God's Word: Delight in Discipline

I thank you Lord for those who are here, who have taken time from the busyness of the day, taking time to reflect upon the word of the Lord. I thank you Lord for those who have come because they were brought by someone else, husband, wife, father, mother. I thank you Lord that we could gather together and do the greatest thing there is to do this side of eternity and spend time with our God in his word.

There is nothing greater in all the world than to spend time with our Lord. And I pray that tonight would help us see that even all the more as we understand how good and great you truly are. In Jesus name, amen.

Turn with me in your Bible to Psalm 119, Psalm 119 verse number 65. The passage we're going to study this evening is the passage in the Bible that has made the most profound effect upon my life during my pilgrimage as a Christian. The passage we're going to study this evening, God has used tremendously in my life.

I was saved when I was 14 years of age. I remember the day it was March 19th, 1972. So you can do the math and you can figure out how old I am today.

But it was March 19th, 1972 that I gave my life to Jesus Christ in my mom and dad's bedroom. I went through my high school years. I went off to Bible college.

I spent four years in Bible college. Then I went off to seminary. During my first year in Bible college, there was a man who came to speak at our school during one of our chapel services, or it was a week long chapel series.

He came to speak. And as he was sharing God's word day after day, those five days that he was there, God did a tremendous work in my heart. I realized that God had called me to be involved in some kind of ministry of preaching the Word of God.

I didn't know what that entailed. I didn't know how it was going to unfold, but I really believed that God was going to use me to teach the Bible. Now, what took place that week was something rather unique because the man who spoke never stood behind the pulpit, never stood up on stage.

He always came down off the stage, went out into the audience, and looked every student in the eye. So if you wonder why it is I never use the pulpit, it's because that man made a profound impact on my life, because he spoke like no other man spoke. You know, you go to speech class in seminary, in college, and you talk about breaking down the barriers between you and the audience.

And then you go to church and the preacher stands behind the pulpit, it puts a barrier between him and you. I just never quite understood that. But this man didn't use a pulpit, didn't stand up on stage.

He held his Bible in his hand. He would open it. He would read it.

He would speak. He would have us turn in the Scriptures. And that man, in the way he delivered God's Word, as I sat there listening to him for those five days, I began to realize that God was doing a great work through the Word of God in my life.

And so people have asked me many times over the years, why don't you use a pulpit? Well, the reason I don't, that's why. I heard that man, and that man was used by God in my life in a great and mighty way. And so I know that I had to finish my years of Bible college, and then I went off to seminary, and then I was a college pastor, and I was a dean at my alma mater, as well as a baseball coach at my alma mater, and I was there.

But you know, I began to realize that all those years of Bible college training, all those years of seminary, I realized that there was something missing in my walk with the Lord. I didn't understand it. I mean, after all, I studied my Greek, and I knew the Greek text, and I was in the Bible every day.

I was a college pastor. I was teaching the Bible week in and week out, and I was a dean on a college campus sharing the Word of God with students on a regular basis, counseling them. And yet there was something missing in my life.

And so what I did was I decided to take a walk one day and say, Lord, I want you to do whatever you want to do in my life, whatever you want to do, that I might become the man you want me to be, so I might begin to experience a relationship with you that goes beyond a superficial level, that goes way beyond anything I can imagine. And so Lord, I give you free reign to do whatever you want to do in my life. And I prayed that prayer for one solid week every day.

I would go for a walk, and I would just talk to the Lord. It was two weeks after that that I got fired from my job. It was two weeks after I got fired from my job that my first wife, Sandy, became terminally ill with cancer.

It was 15 months after that that she would go home to be with the Lord. And it was during those 15 months that God began to use Psalm 119 verses 65 and following in my life. It was during those 15 months that I finally realized that God was good and does good.

It was during those 15 months that I realized that before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. And God would use Psalm 119, 67, Psalm 119, 68, over and over and over again in my life. I began to learn about the identity of my God, unlike I had ever learned by going to Bible college and by going to seminary.

I began to learn about His sovereignty, His mercy, His grace, His goodness, unlike ever before. And I began to realize that I was so far from my God, and I didn't even know it. And so God took me on a journey, a journey that would help me understand more of who He is and more of what He wanted for me.

