Psalms 119:71

It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes.

The uses of affliction

I. Afflictions promote virtue, and goodness of heart, as they tend to compose our minds to a sedate and thoughtful disposition and habit.

II. Afflictions tend to restrain our appetites and passions within reasonable bounds.

III. Afflictions, by means of a sedate and considerate habit, which they produce and confirm, tend to strengthen our minds with fortitude and constancy,

IV. Afflictions tend to soften our hearts into tender sympathy and kind affection towards our fellow-creatures. (J. Drysdale, D. D.)

Good to be afflicted

It is not good for some people to have been afflicted at all, and yet it is not the fault of the affliction; it is the fault of the persons afflicted. It might have produced in them a splendid character if all had been right to begin with; but, inasmuch as all was wrong, that very process which should have ripened them into sweetness has hastened them to rottenness. I hope, however, that I may say of many here present, or that they can say of themselves, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted;” The inquiry is, How has it been good?

1. It has been good in connection with many other good things. We are so constituted that we cannot bear very much prosperity. Some men might have been rich, but God knew they could not bear it, and so He has never suffered them to be tempted above what they are able to bear. Others might have been famous, but they would have been ruined by pride, and so the Lord in tender mercy has withheld from them an opportunity of distinguishing themselves, denying them this apparent advantage for their real good. Where God favours any man with prosperity He will send a corresponding amount of affliction to go with it, and deprive it of its injurious tendencies.

2. It is good to have been afflicted as a cure for evils existent within our nature. David says, “Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I have kept Thy Word.” That is the case with many of God’s servants. They were prone to one peculiar temptation, and though they may not have seen it, the chastening hand of God was aimed at that special weakness of their character. The Lord would have us aware of this, and therefore He often sends trial to reveal the hidden evil.

3. Affliction is also useful to God’s people as an actual producer of good things in them. Some virtues cannot be produced in us apart from affliction. One of them is patience. If a man has no trial, how is he to be patient? A veteran warrior is the child of battles, and a patient Christian is the offspring of adversity. There is a very sweet grace called sympathy, which is seldom found in persons who have had no trouble. We are told that our dear Lord and Master Himself learned sympathy by being tempted in all points like as we are. He had to feel our infirmities, or else He could not have been touched with a fellow feeling towards us. It is surely so with us.

4. It is good for me to have been afflicted because affliction is a wonderful quickener, We are very apt to go to sleep; but affliction often wakes us up. The whole of some men’s religion is a kind of sleep-walking. There is not that vigour in it, there is not that earnestness in it, that there ought to be. They want to be waked up by something startling. Our trials and afflictions are intended to do that.

5. Again, according to our text, it is good for us to have been afflicted by way of instruction. Trial is our school where God teaches us on the blackboard. This school-house has no windows to let in the cheerful light. It is very dark, and so we cannot look out and get distracted by external objects; but God’s grace shines like a candle within, and by that light we see what else we had never seen. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The advantages of afflictions

I. They awaken us to serious thought. When, by reverse of fortune, we are deprived of the means of pleasures in which we had too profusely indulged; when the companions of our happier years forsake us; when pain and disease unfit us for tasting our wonted comforts, and forewarn us of death; on a sudden, the enchantment is broken; our conduct, to which we had not hitherto attended, rises in review before us; virtue and vice are exhibited in a light in which we had not viewed them before, and our souls, awakened from the dream of dissipation, commune seriously with themselves.

II. They serve to moderate our attachment to worldly objects.

III. They serve to exercise and display our virtues. It is the storm that tries the strength of the vessel.

IV. They have a natural tendency to improve our pious affections. When the fabric of our felicity falls, we perceive whose hand it was that supported it, and whose hand it is that alone can rear it anew. We feel our dependence on that Providence which, before, we had neglected to acknowledge, and seek, in communion with God, the consolation which our sufferings require.

V. They have a tendency to enliven our hope of immortality. The doctrine of a future existence is no longer regarded as a subject of cold speculation; it addresses itself to the tenderest feelings that can arise in the human breast; your minds are prepared to yield to the evidence by which it is confirmed, and you cherish it as your support under afflictions which admit of no other consolation. (W. Moodie, D. D.)

The uses of affliction

I. It affords opportunity for reflection, without which we can never properly know what we are or what we want.

II. It tends to create in us humility.

III. It is the means of leading us to repentance.

IV. It teaches us to put our trust in the righteousness of Christ.

V. It teaches us resignation.

VI. It improves our charity. (R. Mant, M. A.)

The benefits of affliction

1. It tries and calls forth the exercise of faith.

2. It enables us to exercise patience.

3. It tends to produce humility.

4. It makes us dependent and prayerful.

5. It tends to secure our obedience.

6. It teaches us to value our mercies.

7. It tends to make heaven very desirable. (D. Dickson, D. D.)

Affliction beneficial

I. In whatever form affliction comes, it is designed by God to do us good. An old writer says: “Afflictions are used by God, as thorns are by husbandmen, to stop the gaps, and to keep us from breaking out of God’s ways.”

II. The spirit in which affliction should be received. Trials must not be received thoughtlessly and as a matter of course; their cause and their purpose must be carefully studied. The grace of submission must be earnestly sought, that there may be no murmuring, much less rebellion, but patient endurance and resignation to the Divine will. Unwavering trust in God must be exercised. There must also be a willingness to learn His lessons, a teachableness of disposition, an earnest desire to endeavour to extract from our affliction all the profit which it is designed to bring.

III. The benefits resulting from affliction if received in a right spirit.

1. By sorrow the heart is made tender and susceptible to the influences of the Holy Spirit. Religion is welcomed by the bleeding heart as the choicest and most effectual balm.

2. Affliction rightly endured increases our love for God’s Word and obedience to His law.

3. Few motives to prayer are more powerful and effectual than those furnished by affliction.

4. Afflictions afford the best possible sphere for the exhibition and for the growth of the graces of the Spirit. How can we know we have faith unless our faith be tested? Hope, like a bright star, is best seen on a dark night; and love is most conspicuous when it clings in spite of perplexity and pain.

5. The benefits of affliction are not confined to the immediate sufferers. If rightly endured by us, others are benefited, both by our example and by the tender sympathy which we are led to feel for them in their distresses. (A. O. Smith, B. A.)