The benefit of suffering
“It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes. The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” (Psalms 119:71-72)
I came to hear news that I am deeply disturbed even today through the internet news. A 34-year-old father stabbed his 8-year-old daughter and 9-year-old daughter's friend, a woman, with a knife each 20 and 11 times, in a small town in Chicago. I heard the news that this cruel father who killed even his own daughter stabbed her eyes with a knife. When I heard this, I was angry because I couldn’t believe how evil human could be in committing such horrible crime. My reaction was: 'Is this man really a human?', 'Is he really qualified to be a father?' In order to drive a car, we need to get a driver's license. But there is no such thing as a license to be a father. That’s why we don’t study to become a father. This night, this horrible news reminded me another news that I heard last time which was about a mother, who beat her daughter 's head and left her two days to die in the living room, cut her neck and threw away. I wonder if we the parents are qualified to be parents.
The Bible Ephesians chapters 5 and 6 teach us that we the men are responsible for nurturing our wives and children. Here, 'to nurture' in Greek has a meaning 'narrow'. That is, we the husbands and the fathers must show our wives and children the narrow path that Jesus walked, the cross. In other words, each one of us must take our own cross and walk the path of suffering. But we have an instinct not to walk the path of suffering. We intend to avoid it deliberately. This is because they don’t know the benefits of suffering. Furthermore, since we haven’t experienced the benefit of suffering, we are unable to walk by faith the path of suffering patiently.
Today I would like to think of two things under the title of "The benefits of suffering" based on the words of Psalms 119: 65-72.
First, the benefit of suffering is that it reminds us our going astray.
Look at Psalms 119:67 – “Before I was afflicted I went astray, ….” We often don’t know that we are going astray until we have suffered. Of course, it is true that there are times when we know that it is a deliberate wrong way to walk but we still walk that path. But many times, we don’t walk on the path of the narrow cross that the Lord has walked but sway to the left or to the right because we are spiritual blind and deaf. Then, through the suffering that the Lord gives us, we become spiritual awaken. Like a good shepherd who tends his sheep when the sheep goes astray, our good Shepherd Lord us the stick of loving discipline to tend us and to make us to walk the right path of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 53:6 – “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; ….” Because we are foolish sheep, we are busy going astray. We are walking the broad road of this world instead of the narrow path of the Lord Jesus Christ. At that time, the suffering that is given to us reminds us of our going astray.
Second and last, the benefit of suffering is it makes us to keep the word of the Lord.
Look at Psalms 119:67 – “… But now I keep Your word.” Here we need to think about how suffering makes us to keep the word of the Lord in six ways:
(1) Suffering makes us believe in the Lord's commandments.
Look at Psalms 119:66 – “… For I believe in Your commandments.” The suffering that awakens us to the fact that we are walking on the wrong path makes us to make U-turn and enable us to believe that only the Lord's commandments are the true path. Every day we choose to take one of two paths: the narrow path of the Lord and the wide path of the world. In other words, every moment of our lives we choose either the Lord's commandments or Satan's or the world's words. The suffering not only makes us to realize our wrong choices, but also helps us to believe that the Lord’s path of commandments and to walk in that right path.
(2) Suffering teaches us "understanding and knowledge".
Look at Psalm 119:66 – “Teach me good discernment and knowledge ….” There are so many of us who have lost discernment and knowledge and are walking in the wrong way in ignorance. The loss of spiritual discernment brings confusion and not conviction. Eventually, it will make us not to walk in the way of the Lord's commandments in a consistent way. Rather, the loss of spiritual discernment causes us to wander the way of the world, the way of confusion. To us, the Lord, through suffering, rescues us from the swamp of loss of our ignorance and of good discernment. In the end, the Lord gives us good spiritual discernment and knowledge to know the will of the Lord and causes us to run to His Word.
(3) Suffering makes us taste the goodness of the Lord.
Look at Psalms 119:68 – “You are good and do good ….” The greatest benefit to us in our suffering is to experience the goodness of the Lord (Ps. 34:8). We experience the Lord’s goodness as God causes all things, even our suffering, to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28). Especially when we are going through most difficult time of our lives, we experience God’s goodness by seeing God’s glory that manifests to us brighter than before. That is why even in our great suffering we are able to praise God "God is so good, God is good, God is so good, He so good to me.”
(4) Suffering makes us hate the lie of the proud.
Look at Psalms 119:69 – “The arrogant have forged a lie against me ….” Before we suffer, the lies of the proud are so clearly heard in our ears that we often walk the false path of the proud. Aren’t we now busy in running the path of lie, the lie of the proud of this world, because we are confused and accept the lies as the truth and choose to go astray? Even though we use to run the path of the false success of the pride of the world and the path of worldly glory and mammonism, but after suffering, we hate all the path of lie of all the proud. The reason is that through hardship we become aware of the true path and the way of the Lord. The path of the Lord is the narrow path of the cross shown by the humble Jesus in the Bible. And it is death, after all. How different is this with the end of the world's road? Do you feel spiritual charm? Do we feel spiritual charm that the climax of our narrow path is death? Do you feel attracted to the fact that a sinner like us can be martyred for His glory? This truth cannot be accepted by anyone. The proud cannot accept this truth. But the Lord is planting this truth in our hearts through suffering. As He plants this trust, the Lord makes us to hate the lie of the proud.
(5) Suffering removes ‘fats’ in our hearts.
Look at Psalms 119:70 – “Their heart is covered with fat ….” Obesity became a major problem in the United States. So many people try to lose weight by diet and exercise. Some people even have an operating to remove fat. While so many people are trying to get rid of the fat of the flesh, we Christians have to devote ourselves to remove the fat in our hearts. If we have the fat of the flesh, how uncomfortable it is and how many adult diseases do we end up with? But the fat of our hearts seems to be giving birth to a greater sin that weighs down the sinful consequences that makes our Christian life very uncomfortable. I think that suffering is the best medicine to our spiritual condition to remove fat from our hearts. We must remove the fats in our hearts even through suffering.
(6) Suffering makes us to realize the greatest value of the Word of God deeply.
Look at Psalms 119:72 – “The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” At the time of the Exodus, the Israelites understood through their 40 years of hardship in the wilderness that “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD” (Deut. 8:3). Likewise, as we walk through the narrow path of the Lord in this world of wilderness and as we encounter many and varied afflictions, we must understand that we live by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. When we understand this, we will be able to confess that the value of the Word is more precious than our life. How can we compare the eternal Word of God with our lives in this earth? Suffering makes us to understand the preciousness of the Word of God and the supreme value of the Word rather than the riches of this world.
This socially disturbing world, a world that is moving toward the end, and we Christians who believe in Jesus, will have a greater affliction than the past and the present as we walk on the narrow path of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if we receive the grace and blessings of experiencing the benefit of suffering, then we can become the people of suffering who enjoy the benefits of suffering. As the psalmist said in Psalms 119:65, if we experience God dealing well with us according to His word, then we will be able to confess from the depths of our hearts that "God is good All the time" while we are experiencing His goodness even in the suffering. May God bless us with such blessings of suffering.
Wanting to be a man of suffering who knows how to enjoy the benefit of suffering,
James Kim
(Wanting to share the grace that I received after preaching this word of Psalms 119:71-72)