Latest / Reformed Thinking / Until I Entered the Sanctuary: Faith Regained (Psalm 73) | Charles Spurgeon

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Until I Entered the Sanctuary: Faith Regained (Psalm 73) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Hello and welcome. You are listening to Reformed
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  Thinking. It's good to be here.
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  I'm really glad you could join us today because we have, well,
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  a stack of material that I think is going to challenge how you
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  look at the world around you. It certainly will.
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  We're doing a deep dive into an absolute classic.
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  We're opening up Charles Spurgeon's monumental work The
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  Treasury of David, and we're zooming in on one particular
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  Psalm 70. 3. Psalm 73.
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  And this isn't just another commentary.
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  Spurgeon. He calls the Psalm a spiritual
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  marathon. I love that.
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  A spiritual marathon. Yeah, he says.
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  It's a hard fought field where a soul that feels half defeated
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  ends up, in his words, wholly victorious.
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  That's a fantastic image, and the reason we chose this one,
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  Psalm 73, is because it deals with something Spurgeon calls
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  the ancient stumbling block. It's this struggle that every
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  believer seems to face, no matter what generation they're
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  in. It's the question that you know
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  can keep you up at night. It can.
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  Why do the bad guys seem to win? It's the core conflict, isn't
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  it? You look around, you see this,
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  this confusing prosperity of the wicked.
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  They just seem to have it all right.
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  And then you look at the righteous, the people who are
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  trying to do right by God, and they're suffering it.
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  Just on paper it doesn't make any sense.
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  Feels like the cosmic accounting is just off.
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  Exactly. And so our mission today is to
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  really analyze this crisis of faith.
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  We're going to look at Asaph, the man who wrote the Psalm, OK?
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  We're going to look at his dangerous envy.
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  And it was truly dangerous. And then we'll get to the divine
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  resolution he finds, which isn't in his own logic.
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  It's in the sanctuary. And since this is reformed
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  thinking, we are definitely going to be looking at this
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  through that specific theological lens.
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  Oh, absolutely. As we go through Spurgeon's
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  notes, you should really pay attention to how he brings out
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  God's absolute sovereignty. Even in the success of the
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  wicked, God is in control. We'll see the depravity of the
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  human heart even in a believer, and we'll see that beautiful
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  doctrine, the preservation of the Saints.
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  How God holds on to us. How God holds on to us even when
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  our own feet are slipping out from under us.
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  OK, let's unpack this. We have to start with the
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  author. The Psalm is titled a Psalm of
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  Asaf. Now I think a lot of people just
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  assume David wrote all the Psalms.
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  That's a common assumption. But this one has a different
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  name on the door. Who is this guy Asaf?
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  Asaf is a fascinating figure and Spurgeon brings up a really
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  interesting point about the authorship.
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  He calls it a binary star character.
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  A binary star like like in astronomy.
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  Yes, exactly that. You know how sometimes you look
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  up and see what looks like one single bright star?
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  Sure, but if you get a powerful enough telescope you realize
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  it's actually two stars orbiting each other so closely they just
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  appear as one to the naked eye. OK, I see where you're going.
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  Spurgeon suggests that the Psalms of David and ASAP are
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  kind of like that. So they're distinct, but they
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  function together. Correct.
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  David is the sun in this little analogy, and Asaph is like the
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  moon. He was a seer, an eminent
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  singer. In fact, in Second Chronicles,
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  King Hezekiah actually commands the Levites to sing the words of
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  David and of Asaph the seer. But he's a heavyweight.
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  This isn't just some random guy. Not at all.
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  But, and this is the key thing that makes him so relatable,
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  He's not just a carbon copy of David, OK?
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  Asaph was a man who was subject to, well, spiritual depression.
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  He was a man who really wrestled with doubt.
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  David certainly suffered. We know that.
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  But Asaph gives voice to that intellectual that emotional
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  crisis that happens when your theology just doesn't seem to
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  match up with your reality. That's actually really
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  comforting to know that a man who wrote a part of the Bible
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  had days where he basically just wanted to throw in the towel.
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  It's vital that we know that. Spurgeon also points out that
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  this Psalm, Psalm 73, corresponds numerically with
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  Psalm 37. You just reverse the figures.
