Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost slipped… (Psalm 73:1-2a NIV).

Have you ever felt like living the Christian life just isn’t worth it? Well, you’re in good company. Asaph, the writer of Psalm 73, expressed an emotion we all struggle with at times...doubt.

He began with, “Surely God is good to Israel.” Asaph knew in his head that God was good. Yet in the next verse he admitted, “but...” and confessed that he almost lost it because he began glancing at the world around him instead of fixing his eyes on God. Through most of the psalm, Asaph complained to God about the unfairness of the wicked’s prosperity. His frustration led him to confess that he’d lived a Godward life in vain. You can almost hear him saying, “What’s the use?” The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became.

Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever doubted whether this “Christian thing” was worth it? I sure have. And if you’re like me you’ve also felt guilty for doing so!

So, where do these doubts come from? In Eugene Peterson’s book Psalms: Prayers of the Heart, he wrote, “Doubt is not a sin. It is an essential element in belief. Doubt is honesty. Things are not as they appear. We see contradictions between what we believe and what we experience. No mature faith avoids or denies doubt. Doubt forces faith to bedrock."

One of my college professors often said, “Doubt the doubt.” In other words, when doubt comes along causing you to question what you believe to be true, don’t assume the doubt has to be right. If you can doubt the truth, turn around and apply the same thinking to the doubt. Doubt the doubt. Doing so takes you to one of two places. Either there is enough legitimacy in the doubt to cause you to rethink your beliefs or the serious questioning and re-examination of those beliefs end up “[forcing] faith to bedrock.”

So back to, “Where do these doubts come from?” I believe they come from times when, like Peterson admits, “we see contradictions between what we believe and what we experience.” From times when we, like Peter, walk on water, but then begin to sink because we take our eyes off our Savior and put them on our circumstances. That’s just what Asaph had done. Where was the answer to his dilemma? In verse 17, he says that he could not understand “Till [he] entered the sanctuary of God.” And that’s where our answer lies…in the sanctuary, or in worship. Worship gives us the right perspective. In worship, no matter what our circumstances, we can say with Asaph, “as for me, it is good to be near God.”

–Diane Drees

It is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all Your deeds (Psalm 73:26 NIV).