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In the book of Psalms 119, verse 71, there is a passage that has come to have personal meaning to me as I have contemplated it over time and made application to the things that have befallen me. The Psalmist says, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." (NKJV) Earlier in the same chapter the writer had said, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word." (Psalms 119:67 NKJV)
We all learn very early in life that we will someday die but it just does not register with us other than as an intellectual abstraction. Death is for us so far off into the future (we think) that it really has no meaning. We will think about it when we get old.
Life is very, very brief. "For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." (James 4:14 NKJV) But, when we are young the "little time" seems like generations. Nevertheless, time flies, you blink your eyes a couple of times and you are old. Memory recalls many things as though they happened but yesterday but the reality is it was decades ago.
Into our short lives affliction comes. We get what seems to be a lemon thrown our way changing our plans and very possibly our lives for the rest of our time on earth and so what do we do? Will we complain about the bitterness of the lemon or will we take advantage of what should be an eye opening event, get our lives in order, and seek God as we ought? Life is brief and to be granted an opportunity to have our eyes opened to what life really is and to our ultimate end and accountability before God is indeed a blessing.
In the book of 1 Corinthians in the first chapter Paul makes a statement worthy of our consideration. He says, regarding the gospel, "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." (1 Cor. 1:26 NKJV) Yet, we know all are called by the gospel (2 Thess. 2:14) and that the gospel was to be preached to all men in all the world (Mark 16:15). Thus, what Paul is saying to us is that not many of that class of which he speaks will respond to the gospel. The question then is why not?
There is more than one reason but certainly one of the reasons would be that they see little need of God in their life? Why not? Because they have not suffered affliction like those who lack the power and nobility and worldly wisdom they have. Is money a blessing? It could be but most of the time it is not. How do I know? I know because Jesus said, "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Matt. 19:24 NKJV) Why? Because few of that class who are doing so well will ever find a heartfelt desire from deep within to seek God. No, do not be mistaken, there is a worse thing than being afflicted. What? Not being afflicted.
The blessing of affliction is that it opens our eyes and lets us see that we are not in charge--God is. It is good that a man be afflicted that he might come to understand that. It is one thing to know it, as just another bit of knowledge to be stored in the mind, but another altogether different thing to experience it and thus understand it deep down in your soul, in your inner being, to feel it, and be conscious of it every single day of your life. We are not in charge of our lives. "Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?" (Luke 12:20 NKJV)
It would be good to read the verse that is the subject of this article (Psalms 119:71) in context. "You have dealt well with your servant, O Lord, according to your word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe your commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. You are good, and do good; teach me your statutes…I will keep your precepts with my whole heart… I delight in your law. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver." (Psalms 199:65-72 NKJV)
We can learn from this. Give a man affliction that shows him, convinces him, he is not in charge of everything that happens in his life and it can change him into the man he ought to be "if" he will allow it. Let him be diagnosed with a serious health problem, let a drunk driver cross over into his lane of traffic, let a tornado roll through and destroy his house. Man can learn if he will. As the Psalmist said, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep you word." (Psalms 119:67 NKJV)
There will come a time in everyone's life when God is all you have and you either have him or you have nothing, absolutely nothing. Friends and family may want to help but they are unable to lend the kind of help you need. I am not saying they may not be of some comfort. I am only saying they cannot "walk through the valley of the shadow of death" (Psalms 23:4 NKJV) with you. We as family surrounded my father's bed as he passed from this life into the next. None of us could do a thing about it. There comes a time when it is only a man and God. We can only walk so far with another.
The Psalmist who was afflicted saw it as a good thing. It enabled him to get his life in order and come to an understanding of what really matters. That is the blessing of affliction and the goodness of God. It is hard to believe when one is young and middle aged but the time also comes even before death when money no longer matters provided you can pay your bills. Money will not change the facts of life for you. You are growing old and you will die soon and all the money in the world will not change that fact nor will the positions of power and prestige you may have once held.
God told Adam he would toil, "Till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return." (Gen. 3:19 NKJV) Solomon put it a little differently but taught the same thing, "Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it." (Eccl. 12:7 NKJV)
As I write I am reminded of the prodigal son. In that account found in Luke 15 one verse stands out to me that probably does not to most people for at first reading it seems not to be of much importance to the story. It is Luke 15:17, the phrase concerning the prodigal son where the text says, "but when he came to himself." (NKJV) Here was a young man who had suffered affliction even though he brought it upon himself. Affliction was a teacher to him. As it turned out it was also a blessing to him for he came to realize the reality of life and of his life in particular. And, I think it goes without saying, I think everyone realizes this, that this account of the father and his prodigal son is in reality about God as our Father and we as the prodigal son.
James tells us, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience (endurance in the NASU-DS)." (James 1:2-3 NKJV) The Hebrew writer says, "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." (Heb. 12:5-6 NKJV) Why does he do that? In order that we might be saved and not led off by sin and negligence away from him. As the Psalmist said just a few verses beyond what we earlier quoted, "in faithfulness you have afflicted me." (Psalms 119:75 NKJV) He chastens us "for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness." (Heb. 12:10 NKJV)
It has not been my intent to lead anyone to believe that all afflictions come down from God. I don't want to leave that impression. However, that it sometimes does cannot be doubted and whether it is from him or not we can take it as a blessing, the blessing of affliction, and see in it the goodness of God in that it will draw us to him if we will allow it. No matter if the affliction is from the devil himself, as when he tempted Jesus, God is able to make "all things work together for good to those who love God." (Rom. 8:28 NKJV) If your affliction leads you to a greater dependence and a drawing near to God in greater faith and obedience you have been blessed for you will soon be passing from this life into another world and now is the only time you have to prepare for it.
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