A timeless question has plagued mankind: Why do the good suffer and the wicked prosper? That question surfaces in the Bible in two extended passages: Job 21 and Psalm 73. Job raised the question because he thought he was a righteous man who had been made to suffer. And the psalmist raised the question because it represented an apparent contradiction. Both writers resolved the question by encountering God and His purposes.

In the latter chapters of his book, Job encountered God and gained understanding about His sovereign ways (Job 42:1-6). The psalmist declared that the contradiction in God’s ways “was too painful for [him]—until [he] went into the sanctuary of God; then [he] understood their end” (Psalm 73:16-17). The “sanctuary” represents Job considering his questions in light of the sovereign purposes of God and the fact that God will balance the scales of justice in the end. For him, it was enough to put his trust in God and “draw near” to Him (verse 28).

Don’t let the carefree lives of those who don’t serve God be a source of frustration. Let Him be your only desire on earth (verse 25).

The humble Christian is far happier in a cottage than the wicked in a palace.
A. W. Pink