Psalm 119:75 I know, O LORD, that your judgments are right, and that you in faithfulness have afflicted me. In faithfulness thou hast afflicted me; "Thou of very faithfulness hast caused me to be troubled" (Prayer-book Version) - "Who guideth mortals to wisdom, maketh them grasp lore Firmly through their pain." (AEsch., 'Again.,' 172.) It was the marked peculiarity of the Israelites that they recognized God in history. It is the marked peculiarity of the renewed man that he recognizes God in personal history. The same events happen alike to all men, and are the outworking of natural laws, but what events are to each man depends on his point of view. There is a moral significance in events when a man can see that God is working in them and through them his purposes of grace. I. GOD HAS UNDERTAKEN A WORK OF GRACE IN THE RENEWED MAN. He has "begun a good work" in the quickening of a new and Divine life in the man. To begin a work is for God to pledge himself to carry it on to perfection. The work undertaken is to give man full share in the regeneration of the world, and complete personal deliverance from the particular form in which moral evil affects him. The deliverance from physical evils comes after deliverance from moral evils, and is of interest only so far as it is related to and follows on the higher work. Physical evil for man would only be what physical evil is for animals, if man were not a moral being. God's work in man is his deliverance from moral evil, and then from all the physical disasters and disabilities which have come from moral evil, or have followed in its train. II. THAT WORK OF GRACE CAN ONLY BE CARRIED ON THROUGH AFFLICTION. We see plainly that when man works on character in the child he must use discipline, which involves chastening, correction, limitation, pain. It is, indeed, impossible to conceive of moral training, under human conditions, that does not require the agency of pain and suffering. A father cannot be faithful to his son unless he can be a chastener. Much more may we say that since God is pledged to the culture of the higher moral character, and that must even more certainly require discipline and affliction, it is only being true to himself, and faithful to his pledge, that he becomes in each individual life the Chastener for our profit. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.WEB: Yahweh, I know that your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. |
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