Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:71
[It is] good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
71. Cp. Psa 119:67.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
It is good for me that I have been afflicted – See the notes at Psa 119:67. Whatever may have been the form of the affliction, it was good for me. The design was benevolent; the result has been my own benefit. This will be the experience sooner or later resulting from all the afflictions of the righteous.
That I might learn thy statutes – That I might be brought more fully to understand what they require; and that I might be led to conform to them. It is implied here
(a) that this is the tendency of affliction; and
(b) that this is an advantage – a good.
Anything that will lead a man to obey God is a blessing and a favor. Whatever leads a sinner to secure the salvation of his soul is a gain to him. No matter what it may cost; no matter what he may be required to give up; no matter to what persecutions and troubles it may expose him; no matter what he may suffer, or how long he may suffer; no matter though poverty, contempt, toil – even the rack or the stake – may be the consequence of his religion – yet it is again to him; and he will be thankful for it in the end – for nothing that can be endured in this life can be compared with the sufferings of the world of despair; nothing on earth can be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us in heaven. See the notes at Rom 8:18.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:71
It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes.
The uses of affliction
I. Afflictions promote virtue, and goodness of heart, as they tend to compose our minds to a sedate and thoughtful disposition and habit.
II. Afflictions tend to restrain our appetites and passions within reasonable bounds.
III. Afflictions, by means of a sedate and considerate habit, which they produce and confirm, tend to strengthen our minds with fortitude and constancy,
IV. Afflictions tend to soften our hearts into tender sympathy and kind affection towards our fellow-creatures. (J. Drysdale, D. D.)
Good to be afflicted
It is not good for some people to have been afflicted at all, and yet it is not the fault of the affliction; it is the fault of the persons afflicted. It might have produced in them a splendid character if all had been right to begin with; but, inasmuch as all was wrong, that very process which should have ripened them into sweetness has hastened them to rottenness. I hope, however, that I may say of many here present, or that they can say of themselves, It is good for me that I have been afflicted; The inquiry is, How has it been good?
1. It has been good in connection with many other good things. We are so constituted that we cannot bear very much prosperity. Some men might have been rich, but God knew they could not bear it, and so He has never suffered them to be tempted above what they are able to bear. Others might have been famous, but they would have been ruined by pride, and so the Lord in tender mercy has withheld from them an opportunity of distinguishing themselves, denying them this apparent advantage for their real good. Where God favours any man with prosperity He will send a corresponding amount of affliction to go with it, and deprive it of its injurious tendencies.
2. It is good to have been afflicted as a cure for evils existent within our nature. David says, Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I have kept Thy Word. That is the case with many of Gods servants. They were prone to one peculiar temptation, and though they may not have seen it, the chastening hand of God was aimed at that special weakness of their character. The Lord would have us aware of this, and therefore He often sends trial to reveal the hidden evil.
3. Affliction is also useful to Gods people as an actual producer of good things in them. Some virtues cannot be produced in us apart from affliction. One of them is patience. If a man has no trial, how is he to be patient? A veteran warrior is the child of battles, and a patient Christian is the offspring of adversity. There is a very sweet grace called sympathy, which is seldom found in persons who have had no trouble. We are told that our dear Lord and Master Himself learned sympathy by being tempted in all points like as we are. He had to feel our infirmities, or else He could not have been touched with a fellow feeling towards us. It is surely so with us.
4. It is good for me to have been afflicted because affliction is a wonderful quickener, We are very apt to go to sleep; but affliction often wakes us up. The whole of some mens religion is a kind of sleep-walking. There is not that vigour in it, there is not that earnestness in it, that there ought to be. They want to be waked up by something startling. Our trials and afflictions are intended to do that.
5. Again, according to our text, it is good for us to have been afflicted by way of instruction. Trial is our school where God teaches us on the blackboard. This school-house has no windows to let in the cheerful light. It is very dark, and so we cannot look out and get distracted by external objects; but Gods grace shines like a candle within, and by that light we see what else we had never seen. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The advantages of afflictions
I. They awaken us to serious thought. When, by reverse of fortune, we are deprived of the means of pleasures in which we had too profusely indulged; when the companions of our happier years forsake us; when pain and disease unfit us for tasting our wonted comforts, and forewarn us of death; on a sudden, the enchantment is broken; our conduct, to which we had not hitherto attended, rises in review before us; virtue and vice are exhibited in a light in which we had not viewed them before, and our souls, awakened from the dream of dissipation, commune seriously with themselves.
II. They serve to moderate our attachment to worldly objects.
III. They serve to exercise and display our virtues. It is the storm that tries the strength of the vessel.
IV. They have a natural tendency to improve our pious affections. When the fabric of our felicity falls, we perceive whose hand it was that supported it, and whose hand it is that alone can rear it anew. We feel our dependence on that Providence which, before, we had neglected to acknowledge, and seek, in communion with God, the consolation which our sufferings require.
V. They have a tendency to enliven our hope of immortality. The doctrine of a future existence is no longer regarded as a subject of cold speculation; it addresses itself to the tenderest feelings that can arise in the human breast; your minds are prepared to yield to the evidence by which it is confirmed, and you cherish it as your support under afflictions which admit of no other consolation. (W. Moodie, D. D.)
The uses of affliction
I. It affords opportunity for reflection, without which we can never properly know what we are or what we want.
II. It tends to create in us humility.
III. It is the means of leading us to repentance.
IV. It teaches us to put our trust in the righteousness of Christ.
V. It teaches us resignation.
VI. It improves our charity. (R. Mant, M. A.)
The benefits of affliction
1. It tries and calls forth the exercise of faith.
2. It enables us to exercise patience.
3. It tends to produce humility.
4. It makes us dependent and prayerful.
5. It tends to secure our obedience.
6. It teaches us to value our mercies.
7. It tends to make heaven very desirable. (D. Dickson, D. D.)
Affliction beneficial
I. In whatever form affliction comes, it is designed by God to do us good. An old writer says: Afflictions are used by God, as thorns are by husbandmen, to stop the gaps, and to keep us from breaking out of Gods ways.
II. The spirit in which affliction should be received. Trials must not be received thoughtlessly and as a matter of course; their cause and their purpose must be carefully studied. The grace of submission must be earnestly sought, that there may be no murmuring, much less rebellion, but patient endurance and resignation to the Divine will. Unwavering trust in God must be exercised. There must also be a willingness to learn His lessons, a teachableness of disposition, an earnest desire to endeavour to extract from our affliction all the profit which it is designed to bring.
III. The benefits resulting from affliction if received in a right spirit.
1. By sorrow the heart is made tender and susceptible to the influences of the Holy Spirit. Religion is welcomed by the bleeding heart as the choicest and most effectual balm.
2. Affliction rightly endured increases our love for Gods Word and obedience to His law.
3. Few motives to prayer are more powerful and effectual than those furnished by affliction.
4. Afflictions afford the best possible sphere for the exhibition and for the growth of the graces of the Spirit. How can we know we have faith unless our faith be tested? Hope, like a bright star, is best seen on a dark night; and love is most conspicuous when it clings in spite of perplexity and pain.
5. The benefits of affliction are not confined to the immediate sufferers. If rightly endured by us, others are benefited, both by our example and by the tender sympathy which we are led to feel for them in their distresses. (A. O. Smith, B. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted] See on Ps 119:67.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Good; necessary, and greatly beneficial. He repeats what in effect he said before, Psa 119:67, partly to intimate the certainty and importance of this truth, and partly because it is a great paradox to worldly men, who generally esteem afflictions to be evil, yea, the worst of evils.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
71, 72. So also affliction ofany kind acts as a wholesome discipline in leading the pious morehighly to value the truth and promises of God.
JOD.(Ps 119:73-80).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[It is] good for me that I have been afflicted,…. The good and profit of which he had observed before; [See comments on Ps 119:67]. The following end being also answered thereby,
that I might learn thy statutes; to understand them, and to keep them. Afflictions are sometimes as a school to the people of God, in which they learn much both of their duty and of their privileges; and when they are teaching and instructive, they are for good; see Ps 94:12.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
See here, 1. That it has been the lot of the best saints to be afflicted. The proud and the wicked lived in pomp and pleasure, while David, though he kept close to God and his duty, was still in affliction. Waters of a full cup are wrung out to God’s people, Ps. lxxiii. 10. 2. That it has been the advantage of God’s people to be afflicted. David could speak experimentally: It was good for me; many a good lesson he had learnt by his afflictions, and many a good duty he had been brought to which otherwise would have been unlearnt and undone. Therefore God visited him with affliction, that he might learn God’s statutes; and the intention was answered: the afflictions had contributed to the improvement of his knowledge and grace. He that chastened him taught him. The rod and reproof give wisdom.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
71. It has been good for me that I was afflicted. He here confirms the sentiment which we have previously considered — that it was profitable to him to be subdued by God’s chastisements, that he might more and more be brought back and softened to obedience. By these words he confesses that he was not exempt from the perverse obstinacy with which all mankind are infected; for, had it been otherwise with him, the profit of which he speaks, when he says that his docility was owing to his being brought low, would have been merely pretended; even as none of us willingly submits his neck to God, until He soften our natural hardness by the strokes of a hammer. It is good for us to taste continually the fruit which comes to us from God’s corrections, that they may become sweet to us; and that, in this way, we, who are so rebellious and wayward, may suffer ourselves to be brought into subjection.
The last verse also requires no exposition, as it contains a sentiment of very frequent occurrence in this psalm, and, in itself, sufficiently plain, — That he preferred God’s law to all the riches of the world, the immoderate desire of which so deplorably infatuates the great bulk of mankind. He does not compare the law of God with the riches he himself possessed; but he affirms, that it was more precious in his estimation than a vast inheritance.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(71) It is good . . .See Psa. 119:67. Probably the result of discipline on the nation is intended, though the sweet uses of adversity were long ago a truism of moralists. See sch., Agam., 172:
Who guideth mortals to wisdom, maketh them grasp lore
Firmly through their pain.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
DISCOURSE: 706
THE BENEFIT OF AFFLICTION
Psa 119:71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
DAVID had been afflicted from his youth up and we think it highly probable that to that very circumstance he was indebted, under God, for those extraordinary attainments in devotion and holiness, which have rendered him a pattern for the saints in all future ages. By means of his trials he was constrained to take refuge in his God: and by constant communion with God, he obtained a deep insight into his revealed will, and a rich experience of his superabounding grace. This seems at least to have been his own view of the case, long after his afflictions had ceased: for to his familiarity with affliction he ascribes his enlarged acquaintance with the statutes of his God: It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.
In confirmation of his testimony, we shall shew,
I.
The benefit of affliction, as leading to knowledge
Affliction, in itself considered, is an evil: but, if viewed in connexion with the benefits resulting from it, it may justly be esteemed a good. Thousands there are who have reason to bless God for it, as instrumental to the bringing of them to the knowledge of a Saviour, whom, without such trials, they would have continued to neglect. Indeed it is eminently and extensively useful in this view:
1.
It opens our ears to instruction
[People who are at ease, however eager they may be after human knowledge, have no desire after that which is spiritual and divine. If it be tendered to them, they reject it: if it be pressed upon them, they cast it behind their backs with indignation and scorn. To one who would instruct them in arts or sciences, they would feel thankful: but to one who would lead them to the knowledge of the true God, they make no return, but that of contempt and hatred [Note: Joh 3:19. Mat 7:26.].
But when heavy affliction is come upon them, they are softened: they will listen to advice; they will even be thankful for it: they will read the Scriptures, or some other religious book: and will pay considerable attention to those subjects which hitherto have provoked only their derision.
With this view, and for the production of this very effect, God frequently vouchsafes to send it [Note: Job 36:8-10.]: and those who are brought by it to this measure of thoughtfulness about their souls, have reason rather to be thankful for it as a benefit, than to complain of it as a judgment.]
2.
It makes us sensible of our need of better things than this world can give
[In the midst of carnal enjoyments a man wishes for nothing more: but when trials of various kinds oppress his mind, his taste for earthly gratifications is weakened: their insufficiency to remove, or even to alleviate, trouble is felt; and they no longer afford him that kind of satisfaction which they once did. Amusements, and company, have lost their relish: his mind is indisposed for them: they are become to him insipid, undesirable, irksome, odious. Something more substantial is now wanted: something on which his soul may rest, as conducive to its present and eternal welfare. This was the effect produced upon the Prodigal. Whilst he could revel in luxury and pleasure, he cared for nothing; but when his money was expended, and he was a prey to want, and could find no help, no pity, from man, then he began to reflect on the abundance that there was in his Fathers house, and to desire a participation of it, though in the lowest and most menial office there. And had he not reason to be thankful for the trials which produced so blessed an effect? In like manner then we also should acknowledge as a blessing every trial that is sent us for the accomplishment of so good an end.]
3.
It drives us to God in grayer
[Those who never called upon God in the time of their prosperity, are often stirred up to seek him in a season of adversity. In their affliction, says God, they will seek me early [Note: Hos 5:15.]: and to the same effect the Prophet testifies, Lord, in trouble have they visited thee; they poured forth a prayer when thy chastening was upon them [Note: Isa 26:16.]. In the 107th Psalm this effect of troubles is marked in every instance: Then cried they unto the Lord in their trouble [Note: ver. 6, 13, 19, 28.]: and in every instance this was the prelude to their deliverance. Who then that experiences this effect from his trials has not reason to be thankful for them? Let it only be said of us, Behold, he prayeth; and we shall have no cause for complaint, though we should have been struck blind, like Saul, and had our blindness continued to the latest hour of our lives [Note: Act 9:3-4; Act 9:8.].]
4.
It brings us to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus
[Of itself, affliction cannot effect this; but when accompanied by Divine grace, it often does. Indeed where a willingness to receive instruction, and a desire after spiritual blessings are excited in the soul, and issue in fervent prayer to God, there we may reasonably hope that all spiritual blessings will flow into the soul. God will not suffer any to seek his face in vain. Even though, like Manasseh, we may have brought down Gods wrath upon us by the most heinous iniquities, yet if we humble ourselves under his chastisements, and implore mercy at his hands, we shall, like him, be heard, and be made stupendous monuments of his power and grace [Note: 2Ch 33:11-13]. Did he ever regret the sufferings by which he was thus brought to enjoy peace with God? Neither shall we, whatever trials may be made subservient to this blessed end.]
But will the end really compensate for the means used to effect it? Yes: and to prove that it will, we shall proceed to shew,
II.
The blessedness of knowledge, though gained by affliction
Such knowledge as we are speaking of, the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus, is indeed inestimable. Let us view it,
1.
As compared with the price paid for it
[It is said by Solomon, Buy the truth, and sell it not. Now as we have before spoken of affliction as the means of bringing us to the knowledge of the truth, we may, in popular language, call it, The price paid for knowledge. Whatever then the affliction be, we do not hesitate to say that it is richly recompensed by the fruit which it produces.
Suppose the affliction to be of a temporal nature: we have been bereaved of our dearest friends and relatives; we have suffered the loss of all our property, and been reduced to very embarrassed circumstances; our health also has been destroyed, so that we are sinking under an accumulation of woes. Suppose our case as distressing as that of Job himself: still, if it have been sanctified to our eternal good, we can call it by no other name than, A blessing in disguise. Did Job, when brought to a deeper view of his own depravity, and to a richer discovery of the Divine perfections, regret the sufferings which had been overruled for that end? Did he not rather abhor himself for having judged too hastily respecting the designs of God; and cordially approve of those dispensations, which in his haste he had been ready to condemn? Thus shall we also do, when once we have seen the end of the Lord [Note: Jam 5:11.]. We may in our haste exclaim, All these things are against me: but at last we shall testify of all Gods most afflictive dispensations, as Joseph did, that God meant them for good [Note: Gen 50:20.].
But suppose the trials to be of a spiritual nature. These are yet far more afflictive: A wounded spirit who can bear? How grievously David was oppressed by them, we are informed in many of his psalms [Note: See Psa 38:1-8; Psa 77:3-9; Psa 88:6-7; Psa 102:1-10.] But yet his testimony in our text was the real dictate of his heart. And we may ask of others, Were the wounds which brought you to the heavenly Physician too severe? Do you not number them amongst your richest mercies? Has not every loss been more than compensated in the acquisition of salvation; and every pang more than recompensed in the peace and joy to which, through the knowledge of Christ, you have attained? It was a matter of just computation with the Apostle, that the sufferings of this present life (whatever they may be) are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.]
2.
As estimated according to its own intrinsic worth
[But who can ever rightly appreciate its worth? St. Paul counted all things to be but dross and dung in comparison of it [Note: Php 3:8.]. We must be able to estimate all the miseries of hell, and all the glories of heaven, before we can form any estimate of its value; and, if we could ascertain the full importance of those, we should still be as far as ever from having a complete conception of the worth of spiritual knowledge; unless we could estimate also all the glory that will accrue to the ever blessed Trinity from the contrivance and execution of this stupendous plan, and the application of this salvation to a ruined world.]
