All right, brethren, Psalm 119. This is the good section, the
good section. That's the key word, is good. We find it several times, and
this is the Hebrew letter that would be the equivalent of good. So I take it that was on his
heart as he wrote it. He said in verse 66, teach me
good judgment and knowledge for I have believed thy commandments. And so God sent David affliction. And David declares here in this
psalm the good judgment and the knowledge that God taught him
through the affliction. Through the affliction. By affliction, God is teaching
his children good judgment. He's teaching us good judgment.
He's given us understanding. And we'll see some ways here
that God deals well with us through affliction. The first thing is,
is that God will grow us in good judgment and in knowledge to
know that by the affliction itself, by the affliction itself, God
has dealt well with us. He did it according to his word,
according to his promise, by the affliction itself. He begins
there in verse 65 and he says, Thou hast dealt well with thy
servant, O Lord, according unto thy word. You know, every section
of this Psalm is almost a repeat of the one before it. Almost
every section is just almost repeating the same thing over
and over. Affliction. We find that, and then we find
God's mercy in his work, and we find joy, thankfulness for
mercy. We find determination to walk
more diligently by faith, looking to the Lord God, and then affliction,
and then joy, thankfulness for God's mercy and more determination. than affliction. Over and over
we find it. It's almost like the Lord is
saying in the way he's dealing in Providence with David and
with you and me, it's almost like he's teaching us what he
moved Paul to say in Philippians 3, where he said, to repeat the
same things to you is not grievous for me, for you it's safe. because
it's the life of a believer over and over and over. God chose
his people in the furnace of affliction. It's how God is going to teach
us, it's how he's going to grow us in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ through affliction. David began with
this good judgment. This was the good judgment God
taught him here in Psalm 119. He began, this is the good judgment
God taught him. God taught him that through this
affliction, this is what he said, verse 65, thou hast dealt well
with thy servant, O Lord. That's good judgment. You have
dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word. In the Hebrew, it would read,
you have done good to your servant. He said in verse 68, thou art
good. Our Lord said, there's none good
but God. He said, thou art good and do us good. That's the only
thing God ever does for us is good. That's what he does for
his people. He said in verse 71, it's good
for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.
Thou hast dealt well with our servant, O Lord, according to
your word. He didn't say it's good for me
that I've been prosperous. or it's good for me that I've
been in ease. He said, it's good for me that
I've been afflicted. You've dealt well with your servant,
Lord, according to your word. God deals well with his people
in every way, at all times, even when he gives us affliction.
He did well when he chose his people in Christ in eternity.
He did well trusting the whole of our salvation at the hands
of his son to come and work out a righteousness that we could
not work out. He did well when he called us by his grace and
made us hear the gospel. He's done well for us every day
that we've been in this earth, before we knew him and since
we've known him. He only does good, and he does
good to his children. And everything he does is him
being, dealing well with us. And that's God's word, that's
his promise. He said, you did this according to your word.
This is God's promise that he will do good to his people. The
Lord Jesus, if you hear verse 65, and you can hear the Lord
Jesus speaking to the father, saying, thou hast dealt well
with thy servant, O Lord, according to your word. Our Lord suffered
the worst affliction anybody ever suffered. The Hebrew writer
said, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things
which he suffered. He took all the sin of all his
people. And he was judged by God in our
place. He bore the wrath of God in the
place of his people, suffered the worst affliction ever suffered. But it was the Father's promise
to him, it was his word, covenant word to his son, that he would
do well for him. He would deal well with his son. And you can hear the Lord Jesus
say to the Father, thou hast dealt well with thy servant,
O Lord, according to thy word. So, since Christ has redeemed
his people, and he's purchased us with his blood, God the Father,
when he calls us, he promises he will do well with you. He's
brought you to believe him. His word, covenant, everlasting,
unchanging covenant word to his child is he will do, deal well
with you. In Isaiah 52, he trusted Christ
to be the head of his house, to lead all his children and
bring them all to the Father. And here's our Lord speaking.
And he's promising, our great shepherd promises, he will deal
well with you who know him. Isaiah 52, 12, he said, you shall
not go out with haste, nor go by flight, for the Lord will
go before you. And the God of Israel will be
your reward. He will go before you and he'll
be behind you and he'll be protecting you. Behold, my servant, speaking
of the Lord Jesus, my servant shall deal prudently. He's God's
servant. He's going to deal prudently
with you and bring you to God. He should be exalted and extolled
and be very high. How was he exalted and extolled
and become very high, highly exalted? How did that happen?
Look at the next word. As many as were astonished at
thee, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form
more than the sons of men. He dealt well with us by suffering
affliction in our room instead. So shall he sprinkle many nations,
his people in many nations. The king shall shut their mouth
at him, for that which had not been told them shall they see,
and that which they had not heard shall they consider. So child
of God, try to remember this. When it seems like it's the very
worst, Like it's the very worst. Remember, God is sovereign. He's
ruling everything in our life. And when it seems it's the very
worst, when God sends affliction in the form of bodily sickness,
or he sends affliction in the form of the loss of loved ones
or friends, or affliction by poverty, When God sanctifies
that to the heart of his child, and he will, he will, he will
sanctify it to your heart to teach you. And he will bring
you to know and to say to him, thou has dealt well with thy
servant, oh Lord, according to your word. You've done just what
you promised, you've dealt well with me. You've dealt well with
me. Everything you go through, it's
chastening, it's affliction, and it's troubling, and it's
sorrowful while you're going through it. But do you not look
back on everything God's ever done for you and say, you dealt
well with me? That's the only thing he does.
He deals well with his people. God promises it shall be well
with the righteous. Those who he's made righteous
through the obedience of his son and brought to believe him,
he will do well. He will do well for you. Well,
the next thing, God dealt well with him by making David know
his own sin so that he was turned to keep God's word and even ask
God to teach him more of his word. He was made to know his
own sin, and he was turned to God's word to trust the Lord
and walk after him, and it made him want God to teach him more
good judgment. Teach me your word more, Lord. Look in verse 67. Before I was
afflicted, I went astray. But now have I kept thy word. Thou art good, and do is good. Teach me thy statute. God's afflicting
hand makes his child, who he has sanctified and given a new
heart, he's going to make you grow wiser. That's what he's
going to do through the affliction. He's going to make you grow wiser.
Only somebody who's already been given good judgment comes to
Christ our wisdom in whom he had all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge and ask him, will you give me good judgment? Will
you teach me your statutes, Lord? Will you teach me your word?
You wouldn't do that unless you already had been given some good
judgment. When you have good judgment, it makes you to know
he keeps you from being confident in what he's taught you. and
it makes you keep asking Him to teach you more. It keeps you
considering yourself not wise in your own eyes so that you
see He's your wisdom and you keep asking Him to teach you
more. Teach you more. Teach me your statutes. And so
God does that. How's He gonna do that? You know
what David's asking for? Send me affliction. That's what
he's asking for. Send me affliction. I don't know
how many sermons I read on this text And I think everybody I
read made that same exact comment. David, in asking for God to teach
him good judgment, teach him his word, teach him more and
more of the word of God, he's asking, Lord, send me affliction.
Send me affliction. You know, prosperity and ease,
that's what we want. We want prosperity and ease.
We don't want to suffer. We want to be comfortable. But that makes us rust. That
makes us rust. We become complacent. We become less guarded. We become
less diligent in obeying God. We can even become proud. So
God sends the fire of affliction to purge the dross. That's what
he does. That we might be partakers of
his holiness. He's going to keep us sanctified
unto him, knowing he's our salvation and walking after him. Our Lord
sits like a refiner. He puts you in the fire, but
he's not put you there to destroy his child. He's put you there
to refine you. He's put you there to consume
the draws and bring forth the gold of his making and what he
created. And this is another thing that
he promised his child, I will be with you in the fire. He's
the refiner that's doing the work and he's with his child
in the fire. That's the only way you're going
to bear up under it. Through affliction, God reveals
to us our sins. He shows us our pride. He shows
us our worldliness. He shows us our disobedience
to his word. against the very God of grace
against whom we've sinned. That's what he brings you to
see. And God teaches us good judgment. He teaches us knowledge. He makes us judge. We discern the law. We hear the
law speak. Just what Brother Adam just read.
We hear the law speak and declare us guilty. And God gives you
good judgment to take sides with God against your own self. and
confess to God, I'm the sinner. I have sinned against thee and
thee only, that you might be just when you judge, Lord. I
have sinned against you. And this is a real true confession
right here. This is when he brings you to
hit your face before him and, yes, Lord, I have sinned against
thee, thee and thee only. And he teaches you good judgment
and knowledge more and more when he brings you there. Here's the
purpose of it. He brings you there and he makes
you to know, I put you in my son. And I judged you in my son
on Calvary's cross. And your old body of death was
crucified, your old man of sin was crucified in Christ at Calvary's
tree. And your sin is put away and
I've made you righteous in my son. And God teaches you that
good judgment and he makes you know this knowledge. And it's
an amazing grace when he does it. Though you sin, he shows
you I'm just and I'm right to forgive you of your sin because
I've dealt with your sin at Calvary. And he's dealing with it for
us when he sends the affliction. in love. The chastisement of
our peace was upon our Lord Jesus. With his stripes we are healed.
And so what he's doing to you now is not going to be the fierce
fury of his wrath and his anger. It's the loving hand of a father. He only chastens those he loves.
When Paul stood before the Roman governors and the Jewish elders,
who was wearing the chains? The one God loved, Paul. You don't want to be like Esau
and go through this world and just have ease and everything,
and you want to be where Jacob was, afflicted. being taught good judgment by
God. And so when he does this, you
glorify God because he's been merciful to you. He's shown you
that his grace is grace. It's free, unmerited grace. And
his love's unchanging love. And he shows you this all over
again, and this is teaching us good judgment. It's teaching
us the statutes of God, that what he says is so. He saves
freely. He saves in his Son. His love
is everlasting and he keeps you knowing this and makes you know
it more and more and more. Turning us back to Christ for
grace and mercy to save us, to keep us walking by faith in this
world and not by sight. We're chastened of the Lord that
we should not be condemned with the world. And he makes you see,
I deserve to be condemned, but the Lord had mercy, just like
he did in the first hour. And then Thomas Watson said this,
he said, the sharp frosts of affliction bring on the spring
flowers of grace. When he's done this, that's when
God begins to grow you. Again, a little more. David said,
it's good for me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn
thy statute before I went astray. But Lord, in this mercy to me,
you did well. You did well. You've made me
keep your word. God gonna grow us in faith, and
he's gonna grow us in patience to wait on the Lord. When he
sends the trouble, and he sends the trial, and everybody in this
world suffers trouble, But when an unregenerate man suffers trouble,
he blasphemes God, he curses God, he starts looking to his
own way and his wisdom and he tries to get himself out of it.
But God makes his child bear the rod patiently. And the more
we go through more and more afflictions, the more he teaches us to bear
the rod patiently. You remember whenever God killed
his two sons, just consumed them right there on the spot, Aaron
held his peace. Didn't say anything. When Joe had everything he owned
taken from him, almost everything, his health
was just, he was just barely alive. His children, his wealth,
everything. And Job answered and he said,
the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. He said, though he slayed me,
yet will I trust him. Eli, the Lord told Eli he was
going to chasten greatly, send great affliction on his children
and his house. And Eli's reply was, it is the
Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. Let him do, he only does good,
he is good, and he only does good, let him do what seemeth
him good. And instead of murmuring, David was brought to glorify
God for the affliction. Thou has dealt well with thy
servant, O Lord, according to your word. God has dealt well
by the affliction in that what God's doing every single time
you suffer affliction, great or small, to some degree or another,
he's humbling us. That's what the word affliction
means. It means to be brought down. And he's bringing us down. He's humbling us under his mighty
hand. You know, we talk about conformity
to the Lord Jesus, and that's what the Lord's doing. But conformity
to Christ is not merely suffering affliction. It's trusting God's
grace, it's trusting God's strength, it's looking to Christ alone
to save you and bear you up and sustain you while you suffer
the affliction. The apostle says, behold, we
count them happy which endure. We wouldn't know of the patience
of Job if God didn't give him that great affliction. We wouldn't
know about his patience if God didn't give him that great affliction.
But why did God send that to him? Because he loved him. Because he loved him. And he
would teach him more good judgment. He would teach him more of who
God is and who Job was. God sustains His child in the
affliction. Our Lord Jesus is sustaining
us at all points in this life of faith, but when that affliction
comes, it's Him alone sustaining His child so that God's grace
is manifest. It's the only way we would stand.
There's no other way. That's when we find out there
is no way I could stand but by His grace sustaining you. He
told Paul, my strength's made perfect in weakness. That's when
you're going to know it. That's when you're going to know
it. He gives strength to them that have no strength. And them
that have no might, he increases strength. Grace is going to make
you, he's going to maintain faith in you. He's going to keep you
believing him. Against all reason and, you know, he's going to
keep you believing him. He's going to keep you hoping
in Him. I like how hope is a helmet for
the head because this is where we get in trouble when we start
looking everywhere else and your mind is just trouble. Hope's like a helmet. When you
hope in the Lord and your hope's in Christ at God's right hand,
that'll settle you. It'll keep you. Patient he's
going to keep you patient. He's going to keep you meek.
He's going to keep you resigned to God's will that's what he's
going to do And he's going to make us experience
the power of God's grace in reality That's how he's teaching us good
judgment when he uses affliction like
a hedge, like a thorn hedge, and he shuts up your way to where
the only thing you can do is believe the Lord. Trust him. He has dealt well with you. He's
dealt well with you. You that know him know that's
wisdom. You know that is good judgment. On God's part, dealing
with you and me, where he hedges up our way, so we have to trust
him. Now thirdly, God's statutes teach
us to believe God alone. That's what God's teaching us
all through the Word. The very first commandment is
have no other God beside Him. Trust Him. Look to Him. Trust
His Son alone. Look to none other to save you
but God. And that means, as God declares
throughout His Word, cease ye from man whose breath is in his
nostrils. We can't trust the Lord and trust
man. We can't hear him and see him
as all our wisdom and be looking to ourselves as wisdom or some
other man as wisdom. We can only be looking to him
and trusting him. And so God sent affliction so
that that was the only thing David could do was trust the
Lord. Watch this now in verse 69. He
says, the proud have forged a lie against me. If something's forged,
it's strong. It's strong. You can't do anything
about it. They forged a lie against me,
he said. But I will keep thy precepts
with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease,
but I delight in thy law. These are opposites. There's
pride and then there's just utter abasement, just trusting the
Lord. What are these lies? What is
this lie he's talking about? David just confessed he strayed
from obeying the Lord. He just confessed, I sinned against
God. He just said it. So what's the lie that they forged
against him? Well, in Psalm 38, we read this
and we hear our Lord speaking all through this psalm. He owned
our sins to be his sins on Calvary's cross. He didn't sin, and he
knew no sin, but he did own our sins to be his. And so we see
our Lord in this psalm. But now I want you to note, David
wrote this, this is a song of remembrance. This is what he's
going to bring us to remember when we're suffering. But I want
you to see here, David suffered this too, not nearly to the extent
our Lord did, but he did. But look what he said right here. Let me just give you a little
bit of it. He said in the beginning, Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath,
neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Thine arrows stick
fast in me, thy hand presses me sore. There's no soundness
in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest
in my bones because of my sin. Mine iniquities are going over
my head as a heavy burden or too heavy for me. Now, he goes
talking about his lovers and his friends standing aloof and
laying snares for him and speaking hurtful things and mischievous
things, imagining deceits all day long. But he said in verse
13, but I, as a deaf man, heard not. I was as a dumb man that
opened not his mouth. Thus I was as a man that heareth
not, whose mouth are no reproofs. For in thee, O Lord, do I hope. Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.
Now look here in verse 17. I'm ready to halt and my sorrow
is continually before me. I will declare mine iniquity.
I will be sorry for my sin. He's saying I've sinned and he's
saying this to God. But my enemies are lively and
they're strong. And they that hate me wrongfully
are multiplied. They also that render evil for
good are mine adversaries because I follow the thing that good
is. I'll hold your place right there
just a minute. David had sinned. God had afflicted him. And God
had turned his feet to God's testimonies. And he came to God
confessing his sin. He came to God, pouring his heart
out to God, just like you do when God draws you and shows
you your sin. And yet these men forged a lie
against David. They said David had never believed
the Lord. That's one thing they said. They
said there's no hope for him in God. They imagined deceits against
him all day long. But David could not save himself. This was forged. It was hard
as iron. There was nothing he could do
here to save himself. You see, the Lord brought him
to a place similar to where the Lord Jesus was on the cross. And there was nothing David could
do. He couldn't give himself good judgment when he had strayed. He certainly couldn't put it
in anybody else's heart. And he could do nothing about
this to save himself from any of it. He could not do one thing. What was the good judgment God
taught him in that situation? What's the good judgment God
teaches you in that situation, child of God? While he opened not his mouth
to speak to them and reprove them, he cried to God and he trusted
God. This is what he said right here,
verse 21, Psalm 38, 21. Forsake me not, O Lord. O my
God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord,
my salvation. You see, that's the whole purpose.
God made David cease from man. God made David, he couldn't look
to his own hand and he couldn't look to anybody else's hand. And a good judgment and the knowledge
God taught him was to believe God's Word and trust the Lord. And God promised, I will be with
you in the trouble. I'll be with you in the trouble.
And so he sustains his child in the fire. And what does God
teach us through that? How does he deal well with us
when that happens? Well, by these afflictions, God's
crucifying us unto the world and the world unto us. David's
in a place there in Psalm 38 and in Psalm 119 where here's
a man who believes God. He's not listening to men. He's
not looking to men. He's not looking to himself.
He's looking to the Lord to save him, and that's it. That's where
we ought to be. That's where we need to be. We
know our home is not on this side of Jordan. Our home's in
heavenly Canaan, and God's going to keep giving you briars and
thorns so that you can't find a place to rest in this world.
so that you long for that home more and more. He's going to
make you know more and more how shipwrecked your body is. Trusting
in the flesh is trusting in a shipwreck. And He's going to make you know
that more and more so that we're grown to be delivered by the
Lord Jesus into our eternal habitation. He's going to give you this good
judgment and this knowledge To keep you from hewing out broken
cisterns in this world that cannot hold any water. To keep you coming
to Christ, the fountain of living waters. And he's going to keep
refreshing your soul. That's how he deals well with
you. That's why he sends the affliction. He's going to keep
raising our affection to Christ at God's right hand and showing
us there's your life. You keep trusting him and one
day he's going to return and you'll be with him in glory. And these are things he commands
us to do. These are statutes. These are
what he commands his child. Trust me. Believe me. Follow me. Obey me. And he's
going to keep you doing it. And so also he commands us this,
to thank him and be thankful for this grace wherein we stand
in Christ, unchanging, unchangeable. But also he commands you this,
also we glory in tribulation. We thank God for the affliction.
Why? Because He's working patience
through it, and patience, working experience, and experience hope,
and hope makes not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. It really
is not, it's not just going to be a walk in the park. This thing of faith is going
to be some affliction involved. But by that affliction, he's
going to make us more cautious and more humble. He's going to make you a little
less quick to give advice for others when they're in their
problems. He's going to make you a little
less boastful of what we'd have done or what we would do if we
were in their place. He's going to make you a little
less critical of others who fail. We're willing to help them. We're
willing to be merciful to them. Not forsake them. Why? Because
God didn't forsake you. God didn't stop speaking to you.
He didn't keep pouring grace out to you and mercy out to you
and speaking into your heart and making His presence known.
He's going to make us speak less about ourselves and more about
the grace of our Lord. There's one more thing I want
you to see. By doing this, by doing all this work, he gonna
bring us to praise God for the affliction because he makes us
value our Redeemer and God's everlasting covenant of grace,
ordered in all things insure, yes and amen in Christ. He gonna
make you value that over everything in this world. Look at verse
71, it is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn
thy statutes. The law of thy mouth is better
unto me than thousands of gold and silver. David was a wealthy
man. He had thousands of gold and
silver. So David's not a poor man that's
just envious of rich men and making this statement. He had
thousands of gold and silver. But God taught David that having
Christ in whom every word of God's mouth is yes and amen was
more valuable than thousands and thousands and thousands of
gold and silver. That is, of anything you could
have in this world. Some of y'all know the story.
I'm going to repeat it because I think it's fitting right here.
Horatio Spafford learned this. God taught him this. He believed
God by God's grace and God gave him thousands of gold and silver. He gave him thousands of gold
and silver. He became a prominent Chicago
lawyer with a thriving law practice. He owned properties throughout
the city, real estate investments. He had a beautiful wife and four
daughters and a son. And then God sent him affliction. First, their son died. And then that great Chicago fire
destroyed most all of his real estate investments. And he decided he would take
his family on a vacation to Europe just to get a little rest, I
suppose. So he sent his wife and his children
ahead of him, and he had some business to finish up. He was
going to meet them over in Europe. And he got news that the ship
sank. And his wife sent a telegram,
and it said this, saved alone. His four daughters had drowned. And so on the way to meet his
wife, when he gets to that place where the ship had gone down,
they told him this is the place. And he sat down with a pen and
ink and he wrote, when peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, Thou hast
taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. Though
Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blessed
assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate
and has shed his own blood for my soul. My sin, oh, the bliss
of this glorious thought, My sin, not in part but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord,
praise the Lord, O my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. That's what David's saying. Thou
hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, exactly according to
your word. Amen.