EPISODE · Sep 10, 2017
The Sanctuary Effect – Psalm 73
from Providence Community Church · host Ken Carlton
Similar themes to this psalm are featured in other Old Testament passages, Psalm 37, 49 and the book of Job among them. The author wrestles with the perennial question: “How could a good God allow me to suffer while His enemies prosper?” This question would have proved especially difficult at this time in covenant history. The progressively unfolding nature of special revelation had not fully revealed the degree of emphasis on the spiritual and eternal nature of covenant blessing and sanctions such as we understand with the benefit of the gospel and proclamation of New Covenant fulfillment. The patriarchs of Old would have been far more likely to associate temporal blessing with covenant obedience and conversely, temporal punishments for unfaithfulness. It would be a great step of faith indeed to wrestle with the apparent opposite scenarios playing out in one's experience. The Spirit of God is therefore vividly evident in the soul of the psalmist as He leads him to the sanctuary and to greater understanding of the ways and means of the Lord. It becomes clear to him, as it should to us, that the Lord often shapes His people into His image through the tempering grace of affliction while He fattens the wicked for the slaughter through the judicial hardening of prosperous ease...
What this episode covers
Similar themes to this psalm are featured in other Old Testament passages, Psalm 37, 49 and the book of Job among them. The author wrestles with the perennial question: “How could a good God allow me to suffer while His enemies prosper?” This question would have proved especially difficult at this time in covenant history. The progressively unfolding nature of special revelation had not fully revealed the degree of emphasis on the spiritual and eternal nature of covenant blessing and sanctions such as we understand with the benefit of the gospel and proclamation of New Covenant fulfillment. The patriarchs of Old would have been far more likely to associate temporal blessing with covenant obedience and conversely, temporal punishments for unfaithfulness. It would be a great step of faith indeed to wrestle with the apparent opposite scenarios playing out in one's experience. The Spirit of God is therefore vividly evident in the soul of the psalmist as He leads him to the sanctuary and to greater understanding of the ways and means of the Lord. It becomes clear to him, as it should to us, that the Lord often shapes His people into His image through the tempering grace of affliction while He fattens the wicked for the slaughter through the judicial hardening of prosperous ease...
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The Sanctuary Effect – Psalm 73
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