Psalm 119:65-72

 Repeated word: "Good"

119:65 You are good

119:66 Teach me proper [or good] discernment and understanding

    119:68 You are good and you do good.
    Teach me your statutes!

    119:71 It was good for me to suffer,
    so that I might learn your statutes.

    119:72 The law you have revealed is more important [or better] o me
    than thousands of pieces of gold and silver.

Application: (Kel)

Even in times when the arrogant oppose us and our faith, we know that God is good and good to his people. He loves to give good gifts to his people; as James reminds us, every good gift comes from him (1:17). When there is opposition to the faith, God uses such times of affliction as a means of developing our faith (James 1:2), even if it is an affliction we brought on ourselves. It is our task to study the word to know and understand the ways of God, and therefore know him better in the process. When we study his word, it should be our prayer that he teach us, either directly by his Holy Spirit as we meditate on the word, or through properly appointed and spiritually directed teachers. The substance of our prayer is that we learn “good taste,” i.e., what is the pleasing and right way to live, so that we will not wander away in our beliefs or activities.

Reflection: 

1. The psalmist acknowledged that God is good and therefore he wants to obey His commandments v.65-66. No one will like to obey if we do not see the goodness of the Law-giver. We will not spend time for devotion if we only see this as a legalistic requirement. No, we want to tap into the source of goodness and get close to Him and therefore we want to spend time with Him in devotion.

2. Apart from God, we do not have good discernment and understanding of what is good. Therefore we strayed off and were afflicted. After the affliction, the psalmist reaffirmed his commitment to keep God's words v.67. Do we learn from our affliction? 

The psalmist faced suffering from arrogant people, but their actions only pushed the psalmist closer to God's words. Therefore, he wrote, "119:71 It was good for me to suffer, so that I might learn your statutes." Can we overlook our suffering if it pushed us closer to the LORD? If the "arrogant people" changed to "terminate stage cancer" do we still say, "it was good for me to suffer so that I might learn your statutes"?

Audrey