«　WEEK 8　DAY 2　»

　　Psa. 73:16-17 When I considered this in order to understand it, it was a troublesome task in my sight, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.

　　When we come together, our intention may be to pray, to worship, to serve, to hear a message, to be taught, to be exhorted, to be strengthened, to be comforted, and to be encouraged. This is our understanding. Actually, with our meetings there are so many wonderful things underneath the surface. We gain a lot of benefits and profit that we do not realize by participating in the meetings. (CWWL, 1982, vol. 1, “Experiencing Christ as the Offerings for the Church Meetings,” p. 488)

　　In Psalm 73:17 through 28 we see that the psalmist obtained the solution in the sanctuary of God….First, God’s sanctuary, His habitation, is in our spirit. Second, God’s sanctuary is the church. Thus, to go into the sanctuary of God, we need to turn to our spirit and then go to the meetings of the church. Once we are in the sanctuary—in the spirit and in the church—we will have another view, a particular perception, of the situation concerning the wicked. (Life-study of the Psalms, p. 354)

　　There is only one way to reconcile Psalms 1 and 73, and it is presented to us in Psalm 73:17….The sanctuary of God is the place where we may obtain the revelation we need. The sanctuary here undoubtedly signifies the dwelling place of God. Our spirit today is God’s dwelling place. Even more, the local churches are God’s dwelling place. Hence, we must turn to our spirit, and we must turn to the local church; then we will be clear. Our spirit and the local church are the places where we receive divine revelation, where we obtain the explanation to all our problems.

　　What did [the psalmist] perceive? Verse 25 says, “Whom do I have in heaven but You? / And besides You there is nothing I desire on earth.” He realized that God was working to deprive him of all material things so that he might enjoy God in such an absolute way. This is the revelation. Why do the wicked prosper and their riches continually increase? It is because God has given them up; He simply lets them go on their own way. They have nothing whatever to do with the enjoyment of God. But God’s intention with the seeking saints is to remove all material blessings and all physical enjoyments in order that they may find everything in God. Nothing in heaven or on earth can be their enjoyment but God Himself. It was by the psalmist’s experience, as recorded in the first part of Psalm 73, that he could eventually assert, “Whom do I have in heaven but You? / And besides You there is nothing I desire on earth.” He received revelation. He learned why God would not allow the seeking saints to prosper as the worldlings do. God intends that nothing should distract us from the absolute enjoyment of Himself. Eventually, it is not a matter of merely keeping the law, but of seeking God absolutely. It is not a matter of doing good or evil, right or wrong—if you are concerned about that, you are still occupied with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is a matter of seeking God, obtaining God, possessing God. It is a matter of experiencing God to the extent that you also can say, “Whom do I have in heaven but You? / And besides You there is nothing I desire on earth.” In other words, “I do not care for anything but the tree of life; I do not care for anything other than God Himself.” This is Psalm 73. When the psalmist went into the sanctuary of God, he received this revelation and took God Himself as his all. How may we too have the experience of the psalmist in these verses? We must be in the spirit and in the local church, the sanctuary of God. Just by this one psalm we may see the difference between Book Three and Book One. There is a great improvement. It is not a matter of keeping the law or of being right or wrong, but of having God and of keeping God as everything. (CWWL, 1969, vol. 3, “Christ and the Church Revealed and Typified in the Psalms,” pp. 113-114)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 205-207; Life-study of the Psalms, msg. 30