Until I entered God’s sanctuary, and considered their latter end.
Parallel translations
- KJV Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
- BSB until I entered God’s sanctuary; then I discerned their end.
- NKJV Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood their end.
- NASB Until I entered the sanctuary of God; Then I perceived their end.
- NLT Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Everything changed when he entered God's sanctuary and there grasped the final end of the wicked.
Overview
The turning point of the psalm comes in worship, where Asaph gains an eternal perspective. In God's presence he sees that the prosperity of the wicked is fleeting and their end is destruction. True understanding of life's apparent injustices comes through drawing near to God, a nearness opened fully to us through Christ (Hebrews 10:19-22).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 77:13Your way, God, is in the sanctuary. What god is great like God?
- Luke 12:20“But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared — whose will they be?’
- Ps 27:4One thing I have asked of Yahweh, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in Yahweh’s house all the days of my life, to see Yahweh’s beauty, and to inquire in his temple.
- Eccl 8:12–13Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.
- Ps 63:2So I have seen you in the sanctuary, watching your power and your glory.
- Ps 37:37–38Mark the perfect man, and see the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace.
- Ps 119:24Indeed your statutes are my delight, and my counselors. DALED
- Job 27:8For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
- Jer 5:31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?
- Ps 119:130The entrance of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.
- Luke 16:22–23The beggar died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 73:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.