The Word of God in the Heart of Man: God's Goodness in Affliction - Psalm 119:65-72 (Psalms 119:65-72)

0:44Let me just begin reading in verse 65, frame our minds around what he has to say for us today. You have dealt well with your servant, O Lord, according to your word. Teach me good discernment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. You are good and do good. Teach me your statutes. The arrogant have forged a lie against me. With all my heart, I will observe your precepts. Their heart is covered with fat, but I delight in your law. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. Statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. The psalm is about God's goodness, God's goodness, even in the middle of affliction, very difficult times.

1:46Five of the verses, five of the eight verses, begin with the statement, good, good, good. Don't see it in English, but it is there. Good. The psalmist highlights God's goodness. And that's what we'll be looking at as we go through this psalm. You know, we live in a college town, right? In case you haven't noticed that, there's, I guess there's somewhere around 70,000 students. I don't know what the estimates are. Maybe it's more. But we live in a college town. Now, just what, let me ask you a question. What is the purpose of a college?

2:25To teach. To what? Football. Oh, okay. Football. I think we better focus on something else. If that's all we have, we're in trouble. But it's to teach, right? You have programs, you have courses of study so that you can be taught and you can learn. And then, for instance, if you want to be a medical doctor, you enter a school of what? Medicine. Very good. If you. If you want to be a lawyer, you enter a school of what?

3:08Air conditioning. Oh, yeah. If you okay, here's one for you. If you want to work with chickens, what would be a good course study? Poultry science. And where's a good school for that? AM. All right. Now, here's another one. If you wanted to build roller coasters, where would you go to school? Well, no, no, no, no. There's actually a school, I guess you could get that, but there is a school that is for the purpose, has a program called Theme Park Engineering. It's in California State University, Long Beach, and you're going to learn how to be a mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, civil engineer, structural engineer. You're going to get all that. Okay, now here's a good one. If you wanted to get a Ph.D. in video game prediction, yeah, like what video games are going to be played tomorrow, where would you go to school?

4:14No. Where is it? Iowa. Oh, it's on here. She wrote it down. University of Iowa. Of Iowa, yes. Of Iowa. Just head up towards Iowa. It's right there. Now, here's one I thought was neat. If you want to learn how to be an eco-gastronomicist, what kind of school would you go to? How about an eco-gastronomy school? Do you even know what eco-gastronomy is? Well, you can go to the University of New Hampshire, and I'll let you guys figure it out. But I tell you, it has something to do with sustainable food production. But you get the picture.

5:03Colleges have programs so that you will learn. Schools have programs so that you can be taught something. Now, let me ask you this. What school teaches you how to keep God's word? Master Seminary, yeah. They do teach you a lot about the word and what it says and how to get through the language. But church. Church can teach you again a lot. I think all these, yeah, in some sense, but there's something else I'm looking at here. What school teaches you how to keep God's word? Well, the answer is in our text this morning. And it's the school of affliction. School of affliction. Look at verse 4 and 5, going back to the very beginning of this psalm. You remember his prayer? In verse 4, he says, you have ordained your precepts that we should keep them diligently. And then he makes this prayer. Prayer. Oh, that my ways may be established to keep your statutes, that I may keep, oh, that my way, I see it as the blessed way. Now, oh, that my way would be established to keep your ways. Now, look at the answer and how this, that God grants him what he requests. And he does so in our text this morning. Look at verse 67.

6:26Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. What this section tells us is how God answered the psalmist's prayer, and he answered it in ways we wouldn't really expect. I call this God's school of affliction, and God took him through this in order to teach him to keep his word. We'll walk through this very end in these next few stanzas take us into the deep places of this man's heart and a great and expansive view of God that develops. And I warn many of you ahead of a time that some are going to have difficulty difficulty with what the psalmist declares about God in these stanzas. In fact, he's going to say some things very shocking.

