Psalm 119:65-72
Psa. 119:65 You have dealt well with Your servant,
O LORD, according to Your word.
Psa. 119:66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge,
For I believe Your commandments.
Don’t you just love David? The statements he makes come from experience. He is not playing a guessing game or saying something that is not true for him. “You have dealt with our servant according to Your Word,” David confirms that the Word of God is True.
God is a God of truth. There are hundreds of scriptures that confirm that. For example, Moses encountered God on the mountain when he took the two new stone tablets up for God to write on – Ex 34:4-5. What is impressive is what God reveals about himself.
The Lord. the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth……. – Ex 34:6.
We have seen that God is truth, but there is another dimension to it. The Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth – John 14:17, 15:26. More than that, the Spirit IS Truth – 1 John 5:6.
I wonder if that is the reason David prays: “Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me – Ps 51:11.
David can ask with assurance: Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe Your commandments.
Psa. 119:67 Before I was afflicted, I went astray,
But now I keep Your word.
Psa. 119:68 You are good, and do good;
Teach me Your statutes.
Affliction is something we hate and avoid at all costs. It almost sounds like David is saying that affliction caused him to return to God. While it is true that we have many stories of people going through affliction, God indeed uses affliction to get our attention. Think about Israel and all its history. Most of the affliction we have is caused by ourselves. No good father will afflict a child just to teach him a lesson. God is a good Father. We must not equate the consequences of our own decisions as God’s character.
There are millions of people that are struggling all over the world not because of their own making. Millions of people suffer because of other people’s decisions. Other people’s choices caused the genocide in Rwanda or during WW2. We can’t explain everything that happens, and questions are good to ask. Always remember that your circumstances do not equate to who and what God is.
David comes to a great conclusion. We know he experienced affliction, but he understands that God is good and does good. God’s goodness overpowers any affliction he might have experienced.
Psa. 119:69 The proud have forged a lie against me,
But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
Psa. 119:70 Their heart is as fat as grease,
But I delight in Your law.
What do your enemies think when they see how God treats you? Because they don’t know the process God is taking you through, their opinions are just that, opinions. Opinions can be used against you. God’s Word is not an opinion, and it is truth. So David chooses to stay with what God says.
Their hearts are as fat as grease does not make sense until you understand that the word fat can mean thick or stupid. The lies they are telling about David are making them look stupid. Grease speaks of abundance, so in essence, stupidity is overflowing in their lives.
Lies always lead to more lies. The truth will always lead you to more truth. Lies can never lead you to truth, and the truth will never lead you to lies. David knows what path he wants to take. He keeps delighting himself in the law of God.
Psa. 119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.
Psa. 119:72 The law of Your mouth is better to me
Than thousands of coins of gold and silver.
David again sees the purpose for the pain. Nothing teaches us faster than pain. It is not God’s preferred method; obedience is. We know we don’t always hear right, or we don’t always respond with obedience. Even in the New Covenant, it is made clear that if we are really children of God, He will correct us.
Heb. 12:5-11 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
