The View From The Sanctuary by Ray Stedman (1917-1992)

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.

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 the 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 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, 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.