Good to be afflicted

I received my fourth round of chemo-therapy today.  Aside from all the strange sensations in various parts of my body, I feel OK at the moment.

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, comprised of 176 verses.  The psalm is an acrostic psalm, which means that in the original Hebrew the psalm is comprised of 22 stanzas with 8 lines in each stanza.  Each of the lines in a stanza begins with one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.  The stanzas are arranged alphabetically, Ayin to Tav (In the English language that would be A-Z).  The theme of the psalm is the wonder and beauty and truthfulness and faithfulness of God’s word, his law.  It is perhaps most famous for three verses in the opening two stanzas.  Verse 9 reads: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.”  Verse 11 reads: “I have stored up (treasured) your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Verse 18 reads: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”

The second summer after I became a Christian I read and re-read this psalm scores of times.  The passion of the psalmist for God’s word and his confidence in it captured my heart and my imagination.  During that summer I noted that the psalm contained a number of statements regarding the affliction that the psalmist was experiencing.  At the time, as a young 21 year old, they made little impression on me.  Over the years as I have read the psalm I have noted and, especially since Jared’s accident, paid more attention to these prayers of the psalmist.  Here is a list of ways in which the psalmist relates his affliction to God and his word:

Psalm 119:50, “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.”

Psalm 119:67, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.”

Psalm 119:71,”It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.”

Psalm 119:75, “I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.”

Psalm 119:92, “If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.”

Psalm 119:107, “I am severely afflicted; give me life, O LORD, according to your word!”

Psalm 119:153, “Look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget your law.”

First, notice in v. 75 that the same God how has given to us a righteous word, that is, a word which arises from and corresponds to God’s good and perfect and absolutely righteous character has also, out of that same flawless, faithful character afflicted the psalmist.  The afflictions that God’s people experience come from their faithful God.  This is not the first time we have noted that this is what the Bible says.

Second, notice vv. 71 and 67.  In 71, being afflicted is a good thing.  That sounds exactly like what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12 when he boasts all the more gladly in his weaknesses (afflictions).  He would agree with the Psalmist it is good for me that I was afflicted.  For the psalmist, why was it good?  The affliction caused him to “learn God’s word” in ways he could not have ever learned the truthfulness of that word without the affliction.  But it is good not only because he learns God’s word better but also, by means of the affliction, he obeys God’s word better (v.67).  He is sharing in the holiness of God in a greater way because of the trouble.  I can testify in my own life that Jared’s accident and the 10 years of caring for him since it and now the cancer has caused me to pursue knowing and trusting/obeying his word.  It matters more to me because, I think in part, I realize that this is no game.  Life is serious business because heaven and hell hang in the balance, because the glory of God and the welfare of God’s church hang in the balance.

Third, notice vv. 50 and 92.  What is the source of all the comfort in the midst of taking chemo-therapy and facing the fact I can die way sooner than I planned from cancer all the while living with my brain injured son?  God’s promise in Christ gives to me life, not only eternal life but hope to live out this life as faithfully as I can.  Then, anyone who knows me has heard me say something very close to v. 92.  I have no question that if it were not for the fact that in the early 1990’s, as a result of God’s opening my eyes to the fact that everything is about him and the goal of life is to know and be known by this great God, I began a regular program of bible memorization and bible reading and reading good books about Christian doctrine, I would not still be a pastor and probably not a Christian.  From the human point of view, if God’s word had not been my delight for the previous decade, I could not have stood in the face of Jared’s accident and now my cancer.

Finally, notice how the psalmist prays in vv.107 & 153.  He is honest with God about his condition.  “I am severely afflicted.”  This sucks.  It hurts.  It is not pleasant.  And then the request, “Give me life.”  That is both a prayer for healing and a prayer for final salvation.  This is obvious when we see the qualifying clause, “according to your word.”  The life I want is the life you have promised in your word which is ultimately eternal life.  The clause also is a statement of God, I want your will to be done in my case exactly as you have promised in your word.  Again we should hear the prayer of Jesus in the Garden and the prayer of Paul for deliverance from the thorn.  Finally, in v. 153 he pleads for deliverance because he has not forgotten God’s word.  This is not an assertion of merit or that somehow because he has loved God’s word God is somehow obligated to repay him with deliverance.  He is simply asserting that he is asking in accord with what God promises and trusting God to do what God has said in this word which he has hidden in his heart.  So our prayers for the afflicted are most effective when they are directed by and in accord with all that God has said in his word.

My word to you is to begin today to make it your aim to “treasure this word in your heart,” by at the minimum, daily reading of it and attending a church where the Bible is being taught in its detail, not simply as a book of good quotes or as a book of inspirational thoughts.