Do good to your servant
according to your word, LORD.
Teach me knowledge and good judgment,
for I trust your commands.
Before I was afflicted I went astray,
but now I obey your word.
You are good, and what you do is good;
teach me your decrees.
Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies,
I keep your precepts with all my heart.
Their hearts are callous and unfeeling,
but I delight in your law.
It was good for me to be afflicted
so that I might learn your decrees.
The law from your mouth is more precious to me
than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. Psalm 119:65-72 (NIV)
Psalm 119 – Teth teaches us that God is good, and that even when bad things happen to us, God can use those situations to teach us about Him and His goodness. Many times when we are in the midst of a dark place in our lives, we ask God, “Why?” We have also heard many unbelievers ask the question, “How can a loving god allow such bad things to happen?” We have to remember, God, is not a fairy godmother. He doesn’t just step in and turn the pumpkins and rats of our lives into carriages and footmen.
It may seem that God is punishing you, or causing hard times. However, God cannot, dare I say, refuses to deal out evil on any person because He is holy. We have to remember, in God’s realm, we really are very much like 2-year-olds. We want our own way, even if it is dangerous. Indeed, we don’t even see the danger. Just as a parent holds the hand of a little child so they won’t run out in traffic when they cross the street, so God holds our hand throughout life, to help us avoid getting ourselves into trouble. Like the 2-year old, we may squirm and try to break free, but we don’t see the whole picture. We need to trust God as our loving parent, even though it seems we are being punished.
The Message translates verse 67 as follows: Before I learned to answer you, I wandered all over the place, but now I’m in step with your Word. God will never make our decisions for us. Instead, He allows us free will to choose to trust Him with our lives. Read what Isaiah 55:7-9 tells us how God does not force His ways on us. Rather, He wants the best for us, is compassionate towards us and asks us to trust Him. This is because He is indeed, our Holy parent, looking out for us.
Let the wicked abandon his way,
And the unrighteous person his thoughts;
And let him return to the LORD,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts. (NASB)
God can be nothing but good and holy. In fact, He is so good and holy that we can’t comprehend it. Can you imagine that God’s goodness will light up all of Heaven, and we will be able to live in His light for all eternity? However, right now, there is absolutely nothing on earth that can compare with God’s goodness. Indeed we can’t even comprehend how good God is.
Moses asked to see God’s glory, so that he could be assured that God was going with him and the Israelites on their journeys. God knew that if Moses saw God’s complete goodness, he would die, so He put Moses in a cleft of a rock and covered him to protect him, as He passed by.
Then Moses said, “Please, show me Your glory!” And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion to whom I will show compassion.” He further said, “You cannot see My face, for mankind shall not see Me and live!” Then the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.” (Exodus 33:18-23, NASB).
What a tender response from God to Moses! He answered Moses’ request, but kept him safe and secure by carefully placing Moses, Himself, in the cleft of the rock. He didn’t tell Moses, climb down there. God placed him, and covered him, and allowed him to see His back. It just blows my mind that God’s goodness is so great, to see it, would kill us!
The Hebrew letter teth means good. Its shape is that of a pot with an inverted lid, or a person that is bent in prayer. According to Hebrew tradition, the pot can represent a woman’s womb, and the person bent in prayer to God who is asking for the child. The goodness of the birth of a child is again, another expression of God’s goodness (Raskin 2003).
The ט is the ninth letter of the alphabet and can represent the nine months of gestation. The letter 9 is significant in that it is considered a true number. “What makes nine a ‘true’ number is that if you multiply any whole number by nine, the sum of its digits is also nine; e.g., two times nine is eighteen; one plus eight is nine. Three times nine is twenty-seven; two plus seven is nine. Nine times nine is eighty-one; eight plus one is nine…. Nine represents the number of truth (Raskin, 2003).” It’s as if, in these equations, truth is at the beginning, middle and end of the equations. This is just like God, who is Truth, and in the beginning, middle and end of all our lives.
As God allows us to experience the pain and consequence of our own actions, or just pain that happens expectantly in life, we learn to trust Him in all situations. We hold tightly to His hand and know He is holy and good and always has our best interest as heart. Thank you God for being a compassionate Father.
Resources:
Raskin, A. 2003: Letters of Light. (audio book). Sichos Publishers.
Photo credit:
Familyshare.com. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c3/0b/b4/c30bb40d4e7debfb7c3dfc57dadfaee8.jpg
Mathes, G. May 6, 2011. The Treasure of Affliction in Psalm 119, Teth. https://glendafayemathes.com/2011/05/06/afflicted-psalm-119-teth/. Retrieved on June 30, 2021.
