Read Psalm 129

We continue to think about lifelong oppressions.  We can always be thankful that, though the afflictions are serious, yet they have not overcome us.  But the Psalm goes much beyond this and tells us that these afflictions are, in fact, for our good.  To quote the Scottish preacher, Alexander McLaren, The right use of retrospect is to make it the ground of hope.  How can we do this?

Unlocking the chains of the past that debilitate us is the subject of v4, the apex of the Psalm.  Having referred to his longtime and recurring afflictions and their grievous nature (v1-3), the Psalmist makes a simple but profound statement: the Lord is righteous.

We can never grow in our afflictions as long as we are convinced that the God we seek to know is somehow unfair with us.  God's men and women have always suffered affliction and have had to come to the place of trusting that God is right. 

Jeremiah lived in a difficult time in Israel.  His own ministry, which God had given him, was one failure after another.  No one listened to his sermons, no one responded.  While Jeremiah suffered, the wicked around him seemed to do well.  He had to come to recognize God's righteousness (Jer. 12:1).  Again, after Israel fell to the Babylonians, Jeremiah had to reckon with the fact that in all the suffering, God was righteous (Lamentations 1:18).  Failure to see this would not have changed Jeremiah's situation, but it would have left him bitter and broken.

The pilgrim must trust God's righteousness in his trials.

ŸThe pilgrim must believe God is righteous in sovereignty.

In other words, God has not made a mistake in allowing our affliction.

ŸThe pilgrim must believe God is righteous in love.

He must believe that, even in affliction, God is not unkind or hateful but is concerned with the pilgrim's good.  God is doing something for the pilgrim that cannot be done apart from affliction.  These trials break up the fallow ground of the pilgrim's proud and stiff heart.  As Spurgeon said, God uses these afflictions to manure the church.  What a picture.  Manure is stinky, unclean, and hot.  And yet the plant thrives with it.  And so God loves the pilgrim so as to permit his enemies (trials) to aid in the journey.

ŸThe pilgrim must believe God is righteous in faithfulness.

  The pilgrim must trust God's timing, and that He will be true to His promises.  He will eventually cut the cords of the wicked, He will always keep His word and accomplish His will.