I know, O Lord, that your judgments
are right. Francis Baudelon. I know, O LORD,
that your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness you
have afflicted me." Psalm 119, 75. I know, O LORD, that your
judgments are right. God orders all things. His judgments
here mean His general orderings, decisions, dealings, not afflictions
only, though including them. And when the psalmist says, Your
judgments, he means especially God's judgments towards him,
God's dealings with him, and thus all that had happened to
him or would happen to him. For in the psalmist's creed,
there was no such thing as chance. God ordered all that befell him,
and he delighted to think so. He expresses a sure and happy
confidence in all that God did and would do with regard to him. He trusted fully in God's wisdom,
God's power, and God's love. I know, O Lord, that your judgments
are right. Quite right, right in every way,
perfectly wise and good, without one single point that might have
been better. David shows the firmest persuasion
of this. I know, he says, not merely I
think. But these words, I know, clearly
show that this was a matter of faith, not of sight. For he does
not say, I can see that your judgments are right, but I know. The meaning plainly is, though
I cannot see all, though there are some things in your dealings
which I cannot fully understand, yet I believe, I am persuaded,
and thus I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right. your
judgments, not some of them, but all. He takes into view all
God's dealings with him, and says of them without exception,
I know, O LORD, that your judgments are right. When the things that
happen to us are plainly for our comfort and good, as many
of them are, then we thankfully receive what God thus sends to
us, and own Him as the Giver of all, and bless Him for His
gracious dealing. And this is right. But all the
faith required for this is to own God as dealing with us, instead
of thanklessly receiving the gifts with no thought of the
giver. It is a far higher degree of
faith that says of all God's dealings, even when seemingly
not for our happiness, I know that your judgments are right.
Yet, this is the meaning here, or certainly the chief meaning,
for though the word judgments does not mean God's dealings
of every kind, yet here the words which follow make it apply especially
to God's afflictive dealings, that is, to those dealings of
His that do not seem to be for our happiness. I know, O Lord,
that Your judgments are right, and that You in faithfulness
have afflicted me. The judgments which the psalmist
chiefly had in view, and which he felt so sure were right, were
not joys, but sorrows, not things bestowed, but things taken away,
those blessings in disguise, those veiled mercies, those gifts
clad in the garb of mourning which God so often sends to His
children. The psalmist knew, and knew against
all appearance to the contrary, that these judgments were right. Whatever they might be—losses,
bereavements, disappointments, pains, sickness—they were right,
perfectly right, so right that they could not have been better,
just what were best, and all because they were God's judgments. That one thing satisfied the
psalmist's mind and set every doubt at rest. The dealings in
themselves he might have doubted, but not him whose dealings they
were. Your judgments, that settled
all. and that in faithfulness you
have afflicted me." This means that, in appointing trouble as
his lot, God had dealt with him in faithfulness to His Word,
in faithfulness to His purposes of mercy and in faithful love. God had sent him just what was
most for his good, though not always what was most pleasing,
and in this he had shown himself faithful. Gently and lovingly
does the Lord deal with His children. He gives no unnecessary pain,
but that which is needful He will not withhold.