Address
1.
To those that are at ease
[How faint, for the most part, are your desires after spiritual knowledge! Whether you hear, or read, or pray, what formality pervades it all! But, if God have indeed designs of love towards you, you will be taught by the rod, what you will not learn without: He will cause you to pass under the rod, in order that he may bring you into the bond of the covenant. And if lesser trials will not accomplish the purposes of his grace, he will visit you with heavier: from chastening you with rods he will scourge you with scorpions. Yet think not that a season of affliction is in itself favourable for the pursuit of spiritual knowledge: it is far otherwise: pains of body, and distress of mind, have a tendency to impede, rather than assist, the exercises of the mind. Ask those who are in deep affliction, Whether they find it easy to collect their thoughts, and fix them with energy on the concerns of their souls; and they will bear one uniform testimony, that health is the time to seek the Lord. Be persuaded then, now whilst you are at case, to study Gods statutes, and especially those which declare to us the way of salvation ordained for sinful man. Know that there is no other knowledge of any importance whatever in comparison of this; and that, if even the most grievous sufferings should be welcomed as accessary to the attainment of it, much more must it deserve all the time and attention that can be bestowed upon it. You never need fear that you will hereafter have occasion to complain, that its fruits did not repay you for the cultivation of it.]
2.
To those that are under any great affliction
[The rod under which you suffer, has a voice, to which you should listen with all possible attention [Note: Mic 6:9.]. It is sent to you in love and mercy. God designs to teach you, by means of it, many things which you would not so well learn without it. It may be that you are already instructed in the Gospel of Christ; but yet there is much of which you are ignorant; and many things which you do know, need to be known by you in a very different manner. Even our blessed Lord himself, though he was a Son, learned obedience by the things which he suffered, yea, and was made perfect through sufferings. Be content to have Gods work carried on and perfected in you in the same way: and be more anxious to obtain the benefit which your affliction is sent to impart, than to get rid of the affliction itself. If your tribulation work in you patience and experience and hope, learn to glory in it, and to number it amongst your richest blessings. And do not wait till the affliction is removed, to acknowledge Gods goodness to you in sending it; but now, whilst you are under the affliction, get it so improved and sanctified to the good of your soul, that you may be able to say, It is good for me, O Lord, that I am afflicted; for by means of it I do learn thy statutes: I see, it is in very faithfulness that thou afflictest me; and, if only thou make me a partaker of thy holiness, send me what thou wilt, and when thou wilt: be the cup never so bitter to my taste, I will say, Not my will, but thine be done.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:71 [It is] good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
Ver. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted ] And thereby humbled; for else the fruit of affliction is lost, and they are always impaired that are not improved by their sufferings, as all God’s people are sure to be at length. The Lacedemonians of old (and the same is said of the Hollanders of late) grew rich by war, and were bettered when all other kingdoms were undone by it. The saints make benefit of their crosses, which to others are destructive.
That I might learn thy statutes
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
It is. See note on Psa 119:67.
good = right, or fitting.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
good: Psa 119:67, Psa 94:12, Psa 94:13, Isa 27:9, 1Co 11:32, Heb 12:10, Heb 12:11
Reciprocal: Gen 50:20 – God meant Lev 26:43 – and they 2Ch 33:19 – before he Job 33:19 – chastened Job 36:9 – he Psa 119:12 – teach Psa 119:45 – for I seek Ecc 7:3 – is better Ecc 7:14 – but Jer 24:5 – them that are carried away captive Lam 3:27 – bear Mic 2:7 – do not Mat 20:34 – and they 2Co 4:17 – worketh Heb 12:6 – whom Jam 1:12 – the man Jam 4:9 – afflicted
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE DISCIPLINE OF PAIN
It is good for me that I have been in trouble: that I may learn Thy statutes.
Psa 119:71 (Prayer Book Version)
It is scarcely surprising if the mystery of pain has been a problem which beyond almost any other has tasked the brain and wearied the heart of many of the worlds greatest thinkers.
