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Psalm 94:12-13   Blessed is the one you discipline, LORD, the one you teach from your law; you grant them relief from days of trouble, till a pit is dug for the wicked.  

God has given us his written Law in order that we might know the way of living that pleases him.  We strive to live by this Law, not to earn his favour, but in grateful response to the grace by which we are accepted by him – not in order to get to heaven, but because we are going there by his grace alone.

The reason Jesus came is because we cannot keep the Law.  Even in our striving we need God’s help, and this help comes in the form of discipline.  God’s teaching method always involves hardship, often at the hands of godless adversaries who, sadly, seem to get away with it (at least temporarily).

Jesus himself ‘learned obedience from what he suffered’ (Hebrews 5:8), and in the end ‘a pit is dug’ for his enemies .  When we see our suffering in this light we come to appreciate God’s loving discipline for what it is and what it achieves in us.

In today’s verse the psalmist, literally, puts it like this: “O the happiness of the man you discipline”, and this sentiment is echoed in James 1:2 – ‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds …’.  Do we always see our hard times as being directed intentionally by God’s loving, fatherly hand: “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son?  It says: ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.’  Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children.  For what children are not disciplined by their father?  If you are not disciplined – and everyone undergoes discipline  – then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.  Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it.  How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live!  They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.  No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:4-11)?

Do we earnestly seek the relief he promises in days of trouble?  Do we leave it to him alone to deal with those who make things hard for us, our ‘enemies’?

– Bruce Christian