7:30And like many in Jesus' time when the teaching got tough, many turned away, couldn't follow him any longer. I pray that won't be the case, but there are some things revealed in the next few chapters, next few stanzas that are going to shake your world. But like any school or any program in a school, there are objectives to be accomplished. And as a graduate of God's school of affliction, there are certain goals that will have been reached. And I want to look at those three goals this morning: three goals that God accomplishes in the school of affliction so that you will see God at work in your life even in difficult times.

8:20So it's in the school of affliction, first of all, that we learn to pay attention to what God has to say. It's in the school of affliction that we learn to pay attention to what God has to say. The next three verses follow a very simple pattern: a confession by the psalmist, a prayer by the psalmist, and then an answer, how he receives the answer for his prayer. Let's just walk through it. Look at verse 65. And first, I want you to see the confession that he makes. You have dealt well with your servant, O Lord, according to your word. You have dealt well. The word for well there is good. You have dealt pleasantly. It's actually the word prosperously. It could be in the context here. You have dealt prosperously with your servant. It's the picture of that full tithe coming in in Deuteronomy 26, where the Levi and the alien and the worshipper comes, and they're able to rejoice in all the prosperity or all the goodness which God had given them. It's the picture in Zechariah 1:17 where God says, My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem. That there is a day when it will again overflow with God's prosperity. And certainly, this is the statement, what the confession of the psalmist is that God deals prosperously with his people. In fact, in many ways, this is the good news of the gospel, that God deals prosperously with his people.

10:03Now, we don't like to use that word as much anymore because there's been a number of charlatans in our world that have taken this prosperity gospel and have made it something that it's not. They speak about a prosperity that God's purpose is to prosper you according to your definition of prosperity, and it's a prosperity that. Comes without affliction. And that's where we have to get off and say, no, that was exactly what Satan tempted Jesus with. A crown without a cross. Blessing without the suffering. Jesus, Messiah, what powerful words to put together. The peasant from Galilee, the Lord of all, who is afflicted and has received the name that is above all name. God's path for his son was through suffering and the glory that followed.

11:11So God deals prosperously with his people. He deals well. Look at he says, with your servant, that is your subordinate, your dependent slave, you have done well to me according to your word, according to your promise, your definition of prosperity. You give. You give what is according to your word and your goodness, not mine, not man's. And then the psalmist confession, when you boil it down, it's this. God always has a good disposition towards his people. And the psalmist learns this by experience. God always, he learned it, he saw it in his word, and then he experienced it in real life. God always has a good disposition towards his people. And that Doesn't ever change. God does not change. There is no variation, no changing with him. He is good. He is always good.

12:10So that's his confession. Now, I want you to see his prayer in verse 66. Teach me good discernment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments. Word for good here carries the idea of soundness or wisdom, appropriate, proper. Give me sound discernment and sound knowledge. Now, the idea for the word discernment literally is taste. Give me good taste, buds. In other words, if we were just to read this literally, we would think he's saying, give me a discerning palate. Give me something that can really taste the flavors. That would be the literal sense. But he's not asking to be a chef, no, or anything like that. He's using it figuratively. The discretion of judgment. That's what he's saying. Give me discretion. Give me skill in knowledge. Knowledge is the idea of skill. Give me discernment and skill in life. Skill in how to live. Skill in living.

13:22It's that picture of Abigail in 1 Samuel 25, 32, where you remember Nabal was. Acting foolishly, and then she comes and basically saves his life. And David says to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent this day, you this day to meet me, and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you who have kept me this day from bloodshed and avenging myself on your husband. Basically, the idea here, the idea of discernment. Teach me, teach me. That's the command.

