Ps. 73.23-24 (in the afterward glory)

Yet / I am / always with you
you hold / my right hand
with your counsel / you guide me
and afterward / with glory / you will receive me. 

We argued yesterday that verses 21-22 were largely a recapitulation of the first section of psalm, particularly verses 13-16 where the psalmist describes the anguish caused by the ascendency of the wicked. Here, we come to the same ‘turn’ accomplished in verse 17. There, the tone of the psalm changes utterly when the psalmist enter the sanctuary/Temple. From anguish and a lack of understanding suddenly emerges a supreme confidence and comprehension. Likewise, here, the psalmist shifts in a profound manner from his being regarded as a “brute beast” to “Yet I am always with you; you hold my right hand.” And, like the shift in verse 17, the change comes about because of God’s presence. There, it was specifically related to entering the sanctuary. Here, it is simply described as being “with you”, although it seems clear that the psalmist is referring to the presence of God in the Temple. Another important element of this shift is that the first half of the psalm never directly addresses God. It is only after he has entered the Temple that God is spoken to directly as “You”. Here, too, once the presence of God is engaged, the “you” emerges once again. In the first section, once God’s presence was entered, God’s action was comprehended as focused on the destruction of the wicked (vs. 18-20). Here, God’s action will be on his righteous ones: “you hold my right hand”; “you guide me”; “you will receive me with glory”; my provider, strength and portion. All of the ‘realities’ of God’s presence come into focus for the psalmist once he has entered into the Temple. On the outside he is “brute beast”. In God’s presence, however, he comes to comprehend that “I am always with you”. The one who was in exile was the psalmist, not God. This is a recurring idea throughout: that the blindness suffered by the psalmist is one of his heart, not one of history. When his heart turned, he entered into a realm whereby he was unable to perceive that “I am always with you”. He could not hear the voice that was constant because his heart had “turned” to the wicked (vs. 2-3, 10). Once he enters into the Temple, however, he comes to see his rebellion. He comes to see that his heart is God’s concern. We must notice the resemblance between these concluding lines and the psalmist initial turning. In verses 2-3 the psalmist described his turning from God as one related to walking: “my feet almost stumbled; my step had nearly slipped”. Here, upon entering the Temple, the psalmist comes to see that he is “always with God” because “you hold my right hand; through your counsel you guide me.” God is perpetually faithful through guidance. God’s constant instruction is the presence the psalmist turned from when he coveted the wicked; it was the ‘path’ he abandoned. The point is that God, and his instruction, is as constant as the Temple. When the heart journeys into darkness, it is a darkness that is engendered by a turning away from God, the Light. The ‘theodicy’ portion of this psalm is not the ‘true’ analysis. Rather, it is in God’s Temple that the wicked are truly perceived. This is not to say that the psalmist’s observations are without weight. However, if one gives equal weight to the first portion of the psalm one is entirely missing the point: that God’s perpetual and constant presence in the Temple reshapes the question entirely. The ‘problem of the wicked’ is more a ‘problem of the heart’. If one seeks to understand the ‘problem of the wicked’ as it relates to God’s “goodness” (vs. 1), one must seek to understand that in and through the Temple. For the Temple is that constant and perpetual goodness (vs. 14). This leads to the final note struck in these verse: the receiving with glory. We remarked yesterday that the ‘time of the wicked’ is the ‘time of the localized Temple’, and that God’s judgment on the wicked comes about because of his desire to make all of creation into that Temple. Here, we could say—that his desire is that the glory that is purely and perpetually present in the Temple is one that is to dwell as completely in every corner of creation. That sense is not something current. It is in the future. As ‘constant’ as God’s presence is (“I am always with you”) God’s presence has not yet become present to all of creation. Here, the psalmist envisions a point in time when God will “receive him” with “glory”. His time now is one of constant and perpetual “hand-holding” (23) and “counsel” (24) but there will come a time when that will be fulfilled in “glory” (24). It is not clear what this “afterward” is. However, in the context of the psalm, we must say that the psalmist envisions a time when the wicked will be, not merely crippled, but utterly destroyed and “swept away” (vs. 18-20). All of those references are to the future. Until that time, the psalmist must rely upon and follow God’s “counsel”. Then, when the wicked are removed, the “glory” that resides in the Temple will “be complete” in the earth. Therefore, this ‘afterward’ may refer to his death, but I think it more likely that it refers to the time when God “rouses himself” (vs. 20), the wicked are “despised as mere images” (20) and God awakens himself (he is not ‘woken up’). And that ‘time’ will be utterly unpredictable and ‘sudden’ (19) for it will of necessity reveal itself as judgment on those who believed themselves constant and secure (the wicked). For now, however, the psalmist has the Temple where all of this is guaranteed. The Temple is God’s oath of his future ‘rousing’. In a sense, in the Temple, the psalmist stands ‘in the ‘afterward’ glory’.