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  337 Okay. And the theme is the same.
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  It's that stumbling block. I mean, heathen philosophers
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  have puzzled over this for centuries, but for a believer,
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  it's more than just a puzzle. It's a temptation.
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  It is a temptation. So before we get lost in the
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  weeds here, let's look at the structure of this thing.
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  How does ASAP lay it all out for us?
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  It follows a very, very clear trajectory.
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  Spurgeon outlines it beautifully.
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  It starts with this declaration of confidence in verse one.
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  Then immediately after that, we just plunge into the temptation
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  and the confession of envy. That's verses 2 through 14.
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  That's the dark valley, right? Then we hit this moment of
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  embarrassment and dilemma in verses 15 and 16.
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  And then comes the pivot point. That's it, verse 17, the
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  deliverance that he finds in the sanctuary, and from there it's
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  the condemnation of his own folly and a renewal of his
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  allegiance to God right at the end.
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  It's a full narrative arc. The complete journey, OK.
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  Let's go to verse one. It opens with Truly God is Good
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  to Israel, which, you know, on the surface sounds like a
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  standard church greeting. God is good all the time, all
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  the time. But Spurgeon says there's
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  something much deeper going on with that very first word.
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  There really is the Hebrew word that's translated as truly can
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  also be translated as yet or only.
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  And Spurgeon notes that some interpreters see this as the
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  final result of the conflict, but placed right at the
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  beginning. It's like ASAP has been fighting
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  this war in his mind for weeks, maybe months, and he finally
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  comes out of it, slam his hand on the table, and just declares,
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  despite everything I've seen, truly God is good.
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  So it's an adversative. It's saying it looks like a
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  total mess, yet God is good. Precisely.
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  Spurgeon uses a lovely metaphor here.
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  He says little pearls are of great price, the small particle
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  of this. Yet it's a Pearl.
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  It's a Word of Faith that is standing in direct opposition to
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  all of Satan's injections of doubt.
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  It's him saying whatever my eyes see, whatever my feelings tell
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  me. I am anchoring myself right here
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  on this truth. But he does qualify it, doesn't
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  he? He says God is good to Israel,
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  even to such as are of a clean heart.
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  Who exactly is Israel? Here, and that is a critical
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  definition to get right, Spurgeon is very clear that this
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  is not about being ceremonially clean.
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  So it's not the guy who just shows up to the temple and goes
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  through the motions. Not at all.
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  This is the clean heart. This is the Israel of God.
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  And in our reformed understanding, that's a big
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  deal. It's everything.
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  It refers to those who are pure in what Spurgeon calls the vital
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  mainspring of action. It's the regenerate heart, OK?
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  Spurgeon argues that God cannot be unjust to his own covenanted
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  people. His goodness to them is simply
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  beyond dispute. So the anchor is this, if you
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  are in Christ, if you are part of this true Israel, then God is
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  good to you. Period.
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  Full stop. I really like Spurgeon's plea
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  here. He says, If I cannot understand
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  thee, let me never cease to believe in thee.
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  That is the theological anchor. We have to make sure of what we
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  know. We have to cling to the
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  certainties, especially when the mysteries of life are trying to
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  blow us away like a hurricane. But then right after that,
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  anchors dropped. The storm just hits with full
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  force. Verse 2.
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  But As for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well,
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  and I slipped. That is a sharp, sharp turn.
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  It is. He contrasts the absolute
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  goodness of God with his own precarious position.
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  God is good, but As for me, I'm falling.
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  And Spurgeon really highlights the metaphors of falling here.
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  Feet were almost gone. Which implies a loss of standing
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  of your footing and then steps had.
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  Well, nice slipped. The Hebrew there suggests water
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  being poured out. Like spilling a bucket of water
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  on the ground. Exactly.
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  When you pour out water, it has no shape, no solidity.
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  It just runs everywhere. Asaf is saying his character,
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  his moral stability, was just dissolving.
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  He felt like a man trying to stand on a sheet of ice and
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  notice the connection Spurgeon draws.
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  When your trust wavers, your conduct slips.
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  It always starts in the head and the heart, but it always, always
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  ends up in the feet. So what caused the slip?
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  What was the banana peel on the ass?
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  Verse 3 gives us the answer plain as day, For I was envious
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  at the foolish. Envy, envy.
