God Gives Meaning to Life

MEMORY VERSE: “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, … according to the good pleasure of his will.” —Ephesians 1:5

PSALM 73:1-3, 16, 17, 21-26

GOD, through the Law given at the hands of Moses, promised health and prosperity to the Israelites. As the psalmist saw it, this was an evidence of God’s good will toward Israel; that is, to those of the nation who had clean hearts. There should have been no difficulty on the part of those who were thus pure of heart to recognize God’s love and mercy in this respect, but it required faith and understanding. The psalmist was tested along this line. “As for me,” he wrote, “my feet were almost gone: my steps had well nigh slipped; for I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”

As we read on in the psalm we see that at the time many in Israel who were far from righteous were prospering, spoken of by the psalmist as “the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.” He withheld himself from saying too much about his difficulties in connection with this situation lest he “should offend” against the generation of his children.

This made a very difficult situation for the psalmist. He says, “When I thought to know [or understand] this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.” Going “into the sanctuary” of the Lord would suggest, for one thing, a closer fellowship with God, and in the present age, also with his people. This communion with God through his people usually results in a better understanding of him and of his will.

The psalmist’s heart was grieved and he was “pricked” in his reins, until, through a closer fellowship with God he came to understand him better and to accept his providences in his life, and to trust him, not only for himself, but also with respect to his dealings with others. He recognized that his “pain” over the matter of the wicked prospering was an expression of his own foolishness. Now he realized that regardless of the position of the wicked, God was dealing with him in a special way, and that he was being held by his “right hand.”

The psalmist continues, “Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” (vs. 24) If we think of this as applying prophetically to the church of the present age the “glory” referred to would be the “glory, and honor, and immortality” of the kingdom for all those who prove worthy to live and reign with Christ. (Rom. 2:7) This high reward was not promised to anyone prior to the Lord’s first advent, but various writers of the Old Testament referred to it in their prophecies, and this would seem to be one of the instances of the use of prophecy in this manner.

But this high reward will come only to those who are guided by the Lord’s counsel, and this guidance comes to them through his Word. These realize that even while in the flesh, the Lord is their satisfying portion; that life is not at all worthwhile apart from knowing and serving him: “There is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.” “God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.”

EPHESIANS 1:9, 10

Basically, the psalmist’s problem was the understanding of the divine permission of evil. However, the Scriptures assure us that the time is coming when all evil shall be destroyed. This is according to the “good pleasure” of the Heavenly Father’s purpose, which is that “in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.”—vs. 10

In connection with the outworking of this “good pleasure” he predestinates his faithful of the present age to be his children, and these, together with his beloved Son, Christ Jesus, will be the Lord’s ruling house in the messianic kingdom. These will share with Jesus in reconciling the world to God and to the doing of his will. All wilful opposers of the divine will, are then to be cut off in death.—Acts 3:23

QUESTIONS

Did God exercise a special care over the faithful of natural Israel, and what was the psalmist’s problem in connection with this?

When will all evil and evil-doers in the earth be destroyed?

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