Psalms 119:75 The Faithfulness of Affliction

Hidden Treasures of the 119th Psalm. Oh, we get to dig around in a rich, rich vein today as we dig around in the 119th Psalm. Oh, this verse is unbelievable rich, as I think all the verses of the psalm are, but the yud are especially fun for me, as it certainly is the little that is mean so much. So we're on verse 75, which would be the third verse in the yud section with the yud being like that little spark that is a sense of God, His presence.

The yud, which is actually the hands of God to some extent. And so beautifully, we've done the wisdom, we've done the understanding. Now we get to the counsel of the yud of the yud and the counsel on this.

You got to admit is some amazing counsel. So it reads again, verse 75 in English. I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right and thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. So there's some key words in here that is amazingly beautiful words that when he says, I know, which actually the since all the verses are going to start with a yud, that the word no in Hebrew is yada, which is this sense of deep intimacy. It's not just like I know, you know, when Adam and Eve knew each other, they had right, Cain and Abel and all those guys to know somebody biblically is a deep, deep intimacy. And so what David starts here with the psalmist, he says, I know. I mean, he's he's saying that I know you, God, this part I do know. And he's saying I know that thy judgments are right.

And the word Zadok is there. That word means righteousness, like, you know, a tree. And we've talked about before that, you know, it's so connected to righteousness.

The tree is. And of course, we know that Jesus eventually would be made make all of us right on a tree. And so he's saying that he knows that the judgments are right. And in faithfulness, which that word Amira is just a phenomenally beautiful word, but it's interesting throughout the scriptures, we see a connection between judgments and faithfulness. And we'll revisit this many times throughout the psalm. And here again, he puts them together in this idea of counsel. So the idea of counsel, right, is we're going to go in the right direction that God is going to put us on the right path.

Right. And so it's a it's a fascinating thing that this is like a commentary, in my opinion, on Deuteronomy 32 four. So going to Deuteronomy 32 four reads. And you can see that clearly he was thinking about this as he wrote this particular verse. And he's referring to God. And this is Moses as he's giving this wonderful speech in Deuteronomy 31 32. So here Moses says he is the rock.

His work is perfect. For all his ways are judgment, a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he. So when you think about this, this is this is truly I mean, King David was a huge, huge Torah scholar. So this verse is a critical verse of understanding to go, wait a minute, all God's derricks, all his ways, which the psalm talks about that throughout all his ways are judgment. All of God's ways are judgment. And inside of that word, judgment is this concept of the refiners fire.

Right. When you when you see the word Israel itself, it's like a good that is being oxidized through the fire to make things right. Fire makes things right. And this idea within judgment of fire is is is part of the deal. Well, as David was certainly afflicted, what he was realizing is that these things were making him right.

And so when you think about what you know, let's just go to the very first one that you can't help. But note is that, man, it just didn't seem fair at all that Saul was chasing David all over the place. But this particular friction, this fire that David went through clearly pushed him to God in so many different psalms. We can see this was developing David, you know, purifying him by fire. In other words, all his judgments were or making us pure.

One hundred percent right. Like when the when the refiner can see his face in the liquid silver, which I can tell you a story about that. I used to work with silver when I lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when everybody worked with silver, turquoise jewelry. And then it was my job to actually solder the the cones, silver cones that went on the end of squash blossom necklaces. OK. And so the idea is in order to get the silver to run so that it will, you know, weld, you know, the cone together. You had to get it to the point that it would just barely melt. But if you held the fire to it too long and immediately would dissolve the whole silver and you would have a ruined cone. And so it took an exact moment when you could see yourself in that silver when it liquefied. And at that moment, you had to take the torch off in order for it to work.

Well, the same way that when a refiner can see his reflection in the silver. Right. He knows that it's perfect that, you know, that it's gotten rid of all the corruption. And so here, beautifully, we see how that works in King David's life. But the question that you can't help but ask is how's it worked in your life? You know, how has some affliction, you know, caused you to seek after God? Right.

