Word of Salvation – Vol.47 No.45 – December 2002
When Troubles Bring Blessing
Sermon by Rev. J. W. Westendorp on Psalm 119:67, 71, 75
Scripture Readings: 2Corinthians 12:1-10;
Hebrews 12:1-13; Psalm 119:65-75
Suggested Hymns: BoW 141; 426; 358; 365; Rej 500
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Today our society is generally very focussed. It seems to have really just one goal. The purpose of life is to minimise suffering and to maximise pleasure. We see the outworking of that right across the board. We are a generation of pleasure seekers. We want to be entertained. And when we can’t avoid suffering, then we seek compensation. Affliction of any sort is unfair and someone should be made to pay for it.
This outlook has also coloured the euthanasia debate. We ought not to not let the suffering of the handicapped and the terminally ill continue. So our pleasure seeking generation wants a quick way out of terminal pain. And you can usually count on the families to be very supportive. They don’t even want to see the pain of others, let alone suffer it themselves.
The Bible has a few things to teach us in this area that we need to take to heart.
- The nature of affliction under God
Our text speaks of being afflicted but what does the writer particularly have in mind? Because troubles come in all shapes and sizes.
From a toothache to a heart attack.
From spilt milk to a marriage breakdown.
There are the little troubles that we get over before tomorrow morning; and there are the big problems that will haunt us for the rest of our days. So what does the songwriter mean by “afflictions”?
The particular word he uses occurs almost eighty times in the Old Testament. Its New Testament equivalent is used fifty-five times. So we are talking about something that is relatively common.
In verse 107 he uses the word in a telling way: “I am afflicted much, preserve my life, O Lord according to your word.” In other words, he’s not talking about a headache, or that he got demoted at work. He’s dealing with a problem he can’t solve by himself. In that verse, at least, there is something life-threatening about it. He pleads with God to preserve his life.
So the idea of affliction at least includes the troubles that make us cry out to God for help, and the afflictions that may even make us despair of life itself.
But affliction is also much broader than that. The word is also used of Israel’s troubles in Egypt. The backbreaking, slave-labour that made Israel cry out to God. The word is used of the troubles that came into Job’s life, which were the loss of his possessions and the breakdown of his health.
Sometimes affliction or trouble is something that we bring onto ourselves.
And the psalmist recognises that – for example, in Psalm 107:17. There he speaks of people who suffered affliction because of their iniquities. Here, in Psalm 119, his troubles are especially that his enemies have ‘smeared him with lies’. He has been attacked by people whose “hearts are callous and unfeeling…!” (vs.70).
Our pleasure-seeking society needs to see that affliction is not unusual. It’s a normal part of life. It’s not far off the mark to say that all the great people in the Bible got into trouble. Scripture says in no uncertain terms to our culture: Life is difficult! Get used to it…!
What would surprise our society even more is the role God plays in our hardships. Those key verses in Psalm 119 leave us with no doubt that God is involved. When tragedy strikes our lives, God never says, “Oops, sorry about that!” Accidents never ever take the Lord by surprise. He is very much involved in our trials and tribulations.
We know that from the story of Job. Satan robbed Job of his possessions, but only because God allowed it. Satan stole Job’s health and peace of mind, but only with God’s permission. That’s part of the message of Job, it’s not the main theme, but it’s a theme. Satan could only do to Job as much as God allowed.
But the Psalmist (both here and elsewhere) puts it even more strongly than that. God is so intimately involved in our hardships that it’s as if God actually does it. In fact, if God permits you to suffer a stroke, or develop a tumour, then is there not a sense in which He is doing it to you?
Somehow God is actively involved in our afflictions. Listen to this from Psalm 90:15 – “Make us glad for as many days as YOU have afflicted us!” And right here in this Psalm 119 (vs.75) – “In faithfulness YOU have afflicted me!” God afflicts him. Sure, God does it in faithfulness, but God does it.
We actually see that in the history of Israel during the time of the judges. God brought trouble to His people as He handed them over to their enemies.
Believe it or not, that is actually encouraging. If God is not in control of your illness or your trauma, then there is no point in prayer. If the accident you were involved in took God by surprise, then why pray about it? It is because our afflictions are ultimately in God’s hand that it makes sense to pray.
