The Presence of God 

As you recall from last week, I am reflecting on Psalm 73 where the writer sees wicked people all around him prospering. It isn’t fair and God doesn’t seem to be doing anything. Just when Asaph feels like he can’t take any more of the darkness, he is reminded of some basic responsibilities to the family of God. That is when he enters the Sanctuary. Light breaks in as he goes into the Presence of a Holy God. Then he sees everything so clearly. His perspective is completely changed.  As he worships, he is humbled by God’s holiness and he is able to see the full picture.  

Christ changes everything 

I can hardly articulate what it means to me to enter the presence of a Holy God. Some have suggested that God is like their daddy and they feel like they can crawl up in His lap. Honestly, that image just seems irreverent to me. As I consider examples from the Old Testament, I am struck with fear and awe. Isaiah said, “woe is me, I am a dead man” when he was in the presence of holiness.¹ Poor Uzzah placed his hand on the Ark of the Covenant to keep it from falling off its cart and was struck dead.² The priests offered sacrifices daily to atone for sin, but only once a year could the high priest enter the Holy of Holies. If he didn’t follow the prescribed rules, the penalty was death³  

As I contemplate the difference between these sinners and myself, the only thing that separates me from them is The Advent. After Christ came and gave Himself as the perfect sacrifice, everything changed. He conquered death when He rose again and was welcomed into His Father’s presence where He sits at His right hand making intercession on my behalf as the Great High Priest. Now I can boldly approach His Throne.⁴ He invites me to do so. But may I never forget, it’s only possible because when a Holy God looks on me, He sees the righteousness of Christ credited to me as the debt of my sin has been paid in full.   

Worth getting up for 

My favorite time of the day has become my morning quiet time. It’s worth getting up for. I feel unworthy, but as light breaks into darkness it’s as if God is speaking to me.   

“Good morning, I am here. I am with you. There is nothing that can happen to you today that is outside of my control. Come, spend some time with me. My Spirit will testify the Truth to your spirit if you will just be still and listen. Enter my presence as I speak to you through My Word and you respond in worshipful prayer.”  

Worshipping God as He truly is brings clarity and spiritual blessings to our lives better than any worldly riches ever could. Then we see the sad truth that the outcome of living in wickedness comes to a dreadful end and will unmake everything they lived for.⁴  

Phantoms of their former selves 

God is longsuffering and gives many opportunities to turn to Him. Eventually, if someone never repents of their sin and continues to rebelliously shake their fist in the face of a Sovereign God, He will reject them and dismiss them as of no further account or interest. Then, in separation from God forever, as phantoms of their former selves, they will wake up to a life of eternal terror with no prospect of goodness or gladness.⁴  

The key to not envying those who seem to have it all here as they carelessly revel in their sin, is to consider their end. 

Bitterness dissipated 

Envy blinded Asaph. But when he entered God’s presence, his bitterness dissipated. Asaph was harboring bitter thoughts down deep in his soul as he envied the wicked. Coming into God’s presence gave him clarity. As he received instruction from God’s Word, he humbly recognized how foolish and short-sighted he was being. He didn’t realize at the time, but God was holding Asaph with His powerful and protective right hand. And will continue to until He receives him into the Glories of Heaven.  To which Asaph realizes nothing on earth compares. Asaph’s life here on earth will come to an end. But he is no longer worried about that.  

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever⁵ 

Those who are unfaithful to God will perish in their spiritual whoredom. They are contrasted with those whose chief and only good is to be near to God and put their trust in Him as a refuge. The only fitting response is to tell the world of all He has done and will do for His children. He is their Home.  

When we compare our hard and sometimes painful living with success as defined by the world, we may feel like loving and serving God is all in vain.  

That is, UNTIL we enter His Sanctuary.  

Worshipping in His Presence changes everything!  

THEN, we clearly see the Truth. Discerning the devastating end of the wicked makes all the difference in how we view not only them, but also our own short lives. This life is a vapor. Eternity is forever. 

73 Truly God is good to Israel, 
    to those who are pure in heart. 
²But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, 
    my steps had nearly slipped. 
³For I was envious of the arrogant 
    when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 
⁴For they have no pangs until death; 
    their bodies are fat and sleek. 
⁵They are not in trouble as others are; 
    they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. 
⁶Therefore pride is their necklace; 
    violence covers them as a garment. 
⁷Their eyes swell out through fatness; 
    their hearts overflow with follies. 
⁸They scoff and speak with malice; 
    loftily they threaten oppression. 
⁹They set their mouths against the heavens, 
    and their tongue struts through the earth. 
¹⁰Therefore his people turn back to them, 
    and find no fault in them.^[a] 
11And they say, “How can God know? 
    Is there knowledge in the Most High?” 
¹²Behold, these are the wicked; 
    always at ease, they increase in riches. 
¹³All in vain have I kept my heart clean 
    and washed my hands in innocence. 
¹⁴For all the day long I have been stricken 
    and rebuked every morning. 
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. 
²¹When my soul was embittered, 
    when I was pricked in heart, 
²²I was brutish and ignorant; 
    I was like a beast toward you. 
²³Nevertheless, I am continually with you; 
    you hold my right hand. 
²⁴You guide me with your counsel, 
    and afterward you will receive me to glory. 
²⁵Whom have I in heaven but you? 
    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 
²⁶My flesh and my heart may fail, 
    but God is the strength^[b] of my heart and my portion forever. 
²⁷For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; 
    you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. 
²⁸But for me it is good to be near God; 
I have made the Lord God my refuge, 
    that I may tell of all your works. 
Psalm 73 ESV⁷ 

1. Isaiah 6:1-6 

2. 2 Samuel 6:3-8 

3. Leviticus 16:2, 13 

4. Hebrews 4:14-16 

5. Derek Kidner, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Volume 16, Psalm 73-150: An Introduction and Commentary. London: Intervarsity Press, 1975.  

6. Numbers 18:20 

7. The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.