Embrace the Word for Friday, October 9, 2026

FOR AN AUDIO VERSION CLICK HERE

Psalm 119 is a celebration of God’s Word. Psalm 119:65-72 continues the exploration of the “blessed” life. Each verse in this ninth stanza begins with the ninth letter of the Hebrew alphabet (which is tet). The ninth stanza emphasizes the theme of goodness. Five of the eight verses begin with the term “good” or “goodness” (119:65,66,68,71,72), and one of the verses adds the term “to do good” (119:68). While this ninth stanza focuses on “good,” there is much that the Psalmist states about “affliction.” Each sub-stanza speaks of “affliction.” The first sub-stanza of the ninth stanza affirms the good effects the LORD accomplished through afflicting him (119:65-68), while the second sub-stanza affirms the goodness of the LORD in His working through the wicked who afflicted him (119:69-72).

Psalm 119:65-72 opens with the Psalmist’s acknowledgement of the abundant goodness of the LORD toward him: “You have dealt well with your servant, O LORD, according to your word” (119:65). In fact, the goodness of the LORD frames this first sub-stanza: “You are good and do good; teach me your statutes” (119:68). The LORD has done good to the Psalmist, that is, He has treated him “well.” The acknowledgment of this treatment comes as no surprise as the Psalmist understands that the LORD is good and does good. The Psalmist is simply lining out all the facets in which the qualities of goodness apply to the LORD. The LORD’s very being is good; there is only goodness in the essence of the LORD. The LORD is void of anything bad, evil, or imperfect. Flowing out of His being and essence, the things that the LORD does are always good. The LORD is incapable of doing anything that is contrary to what is good, for His actions only and always flow out of who He is. Building upon the essential goodness of the LORD as well as His good actions, the ultimate effects of all the LORD does is uniquely good. These aspects of the goodness of God coalesce in His Word. What the LORD speaks—all that He declares, commands, promises, and warns—is good. God’s Word is a perfect revelation of His goodness. Thus, to live according to the Word of God is to experience what is good. It is the Psalmist’s awareness of the goodness of the Word that stirs within his heart the desire to know and practice what God says in His Word. It is in wandering from God’s Word that experiencing the LORD’s goodness diminishes. 

Therefore, the Psalmist urgently prays for increase in the good effects of God’s Word in his life. The Psalmist’s prayer is for the LORD to teach him: “Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments” (119:66). The Psalmist needs the LORD to teach him “good judgment and knowledge.” Good judgment is the ability to properly discern what fittingly corresponds to godly living. Good knowledge is the perspective of apprehending what is morally good and true in life. Choosing the good life requires the proper faculties and/or abilities to decipher what preferences and decisions are needed. Literally, the Psalmist is asking the LORD to give him the capacity to refine his tastes, that is, to develop good moral tastes. Growing an increased taste for what is morally good is not something that man natively possesses. An increased taste for moral goodness is an acquired taste, and only the LORD, by His Spirit and through His Word, can bring this about. The Psalmist realizes these realities as he confesses his trust in what the LORD would continue to teach him in His Word.

What the Psalmist says next is the first of two vitally important truths concerning the role of affliction in life. The Psalmist begins his insight into the goodness of affliction: “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word” (119:67). A component of the LORD’s work in the Psalmist’s life to instill new tastes buds in him was to send affliction his way. A genuine mark of the LORD’s Fatherly love of His people is that He knows how to use affliction for good purposes (See Hebrews 12:5-11, see also Proverbs 3:11-12, Deuteronomy 8:5). Whatever form the affliction might come in—medical, financial, relational, situational, and/or intrapersonal—He will inflict His people. But such affliction’s design is only and always good. In this particular case, the Psalmist was not where he should have been in his relationship with the LORD. Perhaps the Psalmist was committing some egregious sin, or perhaps he was slightly off track, or perhaps he just wasn’t as wholeheartedly obeying the LORD as he should have been. Whatever the prior issue, affliction was a crucial part of the curriculum that produced repentance from sin, resolve to walk even closer, and/or renewal to obey the LORD more fully.

The Psalmist transitions from affirming the good effects the LORD accomplished through afflicting him (119:65-68), to affirming the goodness of the LORD in how He worked through the wicked who afflicted him (119:69-72). The Psalmist indicates something of the particulars surrounding his experience of affliction: “The insolent smear me with lies, but with my whole heart I keep your precepts; their heart is unfeeling like fat, but I delight in your law” (119:69-70). The nature of the Psalmist’s affliction comes into clearer focus. The “insolent,” whom the Psalmist has mentioned previously (119:21,51) have sought to harm him with a smear campaign. These wicked liars possess hearts that have no sensitivity toward the LORD and His Word. In contrast—in fact, he is emphatic about this—the Psalmist’s heart is ever expanding in its receptiveness to the LORD and His Word. The Psalmist’s heightened delight in God’s Word evidences growth in the development of his moral tastes.

Thus, the Psalmist can look at his affliction from the actions of the “insolent” and yet also look at where he is at in regard to the LORD and His Word, and conclude: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (119:71). The LORD deploys the wicked actions of the “insolent” to afflict His people. However, the purpose behind His deployment of the wicked does not share their same design. The wicked purpose to afflict because they are mean and wish to do harm. The LORD is good and only does good (119:68), and so He has an altogether distinct outcome for affliction: “that I might learn your statutes.” The Psalmist learned more about God’s Word through his affliction. It is through that realization that the Psalmist can look at his affliction and label it “good.” It is always good to know and practice more of God’s Word, and whatever means the LORD decides to use that results in knowing and practicing more of God’s Word—is good. The Psalmist has been refined through his affliction, and in the aftermath of such affliction, he now has an even greater value on the Word of God: “The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces” (119:72). The Psalmist once again uses the term “good,” but in this case it is in a comparative sense. The Psalmist first of all assesses his perception of the value of God’s Word by using a very personalized way to describe the Word as “the law of your mouth.” Such a personal Word from the lips of the God who loves him and purposes only good for him, has made the Psalmist even more aware that he has received something from the LORD of greater worth that much gold and silver. As it turned out, being smeared with lies by the wicked was used to bring the Psalmist to an even greater realization of what the LORD has spoken to him. In the end, whatever the Psalmist went through, it can now be said, “It’s all good!”

As we reflect on Psalm 119:65-72, we can consider how suffering helped shaped Jesus’ life of obedience: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered” (See Hebrews 5:8). While fully God, Jesus was also fully human. Jesus suffered much affliction as he willingly humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on the Cross (See Philippians 2:8). Along the way to the Cross, Jesus was smeared with lies by insolent men. And while Jesus’ afflictions did not correct any waywardness on His part, His full obedience through the severest of sufferings did qualify Him to be a perfect sacrifice for His people. As His people follow Him, they too will taste something of affliction: “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God” (See 1 Peter 4:1-2). While our afflictions will not produce a sinless life, they will purge and refine our walk with the Lord. As the Apostle Peter stated, followers of Christ must arm themselves with a particular attitude or disposition or mind-set when it comes to suffering for their faith. A particularly fitting mind-set would be: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (119:71).

That’s all for Embrace the Word for Friday, October 9, 2026. I look forward to being back with you for the Monday, October 12, 2026 episode of Embrace the Word as we take a look at Psalm 119:73-80.