The psalmist writes, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may
learn Your statutes" (Psalm 119:71). You may wonder, as I have, “What kind of
theology is this? Is it actually good to be afflicted?”
The Hebrew word for affliction here means "abased, chastened, defiled, hurt,
humbled, weakened, depressed." When you put this meaning into the verse,
suddenly it reads: "It is good for me to have been chastened, humbled,
weakened, depressed—so that I could learn the Lord’s statutes." The word
statute means "engraved law." The psalmist is saying, "It is good that I went
through these troubles because in the process, God was engraving His laws and
ways in my heart."
The Lord allows trials to come our way to test us, but that is not His primary
purpose. Rather, our afflictions are to teach us to walk rightly before Him.
The Bible says: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous . . ." (Psalm
34:19). According to the psalmist, the point of all our afflictions is for us
to learn from them.
One of our missionary couples wrote about the situation in the African nation
where they are working. One of the poorest on earth, its situation has been
worsened by the long, bloody civil war there. The missionaries recently drove
to this desperate country in a truck with a group of Christians from a
neighboring country. They were delivering a load of supplies and were scheduled
to attend a meeting that night across the border. About five miles from the
border, their truck started slowing down. The driver floored the pedal, but the
truck’s speed kept dropping. The team was dejected as they watched the car in
front of them pull away into the distance.
Finally, the team arrived at the border and instantly the truck’s engine died
and simply would not move. Everyone on the team wondered, "Lord, what is going
on?" Suddenly, the border guards started racing about, shouting excitedly,
"There was an explosion across the border not far from here! One of the warring
factions blew up a car that had just driven in." The missions team realized the
car that had been attacked was the one directly in front of them. If the
missions truck had been running properly, they also would have been attacked.
The next morning, the driver from the missions team turned the key in the
ignition—and the truck started right up. In fact, it ran fine all the rest of
the trip. They recognized that God’s purposes had been accomplished through
this seemingly troublesome circumstance.