And my life was dramatically changed during those 15 months. My wife went home to be with the Lord, and I began to realize that God was doing and had done a great and incredible work in my own personal life, a work that He continues even to this very day as I begin to trust Him and depend upon Him. I want to be able to share those things with you this evening.

That's why we're giving you this CD or giving you this tape, because we want you to be able to share it with somebody else. It's not because I'm preaching it. It's because of the passage itself, its profound effect upon man and the lessons that God wants to learn him, learn him.

The psalmist, the psalmist was a man, as we have seen, who has gone through much turmoil. We've already seen where the psalmist had been defrauded in verse number 61. We have seen in verse number 51 that the psalmist had been derided.

And now in this psalm, what we read this evening, we will see him being defamed by his enemies. And yet his only conclusion is that God is good and does good. You see, it wasn't the fact that this man had learned something in seminary and then began to teach it to people without ever experiencing the goodness of God.

This man, this psalmist, truly experienced God's goodness. And the unique thing about what he says is that he says it after persecution, adversity, affliction, hardship, and difficulty have already been a part of his life. It wasn't like that he went through life and thought to himself, you know, gee, this Christian life, I'm not sure it's really worth it.

I'm not sure that my giving my life to the Lord is really all what it's cracked up to be. No, on the contrary, on the contrary, he said very clearly, very convincingly that my God is good. And my God only does that which is good.

I wonder if you can say that this evening. I wonder if in the midst of your situation, whatever it may be, that you can truly say my God is good and my God only does that which is good. This is a great text.

Let's read it together as we have. I'll read the odd verses, you read the even verses, but you got to read them really loud so the people who listen on the radio one day or on tape or CD will be able to hear what you say. All right, so I'm going to read verse number 65.

You read verse number 66 as we have in the past on the way down to verse number 72. Verse number 65, Psalm 119, thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word.

The arrogant have forged a lie against me. With all my heart, I will observe thy precepts. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn thy statutes.

Let me talk to you tonight about number one, the confession of the Psalmist. He makes a confession. And then I want you to see his conviction.

And then I want you to see his conflict. And then his conclusion about God. And I'm hoping that it will open your eyes and your heart to the understanding of the greatness of our God and how it is he deals with his people, that we might come to the realization that our God is not only good, but he does good.

First of all, let's look at his confession in two areas. Number one, verse number 65, about the dealings of God with him. And then number two, about the decrees of God for him.

First of all, listen to what he says in verse number 65, thou hast dealt well with thy servant. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant. Let me tell you something.

When God is at work in the lives of his children, he does all things well. He does all things right. Now this is an answer to his plea.

Remember back in verse number 17, deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live and keep thy word. He pleads for God to deal with him in a way that he would be able to live and keep the word of God. Now he responds and says, Lord, you have dealt well with me.

Notice he says that after he's already been defrauded. Verse 61, after his enemies have derided him, persecuted him, spoke against him, he had already pled, Lord, I need you to deal bountifully with me. Now he says, Lord, you have dealt well with thy servant.

This is his confession. I wonder how many of us, having gone through hardship, can say, thank you, Lord, you have done well and dealt well with thy servant. This was his confession.

Now think about that. He says, Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, accorded to thy word. You see, God always deals consistently with his word, never contrary to his word.

God always deals with you and me according to his word. See, that's why it's so important for you to study the Bible, to know the word of the Lord, so you know how God's going to deal with you. I'm convinced if you study the Bible, you know how God is going to deal with you.

If you know the word of the Lord, you will be able to keep perspective. Let me give an illustration. You know it.

Joseph, he was a young boy, and God had given him visions about what things were going to be like in the future. His brothers hated him, despised him. They did not want their brother to be around them anymore.

So what did they do? They sold him to some foreigners as a slave, and he went off as a slave to Egypt, was sold again to Potiphar, worked in his house, was accused of doing something he didn't do, was then thrown into prison, having been falsely accused, and all the while being there wondering if he'd ever get out. And then when the chance came for him to get out, the cupbearer forgot that he was there. For 12 long years, Joseph never questioned God's dealing with him.