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  And not just envy, but envy at the foolish.
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  Now, in biblical language, foolish doesn't just mean silly
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  or unintelligent. Right, it's a moral category.
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  It's a generic title for the wicked, and Spurgeon points out
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  the incredible irony here. He says, quote, he must be a
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  fool who envies fools. That really puts it in
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  perspective. It does, doesn't it?
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  I mean, think about it. An air of heaven, someone with
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  an eternal inheritance, envying a Bullock is fat.
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  A Bullock is fat. And Spurgeon asks who envies the
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  Bullock is fat when he recollects the shambles.
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  And the Shambles is the slaughterhouse.
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  The slaughterhouse, right? If you see a cow that's being
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  fattened up for market, do you say, oh, what a lucky cow?
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  No, you know what's coming. You know exactly why it's being
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  fattened. But Asaph, in this moment, he
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  had lost that eternal perspective.
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  He was looking with what Spurgeon calls the bleared eye
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  of sense instead of the clear eye of faith.
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  So he's just looking at the here and now and what he sees, and
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  this is verses 4 through 9 is honestly aggravating.
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  Let's just walk through his list of grievances first verse 4.
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  For there are no bands in their death, but their strength is
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  firm. This is the quiet death fallacy.
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  It's a shocking observation because we have this
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  expectation, don't we? We do.
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  We think that wicked people, people who have lived these
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  terrible, godless lives, they should die in terror.
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  We expect the scary music to start playing and for them to
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  scream on their deathbeds. We want a moral resolution at
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  the end of the movie. But Asaph says no.
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  I watched them die and there were no bands.
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  They didn't seem to be tied up in knots of fear or regret.
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  Spurgeon observes that many are just case hardened or they have
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  a false piece that comes from strong delusions.
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  Or just, you know, really good medication.
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  Spurgeon actually mentions the surgeons drugs.
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  He says they glide into eternity without a struggle.
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  And then he contrasts this with the godly.
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  Yeah, how often do we see godly men and women who are bound with
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  a holy anxiety? They are so concerned about
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  pleasing God, so aware of their own remaining sin, that they
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  might actually have a rockier deathbed experience than the
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  atheist who just doesn't care. That is so counterintuitive.
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  You'd think the peace of God would make death easy and the
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  lack of God would make it terrifying.
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  But Spurgeon says the Godless often know nothing of those
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  bands. They're brazen right to the very
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  last. And that quiet death just shakes
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  ASAP. But it's not just their death,
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  it's their entire life. First five.
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  They are not in trouble as other men.
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  They seem to have a free pass on the normal struggles of life.
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  Yeah, Spurgeon puts it so brilliantly, He says they plow
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  least, yet have the most fodder. Wow.
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  They deserve the hottest hell, yet have the warmest nest.
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  Is a lion deserve the hottest hell yet?
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  Have the warmest nest? It really does feel that way
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  sometimes. You see these corrupt CEO's, you
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  know, dictators, and they're just living in complete
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  opulence. And this prosperity, it leads to
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  their attitude. Verse 6 says pride compasses
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  them about as a chain. Spurgeon describes this like
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  it's jewelry. They wear their arrogance like a
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  big gold chain. They want no other ornament than
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  their own. Pomposity and violence covers
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  them like a garment. It's their brand.
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  It's their style. And then we get this really
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  grotesque image in verse 7. Their eyes stand out with
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  fatness. It's a picture of just gross
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  excess and obesity. Spurgeon describes the face as
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  being assimilated to a fatted swine.
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  But the spiritual meaning behind it is that they have more than
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  heart could wish. Their greed is actually exceeded
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  by their supply. They have so much stuff they
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  don't even know what to want anymore.
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  And all that wealth, it just fuels their mouth.
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  Verses 8 and 9 describe their speech.
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  They speak wickedly concerning oppression.
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  And this is where Spurgeon gets very specific about, well,
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  social dynamics. He notes that this is often how
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  the rich speak of the poor, as if they're an inferior order of
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  animals. They advocate for oppression as
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  if it's their divine right. Then, he says, they set their
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  mouth against the heavens. That's the vertical dimension,
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  just straight up blasphemy against God.