14:01That's the imperative plea, and it acts like a command. Teach me, you must teach me. You must make me learn. And it carries the idea of training, like a coach or a trainer or a father with a rod of correction. Teach me, make me get it, cause me to get it. Cause me to excel in the skill of living. That's what he's saying. In understanding, in discerning and living wisely. That's his prayer here. And he gives a reason, because I believe in your commandments. Look at that, 66. I believe in your commandments. That is, I believe in your orders. I believe they are right, and I believe that I need to pay attention to them so that I can obey them. I believe they are right, and they are good, and I believe in them. So teach me discernment and knowledge.

14:53So you've seen his confession in 65. In verse 66, you see his prayer. Now, here comes the answer in verse. 67. Look at this. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. Now, the word for afflicted here means to oppress or to subdue or even humiliate. It carries the idea of overpowering or oppression, like in just the idea of being overcome, like the Egyptians over suppressing the Israelites in Egypt. That's the idea. But the main emphasis upon this word is to make one know of their dependence, to make one feel dependence. And that's what the idea here is. When you see this word, he's talking about being made to know I depend on God. That's what he's saying. I was afflicted. That is, I was made to feel my dependence upon God. That's what happens in affliction. I am humiliated. I am brought to a point where I know I need. And there are many ways that God brings us to that point, right? Sometimes he lets you experience the consequences of your own sin. Sometimes he brings circumstances, sometimes things come into our life that make us acutely aware of our need for God. And sometimes that comes in the form of persecutors, as it does in the case of the psalmist here before. For us, affliction caused by others. But it's interesting to notice that the psalmist divides his life into two time periods. Two time periods. Look back at verse 67. There is the before his period of affliction, and there is an after period of his affliction. So he has this period of affliction, and there is something characteristic about his life before, something characteristic of his life after this period or this season of affliction.

17:08Look back at verse 67 and notice that period before his affliction. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. That word for I went astray is a participle. He's saying, before I was afflicted, I characteristically went away, went astray. That was my life. I just went about what people did according to the way people thought. I just lived my life the way I thought, what seemed good, what felt good, what smelled good, what just seemed reasonable to me. I just, in my humanness, I just was living that way, and I kept going astray. That was characteristically who I was.

17:50Now look at this other period, a period after his affliction, the second part of 67. But now, see the time marker? But now I keep your word. I characteristically pay attention to what you say, and I characteristically obey your word. That's what has happened. And what was the condition he prayed for all the way back in verse 5? Oh, that my ways would be established to keep your ways. And it was this period of affliction that now the psalmist divides his life, a period before and a period after, and it changed my disposition to God completely, from going astray to characteristically paying attention and obeying affliction. That's what God brought about. And it's in that time we learn to pay attention to what God has to say. It's a striking feature. Affliction. And he used the affliction of the wicked men to teach this psalmist to keep his word. We've been watching this development with these wicked men throughout this psalm.

19:08And God brings good out of our periods of affliction. And why? Why affliction? Why do we need to know we depend upon God? Why? Because we really do. We need to know that. You see, we have a very, very serious condition, and you have it. And I have it. We have a very serious condition. We are unable to steward God's prosperity. We have trouble with stewarding God's prosperity. We have a tendency to turn the prosperity of God's goodness into opportunities to sin. It's a pitiful condition. You remember Adam? He was given paradise, but he couldn't steward it. He couldn't steward it. There was something wrong in his heart. Something needed to change in his heart for him to steward. And many times, it's the times of prosperity that are more difficult for his people to make it through than even the times of suffering and affliction. You see, it's good for you to know your dependence upon God.

20:27And you're never going to be able to pay attention to what he has to say if you don't feel your need of him. And there are seasons in your life that God will use to make you feel your need of him. See, what affliction does is it causes us to run to God and to pay more attention to what he has to say. Good question to ask is: what happened to the Puritans? In America, what happened to them? They were these fiery zealots. They left everything. They came over here to establish a new world.

21:12And they were motivated and driven by their faith. And in subsequent generations, they kind of just changed, morphed, and then it's kind of like the question became: what happened to them? What happened to them? One historian said it like this: Religion begat prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother. In other words, their faith, their industry produced prosperity. And then, in subsequent generations, in their prosperity, they forgot the God that gave them this prosperity. You look at Israel's history, it was the first generation of Joshua did pretty well. It was in the subsequent generations where they became prosperous and they forgot.

22:11And it's interesting as you look at the years of moral decline in our society here in the United States. And I don't want to oversimplify this, but there is a correlation between our years of moral decline and the Years of our prosperity. If you think about it, we often refer to them as the greatest generation. The World War II generation basically gave their children superpower status and wealth on a platter. World leadership. After World War II, Europe and Asia are recovering, rebuilding.

22:58And in the United States, we're growing, industry developing. And yet, it is in those post-World War II years, in the time when our prosperity is doing well, that our moral decline seems to pick up steam. It is in those years that we took prayer out of our public schools. We said to God, We don't need you. And God said, Yes, you do. It was there, it was in that we decided to not grant life to everybody. And just on down, you see, even in our day, today, very confused about a basic institution called marriage. But it's in our years of prosperity that our moral decline seems to have accelerated. And I'm not a prophet. Nor am I the son of a prophet. But I do teach the prophetic words. And I see patterns in Scripture. I live in the United States. I live in the world. I see patterns in humanity and patterns in our society. And I can tell you a couple things. One of two things is going to happen in this country. We will either be disciplined so that we will remember our God, because the reality is we do need Him.

24:29It's tragic when a gunman comes through our public schools, but I guarantee you, the moment one shows up, prayer is back in school. And God uses, He's going to take us either through a period of discipline or a period of destruction. But one thing's for sure: we will not be able to continue our path indefinitely. As a nation, we need God to make us aware of our need for Him. We need to know that. As individuals, we need to know our need for Him. It's good that He afflicts us. It's good for those seasons for us that brings us to our knees and says, Yes, we need you, God. Those are good times, even though they may be hard times. And that's what this psalmist is coming to understand.

25:27The earth will be full of God's glory. Because man truly will bear the image of his creator. That day is certainly coming. And he's going to do it even through great tribulation. If you want to understand what end times are about and great tribulations is about, it's about affliction. It's about showing a world that you need your Creator. Because the earth will be filled with his glory. And you will reflect his glory. One way or the other.

26:04And he gets our attention through affliction, tribulation. And he humbles us so that we will learn to pay attention to what God has to say. And sometimes many of you are sitting here today going on about your daily routine and all is well. And it's in those times that you forget. But you need to pay attention to what God has to say because you really do need him. You really do need him. So it's in the school of affliction that, number one, the first school, we learn to pay attention to what God has to say. Second, it's in the school of affliction that we learn to appreciate how God wants things to be. We start getting an appreciation for how God wants things to be. God, I like the way you want. Things to be. Start developing an appreciation for that. These next four verses also follow this pattern of confession, prayer, and answer. I want to look at this. Look at verse 68. You'll see his confession. You are good and you do good. That is, you are good. That is, that is who you are. That is a quality of your being. That is who you are in essence. You are good and you do good. Literally, you are doing good. You always do good. And the idea of good there is you make things go well. You treat kindly. You are gracious and you make things go well with others. It was the picture in Genesis 12 of Pharaoh treating Abram well for Sarah's sake. It was how God prospered Jacob, caused things to go well with him while he was sojourning with Laban. But the idea is participle. You are doing good and you always do good. It's like a fountain of water comes from a pure spring, a good source of water that bubbles up or gushes forth. Good, clear water comes from a good water source. And goodness flows out of God because he is good. He is the fountainhead of goodness.

28:31He always does good. Hear this. He always does good in every circumstance, in every situation, with every person. He never does evil, and he never does wrong to anyone. He is always doing good. He cannot do otherwise because he is of a nature of good. Every good gift, as Eric read a little while ago, James 1:17, every good thing given, perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. It never changes. This is who he is.

