Psalms 119 is the longest psalm in the Bible, it’s like an A-Z of loving, cherishing and keeping God’s Word as the means of showing love, dedication and faithfulness to Him as we endeavor to seek Him diligently and keep his Words out of love for Him. Its long but the heart of the psalm is really touching, its like one who misses and loves God and yet perseveres through it all by keeping God’s word as dear to Him and treasuring it above all earthly things because in it He hears the counsel of God and the desires of God. Suffering on earth is inevitable and in we are called to joyfully join in the sufferings of Jesus Christ, for without suffering with him we can not be gloried with Him…..as He said, if “he who loves His life shall lose it” and again He said “Take up your cross and follow me”…..and as Paul said “I die daily.” In all this and various events in life that may cause our heart’s to ache, there is suffering….how we deal with it and what we see in it, matters a lot to God.
The purpose of suffering is to allow us to first of all fully understand that we need God. The amount to which we need God when we suffer and when we don’t suffer doesn’t change, suffering only allows our mind’s to understand the level of that dependancy, we as human’s are prone to forget and suffering helps us remember the reality of life, the whole duty of life is to Fear God and keep His commandments, walk humbly before him loving mercy, walking in faith as we whole heartedly love and trust Him. This means seeing the temporal blessings we have in this world as things that God puts in our hands for a time as stewards and not getting too comfortable with them to the extent that we forget our God. Too often we become praisers of ourselves and our hard work or our blessings or simply forget that God is our true and first Love. God even warns us of this complacency that a full stomach and plenty can bring due to the forgetting Who The One who blesses and sustains is, the warning is found in deuteronomy:
Deuteronomy 8:10-14
“When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. “Beware that you do not forget the LORDyour God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
In the proverbs, the writer of the 30th proverb asks God simply for His daily bread as Jesus did, and not for excessive riches lest he forget God nor poverty lest he steal, the heart of that petition lies in the fact that He finds more joy and satisfaction in God than in temporary status, or riches or things of this world what ever they may be and so He asks for those things that He needs,
First He praises God saying
Proverbs 30:5-6
“Every word of God is flawless;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Do not add to his words,
or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.”
Then he continues and says (proverbs 30:7-8)
Two things I ask of you, O LORD;
do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the LORD ?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.
Why does God warn us from forgetting Him after we have eaten of the plenty, and the proverb writer pray for balance out of fear of God? Because God is their treasure, and that is why God allows for us to suffer. It is for the testing of our faith, schools give tests and exams….God allows for suffering and it shows whether faith is genuine or not. The seed planted in the fertile ground produces much fruit, it is the house built on a Rock, the servant who Loves God above all others even mother, brother, father, sister, husband, wife etc, it is He who abides in the Love of God so that when suffering comes, one knows to trust God and not let loss of anything affect that faith but rather in confiding, in trusting in God that faith is strengthened and the end result is reward, this may be a temporal blessing(s) on earth but is most more importantly the reward is an eternal reward in heaven and even more important, closer intimacy with God as one clings to God as a small child does to His mother or father when scarred or in need. Thats why the psalmist can say “It is good that you have afflicted me so that I may learn your statutes” (psalm 119:71). So we suffer and in Love we abide in and keep God’s Word in worship of Him and as a way of finding comfort in Him as we hold onto His promises and pray to Him as He in His word commands us “draw near to me and I shall draw near to you.”
John 14:21
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
The suffering is only for a short period of time, we hold on and there shall be better things to come in the world to come and in the presence of God and the Lord Jesus. The things we go through now, we go through paradoxically to hold on to God where others would flee. Suffering allows us to know God as our provider, sustainer, Lord over all circumstances and situations no matter how big or small, our comforter (like a mother who squeezes her child’s boil causing pain and yet healing the child and comforting the child so that the child may realize that the pain is a necessary part of the good work being done). God shows Himself as God and we are shown to be creatures that are unable to exist without Him, and we do not lament at this rather we embrace it and find hope, comfort and our trust is established because we know that The God who has brought us thus far will carry us to the end of the race though it may come with tears, pains and agonies together with joy, comfort and great peace. This is the experience of those who know God, great examples are Joseph and David, James and Paul. Suffering helps us remember the LORD in times of plenty to Bless Him and continue to cling to Him, and in times of lack to remember his blessings in the times of plenty and know that even in the time of lack He is God. It allows for us to be able to faithfully speak out on the Faithfulness of God as we experience it for ourselves. God uses suffering to show the smallness of the things of this world and keep our mind, heart and eyes on the treasures above in Heaven, the greatest treasure being Himself. The one who knows suffering can say with the psalmist (psalm 73:25-26)
“Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
