The psalmist in Psalm 119 has come to a significant point in his life, recognizing God’s ways as better than his own. He thought his own ways were good, but discovered they brought unhappiness for his own life and facilitated injustice in the world. The psalmist has asked God’s forgiveness according to His lovingkindness as described in the Law. Some people reading this have lived long enough to have a similar experience. I remember the experience in my own life. To be completely honest, there have been several—each time God revealing how my ways aren’t actually good and how His ways are actually better. It’s humiliating, and it hurts. We experience identity crises as we loose things. Relationships in our lives may break. Quite literally, in these moments, our entire worlds are turned upside down and shaken until it seems like everything has fallen out. We experience a wide range of emotions, spanning even depression, anxiety, and worry about the future and the past and the present. As we are reading Psalm 119, the psalmist thanks God for this moment… In fact, the psalmist considers this moment of affliction so foundational for his own spiritual development and mental maturity, that he asks God to do it again.
Teach me good discernment and knowledge, For I believe in Your commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word (Psalm 119:66-67).
The psalmist asks God to teach him good discernment. Good discernment is the ability to judge justly and practice discretion. Since in the psalm overall the psalmist juxtaposes God’s ways with his own and confessing that God’s ways are better than his, he insinuates here that good discernment is not the way of the worldly and selfish man. From the moment we are born, our motivation is self-fulfillment. We quickly do the things we believe will set us up for success, bring happiness, satisfy us, or bring us pleasure. We check our self-made boxes in haste and only find trouble as a result. The psalmist has learned this and asks God to teach him good discernment—something we should all ask of God.
The psalmist also asks God to teach him good knowledge. The Old Testament comes from an ancient Hebrew understanding of the person. In today’s language, we might call it an Eastern understanding. Knowledge meant something different to Hebrews than it did to the Greek, or Western, culture reflected in the New Testament. New Testament knowledge is epistemic or factual. Knowledge directly reflects study and information an individual has mastery over. Old Testament knowledge is different, reflecting one’s understanding of the person and reality. We might call it self-awareness or spirituality. You can know what causes the grass to grow in a Western sense. From an Easter perspective, the Hebrews want to understand why, for what purpose, the grass grows. That’s what the psalmist asks for here. Not only does he want to make wise decisions. He also wants to understand the purpose of it all. Why does he even exist?
People today ask the same questions. It is why people seek out and invent religion. It is why we search for meaning in all the places we search for meaning. The psalmist lifts up his prayer, essentially asking God, “Help me to live well and tell me why I’m here.” He prays to God because he believes in God’s commandments. The commandments of the Old Testament predated the human religion we attach to them. They are relational in nature. The psalmist has seen that God’s commandments are good for his own happiness and for justice and equality among the people.
Then the psalmist mentions his affliction. Read the rest of the psalm, and you’ll see the psalmist feels he has many enemies closing in from every side. This is most likely the affliction he refers to here. This affliction is a current circumstance for the psalmist. It is fresh on his mind. He is afflicted. Apparently, this affliction is producing the very discernment and understanding the psalmist values. Before his affliction, the psalmist went astray.
We are this way by nature. I can teach all I want, but people are only interested in what they are interested in. Without a reason to think about anything spiritual or the need to make wise decisions at all, why would anyone ever start? If we made selfish decisions from birth, fulfilling our own desires and being self-willed, and everything only ever went well for us, what need would we have to ever mature or think about others? What need would we ever have to love, serve, or think about justice and equality? We would only ever be spoiled brats without wisdom or understanding. Without some kind of wake-up-call, we are all doomed to this fate. I think some people require a more severe wake-up-call than others.
We doubtless wrestle with the question, “Why does God let bad things happen?” Make no mistake, God cannot commit moral evil. But, “bad” here refers more to suffering than evil. The two are not the same. Bad things, affliction, happen to produce wisdom and understanding in the lives of God’s people. Affliction brings spiritual maturity if we learn from that affliction. Every person has the option to ignore the lessons God wants to teach. Many people do. As people who love God and His word, we pay attention and sing with the psalmist,
Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word (Psalm 119:67).
The psalmist considers this wisdom and understanding of such importance that he asks God to continue to teach them in his current time of affliction. Whether or not you are in a season of affliction, this understanding is valuable. Why do people suffer? People suffer for the purpose of producing wisdom and understanding in them. God wants us to grow into maturity. He does not want us to remain the spoiled brats we are at birth. Consider the psalmist’s own confession:
It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes (Psalm 119:71).
Many people see their own personal suffering as a moral evil. Many people choose to disbelieve in God because they experience suffering. Many people try to explain away suffering saying that people just don’t have enough faith. Let me encourage you in this life as we all strive together. Suffering has a good purpose. Some people suffer more than others, but the purpose is the same.
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him (James 1:2-5).
In this post, you read about the problem of pain. You came face-to-face with the idea that all suffering ultimately serves God’s good purpose. Sometimes such a truth can be difficult to wrestle with. If you have any questions or need clarification, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
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