Commentary - Psalm 119:65-72

Bird's-eye view

This section of Psalm 119, the stanza designated by the Hebrew letter Teth, is a profound meditation on the goodness of God as it is revealed through both His Word and His providential dealings, particularly through the instrument of affliction. The psalmist has come to a settled conviction, born of hard experience, that God is good and only does good. This is not a fair-weather faith. It is a faith that has been through the crucible of suffering and has come out refined, confessing that the affliction itself was a good gift from a good God, designed to drive him back to the statutes of God. He contrasts his own humble submission to God's pedagogy with the proud arrogance of his enemies, who are spiritually dull and morally bankrupt. The central theme is the sanctifying power of affliction when it is received as a tool in the hand of a good God, a tool that teaches a man the surpassing worth of God's law over all earthly treasures.

The logic of the passage is a beautiful testimony to the process of sanctification. The psalmist begins by affirming God's faithfulness (v. 65), petitions for wisdom based on that faithfulness (v. 66), confesses his past straying and the corrective nature of his affliction (v. 67), and then grounds it all in the unshakeable character of God (v. 68). He stands firm against the lies of the arrogant (v. 69), recognizing their spiritual deadness (v. 70), and then, in a stunning climax of faith, he declares the affliction to have been a positive good for him (v. 71), leading him to the ultimate conclusion that God's Word is the greatest treasure imaginable (v. 72).

Outline

Context In Psalm 119

Psalm 119 is an extended, magnificent acrostic poem, with each of its 22 stanzas corresponding to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This stanza, Teth, falls near the middle of the psalm and builds on the themes that have been developing throughout. The psalmist has repeatedly spoken of his love for God's law, his commitment to keeping it, and the opposition he faces from the proud and the wicked. He has also frequently mentioned his own afflictions. Here, in the Teth stanza, these themes converge in a particularly powerful way. He is not just enduring affliction while clinging to the law; he is now able to see the affliction itself as part of God's good plan to teach him the law more deeply. This represents a mature stage of faith, where the believer moves beyond simply trusting God despite suffering to trusting God for the suffering. It is a clear testimony to the sanctifying work of God, using both the Word and the world to conform His servant to His will.

Key Issues

The School of Hard Knocks

We have a tendency in our soft age to think of God's goodness as being synonymous with our comfort, our ease, and our prosperity. If things are going well, God is good. If things are going badly, we begin to question His goodness. But the psalmist here operates with a far more robust and biblical theology. His starting point is not his circumstance, but the character of God. God is good, and therefore everything He does is good. Full stop.

This means that when affliction comes, the believer's first question should not be, "Why is this happening to me?" but rather, "What is this good God teaching me through this?" The psalmist has learned this lesson. He sees his suffering not as a random tragedy or a sign of God's displeasure, but as a divine tutorial. God is his teacher, the law is his textbook, and affliction is the classroom. God has enrolled him in the school of hard knocks, and the tuition is high, but the education is priceless. It is in this school that a man learns the difference between head-knowledge of the Bible and heart-knowledge, between theory and reality. It is where he learns that God's Word is not just true, but that it is better than anything the world can offer. This is a lesson that cannot be learned in comfort. It must be learned in the crucible.

Verse by Verse Commentary

65 You have dealt well with Your slave, O Yahweh, according to Your word.

The stanza begins with a direct address to God, a summary verdict on all of God's dealings with him. And the verdict is this: God has done well. The psalmist identifies himself as God's slave, or servant, which is a position of humility and submission. He is not his own; he belongs to another. And his Master has treated him well. But notice the standard by which he measures this good treatment: according to Your word. God's goodness is not defined by the servant's feelings or circumstances, but by God's own promises. God said He would be with him, that He would discipline him, that He would never leave him, and God has kept His Word. This is the bedrock of faith. God is faithful to His promises, and therefore, all His dealings are good.

66 Teach me good discernment and knowledge, For I believe in Your commandments.

Having affirmed God's past goodness, he now petitions for future grace. He asks for "good discernment and knowledge." The Hebrew for "good discernment" has the sense of good taste, the ability to distinguish between flavors, between the wholesome and the rotten. He wants spiritual taste buds that can discern truth from error, wisdom from folly. And what is the basis for this request? For I believe in Your commandments. This is not a statement of intellectual assent; it is a declaration of trust and reliance. "Because I have staked my life on your commands, because I trust them to be true and good, I now ask for the wisdom to apply them rightly in every situation." He is not asking for abstract knowledge, but for the practical skill of living out the Word he believes.

67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word.

