Psalm 94

94       Lamentation (community)

            Chastisement is a Blessing

            12 Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O LORD,

            And whom You teach out of Your law;

·         “Those who imagine that the exuberant goodness and mercy of God are inconsistent with the exercise of rigorous justice, and with the infliction of vengeance on the wicked, must certainly have formed very erroneous conceptions of his character.” (Scott)

·         It is no novelty, but a truth long known in the church of God, that it is good to be afflicted. The blessings connected with sanctified afflictions are many, temporal and eternal. Even in this life the righteous gathers no more delicious fruit than that from chastisement. His sorest punishments are but fatherly corrections. They lead him to an understanding of God’s word which otherwise he could never acquire.

·         Pious people living in countries that have long been exempt from open and legal persecution are in danger of undervaluing their great mercies, and of supposing that their exemption is owing to something else than the great kindness of God. At any moment they may find the very laws a gin, a trap and a snare to their souls, their consciences and their lives.