now confides in divine strength, wisdom and grace.

Yes, because God is his true good, he is the rock of his heart, his part forever.

Yes, because he has put his trust in the Lord, the Lord, to tell all that God has done (v.28).

Source (Pleasing the Lord)