“If I had said.

‘I will talk on in this way.’

I would have been untrue

To the circle of your children.

But when I thought how to understand this,

It seemed to me a wearisome task,

Until I went into the sanctuary of God.

Then I perceived their end.

Truly you set them in slippery places.

You make them fall to ruin.

How they are destroyed in a moment.

They are swept away utterly by terrors!

They are like a dream when one awakes.

On awaking

You despise their phantoms.”

This psalmist Asaph deals in the hypothetical of what might have happened if he walked in their ways. He would have been untrue to the children of God. He was confused and weary until he went to the Temple sanctuary of God. There he understood their end. These wicked ones were on slippery ground. They would fall to ruin. They would be destroyed in a moment. They would be swept away with terrible terrors. This was like a dream. When you awake from it you hate it. The wicked were only enjoying temporary success.