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  They think they're demigods, and then horizontally, their tongue
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  walketh through the earth. Spurgeon compares it to a
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  serpent, leaving a filthy trail of slime wherever it goes.
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  It's this universal censorship and slam.
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  Or they have an opinion on everything.
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  They criticize everyone and they feel completely entitled to do
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  so. So you have these people who are
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  rich, they're arrogant, oppressive, blasphemous and
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  healthy. And to top it all off, they die
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  peacefully. You can really start to see why
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  Asaph is struggling here. Oh.
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  Absolutely, and in the next section we see the impact this
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  is having on the faithful. Verse 10 says Therefore his
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  people return hit her, and waters of a full cup are rung
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  out to them. Waters of a full cup.
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  That sounds like a lot of tears. It is the sorrows of the Saints.
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  Spurgeon interprets this as a cup of bitter medicine.
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  And here's that Reformed distinction again.
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  This cup is for the beloved child he calls God, Jehovah
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  Rophi the healer. The medicine is for the patient,
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  not for the rebel. The rebel gets the sweets that
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  will rot his teeth. The child gets the bitter
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  medicine that ultimately heals the soul, but man does it taste
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  terrible going down. And while the Saints are
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  drinking this bitter cup, the wicked, they're asking, how does
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  God know? That's verse 11.
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  This is what Spurgeon calls practical atheism, he says.
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  It's acting insanity. Acting insanity.
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  Yeah, they don't necessarily claim to be atheists.
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  Spurgeon notes that in his day, avowed infidelity was
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  disreputable. So they're theists in name, but
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  in practice? In practice, they live like he's
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  an exist. They ask, does God really know
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  what I'm doing? Is he really watching it?
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  They act as if God is blind and deaf.
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  And verse 12 just summarizes the whole enigma.
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  Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world.
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  This is it, the crux of Providence.
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  It is the stumbling block of faith, Spurgeon says.
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  Gold pieces fly in flocks to those who deserve perdition.
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  It's an observation that gold just seems to have this magnetic
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  attraction to the very worst people.
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  So asaf, he finally reaches a breaking point.
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  The next section describes what you call the crisis of utility,
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  verse 13. Verily, I have cleansed my heart
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  in vain and washed my hands in innocency.
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  This is the single most dangerous moment in the entire
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  Psalm. This is him teetering on the
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  edge of apostasy. Asaf is looking at his own life.
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  He's kept his heart clean. He's kept his hands washed of
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  overt sin. And he's asking what was the
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  point of any of it? It's the logic of the flesh,
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  isn't it? If Holiness pays you in
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  suffering and sin pays you in gold, the whole transaction just
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  feels broken. It feels like a bad deal, and he
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  says so in verse 14. For all the day long have I been
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  plagued and chastened every morning.
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  Spurgeon contrast this so beautifully, he says.
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  Crowns for reprobates, crosses for the elect.
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  It is strange to the human mind that the Saints sigh while the
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  sinners are singing. Crowns for reprobates, crosses
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  for the elect. That is a hard, hard pill to
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  swallow if you're only looking at this life.
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  And that is the key, isn't it, if you are only looking at this
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  life. But Asaph, he catches himself.
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  In the next section, we see this incredible restraint.
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  Verse 15 is crucial. OK, if I say I will speak thus,
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  Behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
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  Bites his tongue. He does.
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  He realizes the power of his influence.
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  Asaph isn't just some guy, he's a leader.
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  If he starts spouting this God is unfair rhetoric, what happens
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  to the weaker believers? What happens to the generation
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  of thy children? You would cause them to stumble.
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  And Spurgeon calls this the responsibility to avoid heresy
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  mongering. Just because you have a doubt
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  doesn't mean you should immediately get a megaphone,
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  Spurgeon says. These undigested doubts should
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  not be fed to the flock, and Asaph realizes that if he
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  speaks, he's betraying the family of God.
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  So he just keeps it all inside. Verse 16.
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  When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me.
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  Too painful. It is the agony of a smothered
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  grief. Spurgeon uses the image of a man
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  hiding a wolf beneath his garment.
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  Wow. It's just gnawing at his vitals.
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  He can't speak it out loud, but he can't solve it in his own
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  mind. He's trapped in this this
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  pressure cooker of cognitive dissonance.
