Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
-The victory which he gained over his doubts in the sanctuary when he understood the end of the godless.
Verse 17. Until I went into the sanctuary of God: (then) understood I their end. The sanctuary was the appointed place of meeting between God and His people: then God manifested His glory and goodness to His people (Psalms 77:13; Psalms 63:2). When true Israelites were unable to be there in body, they still in spirit turned there with the feet of the heart. So the Psalmist obtained that spiritual 'understanding' and insight into God's ways which is unattainable by mere reason. He "understood their end" (Psalms 73:18-20; Psalms 55:23; Psalms 49:11-14; Psalms 37:20; Psalms 37:22; Psalms 37:35-36; Psalms 37:38). The end is what settles the whole difficulty. He has in mind Deuteronomy 32:29. Compare1 Daniel 12:9-10, which refers to the came passage. There is a retribution to the wicked even in thus life. The seeming exceptions confirm the rule. Even the pagan recognized it. 'Raro antecendentem scelestum Deseruit pede Poena claudo' (Horace, 'Carm.,' 3:, 2-31). 'The exceptions are designed to perplex those who do not go into the sanctuary of God' (Hengstenberg). The full vindication of God's righteousness remains for, and proves the moral necessity of, the final judgment.
Verse 18. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places - Hebrew, 'only.' 'Thou didst put them only in slippery places' (cf. Psalms 35:6), so as to be dashed down in a moment.
Thou castedst them down into destruction - literally '(so as to become) desolations' or ruins (Psalms 73:10). So the Hebrew, mashuw'owt (H4876), is translated in the only other passage where it occurs Psalms 74:3).
Verse 19. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! - as Pharaoh at the Red Sea, Sodom and Gomorrha, and Sennacherib's host before Jerusalem.
They are utterly consumed with terrors - literally, 'they cease, they are consumed with terrors,' terrible and terror-inspiring judgments (Job 18:11; Ezekiel 26:21).
Verse 20. As a dream when, one awaketh - as a dream (is despised) upon one's awaking (Job 20:8).
So, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image - so when thou arisest up ( baa`iyr (H5782), a different Hebrew word from that in the first clause meehaaqiyts (H6974) - Psalms 78:65: while the ungodly prospered, God seemed as out asleep to the requirements of justice), thou shalt show thy contempt for their imaginary prosperity, by destroying both it and them. Compare the same figure concerning Sennacherib's dream of irresistible might dissipated by the morning dawn (Isaiah 29:7-8; also Psalms 39:6). [Thus, baa`iyr (H5782) stands for bªchaa`iyr, when thou risest up]. Hengstenberg takes the Hebrew, as in Hos. 11:19 , with the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic, 'in the city,' the world-city, the scene of their evanescent grandeur, now made that of their contemptuous overthrow (Job 34:26). Maurer takes it actively, 'when thou awakened them' out of their dream of prosperity; for a "dream" and "their image," or imaginary prosperity, correspond; so, 'when thou awakenest them' corresponds to 'when one awaketh.' I prefer this view; for it is not God, but they who awake to the reality, by His awakening them. The Chaldaic takes it 'on the day of judgment, when they shall be awakened from their tombs.'