Read Psalm 73:16-28.

The Psalmist was obsessed with the wicked. Call it self-pity or sin, he simply saw around him evil people who were actually living in ease and prosperity.  And this grated on him terribly. Until...

Until when?  What was the turning point?  It's in v17: "Until I went into the sanctuary of God."  At the "holy place" of God...

1.    His thinking was changed (v17-20).  He remembered that the wicked might yet get caught and pay for their wickedness.  And if not in this life, surely in the one to come.

2.    His heart was changed (v21-22).  He was humbled and repented of his foolish thinking.  He had been animal in his thoughts, like a beast that knows no better.

3.    His relationship with God was changed (v23-24).  He was again trusting God, dependent, realizing that God would always be for him, in this life and the one to come.

4.    His whole life attitude was changed (v25-28).  Though his strength fail God would be his strength.  No longer would he be preoccupied with those around him; rather he would draw near to God.  He was now totally satisfied with life because he was totally satisfied with God.

"Until I went into the sanctuary of God."  The sanctuary of God was, for the Psalmist, the temple in Jerusalem.  It was the most holy place where God had promised to come and dwell with Israel.  It was the place where the men of Israel were encouraged to come, not once, not twice, but even three times a year.  Coming to the temple is what the religious call pilgrimage, not simply a journey to a place but a journey to God.

In the New Testament we also see that God dwells in a temple.  There is the temple of the heart (1 Cor 6:19-20), and there is the temple of heaven (Rev. 21:22, heaven is a temple, where God dwells).  It is perhaps easy to see that this lifetime is a pilgrimage that will end at the temple of heaven where believers will certainly experience a glory beyond imagination.  But the believer is also called to the daily pilgrimage that results in a closer and deeper relationship with the eternal, personal God, Who has taken up residence in that believer's heart.  The result of that pilgrimage will be the same: he will come to find full and complete satisfaction in the One his soul desires (v25).  Psalms 120-134 will sustain the Pilgrim on his journey to heaven as well as on his daily journey into a closer walk with God.  Are you on pilgrimage today, seeking to know God (Phil. 3:10) and to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18)?