Perspective

I have my point of view, and surely you have yours. I try to keep mine steady and consistent, always filtering events and happenings around me. As such, how I respond to situations, options for living, etc. tend to reflect my perspective, for good or bad. The difficulty lies in remembering that my human responses can be tainted by my own sin, and when that happens, frustration is typically the result.


Psalm 73 takes 16 verses to discuss this topic. The psalmist is envious of those who are boastful, seeing how prosperous the wicked were. Those people did not seem to have the same troubles and struggles as the writer. They can afford better things, they very likely were able to live a better, cleaner lifestyle that even kept them from illness and disease. How fair is that, when the psalm starts with saying how good God is to Israel, His followers?

But wait, there’s more. They are unashamedly prideful, they show off and speak often of their abundance. They speak ill of those with less, and even speak against God in the process. They live very imaginative lives, where they scheme and plot, and always seem to come out ahead. I the end, they intimidate others and try to set the rules on earth, not giving a moment of glory to God.

All this frustrates the psalmist, as it can frustrate us today. Verse 13 and 14 summarize an understandable, yet incorrect, sentiment. We can allow ourselves to believe that all our hard work, all our living the Christian life is just in vain, a potential waste of time. And then reading on and applying this text today, we can give up trying to understand how this world works. I read the news; it’s just too painful some days, and on others it is just way too aggravating.

So, when I am done feeling sorry for myself, and humble enough to go to God with my frustration, I end up with a Psalm 73:17 frame of mind, God’s perspective. The NASB says I “perceived” their end (the worldly, wicked). Other translations use “understood”. The implication is that of remembering. Once the psalmist looked at this from God’s perspective (came to the sanctuary of God), he remembered that God is just. This world’s ways, the wickedness and evil, will not win in the end. There is severe judgment on the horizon for those who are not part of God’s family. In essence, this world is all they have to live for, and they sure do try to make the most of their temporal time here.

Those without the Lord live a rather sad life, whether or not they know that now. Verse 21 talks about embitterment, and we can certainly suffer from that here and now. The psalmist describes such an attitude as senseless and ignorant. And then verse 24 should be a key verse in any believer’s life:

“With Your counsel You will guide me, and afterward receive me to glory.” This is the perspective we need, especially now more than ever. And like the psalmist in verse 28, my prayer today is to more intentionally make God my refuge, so that I can tell others about just How good He is.