Psalm 119:65

Our little break is over.  It’s time to get back into Psalm 119.  Today we begin with the ninth octave entitled Teth.

Psalms 119:65  TETH. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word.

You, who profess to be the servants of God, look back over your life up to this point.  Is this not your testimony as well:  thou hast dealt well with thy servant?  Measure the magnitude of your transgressions over against how God has dealt with you.  Although the Lord has punished you for your sins, must you not confess with Ezra:   “thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve” (Ezra 9:13)?  The Lord has dealt well with us because, as David wrote:

Psalms 103:10  He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

If the Lord dealt with us after our sins we would all be cast into everlasting hell fire.  Because Christ has suffered the eternal consequences of the sins of God’s elect, any punishment they receive for their sins is temporary and light in comparison. 

The words of today’s verse are an echo of the testimony of the patriarch Jacob as he was blessing the two sons of Joseph.  Hear Jacob as he acknowledged how the Lord had dealt well with him:

Genesis 48:15  And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, 

16    The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads….

The psalmist considered that the Lord had dealt well with him even in his afflictions, as later verses in this octave will testify.  When the Lord chastens us, it is for our profit.  Contrasting the chastening of our earthly fathers with the chastening of our heavenly Father, Paul wrote:

Hebrews 12:10  For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he (our heavenly Father)  for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 

When the Lord permits tribulation in our life, it is for our good that we might learn patience and so become more like our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Romans 5:3  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience….

1 Peter 2:20  For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

21  For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

22  Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:

23  Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously….

When you suffer tribulation patiently as did Jesus, then you are following His example.  You are being like Him.  And if the Lord is making you more like Christ He is dealing well with you, for there is nothing better than being like Jesus!  Therefore, in prosperity and adversity, the Lord is dealing well with us. 

Now a man might think that being dealt well with means an absence of all adversity.  But the psalmist did not think like that.  In this psalm he speaks of being in various kinds of adversity.  And yet he acknowledges that the Lord has dealt well with him.  But note that he qualifies how the Lord dealt well with him:  it was according to thy word.  God does not always deal with us according to our wishes, but He does always deal with us according to His word.  The comments of Mary B. M. Duncan speak quite to the point:

“God dealt well with him ‘according to his word,’ in the sense of dealing with him according to what his word explained was the true good – not delivering him from all trial, but sending him such trial as he specifically required….It was ‘according to his word’ too, in the sense of being in accordance with his revealed manner of dealing with his people, who are chastened for their profit.” 

Furthermore, God deals well with us according to his word in that His word promises that He will deal well with us.

Psalms 84:11  For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Jeremiah 32:40  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

The Lord has certainly kept that promise to me so that I must declare:  thou hast dealt well with thy servant according to thy word.  In fact, when I look at the Lord’s dealings with me in my little life I can certainly attest with those who said of our Lord:  “He hath done all things well” (Mark 7:37).