Psalms 119:65-80: a reflection

65You have treated your servant well, according to your word, LORD. 66Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments. 67Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I observe your word. 68You are good, and do good. Teach me your statutes. 69The proud have smeared a lie upon me. With my whole heart, I will keep your precepts. 70Their heart is as callous as the fat, but I delight in your law. 71It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. 72The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver. 73Your hands have made me and formed me. Give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments. 74Those who fear you will see me and be glad, because I have put my hope in your word. 75LORD, I know that your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. 76Please let your loving kindness be for my comfort, according to your word to your servant. 77Let your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight. 78Let the proud be disappointed, for they have overthrown me wrongfully. I will meditate on your precepts. 79Let those who fear you turn to me. They will know your statutes. 80Let my heart be blameless toward your decrees, that I may not be disappointed.

This section of the great psalm of God's word contains one of the most striking things a sufferer can say: it is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. And just before it, the psalmist confesses, before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. He looks back on a hard season and sees that his suffering had a purpose: it drew him back from wandering and taught him to treasure God's word. Affliction had been, in a strange way, good for him.

The psalmist does not pretend the affliction was pleasant, but he has come to see it as an instrument in God's hand. In faithfulness, he says, you have afflicted me. He trusts that God's dealings with him, even the painful ones, were righteous and loving, meant to correct his wandering and deepen his devotion. And so he can even value the affliction: the hard experience taught him what ease never had, drawing him to God's word and away from the paths that had led him astray.

This is not a claim that all suffering is easy to understand, but it offers a way to look back on hard seasons. Prosperity and ease can let us drift; affliction has a way of drawing us back to God and teaching us what we would not otherwise learn. If you are in or emerging from a painful season, ask whether God might be using it to teach you, to draw you back from wandering, to make his word more precious to you. In faithfulness, sometimes God afflicts, and even that is meant for our good.

Lord, the psalmist could say it was good for him to be afflicted, because before his affliction he went astray, but through it he learned to treasure your word. When I look back on hard seasons, help me to trust that in faithfulness you were at work, drawing me back from wandering and teaching me what ease never could. Use even my afflictions for my good, and make your word ever more precious to me. Amen.