Why Stuff Happens to People, Good or Bad
O Lord , rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath!
For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me.
There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation;
there is no health in my bones because of my sin.
For my iniquities have gone over my head;
like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness,
Psalms 38:1–5 ESV Read More
There are a few different ideas about where suffering and pain come from. Even within Christendom, you’ll find about 8 nuances. It might really challenge your ideas of God and His blessings for us if you read David saying “your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me.” David saw these hardships as from the Lord, not the Devil.
David does recognize, though, how and why God dishes out the heavy hand and the arrows. They came because of sin in the world, sometimes even by David’s own sin. There are other psalms where David recognizes the fallen world brings about punishment for sin, even if he didn’t do the sin directly.
Through all of it, the ultimate posture is that God knows what He is doing. This is why David was regarded as a ‘man after God’s heart.’ He wanted to figure out how God worked, what God liked, and how God thought. You don’t get there by denying God’s activity or putting your own judgment framework on it. You get there by interacting with God on the most honest levels.
David recognizes that God is God and he is not. From that point, it comes down to looking to see what God is doing and how we can grow wise in those ways. No discipline seems pleasing at the time, but later on, it can bring about all kinds of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:11)
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