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  Until until verse 17 until I went into the sanctuary of God,
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  then understood I their end. This is the pivot point of the
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  entire Psalm, the sanctuary. Now, Spurgeon defines this
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  pretty broadly, doesn't he? It's not just, you know, walking
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  into a building. No, it's not just about stepping
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  into the temple architecture. It's about entering the eternity
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  where God dwells. It's entering the school of God.
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  It's about accessing celestial doctrine.
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  When Asaph goes into the sanctuary, he leaves the noisy,
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  confusing data of the streets outside.
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  And he, he enters the quiet, eternal logic of God.
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  Spurgeon uses an analogy here about planets that I found
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  incredibly helpful. The heliocentric analogy, yes,
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  he says. If you view the planets from the
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  Earth, a geocentric view, their motions appear discordant.
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  They go forward, then they seem to go backward.
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  That's retrograde motion. Then they stand still.
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  It looks like total chaos. Because you're viewing them from
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  another moving planet, your perspective is skewed.
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  Your vantage point is all wrong, but Spurgeon says if you could
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  fix your observatory in the sun, sun at the very center of the
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  system, you would see all the planets moving in perfect,
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  harmonious circles. That is brilliant.
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  The sanctuary is the sun. It's God's vantage point.
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  That is it. When Asaph stood in the
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  sanctuary, he stopped looking at life from the earth up, and he
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  started looking at it from God down, and suddenly all that
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  chaos resolved into perfect order, then understood high
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  their end. And that end is terrifying.
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  The next section deals with this revelation, verse 18.
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  Surely thou did set them in slippery places.
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  Thou cast it's them down into destruction.
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  Now you have to know the Reformed emphasis on
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  sovereignty. Here thou didst set them.
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  You God. You did it.
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  It wasn't chance. It wasn't just bad luck.
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  God arranged their prosperity. But he arranged it as a kind of
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  trap. Spurgeon calls their prosperity
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  a Tarpian rock. What's that?
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  The Tarpian rock was a Cliff in ancient Rome they use for
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  executions. They just throw traitors from
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  it. I see.
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  Spurgeon saying God lifts these wicked men up high, not to bless
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  them, but so that their fall will be that much more
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  catastrophic. The elevation is for the purpose
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  of a heavier fall. That's a chilling thought.
• 18:28
  We look at some billionaire tyrant and we think God has
• 18:31
  blessed him. Asaph looks and says no.
• 18:33
  God has placed them on a sheet of ice at the edge of a Cliff.
• 18:36
  Slippery places. It implies constant, imminent
• 18:39
  danger. They are one heartbeat away 1
• 18:41
  Slippery step away from total and utter ruin.
• 18:44
  And verse 19 emphasizes the speed of it.
• 18:47
  Desolation as in a moment. As in a moment.
• 18:50
  It is so sudden. One minute they are feasting and
• 18:53
  toasting their success, the next they are gone.
• 18:57
  Spurgeon uses the imagery of the breaking of a Potters vessel or
• 19:01
  blasted trees that have been struck by lightning.
• 19:03
  So it's. Total irreversible destruction.
• 19:05
  Completely. And then comes verse 20, which I
• 19:08
  think is one of the most significant metaphysical
• 19:10
  insights in the entire Bible as a dream when one awaketh.
• 19:15
  So, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
• 19:20
  The dream analogy. The dream analogy.
• 19:22
  And this completely inverts our normal perception of reality.
• 19:25
  We usually think this life, the money, the cars, the power,
• 19:29
  that's the reality. And all the spiritual stuff is
• 19:31
  kind of airy Fairy, sure. Cash is solid.
• 19:33
  God feels abstract. But Asaph says no, you have it
• 19:37
  backward. The wicked man's prosperity.
• 19:40
  That is the dream. It's a baseless fabric.
• 19:42
  It looks and feels real, but it has no substance.
• 19:46
  And when God wakes up, which represents the moment of
• 19:48
  judgement, the dream just vanishes.
• 19:50
  Puff. So the billionaire is the one
• 19:52
  who's dreaming. He thinks he's a king, but when
• 19:55
  the alarm clock of judgement finally goes off.
• 19:57
  He wakes up to find he's a pauper in hell.
• 20:00
  God despises their image, Spurgeon says.
