Psalm 119: 65-72

Psalm 119 is called the Alphabet of Divine Love, the Paradise of all Doctrines, the Storehouse of the Holy Spirit, and the School of Truth.

The Theme of Psalm 119

is

the Word of God

65.  Do good to Your servant according to Your Word, O Lord.

66.  Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in

       Your commands.

67.  Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey Your Word.

68.  You are good, and what You do is good;teach me Your decrees.

69.  Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep Your

       precepts with all my heart.

70.  Their hearts are callous and unfeeling, but I delight in Your law.

71.  It was good for me to be afflicted that I might learn Your        

          decrees.

 

72.  The law from Your mouth is more precious to me than              

         thousands of pieces of silver or gold.

 

65-72.  This section is the witness of experience, testifying to the goodness of God, to the graciousness of His dealings, to the preciousness of His Word.  The psalmist proclaims the excellent uses of adversity and God's goodness in afflicting him.

65.  You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord.  This is the summary of David's life, and assuredly, it is the summary of ours.  God has done all things well, and this rule has no exception.  In providence and in grace, in giving prosperity and in sending adversity, in everything, Jehovah has dealt well with us.  It is precious to see the Word of the Lord fulfilled in our happy experience; it endears the Scripture to us and makes us love the Lord of the Scriptures.  The book of providence tallies with the book of promise.  What we read in the page of inspiration, we meet in the leaves of our life story.  We may not have thought that it would be so, but we have repented of our unbelief, now that we see the Lord's mercy and His faithfulness to the Word, and henceforth, we are bound to display a firmer faith to God and to His promise.

66.  Teach me good judgment and knowledge.  Since God has dealt with him, he is encouraged to pray for judgment to appreciate the Lord's goodness.  Good judgment was the form of goodness that David needed and desired, and it is the one that the Lord is most ready to give.  David felt that he had frequently failed in judging the Lord's dealing with him; from lack of knowledge, he had misjudged the heavenly Father's chastening hand.  Now he asks to be better instructed, for he perceives the injustice of his hasty conclusions.  He means to say, "Lord You did well with me even when I thought You were hard and stern. Please give me more wisdom that I may not think ill of You, my Lord, for a second time."  Seeing our errors and sensing our ignorance should make us teachable.  If the Lord teaches us knowledge, we will attain good judgment.  The Holy Spirit alone can fill us with light and set the understanding on a proper balance.  Let us ardently long for His teachings, because it is most desirable that we should no longer be children in knowledge and understanding.

For I believe Your commandments.  David's heart was right, and he hoped that his head would be made right.  He had faith, and now he hoped to receive wisdom.  His mind became settled in the conviction that the precepts of the Word were from the Lord and that they were just, wise, kind, and profitable.  David believed in holiness, and, as that is no small work of grace, he looked for further operations of divine grace.  Those who believe the commands are the ones to know and to understand the doctrines and the promises.

67.  Before I was afflicted I went astray.  Often, our trials act as a thorn hedge to keep us in good pasture, and our prosperity is a gap through which we go astray.  The spiritual, who prize growth in grace, will bless God that those dangerous days are over, for they know that if the weather is stormy, it is also healthier.  It is well when the mind is open and candid.  Perhaps David would never have known and confessed his straying if he had not smarted under the rod.  Let us join in his humble acknowledgments, for doubtless we have imitated him in straying.  We must remember we can never rise to one world without the other world descending.

But now I keep Your Word.  When there is no spiritual life, affliction works no spiritual benefit.  But where the heart is sound, trouble awakens conscience, wandering is confessed, and the soul becomes obedient to the command. Before his trouble David wandered.  But afterward, he kept within the hedge of the Word and found good pasture for his soul.  The trial tethered him to the proper place; it kept him, and then he kept God's Word.  Sweet are the uses of adversity, which puts a bridle on transgression and furnishes a spur for holiness.

