过去几天的研读让我们清楚地发现，诗人的观点已经去到一个获得改变的阶段。他看到神在掌管人类，所以不敬虔的人并不值得羡慕。现在我们看到，他不单纠正了他对不敬虔的人和对神的想法，他也纠正了对自己的想法：「 因而，我心里发酸，肺腑被刺。我这样愚昧无知，在你面前如畜类一般」（诗七十三21-22）。

他现在对自己的评价是多么不同，他本来明显为自己感到难过：「我实在徒然洁净了我的心，徒然洗手表明无辜」（13节）。在圣所外面，他充满自怜，然而在圣所里面，他对自己有了完全不同的看法。这一刻诗人诚实地面对自己，这是相当不容易的事。

我们大部份人都不介意处理自己的困难，但是每当情况稍微缓解的时候，我们便想停留在那里，不愿意继续去面对那些当初令我们做出错误结论的问题。这就是为甚么我们会一再重蹈覆辙，只因为我们没有清楚地察看我们的内心。有一位教师自称有二十五年的教学经验，但主任教师却形容她说：「她其实只有一年经验，不过是重复了二十五次而已。」她没错工作了很久，可是她所学到的却不多。

From what we have seen over the past few days, it is clear that the psalmist has come to the place where his views have changed. He sees that God is ruling over human affairs and that the ungodly are not in such an enviable situation after all. We come now to see that he was not only put right in his thinking about the ungodly and about God, but he was also put right about himself: "When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant: I was a brute beast before you" (Psa. 73:21-22).

What a different view he has of himself now compared to previously, when he so evidently felt very sorry for himself: "Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence" (v.13). Outside the sanctuary, he felt full of self-pity; inside the sanctuary, he had an entirely different view of himself. This is a moment when the psalmist honestly faces himself -something that is very difficult to do.

Most of us don't mind working our way through our problems, but the moment we get relief, we want to stop right there. We do not go on to face up to what caused us to come to the wrong conclusions in the first place. This is why we keep going through the same problems over and over again - we fail to take an inside look. A schoolteacher claimed to have twenty-five years of experience, but her head teacher said of her: "She has just one year of experience twenty-five times." She worked long but learned little.