“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 SAYS, “I know, O Lord, that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.” The psalmist says, “I know that!” That is the knowledge of faith. “By faith we know…” (Hebrews 11). The psalmist did not say he learned this through observation or experience, but he says he learned this and is assured of it through faith in God’s Word. The psalmist says, “I know” that God is exercising His faithfulness when He afflicts me, and I know this by faith in God’s holy Word. That is the same language Job used in chapter 19, “I know that my Redeemer lives.” In 2 Timothy 1:12, the Apostle Paul wrote, “…for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” You see, we know these things by faith in Christ, which produces a sure knowledge and a hearty trust in God’s Word. And so, by faith we know what God says about afflictions and we believe it.
THE WORD “AFFLICTION” literally means to “oppress, beat down, or to till the ground.” It refers to something that breaks up the soil and softens it so that the soil is made ready to receive the seed. It is used, for example, in Exodus 3:7 where we read, “And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows.” Pharaoh was afflicting the people of God in Egypt by beating them down and driving them by taskmasters. He took away what they needed for daily life in order to destroy them. Affliction, then, refers to something that would beat you down.
WE READ IN Psalm 34:19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivers him out of them all.” There are some afflictions common to us all, but there are also trials and afflictions that are unique and particular to certain individuals. Many have traveled down the road of affliction and suffering which others will not have to travel. But either way our text says, “I know, O Lord, that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.” Not only has God done this, but we are told in our text why God is pleased to send afflictions and trials into our life. God sends trials and affliction out of faithfulness as our loving heavenly Father. Where would we be if God did not correct us with trials and afflictions?
AS LONG AS we are on this earth we are in need of correction, and affliction, trials, and suffering is part of God’s perfect will in keeping us on the straight and narrow path. His purpose, which is rooted in His love, is that we be kept in Christ and conformed by His hand as He prepares our place in glory. That is why Scripture teaches believers to look at suffering and affliction not as the unbelieving world does, but from a heart of faith in God’s Word. We are to view suffering and affliction as God’s servants sent by God to accomplish a good work in us. We must see afflictions as evidence of God’s love for His children, as tools in the Master’s hand to shape and mold believers into Christ’s glorious image. “For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.” Our text declares, “I know, O Lord, that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.”
BELOVED IN CHRIST, believe the Word of God, trust His precious promises, and rest easy in the arms of Jesus since no trial, no affliction, no suffering, no disease, no cancer, no earthly ruler, no demonic spirit, and not even death itself can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. As Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:27-28).
Friday Devotional: August 8, 2025
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