So that, you know, in other words, that the refiner is the one applying the heat. And you realize that because his faithfulness is a mirror. Right. Is is going to he has more faith in us than we have. I mean, that's the beautiful thing about his faithfulness is and that it's throughout this psalm. We're going to learn more and more about faithfulness.

But the idea is God has faith in you and he's got enough faith to allow you to go through certain trials because he knows that you can take the heat. OK. And so I think about in my own situation, I go, oh, when I was young, you know, I had this. We moved to Chicago. When we moved to Chicago, I was a kid from Colorado. I wore blue jeans and and cotton sweatshirts that were, you know, like plaid and that kind of thing. I did not look like the kids in Chicago who wore dress slacks and Oxford shirts and all this stuff. And it was just I fit. I was like and I was tall. And so it was easy to pick on me. And I was not dressed right.

And I didn't talk right. And I didn't walk in a gang like most of these guys, believe it or not. It was actually Naperville, Illinois. But even in the outskirts of Chicago, people, they were in gangs. And I wasn't in one because I just moved to the town. And so for fourth grade and fifth grade, I got picked on a lot when we went to sixth grade, went to junior high. This was the first time I was in sixth grade because I was clearly struggling and more than just relationships. But there was a boy named Billy.

Billy Kilmer was the head of one of these gangs. And he would pick on me and pick on me. And every day as we went to get on the bus, because we had the same bus stop. He would humiliate me in some way, shape or form in front of all his friends.

They would all laugh. And you get the picture, right? You've all been bullied, I'm sure at some point another. Well, I was a pretty big guy, but I did not know that I had what it took. And so God allowed this situation in my life to show me that I could stand up and make things right. So one day he was waiting.

I remember it was a very snowy day in Chicago. And as we were waiting on the bus, he came up and he just squished my lunch, which was in a paper bag, and then laughed. And everybody thought that was really hilarious.

Well, something triggered in me that day like this is wrong and this ain't going to happen. And I just popped him in the nose. And when I did, it bled a little bit. Well, then, oh, my goodness, everybody, you know, it kind of freaked him out that I would even hit him. And all his friends looked at him like you just let that weird kid, you know, hit you in the mouth, in the nose. And so then he told all the school that today, when we get off the bus, I am going to kick so-and-so's butt. You can get the picture what, you know, everybody told me how bad it was going to be because it's the toughest kid in school.

And you've done punched him in the nose. So no doubt I was scared. OK. And I was going through a battle, but God had faith in me. He knew that I had what it took.

And so as interesting as I just thought about the situation being tall, I have fairly long arms. And I thought, well, we know his nose bleeds easy enough, so I'm just going to keep punching him in the nose. So we got off the bus that day and everybody's screaming, fight, fight.

And you picture the whole circle. And I'll never forget that day that, oh, my goodness, I just kept hitting him in the nose. And he he ended up going down and his mother showed up and she got furious and she took me to my house where my mother was. And she started screaming at my mother about me beating up her son and my mother being the Zadok that she is the righteous one. She took into her and said, first of all, you haven't even cleaned off your son.

And so she took a rag and all that stuff, cleaned off her son. And then went on to to defend me on the fact that he'd been picking on me for for a long time. And I finally stood up for myself. I've never forgotten the incident.

It was a refinery fire for me. And you may say, Robbie, what does that have to do with God? Well, you see, once you see that God has given you certain gifts to stand up and do what's right. That's something that's that has to be refined through the fire.

It's a friction that happens. And I can't tell you the times in my life that what happened on that day changed everything. It changed everything for me in school. It changed everything for me in so many different ways. And believe me when I tell you that it led to a hunger for this intimacy that that God is talking that David is talking about when he says, I know God, that your judgments are right and in faithfulness, you've afflicted us. It's an amazing, amazing thing to think about in your own life and how that's worked and how later, you know, the struggles like King David went through. He got to fight Goliath and then he went through other struggles to find that relationship with God and that faithfulness. I hope you enjoy thinking about that today and thank you so much for listening.