Just never did. And so you begin to realize when it's all said and done, Joseph came out with what we call perfect vision. It's called 50-20 vision.

See, that's perfect vision, theologically speaking. You say, well, who wants 50-20 vision? You do. At least you better want it.

Genesis 50, verse number 20, you meant it for evil, but God, he meant it for good. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. That's perfect theological vision.

That's the best vision one can ever have. I love the story, Jacob dies in Genesis chapter 50. It says in verse number 15, when Joseph's brother saw that their father was dead, they said, what if Joseph should bear a grudge against us and pay us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him? Now, this is amazing.

After having brought them from the land they were living to Egypt, supplied all of their needs, taken care of them, now their father dies. And they're thinking that, well, he must have done this for dad's sake, because now that dad's gone, what's going to happen now? Read on. It says, so they sent a message to Joseph saying, your father charged before he died saying, thus you shall say to Joseph, please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin for they did you wrong.

Now, Jacob never said that, but that's the message they sent. And then it says, and Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Why would Joseph weep? Because Joseph wasn't that kind of man.

They had totally missed the picture of who he was and what he was about. And it says, these words, verse number 18, then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, do not be afraid for I am I in God's place.

Is it my job to enact vengeance? I'm not God. And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive. God had a bigger picture.

God had a bigger plan than me and you. God had a plan to preserve many, many people alive. And if it takes God to take one individual and take him through hardship and difficulty, being falsely accused in order to save many people, he'll do that.

And Joseph had that perspective. Joseph realized that. Joseph realized that the world was bigger than him.

He realized that there was more to life than him. There was his God and God's plan. And so he had that perfect vision.

Joseph could say, as a psalmist said, thou hast dealt well with me because thou has dealt with me according to thy word. See, Joseph knew the visions were from God. Joseph knew that God had shown him the future and he believed in the visions that God gave him.

And that's what kept him going. What keeps you going in the midst of your adversity and affliction? What keeps you going is the fact that you know what God has said because God is faithful to always do everything according to his word. That was a psalmist and that was Joseph.

His conclusion or his confession was the fact that God had dealt well with him. His confession was not only about the dealing of God, but the decrees of God. That's verse 66.

Teach me good discernment and knowledge for I believe in thy commandments. Good discernment, the ability to make wise choices, comes because you know what the word of the Lord says. The psalmist says, I believe in your commandments.

I believe in them. Satan tries to get you to disbelieve the commands of God. Satan tries to get you to think that God has pulled one over on you and God doesn't have your best interests at stake.

That was his lie from the very beginning when he talked to Adam and Eve and said, you know, I'm not sure it's in your best interest that God would keep one tree from you. If God is a good God and God is as nice as he says he is, then why would he withhold something from you? And so he, Satan, began to convince Adam and Eve that God was not a good God. Because if he was, he would not withhold anything from you.

He'd let you do whatever it is you choose to do. And yet the psalmist says, I believe in your commandments. I believe in your decrees.

I believe in what you have said. And this man understood that in order for him to make wise choices, he needed the knowledge of God. And so he would plead, teach me good discernment.

Now if God's a good God, and he is, and God does that which is only good, and he does, then therefore I need that kind of good discernment in my life. And that comes through the knowledge of God. It comes through understanding the decrees of God.

And so the psalmist realized that not everything that happens to me, listen carefully, is the desire of God, but everything that happens to me is the decree of God. Big difference. Big difference.

The things that happen to me might not be God's desire, but it's always God's decree. Because God has a sovereign plan, a plan that cannot be thwarted. Solomon said it this way, Ecclesiastes 3, verse number 14, I know that everything God does will remain forever.

There is nothing to add to it, and there is nothing to take from it. For God has so worked that men should fear him. Solomon knew that the plan of God cannot be thwarted.

In fact, you can't add to what God does, and you can't take away from what God does because he has a plan. He would go on to say in Ecclesiastes 7, verse number 14, or verse number 13, consider the work of God, for who was able to straighten what he has bent? In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not discover anything that will be after him. In other words, Solomon says God has designed the day of adversity as well as the day of prosperity.

And God does that so you just never know what he's going to do next, because he wants you to trust him. He wants you to believe in him and follow him. So the psalmist comes with this confession, I confess that God has dealt well with me according to his word, and I confess that I at the depths of my heart want to know everything about his decrees because I believe in his commandments, and I want to follow him, and I want to serve him, and I want to honor him with my whole heart.

That's his confession. He has that confession because of his conviction. That's point number two.

This is his conviction. His conviction is about number one, the affliction from God, and number two, the attribute of God. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word.

The statement is such that evidently before affliction, he did his own thing. He went where he wanted to go. He did what he wanted to do.

But there was something about affliction that drove him, listen carefully, to the word of God. There's something about affliction that almost compelled him, that was like a big hammer that would drive him to the word of God. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word.

You see, even—listen carefully—even in our best of days, our hearts are prone to wander. Our hearts are prone to stray away from God. Even in the best of our days, the psalmist knew it.

And affliction just keeps driving us back, driving us back, driving us back. And the affliction the psalmist experienced was not punitive. The affliction the psalmist experienced was the divine work of a great God who would drive him back to where he needed to be.

There was something about affliction that drove him to his God, that drove him to his knees before God, that drove him to dive deep into the word of God, that without the affliction he never would have done. Never. But he learned that through that affliction, he would learn to keep the word of God.

The writer of Hebrews said it this way, Hebrews chapter 12, verse number 5, My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him. For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives. God scourges every son of his.

He goes on to say this, It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? In other words, it's assumed that every father disciplines his son.

Now you know as well as I do, they don't do that. But the essence of love is always seen in discipline. The absence of love is seen in the lack of discipline.

But the essence of love is seen in the discipline of your children. And you know, the writer of Hebrews understood the chasing of the Lord. Listen to what he says, verse 8, But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

In other words, you know you're a son of God if through the chastening and the discipline and the scourging that comes is designed specifically for you. That's how you know you're a true child of the living God. And then he says, verse number 9, Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them.

Know what he says there? He says that children who are not disciplined by their fathers have no respect for their fathers. And that is true today, isn't it? You show me a father who does not discipline his children, and I'll show you a father who has no respect for his children. He might want the respect, but he has none.

True respect comes because you want to make sure your child does the right things and not the wrong things. That your child honors God and doesn't dishonor God. And when you do that, your child will respect you.

He will honor you. He will admire you because you stand on that which is truth. If you don't discipline your son, you don't stand on truth.

And nobody respects anybody who doesn't stand on truth. Simple as that. And so the writer of Hebrews goes on to say this in verse number 9. He says, Shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time, as seemed best to them.

But he, that is our God, disciplines us for our, what's the next word? Good. God is good, and God does good, that we may share in His holiness. The reason God disciplines us is so that we might become more like Him.

And then he says, verse 11, All disciplined for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness. Boy, I tell you, when God deals with you, it brings forth a great fruit.

And the psalmist said, Before I was disciplined, before I was afflicted, this is my delight in my discipline. And that's the title of this section of the psalm. This is my delight, that before I was afflicted, I just did whatever I wanted to do.

But now I keep, now I obey the word of God. Let's know what Charles Spurgeon says about Psalm 119, verse number 67, this phrase, But now I have kept thy word. He says, Grace is in that heart which profits by its chastening.

It is of no use to plow barren soil. When there is no spiritual life, affliction works no spiritual benefit. But where the heart is sound, trouble awakens conscience.

Wandering is confessed. The soul becomes again obedient to the command and continues to be so. Whipping will not turn a rebel into a child.

But to the true child, a touch of the rod is a sure corrective. In the psalmist's case, the medicine of affliction worked a change, an immediate change, a lasting change, an inward change, and a change that was Godward. Before his trouble he wandered, but after it, he kept within the hedge of the word and found good pasture for his soul.

The trial tethered him to his proper place. It kept him, and then he kept God's word. Sweet are the uses of a diversity, and this is one of them.

It puts a bridle upon transgression and furnishes a spur for holiness. In other words, as Spurgeon says, there's something about the affliction that spurs me on toward holiness. That's what marks the true child of God.

He wants to be more like his God because he knows that the designer has designed the difficulty specifically for him. So the psalmist has this conviction about affliction that it causes him to keep the word of God. But he also has a conviction about the attributes of God.

He says, very simply, thou art good and do us good. Now you will note he didn't say that before the affliction. He said it after the affliction.

So therefore affliction teaches us about the of God. God is not evil. God is not cruel.

God is not unkind. He is holy. He is love.

He is merciful. That's why the psalmist said, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalm 34, verse number 8. The psalmist said in Psalm 84, verse 11, no good thing will the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Why? Because the God of this universe is a good God. And a good God does only good things in the lives of his children. Now let me say this.

There will always be some people who will say, I'm not sure that God is good. In fact, if God is good, then how is it he can allow evil to exist? That's the question people ask all the time. The Bible says, Psalm 119, verse 68, thou art good and do us good.

And then man says, but wait a minute. If God is that good, why is it evil exists? Why is it God permits pain, suffering, poverty, hunger, strife, prejudice, crime, violence, war, bloodshed, catastrophe? Come on. You're telling me God is good and all those things happen on a continual basis? Either God is not good, or he's not very powerful to stop the evil that exists in the world.

How do you answer that? How do you explain to someone Psalm 119, verse 68, when they don't believe that God is good? If God is good, why are things the way they are in my marriage? If God is good, why are things the way they are in my job? If God is good, why are things the way they are with me physically? If God is good, why is it I find myself in emotional distress regularly? If God is good, why is it my children are the way they are, so rebellious, so against God? If God is good, why are those things happening? Well, the question when asked is asked from a depraved perspective, not from a divine perspective. We must answer why God is good and how God can be good when things are so bad. Remember way back in Genesis chapter 6, when God told Noah these words, he said, Genesis chapter 6, verse number 3. We'll start with the verse number 1. Now it came about when men began to multiply in the face of the land, and daughters were born to them.

The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh. Nevertheless, his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.

In other words, what God did was good. He says in verse 5, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and the very intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart.

And the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals, to creeping things, and to birds of the sky. For I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah was graced in the eyes of the Lord.

God says, I am tired of the way man is. Man is only evil continually. Every thought in every man's mind is always evil.

I am going to wipe him out. But he didn't do it until a hundred and twenty years later. Folks, that's the goodness of God.

And then Noah found favor in the eyes of God. In other words, God graced Noah. That's the goodness of God.

God didn't have to grace anybody. He could have wiped them all out, recreated man again, and started over. But Noah, his heart was only evil continually, just like everybody else's heart was.

His family was just as evil as everybody else's family was. But God decided to grace Noah. And God used Noah to begin again.

That, my friend, is the goodness of God. So you say, well, that doesn't really suffice for me. Okay, how about this? Isaiah 55, verse number 8 and 9 says very clearly, listen, as far as the heavens are from the earth, so are my ways from your ways, and my thoughts from your thoughts.

In other words, God says, you are nothing like me. You have no idea what I'm thinking. You have no idea about who I am, why I do what I do.

You think you do. But remember, you are a finite man. I am an infinite God.

And you can't pass judgment on an infinite holy God because bad things happen in your life and come to the conclusion that God is bad or God is evil. God can't be good because of the things in my life. God says, I am way beyond you.

When it comes to the thought process, you have a depraved, wretched mind. You can't even begin to understand anything about me. And the Bible is very clear that God is not the author of sin.

Right? So because God is not the author of sin, God can clearly say, I am good. And I only do that which is good. When He created heaven and earth, it was good.

When He created man, it was very good. When it was all said and done, everything was good. But when man sinned, goodness was tainted with sin and corruption.

Is that God's fault? No. Man made a choice. God created man with volition, the ability to choose between what is right and what is wrong, and man chose evil.

Evil. And one of the ways that man expresses his evilness is to say that God's not good because bad things happen to me. When in reality, everything that's bad happens because of sin and the corruption of sin upon man and this world.

Because the Bible says God is good. And God does only that which is good. So who do you believe? God or some man who says that God's not good because evil exists? When God Himself is not the author of evil.