But now notice that God’s involvement in our trials never detracts from God’s goodness. That is the real crunch-point for the world around us. It says to us: If God is all-loving, He cannot be all-powerful, or He would put an end to all the misery. If God is all-powerful He can’t be all-loving, since He leaves so much misery to continue.
This songwriter would totally disagree. He speaks repeatedly of affliction as part and parcel of life. He even speaks that strong language of “God doing it to Him”.
But notice how he sets out his talk about affliction in verse 67. He sandwiches it right in between two statements about God’s goodness. Before the verse on affliction, verse 65: “Do good to your servant according to your word, O Lord.” By the way, most English Bibles don’t read that as a plea, but as a statement. “You do good to your servant according to your word, O Lord.” After the verse on affliction, verse 68, “You are good and what you do is good.” So that includes the affliction! Troubles and suffering in the Bible never detract from God’s goodness. In fact, three times here the word ‘good’ is used in relation to God and His dealings with us. And don’t we see that goodness especially when we look at Jesus? We especially see the goodness of God in the terrible afflictions of Christ on the cross. There we see the painful lengths God was willing to go to, to do good to us. And if God was willing to send Jesus to die for us, why should God not be good in affliction?
- Affliction is for our sanctification
That leads us to the million-dollar question: How can affliction and trouble be good? That just doesn’t gel with the world around us. The world lives by the philosophy that prosperity is good, but adversity is evil. There is this very basic assumption that we all deserve to enjoy the good times. And there is something inherently unfair in pain, in suffering and hardship. So how can the author of this song speak so positively about his problems?
We may be struggling with a problem that got us down. Maybe we don’t know the cause of the problem but we know one reason why this problem is there. It is for our sanctification! But what do we mean by that?
Let’s first look at it from the negative point of view. Sanctification is us getting off the wrong track, putting wrong ways behind us. The psalmist says that before his affliction he “went astray”. He was going off the rails, getting side-tracked. In worst-case scenarios, this going astray can be downright sinful. It’s the kind of going astray that Israel had to bring guilt offerings for. But it may also simply mean a kind of aimless wandering.
Think about that for a moment and we can make some connections. Prosperity and good times can make us ‘stray’. They make you think that you don’t need God in your life. Being on top of things and prospering can make you insensitive to the needs of others. In that sense a prosperous, pleasure oriented society is no longer in touch with reality.
The Psalmist seemed to be aware that something was wrong, that he was indeed off track. Because in verse 66 he actually asks to be “taught knowledge and sound judgment.” He really did want to get back on track again.
What we’re talking about is a certain disciplinary effect of affliction. Before he was afflicted he was going astray but his troubles pulled him back into line.
If you want to work through this in a little more depth, then study the early verses of Hebrews 12. There we are told that in hardship God is disciplining us for our good. We are told there that we must not be discouraged by hardships. It is for our good, it is for our sanctification, for our growth in holiness.
The writer to the Hebrews is very adamant about this. We need to look at it positively because the Lord disciplines the children whom He loves. The old KJV used to put it very colourfully: “If you are not being disciplined then you’re bastards and not sons.
So the purpose of trials has the positive aim of getting us on track and keeping us on track. And we can see that in the history of Israel. During the time of the Judges, Israel’s trials were for their correction. It was to bring them back to God. That was also the reason for the hardships of the seventy-year exile in Babylon.
Now all this, of course, only applies to God’s children, not to unbelievers. Yet repeatedly Christians ask me, “Why is God doing this to me? Is He punishing me?” It is not punishment. Your sins were punished in Jesus. It is for your sanctification.
So there is this double purpose to affliction. On the one hand, it is to bring us back from the wrong track when we stray. On the other hand, it is to bring us closer to God and make us more sensitive to the needs of others.
It is interesting to listen to the testimonies of people who have suffered deeply. We could begin with the apostle Paul and his “thorn in the flesh”. Whatever that affliction was, it stopped Paul from going astray. For Paul it was straying into pride, so it kept him humble and trusting in God’s grace.
I have so often heard people speak in similar ways. Recently at a wedding I met the father of the groom who was severely handicapped. After removing a brain tumour doctors had told him he would never walk or talk again. By the grace of God he was able to do both, although with great difficulty.