• 20:03
  Their pomp is unsubstantial. It's a fantasy, right?
• 20:06
  And so why would you envy a man who's having a pleasant dream if
• 20:09
  you knew he was about to wake up to a firing squad?
• 20:12
  You wouldn't. You would pity him.
• 20:13
  And that is precisely where Asaph arrives.
• 20:16
  He goes from envy to pity, and then he goes to self abasement.
• 20:20
  The next section is his confession, verse 21.
• 20:24
  Thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my reins.
• 20:27
  Pricked in my reins. Spurgeon gets a bit medical
• 20:30
  here. He does.
• 20:31
  The reins are the kidneys in Hebrew psychology.
• 20:33
  That was the seat of the deepest emotions.
• 20:35
  And Spurgeon talks about calculi in the kidneys.
• 20:37
  Kidney stones. Ouch.
• 20:39
  He also describes the grief as being soured or fermented with
• 20:42
  yeast. It was this internal physical
• 20:44
  agony of conscience. And he just flat out admits his
• 20:47
  stupidity. Verse 22 So foolish was I, and
• 20:50
  ignorant I was as a beast before.
• 20:53
  Thee I was as a beast. And the Hebrew word there is
• 20:55
  actually behemoth. Behemoth.
• 20:57
  Yeah, it's the plural intensive form.
• 20:59
  It means a monstrous beast. So he's not just saying he was
• 21:02
  an animal, he's saying he was a monster.
• 21:04
  He's saying that by judging things only by the sight of the
• 21:06
  eyes, he was acting like an animal.
• 21:09
  Animals only know what they can see and eat and touch, right?
• 21:12
  They have no concept of eternity.
• 21:15
  So Asaph is saying I renounced the dignity of an immortal
• 21:18
  spirit. I acted like a cow, looking down
• 21:20
  at the green grass, completely ignoring the butcher standing
• 21:23
  right behind me. That is a heavy, heavy
• 21:26
  confession, but it leads immediately to the resolution,
• 21:30
  and this is my favorite transition of the whole book,
• 21:32
  verse 23. The great nevertheless.
• 21:35
  Nevertheless, I am continually with thee.
• 21:37
  Just think about that contrast verse 22.
• 21:40
  I was a beast. Verse 23.
• 21:42
  Nevertheless, I am continually with thee.
• 21:44
  The beast and the child of God in the same person.
• 21:47
  Spurging calls this the paradox. The flesh allies us with the
• 21:50
  brutes, but the Spirit affiliates us with God.
• 21:53
  So even when Asaph was doubting, even when he was envious, even
• 21:56
  when he was acting like a beast, was he cut off from God?
• 21:59
  No, I am continually with. Thee, and then Thou has told in
• 22:02
  me by my right hand. Here it is the preservation of
• 22:05
  the Saints. It wasn't Asaph holding on to
• 22:08
  God. His hands were slippery and
• 22:10
  weak. It was God holding on to ASAP.
• 22:13
  The grip was divine. The grip was divine.
• 22:15
  It's God's initiative. God holds the man, not the man
• 22:18
  holding God. And that is the only reason he
• 22:22
  didn't slip entirely and fall into ruin.
• 22:25
  And he moves from that preservation to guidance.
• 22:28
  Verse 24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward
• 22:31
  receive me to glory. Guide me with thy counsel.
• 22:34
  That's the antidote to the foolishness of the wicked, but
• 22:37
  the keywords virgin highlights there is afterward afterward.
• 22:40
  Yes, the Christians focus is always on the future.
• 22:44
  The wicked have there now we have our afterward.
• 22:47
  And Spurgeon connects that phrase.
• 22:49
  Receive me directly to Enoch. You remember the story of Enoch.
• 22:52
  And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
• 22:55
  God took him. The Hebrew verb is very similar.
• 22:57
  Receive me to glory. It's an assumption into the
• 23:00
  immediate, glorious presence of God.
• 23:02
  So Asaph has looked at the wicked and seen their end, and
• 23:04
  now he looks at God and sees his own end.
• 23:07
  And that leads to this ultimate question in verse 25.
• 23:10
  It does whom have I in heaven bet thee, and there is none upon
• 23:13
  earth that I desire beside thee. This is the exclusivity of a
• 23:17
  sanctified desire, Spurgeon says.