Before I was afflicted.  Prosperity is a more refined and severe test of character than adversity.  One hour of summer sunshine produces greater decay than the longest winter day. (Eliza Cook, 1817)

Using affliction.  God separates the sin that He hates from the soul that He loves.  (John Mason, 1694)

68.  You are good, and do good.  Even in affliction, God is good, and does good.  This is the confession of experience.  God is essential goodness in every aspect of His nature.  "No one is good but One, that is, God" (Mark 10:18). 

Teach me Your statutes.  David prays, " Lord be good and do good to me, that I may both be good and do good through Your teaching.  The man of God was a learner.  He wished to remain in school and learn until he had perfected every lesson. His chosen textbook was the royal statute; he wanted no other.  He knew the sad result from breaking those statutes, and from painful experience, he had been led back to the way of righteousness. Thus, he begged to be taught a perfect knowledge of the Law and a complete conformity to it.  They long to be taught who mourn that they have not kept the Word.  And those who rejoice that, by grace, they have been taught to keep the Word are anxious for the instruction to be continued.

69.  The proud have forged a lie against me.  They derided and defrauded him, and now they defame him.  To injure his character, they resorted to falsehoods, for they could find nothing against him if they were to speak the truth.  They forged a lie like a blacksmith forms an iron weapon.  They counterfeited the truth like a thief forges false coins.  They trim lies with shadows of truth and neat language.  Slander is a cheap and handy weapon if the object of destruction is of a gracious reputation.  It is exceedingly painful to hear unscrupulous people forging slander on the devil's anvil.  The only help is the sweet promise, "No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn" (Isaiah 54:17).

But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.  If the mud that is thrown does not blind our eyes, or bruise our integrity, it will do little harm.  If we keep the precepts, the precepts will keep us in the day of liable and slander.

When slander drives us to more resolute and careful obedience, it works for our lasting good.  Falsehoods hurled against us may promote our increased loyalty to the truth.  Malice may increase our love for God.  If we answer lies with words, we may be beaten in the battle, but a holy life is an unanswerable refutation of all slander.  Spite is balked if we persevere in holiness despite all opposition.

70.  Their heart is fat as grease.  They delight in fatness, but I delight in You.  their hearts, through sensual indulgence, have grown insensible, coarse, and groveling.  But You have saved me from such a fate by Your chastening hand.  The proud grow fat through carnal luxuries, which make them even prouder.  They riot in prosperity, filling their hearts with it until they become insensible, effeminate, and self-indulgent.  A greasy heart is a horrible fatness that makes a person stupid; it degenerates the heart and leads to feebleness and death.  The fat in such people is killing the life in them.  In this condition, people have no heart except for luxury.

But I delight in Your law.  It is much better to joy in the law of the Lord than to joy in sensual indulgences!  This makes the heart healthy and keeps the mind humble.  Delight in the law elevates and dignifies; carnal pleasure clogs the intellect and degrades the affections.  There is, and always ought to be, a vivid contrast between the believer and the sensualist, and that contrast is as much seen in the affections of the heart as in the actions of life.  Our delights are a better test of character than anything else.  As the heart is, so is the person.  When the law becomes delight, obedience is bliss.  Having the law as our delight will breed the opposite of pride in our hearts, thus we will be teachable, sensitive, and spiritual.

71.  It is good for me that I have been afflicted.  Even though the affliction came from evil people, it was overruled for good; although it was bad when it came, it benefited David in many ways, and he knew it. Whatever he may have thought while under trial, he knew he was going to be the better for it when it was over.  We have come to know and to learn Your statutes  by feeling the sting of the rod.  We have prayed for the Lord to teach us.  And now we see that He has been doing it.  Truly, He has dealt well and wisely with us.  Our trials have kept us from the ignorance of the greasy hearted, and this, if nothing else, is cause for constant gratitude.  To be greased with prosperity is not good for the proud, but for the truth to be learned by adversity is always good for the humble.  Little is to be learned without affliction.  If we would be scholars, we must be sufferers.