He told me that the surgery had cost him his work, his business, and some friends. But also that those afflictions had enriched his life immeasurably. So much so that both he and his wife spoke of it as one of the best things that had ever happened in their life. I was flabbergasted! What an incredible thing to say!
They admitted that they would never, ever have asked God for something like that. And yet somehow it had brought them wonderfully close to their God. And, wonderfully close to each other. That affliction was for their sanctification. And only eternity will tell how many tragic accidents have had similar effects.
There are beautiful lives that have been shaped that way by pain and suffering. The hardships of life moulded them into the kind of people that glowed with grace. And that shone out as a positive witness to the power and glory of God.
On one occasion Paul spoke of the trials of the Galatians. Especially of the hardships that their problems were even causing him. But he said that the goal of it all was to see Christ formed in them (Gal.4:19). Sanctification is that we accept suffering like Jesus so that His character is seen in us.
- Affliction brings us closer to God
I want to give this some hands and feet because we still have some questions. How does this actually work? That’s an important question because we know people whom trouble has made bitter. An accident left them angry with God and the world. Some serious setback or grief drove them away from their faith. And today you can’t even talk to them anymore about the things of the Lord.
Here we need to look at the bigger picture. This Psalm focuses entirely on God’s Word. Every verse, in this 176-verse song, mentions the Word of God. All except three of them refer to it in some form or other. So we are in a context where the focus is on God’s Word. We are in an environment where everything centres on God’s Word.
That Word of God is God’s self-revelation. It also answers the big questions in life: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Why is the world a mess? What is the solution? That Word not only tells us how we should live to please God. It also tells us how to live in a way that is best for us.
Is it not so, then, that affliction makes people bitter because there is no link with the Word? A tragedy strikes some family, and they are not grounded in the Scriptures. So they have no answers, and their problems drive them further and further from God.
In contrast for the Psalmist, there is something healing in his afflictions. Blessings come out of his trials and traumas. Why? Because his life is lived within the context of the Word of God. Not that he’s been so good in living by that Word, not at all, he strayed from it. But the point is that God’s discipline has brought him back on track. It brings him back to where he ought to be. But notice how he expresses this process in verse 71: “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.”
So, there is first of all a teaching element in our troubles. When laid aside by illness, or when struck by disease, God is teaching us. We learn, and we learn as we are driven back to “God’s decrees”, God’s Word. But the big question at that point is whether we are teachable. Are we willing to be taught, or are we rebelling against the lessons? So we have this interesting perspective on pain and misery. Hardships have lessons to teach us that well-being and prosperity cannot get through to us.
I think it was C S Lewis who said: God whispers in our pleasures but shouts in our pains. If you’re going through hardship. maybe He’s trying to get your attention again. What a terrible pity if that experience of life is being wasted on you!
But what a wonderful thing when through it you again learn God’s decrees; to experience again that His grace is sufficient in your needs; to discover that just in those difficult moments God is closer than ever. But not only is God teaching us important lessons through our pain. It isn’t just a matter of learning – it’s also a matter of putting that learning into practice. It’s all well and good if hardship enriches our understanding of God’s Word. But if we don’t do anything with that, then we are still going astray. So we’re really only making progress when we also keep the Word. The bottom line is our obedience. Verse 67 says, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.”
I recall once talking to a young man from a Christian family who was going astray. Things were not going well in his life, there was one problem after another. One day one of his closest friends was tragically killed in a car accident. I asked him: What does God have to do to get you back on track? He protested that he still believed the Bible. I said to him: Yes, but you are not obeying the Bible, are you?
The day came where he not only learned again God’s decrees, he also began to obey them. But it was hardship and misery that brought him back to the obedience of God’s Word. God disciplined that young man, not merely to make life miserable for him. God did that to be faithful to His covenant, not to let that young man destroy himself. As the psalmist says: “In faithfulness you have afflicted me.”
What a wonderful thing that is for us Christians. Jesus wants to keep us near to Himself. That’s why He promised His followers constant trouble – so that we might trust in His constant presence; and in that way find constant joy, even in our afflictions.
Amen.