65 Lord, you have treated your servant well,
just as you promised.
66 Teach me good judgment and discernment,
for I rely on your commands.
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray,
but now I keep your word.
68 You are good, and you do what is good;
teach me your statutes.
69 The arrogant have smeared me with lies,
but I obey your precepts with all my heart.
70 Their hearts are hard and insensitive,
but I delight in your instruction.
71 It was good for me to be afflicted
so that I could learn your statutes.
72 Instruction from your lips is better for me
than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
The ninth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is teth (ט), and in this ninth stanza of Psalm 119, the psalmist repeatedly affirms the essential goodness of God. Five out of the eight verses in this stanza begin with the Hebrew word tov (טוב) which means good, pleasant. It is a seemingly small and insignificant word, but it is perhaps one of richest words in all of the Hebrew language. This is especially so when it is used to describe God, because goodness is a primary attribute of His character. For our psalmist, however, it would seem to be much than this; in his view, God’s goodness is the sum total of all that He is. As our psalmist puts it in verse 69, “You are good, and you do what is good.” Or as we often say in the Bible Belt, “God is good! All the time!”
In other words, goodness is who and what He is; He is the source and standard of all that is good. There is no one and nothing that is good outside of Him. As Jesus says in the Gospels, “No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10.18) This is why our psalmist prays, “Teach me good judgment and discernment, for I rely on your commands.” (verse 66) Literally translated, it reads “goodness of taste”, where the word taste refers to moral and ethical discernment. The law of God is a reflection of His perfect goodness, and when we live according to its precepts, we enjoy the goodness that God intends for us. This is why the Apostle Paul affirms that the law is good, holy, and just. (c.f. Romans 7.12, 1 Timothy 1.8) It is also why our psalmist affirms, “Instruction from you lips is better for me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” (verse 72)
The reality, however, is that Christians are often so quick to doubt their conviction that God is fundamentally good. In fact, this is a point of weakness where we regularly come under the enemy’s attacks. Satan is incredibly adept at getting believers to doubt their belief in God’s thoroughgoing goodness. It is a strategy of his that goes all the way back to the garden, when he tempted Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The clear implication of his words in Genesis 3.5 is that God is not good, that God is holding out on Adam and Eve by restricting them from eating of the tree. And his strategy hasn’t changed since that first sin; he still continually attacks the Christian belief that God is ever and always good in every way. This is why the Apostle Paul tells us, “In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” (Ephesians 6.16) The shield of faith is the firm and steadfast conviction that God is good and trustworthy.
This is why our psalmist says here in verse 65, “Lord, you have treated your servant well, just as you promised.” When we hold fast to the conviction that God is good, then we will rest by faith in the promises is God’s Word, and no matter what obstacles or difficulties or challenges may come against us, we will continue to walk in faithful obedience. (c.f. verses 69-70) In fact, it is in the trials of life that we are forced to rely on God and His goodness even more; as our psalmist puts it in verse 71, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I could learn your statutes.” Literally, it was tov, not that the affliction was tov, but that what resulted from the affliction was tov. Or as it says in the Letter to the Romans, chapter 8, verse 28, “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
The perspective of the psalmist in this stanza, especially in verse 71, is so radical and counter to the prevailing sentiments of our culture. The culture would have us believe that good, or the “good life”, is the absence of difficulty, trial, or trouble, that it is a life of ease and comfort and prosperity. However, this is not the perspective of our psalmist, nor is it the perspective of the Bible more generally. In this stanza, the psalmist wants us not only to know but to believe with conviction that God is the ultimate and highest good, that He is the source of all good, and that He is working out every detail and every circumstance for our good. But, of course, the good He is working in us is not our ease or our comfort; on the contrary, it is our growth into Christlikeness. And according to our psalmist, the good of Christian maturity is more effectively cultivated in our lives during times of testing and trial. As our psalmist says in verse 67, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.” Or as the Apostle James puts it,
Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
~James 1.2-4
For further study:
Introduction
Psalm 119.1-8
Psalm 119.9-16
Psalm 119.17-24
Psalm 119.25-32
Psalm 119.33-40
Psalm 119.41-48
Psalm 119.49-56
Psalm 119.57-64
Faith seeking Understanding 