We also know that God is sovereign. He rules over all. That's why the emphasis on Sunday morning and the emphasis of thrones in the book of Revelation, 50 different times the word thrones is used in the book of Revelation to let you know that no matter how bad things are on earth, God is still on the throne.

He is sovereign. He rules over all. And the heartaches in this world are a direct consequence of the effects of sin upon man.

You see, the reason man says, well, God can't be good because evil exists is because he doesn't want to admit his own depravity, his own sinful nature, his own rebellion against God. He doesn't want to admit that. But that's the truth.

But notice this. The Bible says, we know for certain. We know for certain.

Who knows? Those who know God. What do those who know God know for certain? We believers know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. The phrase we know is a phrase of certainty.

Every child of God knows without a shadow of a doubt that all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose. You say, well, how does that work itself out practically in my life? Do you think for one moment that your sin is bigger than the sovereignty of God? That somehow sins that you commit or sins that the others have committed against you are so big that they won't work out for good for you? You see, the Bible says, we know. If we don't know anything, we know this, that all things, not some things, not certain things, and not good things, but all things, all things include temptation, suffering, sin.

Because all things is an all-inclusive term. That means there is nothing outside the realm of this world that exists that does not work out together for good to those who love God, key phrase, and to those who are called according to his purpose. If you love God and you are saved from your sin, you have this ironclad assurance that everything that happens works out for your good ultimately in God's glory.

That's the promise of God. Remember way back in the book of Deuteronomy? I think it's Deuteronomy chapter 8. In Deuteronomy chapter 8, it says these words. Deuteronomy 8, verse number 15.

He led you through the great and terrible wilderness with his fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water. He brought water for you out of the rock of Flint. In the wilderness, he fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and that he might test you.

What's the next phrase? To do good for you. When? In the end. It was all about your ultimate goodness.

See, that's the way God works. We forget about that. Jeremiah 25, verse 4, 5, God said to the Israelites, I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah whom I have sent out of this place for their own good.

Their own good. This is for their goodness. Over in 1 Peter chapter 5, verse number 10.

I love this. Peter says, after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. After you have suffered for a little while, God is going to bring about such goodness in your life.

You'll be perfect. You'll be strong. You'll be stable.

You'll have courage. Your character will be refined because God ultimately wants you to be just like him. So even my suffering works out together for my good.

Even my temptation does. When you are tempted, is that ultimately for your good? Yes, it is. Why? Because it drives you to your knees to depend upon your God.

And that's always a good place for the Christian to be. Temptation drives you to your knees that you might understand that there is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. It's common to man.

Everybody is tempted when he's drawn away by his own lusts and enticed according to James' account. And yet that temptation drives me to God that I might learn to depend upon him that he might show me the route of escape through that temptation. And even my sin, whatever sin you have committed yesterday, last week, last month, if the Bible says all things work together for good, that means that even the sin that you have committed will ultimately work together for your good and the glory of Almighty God.

Why? Because God in his greatness always overrules the effects of your sin for his glory. Don't think that your sin is going to hinder God's work of goodness in your life. God is bigger than that.

God is greater than that. And that's why Jeremiah said in Lamentations 3 that God's mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.

Because he knew that no matter how sinful he was, the faithfulness of God, the truth of God would override everything. So the psalmist, after he had been afflicted, after he had been disciplined by the Lord, even after he had been persecuted by the enemy, said, this is my conviction. God is good.

And God does good. George Mueller, many of you know and have read about that great man of prayer who built orphanages and inspired many people to live by faith. In July of 1853, his daughter, his only daughter, was struck with typhoid fever.

He began to pray that God would do a mighty work in the life of his daughter. But as he prayed, he prayed, God, you accomplish your will for my life. If you choose to take my daughter, so be it.

If you choose to leave my daughter, so be it. But your will be accomplished in my life. And many people prayed along with George Mueller and his wife.

And you know what? God spared his daughter. She lived. And he would write about the goodness of God.

And people would say, well, of course he would write about the goodness of God. God answered prayer. It answered prayer in George Mueller's favor.

His daughter survived and everything was well. And yet, on February 6, 1870, his wife contacted rheumatic fever and she died. They'd been married for 39 years and four months.