Here is the core confession, the central lesson learned in God's school. He draws a sharp contrast between his life before and after affliction. Before the trial, he was wandering. The word for "went astray" is the same used for a sheep straying from the flock. It implies carelessness, a lack of attention, a drifting from the path. He wasn't necessarily in open, defiant rebellion, but he was off course. Then came the affliction. The suffering was God's sheepdog, sent to nip at his heels and drive him back to the shepherd. The result? But now I keep Your word. The affliction had its intended effect. It woke him up, it got his attention, and it restored his focus. The pain was a severe mercy that produced the fruit of obedience.

68 You are good and do good; Teach me Your statutes.

This verse is the theological anchor for the entire stanza. He makes two declarations about God and then follows them with a petition. First, You are good. This refers to God's essential character. Goodness is not just something God does; it is who He is. Second, and do good. This refers to God's actions. Because God's nature is good, all His actions, flowing from that nature, must also be good. This includes the affliction. It includes the prosperity. It includes everything. The logic is airtight. Based on this unshakable premise, he repeats his prayer: Teach me Your statutes. "You, the good God who only does good things, be my teacher. Instruct me in Your ways." This is the cry of a heart that has learned to trust the teacher, even when the lessons are hard.

69 The arrogant have smeared me with lying; With all my heart I will observe Your precepts.

The psalmist now turns his attention to his enemies. The arrogant, the proud, have plastered him with lies. The word "smeared" is a vivid one; they are trying to coat his reputation with falsehood, to cover him in slander. This was likely a part of the affliction he has been enduring. But their attacks do not deter him. In fact, they seem to strengthen his resolve. In the face of their lies, he makes a vow: With all my heart I will observe Your precepts. Their falsehood drives him to the truth. Their arrogance drives him to humility. Their attacks on his character drive him to cling more tightly to the God whose approval is all that matters. He will answer their lies not with counter-arguments, but with wholehearted obedience.

70 Their heart is covered with fat, But I delight in Your law.

He continues the contrast between himself and the arrogant. Their heart is "covered with fat." In the ancient world, a heart covered in fat was a metaphor for being dull, insensitive, and unresponsive. They are spiritually obese. They cannot feel, they cannot perceive spiritual reality. Their prosperity has made them stupid and callous. They are insulated from God by their own pride and comfort. The psalmist, on the other hand, has a heart that is alive and sensitive. How do we know? But I delight in Your law. His affliction has stripped away the fat from his own heart. The pain has made him tender toward God. While his enemies find their pleasure in the things that make them dull, he finds his pleasure, his delight, in the law of God.

71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.

This is one of the most remarkable statements of faith in all of Scripture. He moves beyond simply enduring affliction (v. 67) to embracing it as a positive good. He doesn't say, "God brought good out of my affliction." He says the affliction itself was good for him. Why? Because of its purpose: That I may learn Your statutes. The affliction was instrumental. It was the necessary prerequisite for the learning he so desperately needed. He values the lesson more than he despises the pain. He would rather be afflicted and know God's law than be comfortable and ignorant of it. This is a radical reordering of values, one that can only be produced by the Spirit of God working through suffering.

72 The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

The stanza concludes with the final balance sheet. He has weighed two things in the scales: the law of God and immense wealth. The verdict is clear. The Word that comes directly from God's mouth is better than a fortune. This is not pious hyperbole. He means it. Having been through the fire of affliction, he has learned what has real, lasting value. Gold and silver cannot comfort in sorrow, they cannot give wisdom in confusion, they cannot grant fellowship with God. But the law of God can and does. The affliction taught him this. It stripped away his reliance on earthly things and showed him where true treasure is to be found. And so he ends where he began, with a profound appreciation for the good Word of his good God.

Application

The message of this psalm is profoundly counter-cultural, both in the ancient world and in our own. We live in a culture that is utterly devoted to the avoidance of pain and the pursuit of comfort. And the church has too often been infected with this same mindset, peddling a gospel that promises health, wealth, and happiness as the primary signs of God's favor.

This passage calls us to a radical repentance. It calls us to see affliction not as a disruption of God's plan, but as an essential instrument within it. God is a good Father, and a good father disciplines his children. He loves us too much to leave us in our comfortable straying. And so He sends affliction, sickness, financial hardship, relational conflict, persecution, as His severe mercy to wake us up, to drive the spiritual fat from our hearts, and to teach us the surpassing worth of His Word. When suffering comes, we are not to despair. We are to recognize that class is in session. The great Teacher is at work, and He is teaching us a lesson we could learn no other way.

Therefore, let us pray for the psalmist's perspective. Let us ask God to teach us good discernment, to see His hand in our trials. Let us confess that our afflictions are good for us, because they wean us from the world and drive us to the Word. And let us come to that settled, joyful conviction that to know and obey the law of His mouth is a treasure far greater than anything this world can offer. For it is in that law that we find Christ, the one who endured the ultimate affliction for us, so that we might not just learn God's statutes, but be brought into the very family of God Himself.