29:11And if you're here this morning and you're kind of new to this whole Christianity thing, if you're going to choose to believe anything or any part of the Bible, let it begin here. Let this be your confession. God is good and he is active in doing good all the time. And just pray that he will give you the eyes to see it. But he is good thoroughly. And because of that, he always does good. This is the confession. And this is a remarkable confession in light of what's going on in this psalmist's life as we've been walking through and his loneliness, his foreignness, his Isolation, his persecution.

30:04Well, that's his confession. Now I want you to see his prayer. Look at the second part of 68. Teach me your statutes. And here he comes again with that same imperative plea that he did just up in verse 66. Teach me. That is, coach me, discipline me, train me, exercise me in learning. Make sure I get this. Cause me to learn. Cause me to learn your statutes. That is, I want to learn your created order. I want to learn your spiritual and moral laws that govern mankind. I want to learn them. Teach me them.

30:42And in verse 48, he meditates on the statutes. In verse 54, his statutes, God's statutes, are his songs in his house of his pilgrimage. And then in verse 64, just the very last sentence before this whole stanza, he says, The earth is full of your loving kindness. Teach me your statutes. Teach me your created order, your decrees, your moral laws that govern mankind. He wants a greater understanding. That's his prayer. So he looked at his confession, his prayer. Now I want you to see the answer. And here comes God's answer to this prayer. Look at verse 69. The arrogant have. Forged a lie against me. The word for forged there is probably better translated as smear or plastered over. They have plastered over me. You know, like a graffiti on a wall would mar the wall and make it look like something it wasn't intended to look like. And that's what's happening. These men are making his real character unrecognizable through lies. They're plastering over him with lies. I remember in class in early high school, before I was saved, and I got to get that on the table, before I was saved, but there was this cute little southern bell that was really had a whole lot of the pancake meta, what is it called? Pancake makeup. Yes, a pancake that foundation all over it. She really dolled up, real cute. And she had this gold ring, and she was really boasting about it. And I said, oh, that's not gold. She goes, it's gold. I said, no, it's not gold. It's not gold. So let me see it. So she gave me her ring, and I started running the gold ring down the side of her face. Say, see? And if you know anything about chemistry, you know what really good gold does on a whole bunch of pancake makeup. Makeup. It leaves nice, big, long, black streaks. That's why you pay attention in chemistry class, guys. You learn some good stuff, okay? So here I am. No, it's not gold. It's not gold. It's not gold. And I'm putting what looks like Comanche war paint all over her face. I wasn't saved. Wouldn't do this now.

33:22I gave it back to her. And I kind of felt bad. And after a little while, I said, you know what, that is gold. It's good gold. You need to look in the mirror. And while you're looking, I'm out of here. But the point of it is, you can take a cute little southern bell, and you can turn her into a Comanche warchief without her even knowing it. Just by smearing little things. And that's the idea.

33:59That's what they've done. That's what they did. They are with lies. They are making this character of this psalmist totally unrecognizable. And that's what slander does. It defaces. And look who's doing this. They have the arrogant, the arrogant. Look at how he describes them. He gives a description, and then he gives a progression of them, and then a comparison. At this incredible statement, so I want you to see a description, a progression, a comparison, and then an incredible statement that he makes here as he's walking through as we walk through this section. But look at the description of these arrogant that have smeared him with lies. Their heart, in verse 70, is covered with fat. It's a literal picture of the fat on the sacrifice. And if you, in Exodus 29, 29, you see this picture of when you're to bring an offering, you were to position it upon the altar, and then you're to put this fat all around it, and the fat of the inner parts all around it. And it was just a gross picture. And this is a, God was showing us what sin does. I mean, sin is just gross. If you look at the sacrifices on the altar, you're just like, that is gross. That's because sin is gross. And the very word means gross. This fat, this inner parts. And in Psalm 73, the word is used to speak about a heart that's run riot, running riot. So it's gross. It runs riot. But the bottom line here is that the sense is that it's unfeeling. It's calloused. In fact, the King James says, their heart is fat as grease.