• 23:19
  God is better than all the glitter of the world.
• 23:21
  It's a total wholesale rejection of the very things he was
• 23:25
  envying just a few verses ago. And he acknowledges his own
• 23:28
  frailty one more time in verse 26.
• 23:31
  My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my
• 23:35
  heart and my portion forever. Flesh and heart, Faileth and
• 23:38
  Spurgeon reminds us. Your flesh will fail in death,
• 23:41
  certainly, but also in trial. But God is the rock of my heart.
• 23:45
  Let's talk about that word portion.
• 23:47
  It's a legal term. It means an inheritance and
• 23:49
  allotment of land. Spurgeon explains that the
• 23:51
  wicked have their portion in this life.
• 23:53
  He calls it rubbish and lumber. Rubbish and lumber.
• 23:56
  But the believers portion is God himself, not just God's gifts,
• 24:00
  not heaven, not blessings. God forever.
• 24:03
  And so finally we get to the verdict, the summary judgment in
• 24:07
  verses 27 and 28. For lo, they that are far from
• 24:10
  these shall perish. Distance equals death.
• 24:13
  It's that simple. Spurgeon uses the language of
• 24:16
  spiritual chastity here. Those who go whoring from God,
• 24:20
  seeking their satisfaction in idols or wealth, they are
• 24:23
  destroyed. But it is good for me to draw
• 24:25
  near to God. Nearness is the good.
• 24:28
  And why? Because nearness is the cure.
• 24:31
  It's the antidote to the envy. When you are near to God, you
• 24:34
  don't envy the wicked man his slippery place on the Cliff.
• 24:37
  You see it for what it is. You see it for what it is and
• 24:40
  you are thankful for your solid ground.
• 24:42
  And the final purpose of it all, that I may declare all thy
• 24:46
  works. The trial doesn't just end with
• 24:48
  his own safety. It ends with testimony.
• 24:51
  He who understands can teach. Asaph went through this hellish
• 24:56
  marathon of doubt so that he could write Psalm 73 and teach
• 24:59
  us, thousands of years later, how to survive it ourselves.
• 25:02
  That's incredible. He went through the fire just to
• 25:04
  bring back a map for the rest of us.
• 25:05
  That's a. Great way to put it.
• 25:07
  So to summarize this whole path, this marathon, as Spurgeon calls
• 25:10
  it, we started with the slippery feet of envy.
• 25:13
  We saw the confusing prosperity, the wicked, their quiet death,
• 25:16
  their arrogance. We felt the bitterness of that
• 25:19
  cup that's given to the Saints. But then the pivot.
• 25:22
  We entered the sanctuary. We changed our vantage point
• 25:25
  from the earth to the sun. We saw the slippery places of
• 25:28
  the wicked and we realized their entire life is just a dream.
• 25:32
  And we ended up realizing that having God as our portion is the
• 25:37
  only thing that actually matters.
• 25:38
  That is it. We learn not to judge the Book
• 25:40
  of Providence by a single page. You have to read the whole
• 25:42
  chapter. You have to read until you get
• 25:43
  to the afterword. And that brings us to the end of
• 25:45
  our deep dive. But before we sign off, we want
• 25:47
  to leave you with something to chew on.
• 25:49
  I want you to go back to that dream analogy in verse 20.
• 25:53
  Spurgeon's insight there is just It's haunting.
• 25:56
  If the prosperity of the wicked, all the wealth, the power, the
• 25:59
  fame, if all of that is a dream from which God awakes, what is
• 26:05
  the reality that you are building your life upon?
• 26:08
  That is the question. Are you coveting the
• 26:11
  unsubstantial wealth of dreamland?
• 26:14
  Are you spending your life building a mansion in a dream?
• 26:17
  Or are you investing in the solid gold of the apernal
• 26:20
  sanctuary? Because sooner or later, the
• 26:23
  sleeper always wakes. Make sure you're holding on to
• 26:26
  something real when that happens.
• 26:27
  Thank you for listening to Reformed Thinking.
• 26:30
  We hope this deep dive helps you stand firm, especially when your
• 26:33
  feet feel like they're slipping. Grace and peace to you.
• 26:36
  See you next time.