TLIC Psalms. June 18. Destroyed in a Moment.

Read Psalm 73:15-20.  ¹⁵If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children. ¹⁶But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, ¹⁷until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. ¹⁸Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. ¹⁹How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! ²⁰Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

Asaph refuses to lose to the problem of evil. Just when we thought he was going to give up on his faith (v.13), he allows his heart to be changed, not by some divine answer to all of his questions (v.16), but by his loyalty to the children of God – I would have betrayed the generation of your children. His loyalty to the family of God gets him back into the sanctuary, and this is where he finally receives God’s answer. 

The answer: the final judgment. They are destroyed in a moment. Swept away. Like waking up from a bad dream.

Everything Asaph thought to be true wasn’t. It wasn’t his feet that were slipping, it was the feet of the enemies of God. What looks like prosperity and stability in this life is sinking sand. And what looks like instability in the Christian’s life is actually his placement upon the rock of our salvation in Christ. A salvation that took the terror we all deserve upon the cross.

To live is Christ is to be free from the swift and terrifying judgment of God. In Christ we are on solid ground no matter what the situation of life looks like.

You: Does the problem of evil ever threaten to trip up your faith?

You in Christ: How does a view to our eternity in Christ help us to make sense of “when bad things happen to good people?”

Christ in you: What trial are you actively facing today? In what way can Christ’s life and love in you be solid ground for your feet?

Pray: Father, when I look at my future in you my present doubts and fears fade away. Help me to trust your current and coming judgments. Amen.