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March 12
Take an inside look
For reading & meditation: 1 Corinthians 11:27-34
"A man ought to examine himself '" (v.28)
From what we have seen over the past few days, it is clear that the psalmist has come to the place where his views have changed. He sees that God is ruling over human affairs and that the ungodly are not in such an enviable situation after all. We come now to see that he was not only put right in his thinking about the ungodly and about God, but he was also put right about himself: "When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant: I was a brute beast before you" (Psa. 73:21-22). What a different view he has of himself now compared to previously, when he so evidently felt very sorry for himself: "Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence" (v.13). Outside the sanctuary, he felt full of self-pity; inside the sanctuary, he had an entirely different view of himself. This is a moment when the psalmist honestly faces himself - something that is very difficult to do. Most of us don't mind working our way through our problems, but the moment we get relief, we want to stop right there. We do not go on to face up to what caused us to come to the wrong conclusions in the first place. This is why we keep going through the same problems over and over again - we fail to take an inside look. A schoolteacher claimed to have twenty-five years of experience, but her head teacher said of her: "She has just one year of experience twenty-five times." She worked long but learned little.
