God’s Goodness and the Blessings of Affliction
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God’s Goodness and the Blessings of Affliction
Psalm 119:65-72
Main Idea: Affliction can be good because it can remind us of God’s kindness and spur us toward obedience.
I. God Keeps His Word to His Servant (119:65).
II. A Good God Uses Affliction to Lead Us to Obedience to His Word (119:66-68).
III. The Arrogant Will Tempt Us to Disregard God’s Word (119:69-70).
IV. God’s People Acknowledge that the Pain of Affliction Helps Us Refocus on God’s Word (119:71-72).
The wonderful preacher John Phillips wisely says,
The constant gnawing of adverse circumstances can wear down even the most committed believer. Yet, as the constant washing of the waters smooths the pebbles and the constant wearing of the sand rounds the ragged edges of even the roughest rocks, so the unremitting adversities of the psalmist were doing their work of polishing and refining his soul. (Exploring, 321)
Our good God only does good things for his servants (vv. 17,23,38,49,65). Indeed, the Hebrew word for “good” (tob) occurs six times in this passage and begins five lines of this stanza (VanGemeren, Psalms, 871). It is the dominant idea that ties these eight verses together. However, sometimes those good things from our good God flow in the purifying waters of affliction (vv. 67,71). They may not feel good, but they are good for us. Our prayer to the Lord should be that of the psalmist: “It was good for me to be afflicted” (v. 71). We learn why the psalmist believes his affliction was good in four movements in verses 65-72.
God Keeps His Word to His Servant
The psalmist begins stanza Teth (?), the ninth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with a confession of confidence and trust: “You have treated your servant well.” The phrase “treated well” includes the Hebrew word tob, which the NIV translates as “good.” And who is the one who has been good to his servant? It is the Lord (Yahweh); he has been good to his faithful servant as he promised (“according to your word” ESV).
Spurgeon says it so well:
This kindness of the Lord is, however, no chance matter: he promised to do so, and he has done it according to his Word. It is very precious to see the Word of the Lord fulfilled in our happy experience; it endears the Scripture to us and makes us love the Lord of the Scripture. The book of providence tallies with the book of promise: what we read in the page of inspiration we meet with again in the leaves of our life-story. (Treasury, 270)
Our good God keeps his good Word to his servant. That is one thing you can always count on.
A Good God Uses Affliction to Lead Us to Obedience to His Word
Verses 66-68 begin and end with a prayer. Both prayers are a petition for the Lord to teach his servants his Word. These verses identify the Word as judgment, discernment, commands (v. 66), word (v. 67), and statutes (v. 68). This Word is good (v. 66) and finds its source in a good God who does good (v. 68).
The psalmist asks the Lord to “teach me good judgment and discernment.” He asks God to grant him wisdom and insight so that he might make good and wise decisions. The psalmist is confident in his request because he is committed to the Lord; he trusts in the Lord’s commands. The Word of God is a fountain of wisdom and knowledge, and he wants that fountain flowing in his life.
Verse 67 informs us that the psalmist knows from personal experience the pain that many of us bring on ourselves by wandering away, going “astray” from God’s Word. Note the honest acknowledgment of his sin: “I went astray.” I did this to myself, he says. God, however, is a good Father who lovingly disciplines his children when they get off the right path (see Heb 12:5-13). He may even use affliction, pain, suffering, and difficulties as the rod of his chastisement. Kidner speaks of affliction as “bitter medicine” (Psalms, 426). It does not taste good, but it has a good result. For the psalmist that is clear. “Now I keep your word,” he says, as a result of being afflicted (v. 67). Now he knows, “You are good [in essence], and you do what is good [in action].” Therefore, he requests again, “Teach me your statutes.” He wants the Lord to be his divine instructor. Discipline was not pleasant, but it brought him back to the place of obedience. So the psalmist implores, “Give me more, Lord. More of you. More of your Word.”
