When Pain Is the Creator’s Plan

When Pain Is the Creator’s Plan

Psalm 119:73-80

Main Idea: God tests us so that we might learn obedience, lean on his mercy, and live holy lives.

C. S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world” (The Problem of Pain, 91). If the author of Psalm 119 were alive today, he would probably say, “Amen and amen!” In the tenth movement of the magnificent Word of God psalm, stanza Yod (?), the psalmist prays during significant pain. These verses are a “prayer stanza”; the stanza begins and ends with prayer, and prayer punctuates the verses throughout the stanza.

As a boy, I grew up singing a precious song titled “Trust and Obey.” One stanza in particular sounds like a reflection on these verses. It reads,

Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,

But our toil he doth richly repay;

Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,

But is blest if we trust and obey.

Sometimes pain is in the Creator’s plan, and there is blessing when we trust and obey. Why is there pain in his plan? These verses give us three overarching reasons.

God Made Us that We Might Know Him

Psalm 119:73

In the New City Catechism, a modern-day catechism written like the ones Christians have used for centuries, the fourth question asks, “How and why did God create us?” The answer is,

God created us male and female in his own image to know him, love him, live with him, and glorify him. And it is right that we who were created by God should live to his glory. (The Gospel Coalition, New City Catechism, 23)

It would be easy to think the authors of the catechism had this verse in mind, at least in part. God made us, and he wants us to know him.

He Is Our Creator

The psalmist beautifully states, “Your hands made me and formed me.” The language of this verse is similar to Psalm 139:14-16:

I will praise you

because I have been remarkably and wondrously made.

Your works are wondrous,

and I know this very well.

My bones were not hidden from you

when I was made in secret,

when I was formed in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw me when I was formless;

all my days were written in your book and planned

before a single one of them began.

With the psalmist, we say, “Lord, you made us. And you made us precisely and specifically the way we are. You left nothing to chance.” The psalmist knew, as should we, that we are not the product of evolution or blind forces of chance. We are handmade and handcrafted by the sovereign God of the universe. We are here on purpose! God made us, and he does not make junk.

He Is Our Instructor

Repeatedly throughout Psalm 119 the psalmist refers to God as the divine Teacher or instructor. The word teach occurs no fewer than twelve times (vv. 12,26,29,33,64,66,68,99,108,124,135,171). Although the word teach does not appear in this stanza, the idea is present. The psalmist prays to the Lord, “Give me understanding so that I can learn your commands.” He prays because he knows he needs God’s help. He is specific. He needs understanding, wisdom, and insight so that he may learn God’s Word, his “commands.”

God blesses us with earthly teachers within the church. They are his good gifts and we need them. Still, there is no substitute for our heavenly instructor, God himself. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:12-13,

Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.

No matter how smart or educated we are, we never outgrow the need for the divine Teacher to take his Word and give us understanding. God made us for a reason. He made us that we might know him.

God Made Us to Test Us so that We Might Trust Him

Psalm 119:74-79

Verses 74-79 are “the heart of this stanza” because they are “concerned with the psalmist’s present affliction” (Ross, Psalms, 528). The theme of affliction is a recurring one in Psalm 119. The important truth we learn is that affliction and pain may be God’s doing. It is not necessarily a sign of his punishment. It may well be a sign of his faithfulness. He may be doing it for our good, as verse 71 makes clear. There is gain in the pain.

Thank God for His Faithfulness When Afflicted (119:74-75)

Verse 74 begins with a word of confidence during trouble. The psalmist is confident that deliverance is on the way because “those who fear [the Lord] will see me and rejoice.” Those who fear the Lord will see God’s faithfulness, steadfast love, and mercy in the psalmist’s life, and there will be rejoicing, a celebration among the people of God.

The basis of his confidence is multifaceted. First, it is because “I put my hope in your word.” He trusts what his Lord says. Second, “I know, Lord, that your judgments are just.” The Lord always does the right thing, in the right way, and for the right reasons. His ways are “never wrong, never incomplete, never arbitrary” (Ross, Psalms, 529). Third, “in faithfulness you have afflicted me” (ESV; CSB, “you have afflicted me fairly”). Ross explains this verse well:

Those who understand the ways of God know that ultimately it is his plan to exalt the righteous and destroy the wicked, but that in his wisdom [and faithfulness] he often humbles the righteous before exalting them. (Psalms, 529)

The school of affliction is tough, but it provides an excellent education.

Ask God for His Steadfast Love and Mercy (119:76-77)

The psalmist has affirmed that all of God’s “judgments are just” and that the Lord sent afflictions “fairly.” Still, he needs the Lord’s comfort to live, to endure, and to persevere through the time of testing and trials. So he makes a request: “May your faithful love comfort me as you promised your servant.” Let your chesed, your loyal love and covenant love, be the comfort your servant needs and trusts you will send.

Further, he asks in verse 77, “May your compassion [“mercy” ESV; “tender mercies” NLT] come to me so that I may live.” The psalmist is asking God to comfort him with his steadfast love. He wants God’s mercy to take hold of him that he might have the strength to live through the afflictions. Then, with a word of devotion and commitment to the Lord, he adds, “For your instruction is my delight.” Even in his afflictions, his love for the Lord’s Word continues unabated.

