Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
Psalm 73:20
Asaph uses a second picture here, waking up from a dream, to show us what he discovered in the sanctuary about the ultimate outcome of the wicked.
Imagine a beggar who has a dream. And in his dream, he wins fifty million pounds in the lottery! He dreams about the home he will buy and the car he will drive. He dreams about the motorboats and motorcycles he will have in his expansive garage. In his dream, he sees himself flying first class, cruising the Caribbean, and enjoying fine dining. But then he wakes up and realises that it was only a dream. He is still a beggar.
This is the destiny of the wicked. Thinking that they have everything, they wake up only to find that they have nothing. The outcome for the wicked is that one day they will fall over and be ruined. They will wake up and be disappointed.
That’s what Asaph saw when he came into the sanctuary. He remembered God’s truth and he met with God’s people, and it changed his whole perspective. If that’s the end of the wicked, why in all the world was I envying them?
Is there an ungodly person you are tempted to envy? Talk with the Lord now about why you might not want to trade places with him or her.
