“I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. Let, I pray, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to Your word to Your servant.”
—Psalm 119:75-76
SCRIPTURE TEACHES that God is always faithful to His children, even in their loneliest moments of trial and affliction. No matter how dark the clouds of suffering, the believer knows, by true faith, that God will always be faithful to him. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” And in Deuteronomy 7:9 we read, “Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments…” And the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you” (Isaiah 43:2).
THE PLAIN AND clear teaching of Scripture is that the Lord is faithful to His people in every trial and affliction no matter what it may be. But so often the truth of God’s faithfulness is not recognized until we look back to the time of our trial. It is then that we realize God was indeed faithful. But so often, to our shame, we have to confess that we were filled with doubt and fear at the moment the trial appeared in our life. But looking back over our life we must also confess that the Lord was and ever remains faithful. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). However, there is more to the truth of affliction than just that God is faithful to us. Notice the words of our text, “I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. Let, I pray, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to Your word to Your servant” (Psalm 119:75-76). Our text teaches that God sends the affliction. Trials, suffering, and affliction do not happen by chance or coincidence. Rather, God is sovereign over every affliction that comes into our life. That means God rules over them, sends them, and He is the author of our afflictions. As the psalmist wrote, “I know, O Lord that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.”
BEHIND THE IMMEDIATE cause of our trial, sorrow, or affliction, whether it is cancer or a cold, our text teaches that we must see the hand of God controlling all things. Behind the sudden, heart-breaking loss (what man calls an accident or chance occurrence) is the all-wise and all-ruling hand of God. Scripture clearly teaches us that there are no accidents, no chance occurrences, no coincidences, or untimely deaths in God’s universe. Everything is happening according to God’s perfect plan, whether we understand it or not. Scripture teaches that there are no independent powers outside of God’s control. Isaiah 45:7, “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.” And Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3:37-38, “Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most-High that woe and well-being proceed?”
THEREFORE, IT IS unbiblical to say when affliction or suffering comes upon us that the Lord had nothing to do with it. It is unbiblical to say that God has no control over the evil things that come upon us. Job said, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10). Not only does God control all afflictions, the Bible assures us that He afflicts His children out of His faithful love. Therefore, every affliction God sends is under His control and must be viewed by the believer as an exercise of God’s faithfulness toward us. As a parent is faithful to his child in discipline, so God is faithful to us and demonstrates His faithfulness in afflicting us. God’s purpose in our affliction may be to wean us away from the things of this world, to keep us from an evil way, or perhaps He is teaching us that we must trust His mercies and abandon our sinful self-reliance.
IS THIS HOW you understand your trials and afflictions? Do you view them through the lens of Scripture as coming to you by God’s good and perfect will, or do you murmur, complain, and question the ways and wisdom of God? Go back and re-read our text and take comfort in knowing that God sends afflictions and trials out of His covenant faithfulness to His children. “I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.”
Friday Devotional: August 9, 2024
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry