It Is Good That I Was Afflicted
49 Remember your word to your servant, because you gave me hope. 50 This is my comfort in my affliction, for your word has revived me. 51 The arrogant mock me excessively, but I don’t swerve from your law. 52 I remember your ordinances of old, Yahweh, and have comforted myself. 53 Indignation has taken hold on me, because of the wicked who forsake your law. 54 Your statutes have been my songs in the house where I live. 55 I have remembered your name, Yahweh, in the night, and I obey your law. 56 This is my way, that I keep your precepts. HETH 57 Yahweh is my portion. I promised to obey your words. 58 I sought your favor with my whole heart. Be merciful to me according to your word. 59 I considered my ways, and turned my steps to your statutes. 60 I will hurry, and not delay, to obey your commandments. 61 The ropes of the wicked bind me, but I won’t forget your law. 62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks to you, because of your righteous ordinances. 63 I am a friend of all those who fear you, of those who observe your precepts. 64 The earth is full of your loving kindness, Yahweh. Teach me your statutes. TETH 65 You have treated your servant well, according to your word, Yahweh. 66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments. 67 Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I observe your word. 68 You are good, and do good. Teach me your statutes. 69 The proud have smeared a lie upon me. With my whole heart, I will keep your precepts. 70 Their heart is as callous as the fat, but I delight in your law. 71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. 72 The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver. YODH
The psalm reaches its most useful verse, and it is a man saying that going wrong is what taught him.
Remember your word to your servant, because you gave me hope.
This is my comfort in my affliction, for your word has revived me.
Affliction is named for the first time as a present condition, and the psalm will now return to it repeatedly. What is claimed is not that the trouble ended but that something kept him alive inside it.
Your statutes have been my songs in the house where I live.
The phrase means the house of my sojourning — a lodging rather than a home, which fits the earlier I am a stranger on the earth. He has set the law to music to get through a temporary residence.
At midnight I will rise to give thanks to you, because of your righteous ordinances.
One of several night verses. In this psalm the small hours are used for gratitude rather than for the dread they carry elsewhere in the collection.
Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I observe your word.
The first of the two verses that make this stanza the most quoted in the psalm. He locates the turning point precisely, and it is not a sermon or a decision. It was trouble, and the honesty of the sequence — I was fine, I wandered, I was afflicted, I stopped wandering — is what makes it usable.
You are good, and do good. Teach me your statutes.
Said immediately after the previous verse, and about the same God who did the afflicting.
It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.
The verse most people know, and its force depends on where it stands. It is not a general theory that suffering is beneficial, offered by someone comfortable. It is a man in the middle of trouble, being lied about by the powerful Psalms 119:69, saying that the one thing he has to show for it is that he learned something he was not learning before.
The psalm never says the affliction was pleasant, and it never withdraws the requests to be delivered from it. Both stand.
The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver. YODH
The money comparison again, and the sum has grown. In the first stanza it was riches in general; here it is a specific and enormous quantity, and the psalm keeps raising the bid.
settled What this mark means