Psalm 119:65-80 “It Is Good for Me That I Was Afflicted” March 30, 2008
What do you think about when you sing these lines?
“Although the proud smear me with lies, I keep your decrees from the heart.
Their hearts are unfeeling and hard; I love what your precepts impart.”
Do you struggle with singing about the “proud” in this way?
Do you feel “proud” – as though you are saying “I’m better than them”?
We live in a day that delights in absolute equality.
No one is better than anyone else,
and no one wants to say “I’m better than them.”
And yet, as I speak, the sports world is obsessed with “March Madness”
the beginning of the baseball season,
and Tiger Woods’ – the greatest golfer ever.
As a nation we are obsessed with ranking everything.
Everything is about being “the best”
“the fastest”
“the most”
-- everything except morality.
When it comes to morality, everything is equal.
Or so some would say.
Our first stanza today is all about the “good” and the “better.”
The word “tov” which can mean “good” or “better”
is the first word of verses 65, 66, 68, 71 and 72.
But it is interesting that the Psalmist never uses that word to compare himself to others.
He never says “I am better,”
he says “the law of your mouth is better.”
It is not that “I” am better than anyone else.
Rather, it is that God’s law is perfect,
and so those who love God’s law –
those who fear the Lord and know his testimonies –
find life.
And of course, this was the attitude of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who when he was slandered and mocked,
he did not appeal to his own goodness
(though if anyone could have, it would have been Jesus!);
but he endured patiently their mockery,
entrusting himself to the Father,
knowing that the Father would judge rightly.
Even so, when we sing about the wicked we are not saying that we are better.
We are saying that we love that which is better,
because we love God and his Word.
Last time we saw in the 7th and 8th stanzas (verses 49-64)
the themes of “remembering” and “promise.”
Zayin (verses 49-56) could be summarized,
“Remember me, Lord, as I remember you and your word”
Heth (verses 57-64) could be summarized,
“I am keeping my promise, Lord, please keep your promise.”
In other words, the preceding stanzas are all about covenant faithfulness –
or “hesed” (which is the word that begins verse 64)
My comfort in life and in death, in trial and affliction,
is that God remembers his promises.
I’ve been going through the Psalm two stanzas at a time,
putting two points in each sermon,
but I finally realized that really this is a 22 point sermon
which I am preaching over 11 weeks!
And so today we come to points 9 and 10!
Our two stanzas today are very closely connected.
Several words and themes emerge in both stanzas:
1. the word “afflicted” is used in verses 67 and 71
and also in verse 75
2. both stanzas speak of delighting in God’s law:
“I delight in your law” (v70)
“your law is my delight” (v77)
3. both stanzas speak of the “insolent” (v69 and 78)
4. and in both stanzas, after speaking of the insolent,
the Psalmist uses an emphatic form of the pronoun “I”
to make a sharp contrast between the insolent and himself:
“The insolent smear me with lies,
but I keep your precepts with my whole heart” (v69)
“their heart is unfeeling like fat,
but I delight in your law.” (v70)
“Let the insolent be put to shame…
but I will meditate on your precepts.” (v78)
So, affliction, delighting in God’s law, and the contrast between the insolent and “I”
form the heart of these stanzas.
We could summarize the whole point of our text today by saying,
“It is good that I was afflicted by the insolent,
because before I was afflicted I went astray,
but in faithfulness you afflicted me,
so that your law might become my delight.”
God’s purpose in affliction is to draw you to himself.
Stanza 9 – “teth” – is all about the goodness of the Lord.
To keep the priority of the word “good” in the stanza let me retranslate:
“Good are your dealings with your servant O LORD” (v65)
“Good judgment and knowledge please teach me” (v66)
“Good you are and good you do” (v68)
“Good for me that I was afflicted” (v71)
“Good to me is the law of your mouth” (v72)
The theme is clearly stated in verse 65:
Your dealings with me can be summarized in one word: “good.”
Why?
Because you have dealt with me “according to your word.”
I come before you, O God, as your servant.
I know who I am.
I am your servant.
You are God.
I am not.
And I confess before you that your dealings with me have been “good.”
“Good” does not necessarily mean “fun”!
Because God’s purposes in dealing with us have to do with drawing us to him.
And the problem is that we too easily go astray.
Before I was afflicted
I went astray, but now I keep your word.
You are good and do good; teach me your statutes. (67-68)
God brings affliction into your life in order to draw you back to himself.
He disciplines you because he loves you,
and wishes to cleanse you of your blind love of self.
“And [as Calvin puts it]
it is of no slight importance for you to be cleansed of your blind love of self
that you may be made more nearly aware of your incapacity;
to feel your own incapacity that you may learn to distrust yourself;
to distrust yourself that you may transfer your trust to God;
to rest with trustful heart in God that, relying upon his help,
you persevere unconquered to the end…” (Calvin, Inst. 3.8.3)
The insolent smear me
with lies, but with my whole heart I keep your precepts;
Their heart is unfeeling like fat, but I delight in your law. (69-70)
The second half of the stanza opens with the contrast between the insolent and “I”.
