The lights come on!

Till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood...  Psalm 73:17

Midway through Psalm 73 and our series "What to do with hard questions" we come upon this amazing verse.

Picture this, the worship leader/musician guy named Asaph has been singing about struggling with injustice.  He can't understand why evil people get away with evil stuff and seem better off than others.  He questions what good it does to do the right thing.  He's living in painful agony over the situation.  He has to set some limits on his catharsis in order to not trip up others who have enough problems of their own.

Then the lights come on!

He has been leading the worship services for quite some time so "entering the sanctuary" isn't a new experience.  But this time something happens.  See, entering the sanctuary is not about crossing some magical threshold into a building or place of worship.  But it is about being in a physical place with other people and encountering the living God.  

The habit of worshiping regularly with God's people was in place in Asaph's life. And it was in that context that God reframed Asaph's understanding and God reframed Asaph.

What a powerful, inviting, releasing, mind-blowing picture of how God works in our lives.  Yes He can work in other settings.  We can encounter  Him in the mountains, on the beach, alone on a bike ride, etc.  But this scene in Psalm 73 describes the place He says He will meet us.  

And more than being about the place, it is a pattern for making our way through the hard questions of life.  We may not get answers to all the specifics.  But we will get what He wants to give, and it can result in much greater understanding.

Asaph's circumstances weren't immediately changed.  But he did see that God was at work and that God would deal with injustice.

I'm excited to explore these verses and the end of Psalm 73 these next few weeks. And I'm looking forward to worshiping God with others desiring to encounter Him. Fasten your seat belt!