我们继续来思考诗篇七十三篇第1节：「神实在恩待以色列那些清心的人。」诗人的怀疑令他受到很大的伤害，但奇妙的是：他的属灵生命却因此更加丰盛，他对神的良善更有信心。所以他以「神实在恩待以色列那些清心的人」这结论来开始，然后再告诉我们他如何得到那个结论。

这是诗篇其中一个重大的价值──它反映和分析了我们必须面对的经验。斯特德曼（Ray Steadman）如此形容诗篇：「诗篇是关于我们大部分人在信心道路上正在经历、已经经历或将要经历的规章。」我们能够明白诗人的挣扎──以积极的信心开始，相信神的良善，然后事情的发生令我们充满疑惑。问题是我们如何回到原来的起点。这正是诗人在这首诗里面所做的──他向我们显示如何回到灵魂那处可以找到真正平安的地方。

我们不应该忘记，最强的信念是在疑惑的剧痛中孕育出来的。「神恩待以色列」这句话是植根于经验。以类似的方式，俄国著名小说家杜斯托也夫斯基（Dostoevsky）说：「我不是自小就相信和承认基督。我的和散那『孕育自疑惑的火炉。』」疑惑可能令人沮丧，但不要因此令你道德败坏。重要的不是你身上发生了甚么事情，而是你怎么样看那件事情。」

We continue meditating on the first verse of Psalm 73: "Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart." The psalmist has gone through an experience of crippling doubt but the great thing is this: he has emerged from it spiritually enriched and with a deeper confidence in the goodness of God. So he starts with that conclusion and then tells us how he got there.

This is one of the great values of the psalms - they reflect and analyse the experiences that we are called upon to face. Ray Steadman says of the psalms: "They are an enactment of what most of us are going through, have gone through or will go through in the walk of faith." Every one of us will be able to understand the psalmist's struggle: we start off with a positive faith in God's goodness and then something happens which causes us to be plagued with doubts. The problem then is how to get back to where we were. This is what the psalmist does in this psalm - he shows us how to return to the place where the soul finds true peace.

We should not forget that the strongest convictions are born in the throes of doubt. The statement "God is good to Israel" is a statement grounded in experience. In a similar vein, Dostoevsky, the famous Russian novelist, could say: "It is not as a child that I believe and confess Christ. My hosannah is 'born of a furnace of doubt." Doubts may discourage but they need not demoralise you. It is not what happens to you, but what you make of it that matters.