The Afflictions of Godly David

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted...”

Psa.119:71

God’s darling, God's pet, the very one who wiggled himself into God’s own heart, was afflicted. The only one in the Bible of whom it is said, “He (God) liked me.” You can love someone without liking them, but God had both affections for this rare breed of a man.

In the 119th Psalm David speaks of his afflictions and their purpose on at least four occasions. Let us take a brief look at each individually.

“Before I was afflicted I went astray…”

Psa. 119:67

David himself could have penned the words to the song, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love.” They tell me a shepherd sometimes has to break the leg of one of his sheep that wanders habitually. Then it stays close to its shepherd. “...in their affliction they will seek me early.” (Ho 5:15)

“...I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.”

Psa. 119:71

It is not the scholar who has taught me most about God’s Word, but the lowly afflicted saint. I remember a dear preacher friend, who had cerebral palsy, who spoke for me annually when I pastored. He once asked me, “Why did God have Abraham offer up his beloved son Isaac?" To which I gave a standard, as well as a lame answer. His reply was, “Two loves cannot co-exist, one must die: his love for his son or his love for his God.”

“I know, O LORD...that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.”

Psa. 119:75

No father worth his salt enjoys taking severe measures in correcting his child. He does it in love. Thus emulating his Heavenly Father, “As many as I love, I...chasten…” It is not something He likes doing, but something He has to do for our benefit. “For he doth not afflict willingly…” (Lam 3:13)

“This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.”

Psa 119:50

This, no doubt, is what another afflicted saint in the New Testament refers to as, “The comfort of the scriptures.” It is within the sacred pages of God’s Book we find comfort in such texts as: “I have seen the affliction of my people," (Acts 7:34).  “In all their affliction He was afflicted," (Isa.63:9). “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment (some 20 years), worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;" (2Cor 4:17).

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE ONE OF GOD'S CHOICE ONES?

"Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."

(Isa.48:10)