When the psalmist speaks of going into the sanctuary, he means he came before the presence of God. He actually went into the temple where God had made provision to meet with His people. When he did that, he began to see things from God's point of view. In the temple he began to shift from natural thinking to spiritual thinking. The problem was that he had been thinking like a natural man. Thus, he had gotten himself worked up into a terrible state of frenzy. But wonderfully, in the sanctuary, he begins to understand as he thinks from God's point of view. That is the great thing about the Scriptures. It means that when you come to church or read the Scriptures, you are not coming merely to find something to soothe you a bit; you are coming that you might have your eyes opened, that you might see things as they really are and thus begin to understand life. There are many people who are content to use the Bible only to soothe their feelings when they get upset, but the Bible is not provided for that. It is provided that we might understand what is happening to us in every aspect of life, and that is what happened to the psalmist. He came into the sanctuary, and there he began to think from God's point of view.
The trouble with so-called natural thinking is that it is always centered on self, and natural-thinking people react to their circumstances according to their feelings, moods, and emotions. When that happens to you, your range of vision is narrowed down to only those factors that are troubling you. You cannot think beyond them. When your feelings govern you, they always limit you. That is what was troubling this man.
He begins to see it when he comes into the sanctuary, into the presence of God, because there he begins thinking spiritually. Spiritual thinking is centered on God, and the mind is in control and not the feelings. Then you are not being governed by emotions but by thoughts relating to facts. Thus, your vision is broadened, and you can see other things besides the one thing that is disturbing your emotions. It is made possible only when you enter the sanctuary.
How do we enter the sanctuary today? According to the New Testament, we ourselves are the sanctuary. God lives in us. To draw near to Him is to enter the sanctuary. We enter the sanctuary in various ways: by exposing ourselves to His truth in the Scripture; or by facing truth we have forgotten as we fellowship with other Christians; or by directly praying to God and changing our thinking from natural to spiritual.
Father, teach me this same truth. Keep me from being envious of the ungodly, but help me to enter Your sanctuary and have my mind renewed by Your truth.
In (Psalm 23:2-3a) David enumerates the ways in which the Good Shepherd meets our needs. The first thing He does is to meet the needs of the inner person, the basic needs that we have for nourishment within. The basic needs of a flock of sheep are grass and water. Here is the very picturesque scene of sheep bedded down in grassy meadows, having eaten their fill and now totally satisfied, and then being led by still waters. Sheep are afraid of running water; they will drink only from a quiet pool. A good shepherd, particularly in a semi-arid region such as Palestine, knows where the watering holes are. He knows where the grassy meadows are. And so he leads the sheep into places where they can rest and feed and where they can drink. The picture is one of calm and tranquility, because the basic needs of the sheep are met.
The counterpart in our lives is obvious. It is God who restores the inner person through His Word. As we feed upon the Word of God we see the Lord Jesus there. We draw upon Him, and our inner person is satisfied. The Word of God brings us, first, to the person of Christ. Beyond the sacred page, the hymn says, we see thee, Lord. We see Him, and we eat and drink of Him, and we discover Him to be the resource that we need. As Paul says, Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). Our souls are restored. How? As we feed upon Him. As we come to know Him, believe what He says, and act on His word, we discover that the inner person is fed.