Thank You?

I was reading Psalm 119 the other day (which translates to last week), I realize that I wrote about writing a “series” on Psalm 119, but I can’t confine my posting to a specific series of posts, so this is one of my many infrequent posts about Psalm 119. It seems like every time I read this Psalm I walk away with something new, I walked away with a lot after reading 119:75 “I know, O Lord, that your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness you have afflicted me.” Wait a minute, hold the phone, did I read that right? “In your faithfulness you have afflicted me.” Okay I guess I did; I don’t know about you but that is a powerful and initially strange statement. Synonyms for faithfulness include trustworthiness, care, devotion, and loyalty. If you were to substitute one of those words it would sound a little strange, I never really stop to think about the devotion and care of God when I am afflicted, more often than not I say “Why me?” But that’s pretty narcissistic, because it takes the focus of what is wrong with the world and pins it on how I feel. When God created the world He called it good, and to have God call it good it has to be really good. But sin entered the world and spoiled this goodness making it imperfect. Because of this imperfection the world has gone wrong; outbreaks of diseases kill millions of people, massive storms destroy homes and lives, corrupt people take power of nations and on a more personal level, we treat each other poorly. I finished reading the book of Job and the message his friends keep telling him is “Job the reason you’re losing everything is because you did something wrong” but that is not always the case, because the true reason Job lost everything he had is because of the devil and the imperfections of the world. I’ve been thinking a lot about suffering, not to find one answer, but to find a reason in it and the conclusion I’ve come up with is that God is good, and sadly, the world departed from that goodness. The psalmist isn’t saying “God, I love these afflictions” he is saying “God, I know you are good, and that you will not leave me alone in my suffering.” Although things go wrong in life we mustn’t forget that God is always with us and is devoted to us, despite the pain that afflictions in life bring, they often draw us closer to God and make us stronger because of them.