Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb19980920.htm

PSALMS: DIARIES OF GODLY OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS
Psalm One Hundred And Nineteen (Teth) - God's Use Of Insensitive, Persecuting People
(Psalm 119:65-72)
  1. Introduction
    1. An ageless question that God's people have had to struggle with since the days of Job is the question: "Why do the righteous suffer?" If God is a good God, why does He let His godly one's suffer?
    2. An extension of this question is the statement: "Why does God permit innocent believers to be pummeled by slander or other forms of verbal abuse at the hands of spiritually insensitive, godless people?!"
    3. Psalm 119:65-71 (section Teth) answers this question with very insightful, instructive applications:
  2. God's Use Of Insensitive, Persecuting People, Psalm 119:65-72.
    1. The psalmist expresses several marvelous confidences that he has in God's Word, Ps. 119:65-68:
      1. He testifies that God has dealt wholesomely with him by keeping His Word to him, v. 65. The word "wholesomely" I translated from verse 65a is the same one used in Genesis 1 of God's "good" creation.
      2. In fact, the psalmist's confidence in Scripture is so great that he asks God to teach him good judgment and knowledge from that Word, Ps. 119:66.
      3. He also states his appreciation for the person and work of God, that both God and God's deeds are as wholesome as was the creation in Genesis 1, Ps. 119:68. We come to this conclusion based upon the fact that "wholesome" we have translated from verse 68 is the same Hebrew word used in Genesis 1 to describe the "good" creation works of God.
    2. To understand why and how the psalmist has arrived at his exalted view of God and His Word he explains for us in Psalm 119:67, 69-72 as follows:
      1. At one time, the psalmist confesses that he did not always have such an exalted view of God and His Word, for it took affliction to drive him to this exalted view, Ps. 119:67.
      2. What specific affliction produced such an exalted view of God and His Word was the psalmist's suffering abuse at the hands of slanderous, insensitive, godless opponents, Ps. 119:69-70.
      3. However, the result of this abuse has driven the psalmist to the correct use of Scripture, 119:67, 70b.
      4. In his using Scripture effectively to counter the abuse and its affects, the psalmist has seen God bless him richly with insight that supplies a balm and mental conquest of the abuse, Ps. 119:71.
      5. Consequently, he has come to appreciate God's Word more than all the money in the world, Ps. 119:72. This fact arises from the reality that money cannot assuage the effects of abusers like God's truth can.
Lesson: God permits godless, verbally abusive, insensitive people to afflict His own godly people so that His afflicted ones are DRIVEN to using SCRIPTURE in WAYS they never would have HAD to, gaining INSIGHT thereby that they never otherwise would have GAINED. In using the Word this way, they see deeper and fuller responses of blessings from God not known before, and their appreciation of God and of His Word intensifies.

Application: (1) If we are confronted by wicked people who treat us abusively, our response should NOT be to blame God, saying, "Why is God allowing me to take this?!" Rather, we should DIG into the Word for solutions in such times and understand that God is allowing us to learn to appreciate Him and His Word all the more through such suffering! (2) This thought coincides with the teaching of Revelation 3:18 in light of 1 Peter 1:7; 4:14. Christ urges the spiritually bankrupt believer in Rev. 3:18 to buy from Him "gold tried in the fire," an allusion to that same "gold" of the trial of faith mentioned in 1 Peter 1:7. That suffering is unjust suffering at the hands of godless opponents to godliness described in 1 Peter 4:14. In other words, Christ asks Laodicean era believers to let Him bring along ungodly people who will afflict them so that they will grow in their faith of God and His Word by digging into Scripture for answers to their afflictions! Thus, ACCEPT trouble from godless abusers as an A SSIGNMENT for GROWTH!