I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right,
And that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me (Psa 119.75).
Many unbelievers implicitly acknowledge God’s control over all things, including their personal catastrophes, and then hold a grudge against him. Perhaps when a loved one was dying of cancer, the person now spiritually-disgruntled had prayed earnestly for healing. “Oh, God, please don’t let her die,” the father pleaded for his sick daughter. And then she not only died, but suffered grievously for six months in the process! And God made this happen to her when she was only four years old—an innocent little girl who did not even know what was happening to her and suffered it all without complaining. Now the father hates God and feels completely justified.
Not everyone responds to God in similar circumstances the same way. Real Christians, who also experience unanswered prayers like this, and whose hearts are just as broken, persevere in their faith. Such steadfast trust in God is here confessed by the psalmist.
It is relatively easy to think well of God when he is giving you much health and wealth and happiness. Our faith is sorely tried by sickness and poverty and prolonged depression. Our crosses are the real tests of genuine faith. Can we praise God even through our tears? Can we, Job-like, say, “The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1.21)? Remember, he said this right after hearing the news that his seven sons and three daughters had been killed by a great wind, perhaps a tornado, an “act of God.”
What makes the difference between one person and another? It is clearly not the severity of the suffering. Rather, the believer knows himself and God much better than the unbeliever. A real Christian has a true knowledge of God in his exalted holiness and ineffable goodness. Saints also have been deeply humbled in a realization of profound personal guilt and depravity. The faith-filled afflicted soul also knows much better than others the true nature of his relationship with God (creature to Creator, subject to King, rescued one to Redeemer, etc.). This being the case, severe trials become at once both the occasion for the display of true faith and for its purification and increase.
An unbeliever, on the other hand, even if he is not conscious of it, is already set against God, and the pain of calamity likewise draws out in bold appearance what was already in his heart. Similarly, except God’s grace intervene, the sinner will become spiritually worse, hardened in his irreverence and hostility toward the God who afflicts.
The testimony of this psalm verse comes from a crucible of suffering as a triumphant confession of faith in God’s righteousness and faithfulness. The psalmist says, “I know.” This was not a guess or a hunch but an acknowledgement of objective truth based on divine revelation, the only clear and certain foundation for spiritual knowledge. Particularly, the psalmist based his faith on God’s own testimony in holy Scripture. For example, Deut. 32.4 says of the LORD our God, “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.”
This remains true at all times, whatever his dealings with men. Oh, that we might have such faith when our most distressing times come!
YOU ARE RIGHT IN YOUR DECISIONS
The Authorized Version (KJV) uses happily the ambiguous term “judgments” to translate the Hebrew word “mishpat,” a word that has at least 13 distinct senses depending on grammatical form and context.1 Its other occurrences in Psalm 119 generally refer to written Scripture, God’s law (e.g., vv. 7, 13, 20, etc.). This is the sense conveyed by the ESV rendering of our text, “I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous,” but that may not be at all the intended sense of the original in this place.
The same Hebrew word can refer to God’s dealings with man, especially when he sends trouble of some kind. When Abraham was interceding for Sodom, he argued against the prospect of God’s killing all the inhabitants of the city together, both the righteous and the wicked. Abraham pleaded with the Lord in prayer, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?,” that is, do “judgment” or justice,” the same Hebrew word in Psa 119.75a.
The Tanakh (modern Jewish translation) takes the text this way by rendering it, “I know, O LORD, that Your rulings are just; rightly have You humbled me.” This has the advantage of being suggested by the second line of the verse. Before God brought affliction, he made a decision to do so (we speak anthropomorphically, as if God were a man), and the psalmist is testifying that both the prior divine decision and its execution were in accordance with perfect righteousness—that is, “God, you have decided and dealt fairly concerning me.” This is probably the intended sense of the verse’s first line.2
Still, the AV is better here than the ESV and the Tanakh because it preserves the ambiguity,3 calling the English reader to interpret the text instead of making the decision for him, just as one must do when reading the original Hebrew. We know that both God’s Word and his sending affliction into our lives are consistent with righteousness because he always acts from his own perfect nature. Both the words and deeds of the Lord manifest his holiness.
Perfect faith never questions God’s own righteousness or wisdom in the way he decides to govern his creation. Even if we cannot understand how his decisions are righteous, we should blame our own folly rather than God. If we were as wise and good and just as he, we would fully appreciate the praiseworthiness of all his judgments. To allege God is guilty of injustice is wicked arrogance. Even in our most severe trials, he has afflicted us less than our sins deserve (Ezra 9.13). It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed (Lam 3.22). Why should a living man complain for the punishment of his sins or our Father’s just discipline? (Lam 3.39).
YOU ARE FAITHFUL IN YOUR AFFLICTIONS
The psalmist confesses more than the strict justice of God. Here is also testimony to his grace and love. “Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.” As Charles Bridges eloquently wrote,
David not only acknowledges God’s right to deal with him as he saw fit, and even his wisdom in dealing with him as he actually had done, but his faithfulness in afflicting— not his faithfulness though he afflicted—but in afflicting him; not as if it were consistent with his love, but as the very fruit of his love. It is not enough to justify God. What abundant cause is there to praise him! It is not enough to forbear to murmur. How exciting is the display of his faithfulness and love! Yes—the trials appointed for us are none else than the faithful performance of his everlasting engagements. And to this cause we may always trace (and it is our privilege to believe it, where we cannot visibly trace it) the reason of much that is painful to the flesh (in loc.).
A dim but true illustration of this spiritual reality is the dawning realization of sensible sons and daughters when we mature that those rules we thought oppressive and those truly painful spankings were the means our wise parents used to mold our character and habits into those that bode well for a happy, blessed life (cf. Heb 12.5-11).
My dear Christian friend, even though you have true faith now, you would certainly apostatize from God if he were a “permissive parent” toward you, leaving you to your own thoughts and desires and ways without discipline. You would stray back into the broad way that leads to destruction, but your heavenly Father graciously bounds your way with thorny hedges and brings you into his immediate presence with joy! You will be everlastingly grateful when this life is done, and you need not wait until then to trust and praise Him.
Say it aloud, “God has been so much more than fair with me!” As we say with the Heidelberg Catechism, “My comfort in life and death is that I am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation” (from Answer #1).
Even when the most precious thing in this world is ripped from your arms, you can and ought to say by faith, “I know, O LORD, that your judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.” This confession distinguishes God’s enemies from his beloved children. Job said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13.15). May he give us grace to take his side, know his peace, and enter his favorable presence when our trials are over. Amen.
Notes:
1. TWOT 2443c.
2. In this context (note the second line) the Hebrew term, which so often refers to the regulations of God’s law elsewhere in this psalm, may refer instead to his decisions or disciplinary judgment (NET Bible notes).
3. “Judgments” included the sense of “the righteous statutes and commandments of God” and “determination, decision” leading to his moral government, including the sending of calamities (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, in loc.).
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