Psalm 119:65-72

Psalm 119:65-72

God is Good!

I.                    God is good all the time, so we must cling to His Word in all life’s afflictions (Vv. 65-68)

a.       The Psalmist has discovered and applied God’s goodness to his life, but the catalyst for his epiphany wasn’t a miraculous act, or him receiving what he thought he was entitled to, it was through affliction. He was living ignorantly of God and thought he was in complete control of life, but affliction came, he realized he wasn’t in control, and he was faced with a decision and crisis of belief. Before he was afflicted, he was drifting astray, but now he follows God’s Word. Affliction is the consequence of the sinful choices of humanity, has broken our relationship with God, and is common to all who’ve ever lived. Affliction can be remedial, compelling us to course corrections in life, constructive, conforming us more to the image of Christ, and spiritual, resulting from the attack of malevolent and hostile spiritual forces who oppose Christ and hate those who love Him. But it’s in the face of affliction, whether physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual, when we come face to face with the irrefutable truth of our lack of control or goodness, when God’s goodness, power, and sovereignty shine the brightest through the revelation and promises of His Word. So it’s in his most troubled times that the Psalmist’s heart and mind are turned to remember and crave God’s goodness. God has done good to him by working in his life exactly as He told him He would in His Word. This moves the Psalmist to desire to know God and His great goodness ever more deeply. He asks God to increase his knowledge, understanding, and wisdom because God’s faithfulness has move him to trust His Word implicitly. He realizes affliction will continue to come, but that God is wholly good, and He does only good, and that his understanding and ability to apply this truth more fully and deeply to His life will only come from God growing him through His Word and teaching him to obey it. Afflictions will come in life; but by seeking God in His Word continually, God will grow us to help us see His good and good work in and through even the worst afflictions. God is good all the time! (Vv. 65-68; Job 5:7; 42:1-6; Jer. 22:21; John 8:30-36; 9:1-3; 10:10; 16:33; 17:17; Rom. 5:1-5; 8:28-39; 2 Cor. 12:7-10; Jas. 1:2-8, 16-18; 1 Pet. 1:6-9; 5:6-11)

II.                 God is good all the time, so we must cling to His Word the most when people afflict us (Vv. 69-72)

a.   When he was enlightened in who God is and what He does, and chose to follow His commands and seek His will for His life, the Psalmist’s afflictions in this broken world didn’t cease. When we desire to live our lives in obedience to God’s Word for His glory, we will suffer affliction from others. The Psalmist says that those with hearts which had been hardened by the afflictions of life because they continued to resist God and go in their own way, were smearing his name, mocking him, and telling lies about him. But because of his growing wisdom, discernment, and peace in God’s great goodness revealed through His Word, the Psalmist understood that his greatest good, the greatest good for those who were afflicting him, was to delight in God’s Word and cling even more tightly to His goodness revealed in it. When we invest ourselves and our lives in growing in the understanding of who God is, and value Him and His great blessings in Christ above all else, we’ll respond to the afflictions we incur through those who hate and reject God and His Word, by driving deeper into His truth. We’ll be able to see that even the affliction caused by hate for God is part of His goodness, which only makes us more certain in Him, more grounded in His truth, and might provide the only catalyst necessary to change even the most hardened and rebellious hearts. When God and His Word are our greatest desire, the greater the affliction, the greater God’s goodness will shine in and through our lives, restoring, renewing, growing, changing, and refreshing. We know that God will always be faithful to act in His great goodness, according to His Word and promises, for our greatest good, and His greatest glory because He proved it once and for all through the Person and work of Jesus Christ. It was through His unmatched affliction, the most evil act ever perpetrated on this planet, that God brought about the greatest good for humanity and His greatest glory, the salvation and reconciliation only possible through Christ! We get to experience that salvation fresh and new, and the world gets to see it in all it’s glory, every time we respond to affliction and persecution by seeking God more deeply in His Word! (Vv. 69-72; Ps. 17:8-11; 19:7-11; 22:12-18; Isa. 53:2-12; Matt. 5:10-16; Luke 6:20-26; John 14:27; 15:18-25; 2 Cor. 5:21; 2 Tim. 3:12-17; Heb. 5:8-9; 11:24-27; 12:1-12; 1 Pet. 2:18-25; 4:12-19)