2 acknowledgements:
119:73 Your hands made me and formed me.
Give me understanding so that I might learn your commands.
The psalmist acknowledged that God is his creator and therefore he needed to learn His commands.
119:75 I know, LORD, that your regulations are just.
You disciplined me because of your faithful devotion to me.
119:76 May your loyal love console me,
as you promised your servant.
119:77 May I experience your compassion, so I might live!
For I find delight in your law.
Since God is His Creator He has the right to discipline His creature (according to His Word) and did that out of His faithful devotion v.75. The psalmist acknowledged that and only ask for consolation from God's loyal love as His Word has promised, and compassion because the psalmist has found delight in His Word v.76-77.
You disciplined me because of your faithful devotion to me.
119:76 May your loyal love console me,
as you promised your servant.
119:77 May I experience your compassion, so I might live!
For I find delight in your law.
Since God is His Creator He has the right to discipline His creature (according to His Word) and did that out of His faithful devotion v.75. The psalmist acknowledged that and only ask for consolation from God's loyal love as His Word has promised, and compassion because the psalmist has found delight in His Word v.76-77.
Note: Everything about these 2 acknowledges tied to God's Word. As a result of his acknowledgment of God as His Creator the psalmist resolved to learn His Word. Because of God's words the psalmist was disciplined. His request of consolation was based on the promise in God's word.
Application (Kel):
In this stanza we are reminded that God has created us with a purpose, and that purpose is that we might understand and obey his commandments. And, as part of the process God afflicts us, perhaps allowing arrogant unbelievers to cause us great difficulty, so that we may demonstrate our loyalty to him and his word. In such times God’s faithful love and tender mercy brings us comfort and restores our lives. In the end other believers will rejoice and renew their commitments. At the center of this stanza is the emphasis on the sovereignty of God, how he afflicts us in his faithfulness, and how we look to him to meet our needs... Believing that their creator has tested them according to his word, the faithful may pray for God’s love and compassion to bring them comfort in and deliverance from their affliction.The psalmist also prays for God to teach him wisdom and understanding concerning his ways. This too is a prayer of the Christian, to ask wisdom from God in the time of suffering (Jas. 1:5). In many ways the apostolic teaching provides much of the sought after understanding of the ways of God. We know that even though God created us with a plan (Col. 1:16), he tests our faithfulness with affliction (Jas. 1:12). In all our difficulties, however, we know that he has a greater purpose, so that when we endure the suffering by his love and compassion our faith is strengthened (Jas. 5:10–11). This brings us comfort in the midst of trials (2 Cor. 1:4); and if the suffering is engineered by adversaries of the faith, we know that in God’s plan they will be put to shame. And so when we pray for deliverance from affliction, Scripture reminds us to pray for wisdom, for it is more important for us to learn what God desires of us through the affliction than merely to find relief.
Reflection: God's Word is the center of our lives, especially during the time of suffering. Sometimes, the suffering comes from God as a form of discipline. Can we go through these times with the loyal love, and experiencing God's compassion? Or do we go through these times with anxiety and heartaches?
The key to go through suffering with God's loyal love is depending on whether we can acknowledge that God, as our Creator, has the right to give us discipline. His hand made me and formed me.
Audrey
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