35:52I think the ESV hits it, their heart is unfeeling like fat. It doesn't feel anything. Uses the word callous, but you get the idea. Their heart is gross, it runs riot, it's calloused, and that's why they are able to smear with lies the psalmist. But look at this progression. I want you to note a progression through the psalmist, through this whole psalm. Remember in Psalm 119:21, he speaks about the arrogant. You rebuke the arrogant. And who are they? They are cursed. Arrogant, pride. If you're a prideful person, you're under a curse. Just so you know that. Who wander from your commandments. That's their description. They go astray. And in verse 23, these arrogant are the ones who are sitting and talking against the psalmist. In 51, they are the ones who utterly deride him. And in 69, they are the ones who have smeared him with lies. So you get this progression. First, they sit and talk about him. Then they utterly deride him. And then they are plastering him with lies.

37:10But the psalmist compares himself to the arrogant. Look at verse 69, second part. With all my heart, I observe your precepts. With all my heart, my heart's not fat. I'm very sensitive to your word. In fact, with all my heart, the totality of my being, I observe. I behave according to your expectations. And in the second part of verse 70, look at that. But I delight in your law. That is, your law is my delight. I am saturated with joy. And I gladden myself in your law. And even though the Sumerian campaign was going on, the psalmist held on to God's law and just grew in his delight of it. And then, look at verse 71. I want you to see this incredible statement. Verse 71.

38:01It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. Remember, he's going through, he's praying for relief from these arrogant throughout the Psalms, throughout the psalm. And now he's come to the point, you know what? It is good that I was afflicted. Remember his prayer? Teach me your statutes. And look at his answer here in second part of 70, that I may learn your statutes. It's the very same. Teach me, learn, that I may learn. The very same word. It's in a different form.

38:41But notice what caused the learning. It was affliction. It was good. So now it wasn't, but God is working his good purposes. He's doing something through these persecutors. He's doing something through them. For the good of his servant. And the psalmist gets it. He's saying, it is good that I was afflicted. Spurgeon said it well. Very little is to be learned without affliction. If we would be scholars, we must be sufferers. Experience teaches. There is no royal road to learning the royal statutes. God's commands are best read by eyes filled with tears. You see, God uses affliction, even that of the wicked, to teach his people to appreciate how God wants things to be.

39:42The psalmist is dealing both with God and his goodness and these men and their wickedness. And it's in that contrast that he's able to say, you know what, God, I like the way you want it to be. I don't like the way fallen man wants it to be. And we learn. We learn by contrast. We learn in this fallen world. We learn to appreciate God's ways. And that's why he leaves us here exposed to the ways of fallen humanity. And as we observe, as we go through life, we understand the ways of fallen humanity. And we understand, as we look into his law, and we read, we understand that his orders, we understand his ways. Ways and the way he wants things to be, and we gain an appreciation for the way he wants things to be. That's what he's doing. Let's move on. It's in the school of affliction that we learn to pay attention to what God has to say. It's in the school of affliction that we learn to appreciate how God wants things to be, but it's also in the school of affliction that, number three, we learn to delight in what God has directed us to do. We learn to delight in what God has directed us to do. He's already said that in verse 70, second part, but I delight in your law. Now he gives an illustration, a picture of that in 72, the law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. The law is the emphasis. Your instructions to light. They saturate me with joy, and they are better to me than much gold, much silver.

41:26You know, wealth has wings, doesn't it? Scripture tells us that. It has wings. And sometimes it's there, and sometimes it's gone. So don't set your heart upon it. And you can't take it with you when you go, can you? You can't take gold or silver. But what can you take with you when you leave this earth? You can take his promises. Wealth has wings, but his promises remain. And what God has promised you in this life is a promise.

42:05The psalmist came to a point where he could honestly and truthfully celebrate God's instructions. And when you delight in God's law, guess what? Obedience becomes a joy. And what you delight in is a better test of who you are than anything else. What do you delight in? But when you delight in God's law, obedience becomes pure joy. And if you have obedience problems, it's because you first have a delighting problem. You don't delight. You don't love God's Word, and therefore obedience is drudgery. But there is a glimpse here of what God is doing in his people. He leaves us in a fallen world, and he leaves us in this world filled with affliction, and we see the fallen humanness and its results all around us. But God is doing stuff through that, in his people. He is using that to accomplish something. And you know what he's accomplishing?

43:10He's preparing us, you and me, for eternal prosperity. Think about it. He is preparing us for eternity with him, where God pulls out the cork and says, Okay, I am giving. You, all of myself, all of my goodness, in all of its richness, in all of its abundance, and I'm not going to hold back. But we have got to be brought to a point to where we can receive that, right? You remember Adam? He could not steward paradise. And what God is doing in His people is He's preparing us so that we can steward paradise.

43:59And what He's doing is He's teaching us this last statement in verse 72: The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. And I will add, or a piece of fruit from a forbidden tree creates in us a love and a delight in His instructions so that obedience becomes a joy, and this becomes the disposition of humanity through eternity. But we learn that by living in a fallen world and going through the school of affliction.

44:41Well, I want to say a couple things this past week about Miss Jenny Abel. I think she's our widow out there that meets on our Steep Hollow campus. She has, her cancer has moved quite aggressively. To the point where they put her in hospice, and she probably has just a few days to live. I was with her this past week and with her family, and I was impressed by the things that people are saying about her. And let me just tell you some of the things that people are thinking and saying about Miss Jenny. They're thinking and saying she has been good to her church body, she has been good to the church out at Steep Hollow. In other words, we could even use that, she has dealt well with the church at Steep Hollow, she has dealt well with her friends, she has dealt well with her children, they call her blessed, she has dealt well with her grandchildren and extended family, she has been good, and that is their testimony. And what a testimony that is.

45:58I mean, isn't this what you want people to say about you when you're passing on? He or she has dealt well with me. Well, how do you think God wants his people to say about him? What do you think God wants his people to say about him when all of life is over? Look back at the beginning of this stanza in verse 65. You have dealt well with your servant. That is what God wants our testimony to be, and that is what God is going to bring about. Because all of his actions and everything that he's done for us and to us is good. He has always dealt well with us. And we're going to, in eternity, will have a perspective where we can see all of this and we'll be able to say, you know what, what I saw in the scripture is absolutely true in my story. The Bible story matches my life story. I see your faithfulness there. I experienced your faithfulness in life.

47:00You have dealt well with me. And some of you are going to see that your greatest blessings came through God's school of affliction. But you know what? You really do not have to wait till eternity to see this reality. You can see it right now through the eyes of faith. You can see how the God who does not change dealt faithfully and good with his people, even in times of affliction. And you will come to experience that. You can live it by faith, and you will see that it is true in your life as well. And this will throw off any encumbrance of running the race that God has put before you. He is good. Now, run the race, even in difficult circumstances. He is good.

48:00Let's pray. Lord, we thank you, Father, for your word. We thank you for it reveals to us your goodness. Father, even in the midst of our perplexities and difficulties, we see that you are good. We see it in your word. And, Father, many of us have experienced that to be true as well. We have seen it, and we know it to be true by faith and by experience. We know you are good. Father, give us eyes to see this. Give us a greater capacity to learn, to know your word. Father, and help us to even associate the difficult times with what you are doing in our lives and what you are accomplishing. Father, thank you for your church, and I pray for every person here this morning. And I pray that if anybody does not know you today, that today they would hear your voice calling them as you called the disciples, come, follow me, and that they would turn, repent, and follow you. Father, thank you for your goodness. In Jesus' name, amen.