“I never knew the meaning of God’s Word until I came into affliction. I have always found it to be one of my best schoolmasters.” This testimony of Martin Luther echoes the teaching of the ninth and tenth stanzas of Psalm 119. Suffering is a school where students learn important lessons about life, God, and themselves—lessons they could have never learned any other way. The Bible gives various reasons why people suffer, for this is not a simple problem. But for the believer, one reason we are afflicted is that we might get back onto the path of obeying God’s Word (v 67, 71). When things are going well, we are tempted to trust our own judgment and drift into paths of human pride and self-sufficiency. Suffering gets our attention and calls us back to the God who formed us to know and understand His ways (v 73). Three times the psalmist says that he was “afflicted” (v 67, 71, 75), but the most prominent word in this passage is “good.” This is especially apparent in the Hebrew text, where the word occurs at the beginning of five verses (v 65, 66, 68, 71, 72). Of course, affliction is not good in and of itself and does not usually seem good to us at the time we are enduring it, but affliction always has a good purpose in the lives of God’s people. The psalmist is confident that his affliction has been appointed by the LORD “in faithfulness” (v 75), so he trusts in the wisdom and love of God, who rules over all things. In times of grief or suffering, we would do well to join the psalmist in saying to God, “You are good and do good” (v 68). This is a pivotal verse, anchoring goodness in the very character of God. When George Mueller’s beloved wife died in 1870, the great Christian missionary chose this very text to preach at her funeral. His message had three points: 1) The Lord was good, and did good, in giving her to me. 2) The Lord was good, and did good, leaving her to me for so long. 3) The Lord was good, and did good, in taking her from me. Reflecting later on Mary’s passing, Mueller said, “My heart was at rest, and my heart was satisfied with God. And all this springs from taking God at His Word, believing what He says.” Do you believe God is good and does good—in your life? Rest in this truth when the inevitable days of darkness come. At such times, our inclination may be to turn inward and isolate ourselves. But God’s comfort often comes to us through His people. And despite his affliction, the psalmist anticipates how God might use him to encourage others! Realizing that his reaction to suffering will affect friends and loved ones, he prays that they will be encouraged when they see his faith (v 74, 79). For further meditation: