我们前几天一直在思考诗人在圣所中被提醒某些忽略了的事情，因此得到醒悟。是的，除非我们的思想先经历变化，否则我们的性情不会有真正的改变。凡是只着重改变行为的心理辅导法，没有强调改变思想的重要性，均是片面以及不完整的。没错，改变行为的确可能为我们带来一些改变，但正如今天的经文指出，思想改变以后，我们才能够经历最大的改变。

诗人在圣所内似乎对不敬虔的人有了正确的想法，他「思想他们的结局」（思想就是明白的意思）（诗七十三17）。而接着的经文指出他对神的想法也跟着变得正确：「你实在把他们安在滑地，使他们掉在沉沦之中。他们转眼之间成了何等的荒凉，他们被惊恐灭尽了」（诗七十三18-19）。诗人的疑问并不是为何不敬虔的人会兴盛，而是神怎会有这样的安排。如果他认为事情只是出于偶然，那么他可能没有任何疑问，但事实是伟大的设计师如此的计划，令他充满疑惑。不过，现在他看到神大能的手把这些人放在兴盛和显要的位置上，目的是要实现创造主的旨意，经文说「你实在把他们安在滑地。」留意这个「你」，也要留意「滑地」这两个字，意思是他们的位置其实是危险的。因此，神没有将祂所爱的人放在那个地方，而是选择了一个虽然艰难但更稳妥的立足点来让他们站立。

We have been seeing that in the sanctuary the psalmist was reminded of the things he had forgotten, and thus his thinking was straightened out. There can be no real change in our personalities until there is a change in our thinking. Counselling that focuses only on changing behaviour and fails to emphasise the importance of changed thinking is partial and incomplete. We may experience some change when we change our behaviour, but we experience the greatest change, as our text for today suggests, when we change our thinking.

In the sanctuary the psalmist's thinking was put right about the ungodly: "Then I understood their end" (Psa. 73:17, NKJ). The next verses indicate how his thinking was also put right about God Himself: "Surely you place them on slippery ground, you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors" (Psa. 73:18-19). The psalmist's problem, you remember, was not so much that the ungodly prospered, as that God had arranged it that way.

Had it happened by mere chance, he might not have had any difficulties, but the fact that the great Designer had planned it like this filled him with perplexity. Now, however, he sees that the divine hand had purposely placed these men in prosperous and eminent circumstances so that they could fulfil the Creator's purposes: "You" - note the You - "You place them on slippery ground." Note, too, the phrase "slippery ground": their position was dangerous. Therefore God did not set His loved ones in that place, but chose instead a rougher but more secure standing for their feet.