Truth Unseen

Vol 2 No 50 THEO'S DEVOS

Psalm 73:17 Then one day I went into your sanctuary, O God,

and I thought about the destiny of the wicked.

We have noted, on several occasions, that there is a reality not visible to mortal sight. Within that reality there is a spiritual war and we are pawns in that war. You and I become collateral damage at times and, when we are, it can hurt – badly.

Quite a long time ago I found myself misunderstood and it felt like my world was spinning out of control. Now I am not given to depression. I am, seemingly by nature, a very positive person. So, at that time, as I experienced a touch of depression, I had no idea how to pull out of it. My brain told me that (and I would like to say God told me) that the answer to my dilemma was within the pages of scripture. So that is what I did. I opened God's Word and just started looking around for some word from God that would help me in this time of worry.

Another thought came to my mind that a good place to look would be in the book of Psalms. I remembered that David had wrestled with depression so it could be that he had some thoughts on the subject and I could not have been more right. In reading through this book I found a new appreciation for the truth that the Bible is a living book. It can reach inside your mind and heart and bring about change that no other book, or person, could hope to. With the exception, of course, of Jesus who is the Living Word.

To really appreciate our verse today it would be a great help if you went back and read the entire 73^rd chapter. David was being threatened and that threat came from evil men who appeared to be doing very well. While David suffered, those who caused his suffering fared just fine. So how did the knowledge of God help David at the time he needed it most? That is where our verse comes to play. He entered the sanctuary of God. He went into the presence of God. For David it meant entering the temple. For you it might mean going someplace quiet with your Bible and reading these verses over and over again.

My problem was that, until I turned to scripture, I was using my natural thought processes to deal with my problem. You see, our natural processes were never intended to help us deal with inner stress. We may be able to put a bandied on our problem but it will not deal with the essence of the problem,. In fact you begin to focus on the problem itself and that is not the heart of the matter. We are in a spiritual battle and most inner struggle is best faced with a spiritual mind. How do you appropriate this spiritual mindset? God's Word. It is the reason we were given this book. To help us see things from God's perspective and not our natural one.

When David entered the sanctuary he began to see his situation from God's point of view. He then saw that the end is not visible to him. He began to see that God was in control. It is so easy to be short sighted when faced with difficult problems that perplex us. Only God can bring you mind into clarity and you can understand the reality behind what seems so obvious to you.

One very important thing needs to be understood at this point. Where is the sanctuary you can go to like David? The church building? Well meaning people call the worship room in the church building the sanctuary don't they? Maybe that is where you should go. Sit in a pew and meditate on scripture. That is not a bad idea but it is not the sanctuary in the sense that David knew. The Bible tells us that our bodies are the sanctuaries of God. You can focus on scripture wherever you are and allow you mind, now the sanctuary of God, to think God's thoughts along with Him

The next time you are faced with a difficult problem, especially one involving someone else that seems to be causing you stress. Turn to Psalm 73 and begin reading it. Not just once or twice but several times. Watch how God uses the words to bring you comfort and transport your thinking into a spiritual realm that you could never have accessed with your own natural thinking. You will learn what many others have learned: God is still living in the words of the Bible. It is still a living document that can divide the indivisible and bring calmness even within great stress. You will know, beyond any reasonable doubt, that scripture has been given to us by God to enable us to understand the spiritual aspect of life.

May God bless you as you ponder His Word.

Theo