I. Pain the result of sin.It is important for us to remember at the outset that a huge amount of the pain of which we ourselves are the unwilling witnesses, perhaps even victims, to-day is the direct or indirect result of sin, and being such it is wholly unjustifiable for us to cast the tiniest stigma of blame upon the Almighty for its existence. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children, yea, even unto the third and fourth generation. This statement is not a mere piece of philosophic theory; it is a tremendous present-day fact of which even the most unreflecting among us cannot fail to take notice. Consequences are Gods commentaries.
II. The discipline of pain.But my purpose now is rather to dwell upon pain and suffering regarded from their disciplinary point of view. I would appeal to the testimony of the Gospels. I do not mean necessarily the experience of great thinkers, but also that of the humblest and most commonplace of the sons of men. Can we fail to recognise it as a truth that pain and suffering have been responsible, times without number, for the development of the most beautiful traits of Christian character? Is it not an incontestable fact that pain is, as it were, a great moral lever wielding a far mightier power than riches, or force, or both. The road to victory lies across the burning, fiery furnace of martyrdom. It was in the presence of a Man of Sorrows that the great unshaken imperial might of Rome was at length compelled to bow, and at last crumbled to atoms. Hence we can understand the tremendous words of the Master when He charged us to take up our cross and follow Him. Pain, suffering, discipline, these are potent beyond anything else to uplift our poor human nature to its true height. Trial or suffering, this must be the lot of us all. It was through discipline like this that the great Captain of our salvation, wearing the robe of flesh, was exalted to the right hand of the Father Himself, and we ourselves cannot rebel against a similar lot. I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me. Personal sufferingthis is a cross which we must inevitably endure if we desire our own individual souls to be filled with the Divine grace of sympathy, if we desire to take our share in bearing the burdens of our comrades. It will quicken our spiritual perceptions till we become possessed of an insight, altogether foreign to any previous experience, an insight which will impel us to extend a helping hand to a companion who has perhaps been racked with some long agony. The very fact that we ourselves have partaken of Gods gift of suffering will throw around us in the eyes of our fellow-men a bright halo of love. Whether it be the soldiers who have fought shoulder to shoulder through same toilsome campaign or the patriots who have sworn that they will give their life-blood, if need be, for the triumph of their cause, or the husband and wife upon whose heads the storms of adversity have descended in blinding torrents; these will be the people who will be able to exclaim with the full heart of the Psalmist, It is good for me that I have been in trouble.
III. Christianity and life.Suffering and discipline, then, are mighty factors in our spiritual education, and when we dwell upon such themes as these, the inherent reasonableness of much which would be otherwise dark and inscrutable is beginning to dawn on our minds. Now we are ascended to higher ground still. The very clouds themselves seem to be rolling away. We almost fancy that we can get a glimpse of the heavenly Jerusalem. Lifethis is the great title of Christianityremember not simply the purification of this life, passed in this world of lights and shadows, has the promise of an infinitely purer, grander life in the vast ages which are as yet unborn. Once realise and take home to yourselves the great fact that this world is not an end of itself, but rather a school of character, and the discipline of pain and suffering seems forthwith to fall into its place as a normal and necessary element in the Divine government of the world. We are constrained to believe that each one of us exists for a definite purpose, but the purpose which is apparently the sign of each personality is ever being ceaselessly baffled. In all that we attempt to perform we are fettered, shackled, hampered. Pleasure, knowledge, achievement, each of these in turn breaks down, and as we fall upon them they pierce us through and through. But remember, we are working for the most glorious of futures, when the life we now enjoy will attain to its complete development, when we shall indeed know what it is to realise ourselves; for we shall wake up with Christs own likeness and be satisfied with it.
Rev. Canon Perkins.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Psa 119:71-72. It is good for me Necessary and very beneficial; that I have been afflicted He repeats what, in effect, he said before, (Psa 119:67,) partly to intimate the certainty and importance of this truth, and partly because it is a great paradox to worldly men, who generally esteem afflictions to be evils, yea, the worst of evils. The law of thy mouth Not only thy promises, but even thy precepts, which are so unpleasant and disagreeable to ungodly men; are better unto me More needful and profitable, and therefore more desirable; than thousands of gold and silver Because they not only give me abundant satisfaction and comfort in this life, but also conduct me with safety and delight unto that eternal and most blessed life, where gold and silver bear no price.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
119:71 [It is] {d} good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
(d) He confesses that before he was chastened he was rebellious as man by nature is.