The Arrogant Will Tempt Us to Disregard God’s Word
The devil has plenty of people, in and out of the church, who are more than willing to do his dirty work. The psalmist experienced this up close and personal in the form of lies and false accusations. In verse 69 he tells us, “The arrogant have smeared me with lies.” The Message reads, “The godless spread lies about me.” The idea is that the insolent or prideful have “patched together a lie against him” (Ross, Psalms, 524). The actions of these arrogant liars contrast strikingly with the good God who does good. Therefore, the psalmist will not compromise his loyalty and allegiance to God. Rather, the arrogant drive him to the Lord with this confession and resolve: “I obey your precepts with all my heart” (v. 69).
The prideful have no conscience, no genuine sense of right and wrong. “Their hearts are hard and insensitive,” the psalmist says (v. 70). There is nothing in them that longs for God and his Word. When it comes to the Lord, they do not care. When it comes to telling the truth, they do not care. When it comes to obeying God, they do not care. Again, in striking contrast to the prideful, the psalmist professes his affections for both God and his Word: “But I delight in your instruction.” The Message has, “I dance to the tune of your revelation.”
Lying about others is a grave issue in the eyes of our God. If you are tempted to think it is not a big deal, hear the warning of Revelation 21:8:
But the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars—their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
Pretty bad company. An awful destiny.
God’s People Acknowledge that the Pain of Affliction Helps Us Refocus on God’s Word
The last two verses of stanza Teth are what I call “heart verses.” They are verses we should memorize and meditate on. Verse 71 speaks of the value of afflictions. Verse 72 speaks of the value of the Word of God. James Boice says verse 71 “is an exact equivalent of Romans 8:28” (Living, 71). There the Bible says, “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” The psalmist and Paul are in perfect agreement. “It was good for me to be afflicted.” There was profit in his pain. Why? How? Through affliction and pain he learned God’s Word better. He learned more about who he is and who God is. He learned better how God works and what he is doing in his life. Paul again adds a valuable insight when he writes in 2 Corinthians 4:17, “For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.”
Verse 72 gives us the psalmist’s opinion of the value of God’s Word. “Instruction from your lips is better for me,” the psalmist says. The Bible is the very breath and word coming from God’s mouth (cf. 2 Tim 3:16). It is good (tob). Others may disagree (vv. 69-70), but this truth is what the psalmist knows.
The Bible is priceless. The psalmist exclaims that God’s Word is worth more “than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” No words in the human language can capture its value and worth. Spurgeon nicely summarizes, “It is a sure sign of a heart which has learned God’s statutes when it prizes them above all earthly possessions” (Treasury, 274). Stack up all the gold and silver you can find. The psalmist will gladly walk away from it all for the priceless treasure that is the Word of God.
Conclusion
Pain and suffering are an inescapable reality. Everyone will experience them. Even Jesus did. As the quintessential “Suffering Servant of the Lord” (Isa 53), he was afflicted for our sins. His suffering took him through a series of lies, insults, and beatings culminating in a Roman cross. Yet through it all, he would say, “Lord, you have treated your servant well. . . . I delight in your instruction. It was good for me to be afflicted.” Good, you say? Yes! Look at what his afflictions accomplished! Even if we doubt that good can come out of pain and suffering, and sometimes we will, we need only turn our eyes to the cross. The greatest affliction produced the greatest good.
Reflect and Discuss
- What is your first response to the Lord when affliction comes? How does this compare with how the psalmist begins this stanza?
- What are some examples of how the Lord has treated you well? How would remembering his kindness help you process affliction?
- What are the primary concerns of the psalmist while he is experiencing affliction? Why are these so important to him?
- Does the Bible teach that the presence of affliction in your life means that God is punishing you for sin? Explain.
- Has God taught you anything through affliction? How has this changed your life?
- What can affliction teach you that a comfortable life is unable to teach? Why do you think this is so?
- Do you have memories of events that were stressful at the moment but that you now look back on as light and momentary? What makes them less hurtful or stressful now? How does this help you comprehend what God can do with the worst suffering?
- If God can use affliction for your good, how does this help you trust him now?
- What can you learn about the value of God’s Word when the psalmist compares it to gold and silver? How would you state this truth in your own words?
- What verses in this stanza do you see exemplified in Jesus’s life? How so?