“LORD, You have treated Your servant well, just as You promised. Teach
me good judgment and discernment, for I rely on Your commands. Before I was
afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word. You are good, and You do
what is good; teach me Your statutes. The arrogant have smeared me with lies,
but I obey Your precepts with all my heart. Their hearts are hard and
insensitive, but I delight in Your instruction. It was good for me to be
afflicted so that I could learn Your statutes. Instruction from Your lips is
better for me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” ~Psalms 119:65-72
HCSB
Affliction is not something you give thanks about, that is
not normal! But here the psalmist says
it was good that he was afflicted and he has a reason for it. He says he went astray and then he talks
about his enemies. Their hearts are hard
and insensitive, they are also arrogant and lairs. Going astray from God is to be arrogantly
hard hearted and your life is not built on truth but on lies. Isaiah 53:6 tells us, “We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way.” Because of this it becomes impossible to hear
the Lord, impossible to believe, impossible to understand. God has to intervene.
God has to soften our hearts, God has to teach you judgment
and discernment. He does that in three ways.
Firstly He uses people. Your
parents, brothers and sisters, teachers, co-workers, everyone you come in
contact are used to shape you. Secondly, He uses circumstances. Circumstances could be weather, money, health
conditions, death and anything else that affects you. Both of these are external, they come from the
outside and you have very little control over them. But the other way is by spiritual disciplines,
reading your Bible, praying, and fasting are ways God works from the inside
out. Through Christ we have the Holy
Spirit who fills us and He becomes God in us. He uses the Word of God to shape
and mold us. He opens our eyes to our
sin and humbles us, he replaces our heart of stone with a heart of flesh and we
walk in truth because He is truth. Most
of all we can love others because He first loved us.
Affliction makes us dependent on God, it strips us of our
pride and opens us to God in ways that could not happen without it. When God instructs you and He opens your
heart to His Word, you will trust Him in a new way. His instruction will become, “better for me than
thousands of gold and silver pieces.”
Lord thank you for Your Word. Thank you for my affliction and how it makes me
dependent on You. I love You Lord, to
think You are even mindful of me is too much for me to grasp. Amen
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