He was 64 years old. After she died, he preached a funeral message. You guess on what verse? Psalm 119, 68.

Thou art good and do us good. He had three points. Point number one, the Lord was good and did good in giving her to me.

Point number two, the Lord was good and did good in so long leaving her with me. And point number three, the Lord was good and did good in taking her from me. And in that sermon, he said these words.

Yes, my father, the times of my darling wife are in thy hands. This was his prayer during his sickness. That will do the very best thing for her and for me.

Whether life or death, if it may be, raise up yet again my precious wife. Thou art able to do it though she is so ill. But howsoever thou dealest with me, only help me to continue to be perfectly satisfied with thy holy will.

That was his prayer as his wife would lie dying. And as you look back on the way God, listen, answered that prayer, this is what he said. Every day I see more and more how great is her loss to the orphans, yet without an effort, my inmost soul habitually joys in the joy of that loved departed one.

Her happiness gives joy to me. My dear daughter and I would not have her back were it possible to produce it by the turn of the hand. God himself has done it and we are satisfied with him.

God is good and God always does good. That was the psalmist's conviction. What is yours? Number three, I want you to notice the psalmist's conflict.

I must hurry, my time is fleeting. It says, the arrogant have forged a lie against me with all my heart. I will observe thy precepts.

His conflict was with the insolent and with their indulgence. These people have forged a lie against me. Maybe the lie was, you know, you got the affliction, maybe you're living in sin.

That's why things are so bad for you. And maybe they would lie against him because of the affliction he received, like Job's miserable counselors were. As they would say, well, Job, maybe it's because you're not right with God, the reason things are so bad in your life.

But they had forged a lie against him, they had spoken against him, and yet he says in verse number 69, with all my heart, I will observe thy precepts. It wasn't, with all my heart, I'll get him. I'll let him know that this isn't right.

No, with all my heart, I'll observe thy precepts. Even though the enemy forges a lie, even though they speak against me, even though they defame my name, Lord, I will observe thy precepts. I will do what your word says.

His conflict was with the insolent and their indulgence. It says their heart is covered with fat, but I delight in thy law. Maybe your text says their hearts are as fat as grease.

It speaks of their indulgences. It speaks of the vile rottenness of their sinful ways. This is all they can do.

They became more and more gross as time went on, but he became more and more godly as time went on because his delight was in the word. Their delight was in the world. His delight was in the scriptures.

Their delight was in sin. Their delight was in iniquity. His delight was in his God.

And even though he would make a confession about how God dealt with him and about how great God was, and even though he would have a conviction about his God, he would face much conflict still, but he never reneged on the word of God. Not once. Which leads to this conclusion, verse number 71, it is good for me that I was, what, afflicted.

When it's all said and done, I have this conclusion, it was good. Why? Because there I learned thy statutes. I learned.

Here it is. You want to be counseled by somebody? You counsel by somebody who's been through much affliction, has seen the hand of God because they have learned the ways and the words of God. They have.

It's good. This is his conclusion. His testing is good and God's testimonies are good.

Verse 72, the law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. I love the phrase the law of thy mouth. That's the word of God, but he calls it the law of thy mouth.

The same mouth that spoke the universe into existence, the same mouth that created him is the same mouth that sustains him. The law of thy mouth, it's more precious to me than all the gold and all the silver pieces because I have learned what wealth could not give me. I have learned the statutes and the ways of God and ultimately I've learned the most important truth of all, that God is good and all he does is good.

Let's pray. Our most gracious heavenly father, we are truly thankful for the truth of your word and the opportunity we have to study it. Many people, many people and even Christians have a hard time with the goodness of God when things around them are so bad.

And yet your word still stands above it all for it is true. And because it's true, Lord, it speaks to our hearts. And I pray that Lord, the words of Psalm 119 verses 65 and following would be so etched upon our hearts that we would leave with only one conclusion, the same conclusion the Psalmist left with.

And that is simply that even amidst all my affliction, I have learned one thing that it was good for me to be afflicted. For without that affliction, I would have not learned the statutes of God. I would have not learned you Lord, nor would I have learned the great truth that thou art good and do us good in Jesus name.

Amen.