In Miss E.J. Whately's fine book, The Life of My Father, a story is told of the introduction of the Larch tree into England.  "When the plants were first brought, the gardener, knowing they came from southern Europe, assumed they would require warmth. He forgot that they grow near the snow line.  Putting them in a hothouse, they withered day by day until the gardener, in disgust, threw them out on a compost pile.  There they began to revive, bud, and at last grew into trees.  They needed the cold."

 

The great husbandman often saves His plants by throwing them out into the cold.  The nipping frost of trials and afflictions are often needed if God's Larch trees are to grow.  It is under such discipline that new thoughts and feelings appear.  The heart becomes dead to the world (sin) and to self, and from the night of sorrow rises the morning of joy.  Winter is the harbinger of spring, and from the crucifixion of the old man comes the resurrection of the new.  As in nature, life is the child of death.

The night is the mother of the day,

And winter of the spring;

And ever upon old decay,

The greenest mosses spring.  (John Wareing Bardsley, 1876)

72.  The law of Your mouth, is a sweet expressive name for God's Word.  It comes from God's mouth with freshness and power for our souls.  The same lips that spoke us into existence has spoken the law that governs existence.

Is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver.  David speaks of great riches for he had heaped it up by thousands, and he mentions its forms, gold and silver.  Then he sets the Word of God as better.  Wealth is good in some respects, but obedience is better in all respects.  The Law is better than gold and silver, for these may be stolen. Gold and silver take wings, but the Word of God remains.  Gold and silver are useless in the hour of death, but at that time, God's promises are most precious. 

Commentary is taken from Treasury of David (Charles Spurgeon).
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Annie's thoughts on verse 68.

68. You are good, and what You do is good; teach me Your decrees.

68. You are good, and do good. Even in affliction, God is good, and does good. This is the confession of experience. God is essential goodness in every aspect of His nature. "No one is good but One, that is, God" (Mark 10:18).

Everyone will have tests and trials, at least at some point in their life. These tests and trials can be short term, very long term, or a mixture of both.  I believe God has them special ordered for each of us according to our needs, and/or the needs of others we are connected to in some way.  We do not see these needs as we don't really know the depths of our own heart as well as we might think.  God searches our heart and knows exactly what we need to build into us the character and love of His Son, Christ Jesus.
When our focus is on the things of the world and what it offers, it is taken off Christ.  We depend on worldly things to entertain us, make us happy and to fill our time.  We desire to have more money so we can buy more things.  But is this what God wants for us?  Is this part of His plan?
Didn't Paul tell the Corinthians in the first six verses of  2 Corinthians 1  that the sufferings they endured were so that they would not rely on themselves, but on God.  He also told them that through Christ, our comfort would overflow to others experiencing the same things.  In this way, God uses our sufferings for His good, our good, and the good of others. You might ask, how does God use our sufferings for our own good? 



If God's purpose is to form the character and love of Christ Jesus in us, we should take another look at the character and love of Christ in action.  What did Jesus teach us about relationship with the Father? 



Jesus arose before daybreak every morning to go to a solitary place to commune with His Father.  Before He started His day He wanted to be prepared and pre-prayed.  He always listened to His Father, and did what the Father wanted Him to do.  He watched to see where the Father was working and He joined Him.    He was also setting an example for us to follow.  He did nothing on His own initiative. He gave all glory to the Father.  How often are we listening to the Father?  How often do we do things on our own initiative?  How often are we watching to see where God is working around us?  How are we doing about starting our day with prayer regarding the day before us?  



The tests and trials are the tools God uses to build the character and love and all else needed, such as a forgiving spirit,  the fruits of the Spirit, see also 2 Peter 1: 3-11.  This is the part that benefits us, and thereby benefits others and pleases God.  This is what God uses to bring good changes in us and draws others closer to desiring after Him. 



All good things come from above.  Tests and trials may be painful, but our Sovereign God knows how to bring good out from any trial.  We often don't see it until later, but it is always there in the works.  It works much better if we rely on Him rather than ourselves.  Like a good parent He knows what is best for our eternal good.


~Annie~