We must learn with the songwriter that the same God who disciplines also comforts. The one who bruises also blesses. The one who takes us down also lifts us up. The one who humbles also exalts. Second Corinthians 12:7-10 provides a wonderful New Testament commentary at this point:

Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself. Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.”

Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

The Lord’s strength and grace will always be sufficient for us if we turn to him during our affliction.

Trust God to Shame Prideful Liars (119:78)

The ones who are afflicting the psalmist appear in verse 78: “the arrogant.” The psalmist asks the Lord to put the arrogant to shame. Arrogance pinpoints their heart and inward disposition. They are puffed up, prideful, “insolent” (ESV). Lying pinpoints their outward behaviors. The psalmist says that they are slandering him with lies. In verse 69 he says, “The arrogant have smeared me with lies.” They have attempted to take the psalmist down with perverse and subversive words. Perhaps he felt his resolve begin to weaken under their verbal onslaught. He counterpunches, “I will meditate on your precepts.” He will stay true to the Lord, he says. He will not crawl into the world of spiritual sewer rats who live and swim in rumors, gossip, half-truths, and outright lies. He will meditate on the word of truth and live in that world. God’s Word will remain his guide no matter what.

Pray that God Will Vindicate You with the Righteous (119:79)

It is always encouraging to have fellow believers in the foxhole with you when you are under attack. The psalmist, like Paul in 2 Timothy 4:11-16, felt abandoned. Perhaps for a time the psalmist’s friends had been duped by the falsehoods and lies of his arrogant attackers and had turned away from him. So he asks God to act on his behalf with divine vindication: “Let those who fear you, those who know your decrees, turn to me.” He asks the Lord to let those who love him and fear him come back in fellowship and friendship. The psalmist is not unwilling to say, “I miss them. I need them.”

Upon their return, he will make known to them the testimonies of the Lord. He will share with them the Lord’s faithfulness, steadfast love, comfort, and mercy in his life. He hopes this will encourage them. He knows it will encourage himself. What he has learned in the school of hard knocks, he will gladly share with others. The lessons were tough. But they were worth it. In difficulty, we learn things we could learn no place else.

God Made Us that We Might Live Blamelessly and Not Be Ashamed

Psalm 119:80

The psalmist closes the same way he began, with a petition of prayer. He reminds himself of how intimately connected the heart and life are. We cannot separate who we are on the inside and how we live on the outside. Proverbs 4:23 is an important reminder: “Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.” The psalmist knows he needs the Lord and the Word if he is to have a pure heart and live a blameless life.

Pray for Your Heart

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?” The psalmist knew well this truth, so he prays to the Lord, “May my heart be blameless regarding your statutes.” To be blameless would include being above reproach in thought and motive. Leupold renders it, “‘May all my thinking be wholly on Thy statutes.’ Wholesome meditation on the divine Word should be our continual occupation” (Exposition, 840).

Pray for Your Reputation

The psalmist knew he could not lose his salvation. However, he also knew a child of God could “be put to shame.” He did not want to fail his Lord in either the private or the public arena. He knew an important truth: be right on the inside and your life will be right on the outside. Spurgeon speaks well about this truth when he writes,

If the heart be sound in obedience to God, all is well, or will be well. If right at heart we are right in the main. If we be not sound before God, our name for piety is an empty sound. Mere profession will fail, and undeserved esteem will disappear like a bubble when it bursts; only sincerity and truth will endure in the evil day. He who is right at heart has no reason for shame, and he never shall have any; hypocrites ought to be ashamed now, and they shall one day be put to shame without end; their hearts are rotten, and their names shall rot. (Treasury, 290)

Conclusion

No servant of the Lord was ever more afflicted than the Lord Jesus. Yet he knew and accepted that there was good in that affliction and pain. God was being faithful to his word to crush his servant (Isa 53:10) so that the nations might rejoice in the salvation of the Lord. As our Savior walked the road to the cross, the steadfast love and mercy of his Father comforted him. The prideful liars were put to shame on Resurrection Sunday when they found the tomb empty! Blameless in heart and spotless in life, the only shame our Savior bore was ours, not his. Pain was the Creator’s plan. But that plan was perfect. We indeed see him, the Lord Jesus, and rejoice (v. 74)!

Reflect and Discuss

1. What is God’s purpose for creating you?
2. How should God’s purpose for creating you shape how you live? How should it shape how you view pain?
3. Read Hebrews 12:3-11. How do these verses help you understand why and how God afflicts anyone?
4. How does the psalmist know that what God is doing is “fair” and “just”?
5. What is “covenant love”? How does God’s covenant love affect how he afflicts anyone?
6. How do you think your relationship with God would be different if you never experienced weakness or trials?
7. What are some ways fellow believers have helped you in your trials?
8. What does it mean for your heart to be blameless?
9. What does it mean to guard one’s heart? How can one do that?
10. How did Jesus and Paul view the suffering they experienced? Read those passages of Scripture that answer this question.