The heart of the insolent does not feel –
it has all the sensation of lard!
But my heart is devoted to keeping your precepts.
I find my delight – my enjoyment – in you and your law.
Even in the midst of affliction –
or perhaps, especially in the midst of affliction,
when my enemies close in,
when my coworkers speak evil of me,
when my friends ignore me,
when my husband sides with his mother rather than me,
when they smear me with lies,
I delight in your law.
Why do you delight in God’s law in the midst of troubles?
Because God’s law is not just a list of rules.
God’s law – his torah – reveals the plan of salvation!
God’s law can be summarized in two commands:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength
And love your neighbor as yourself.
Love for God and neighbor covers absolutely everything in life.
When you have gone astray, how do you love God and neighbor?
Repent and believe the gospel.
After all, our love for God is rooted in his love for us –
Not that we first loved him, but that he loved us and gave his only Son
as the atoning sacrifice (the propitiation) for our sins.
And so the Psalmist concludes the ninth stanza:
It is good for me that
I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.
The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. (71-72)
Suffering is good for me.
Because it is through affliction that I learn your statutes.
And I don’t care what the cost is –
I want to know the law of your mouth.
I
would rather have your word than all the gold in
Is there something in your life that you consider “better” than God’s law?
Is there something that you pursue more diligently than learning God’s statutes?
If there is, then be prepared!
Be forewarned!
Affliction is just around the corner!
God loves you too much to let that idol stand in your heart.
Your hands have made
me and fashioned me;
give
me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word. (v73-74)
I have to admit that for years I tended to avoid Psalm 119.
I focused on all those words about law and commandment and statute,
and I missed the “you” and the “I.”
I used to speed through Psalm 119, because it was so long.
But you cannot speed-read Psalm 119!
You need to pray it.
You may have noticed that as I preach through Psalm 119
I frequently lapse into the “I” / “you” of the Psalm.
That’s because the Psalmist is trying to draw you into his prayer.
A couple weeks ago
the Patristic and Medieval church history class read Augustine’s Confessions.
There is a sense in which the Confessions are modeled after Psalm 119.
Psalm 119 is drawing you in – calling you to make this prayer your own –
which is precisely what Augustine does in his Confessions.
Of course Jesus is the ultimate singer of Psalm 119.
He is the one who could say more than anyone:
Those
who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word.
And as we behold Jesus we do rejoice because Jesus’ hope has been fulfilled!
And because Jesus has been raised from the dead
and seated in glory at the Father’s right hand, we also hope in his Word.
Jesus is also the afflicted one.
In verse 67 the Psalmist had referred to his affliction in the passive voice –
“I was afflicted” –
but now he identifies the true source of his affliction:
I know, O LORD, that
your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant. (v75-76)
Your rules are righteous –
and in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
How do you like that?!
God, in your faithfulness you have made my life miserable!
But there is no path to glory that does not lead first to the cross.
You are my God.
I am your servant.
You have promised to be faithful to your word,
and that word has said
that through many
trials we will enter the
Or as Calvin puts it:
“Now we see how many good things, interwoven, spring from the cross.
For, overturning that good opinion which we falsely entertain concerning our own strength,
and unmasking our hypocrisy,
which affords us delight,
the cross strikes at our perilous confidence in the flesh.
It teaches us, thus humbled, to rest upon God alone,
with the result that we do not faint or yield.” (Calvin, Inst. 3.8.3)
But of course, the story does not end with the cross –
and even so, the Psalmist concludes these stanzas with a message of hope:
Let your mercy come to
me, that I may live; for your law is my delight.
Let the insolent be
put to shame, because they have wronged me with falsehood;
as
for me, I will meditate on your precepts.
Let those who fear you
turn to me, that they may know your testimonies.
May my heart be blameless in your statutes, that I may not be put to shame! (v77-80)
Remember the opening line of the Psalm?
“Blessed are those whose way is blameless”
The tenth stanza ends with the plea,
let my heart be blameless in your statutes!
May I be one of those blessed ones who dwell in your presence!
Let me not be put to shame!
You know what the irony of this is?
Jesus is the one truly blameless man – and yet he was put to shame!
He endured the shameful death of the cross –
not only spurned by man, but even cursed by God the Father!
Paul talks about this a lot in his epistles:
the foolishness of the cross;
how ludicrous it appears that Christians worship a man who was crucified.
But this is a consistent refrain in the Christian faith:
the wisdom of God looks foolish to the world;
the strength of God looks like weakness.
And indeed the honor of God looks like shame.
Because that very shameful death of the cross is also where Jesus began to be exalted.
The glory of our Lord Jesus Christ begins at the very cross where he was humbled.
And so let us sing, with Jesus,
as for me, I will meditate on your precepts.
Don’t just speed-read the Word of God.
Soak in it.
Marinate in it.
Let it seep into your pores so that the statutes of the LORD ooze out of you!
-- so that his ways truly become your delight.