It was good for me to be afflicted
so that I might learn your decrees.Psalm 119.71
If your law had not been my delight
I would have perished in my affliction.Psalm 119.92
- The writer of this psalm is brutally honest and humble. His walk through suffering led him to discover what he did not know about God’s ways. There was immense value in the middle of his misery. His affliction turned his mind toward learning God’s word. Ironically then, in verse 92, it was the very things he learned that kept him from giving up when the pain seemed unbearable.
Affliction was not part of God’s original plan for the human race. (He had made us for an eternal Garden of Eden, but we’ve spoiled that by our own sin.) We’ll return to that blessed existence through Jesus, our Savior, in Heaven. In the meantime, God is about making the best come out of these bad situations.
There is a treasure in our trials—whether those trials be physical, mental, or emotional (and whether they were our fault or not). That treasure is a connection with God which sustains us through the afflictions this life always brings. God loves us so much that, in the middle of suffering, He has provided the medicine we didn’t even know we needed—His own thoughts and words—which bring incomparable joy.
Your statutes are my heritage forever;
they are the joy of my heart.
My heart is set on keeping your decrees
to the very end.