Through the prophet Isaiah the Holy Spirit made an interesting and important disclosure: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts [Isa. 55:8-9].” This truth accounts for a number of real or apparent paradoxes in God’s dealings with us. One of those paradoxes, illustrated in our “nugget” for today, is that for the soul under the influences of the Spirit, “the way up is down.”
The Lord Jesus illustrated this when He concluded His parable of the wedding feast with this principle, ”For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted [Luke 14:(7-)11].” This is exactly opposite to the prevailing attitude of man in general. The concept could well be explored in a number of directions and at some length, but the use we want to make of it here is just this: it is a principle that explains the value of what we are inclined to call negative experiences in the life of a soul with whom God is dealing, saved or unsaved.
The key word in our text, a word of more than passing interest in scripture, is the word “then.” The writer indicates some kind of affliction so intense that he associates it with death and hell and defines it as “trouble and sorrow.” This surely is not, in our way of thinking, a “blessed experience” in the ordinary sense. But, it was God’s way of getting his attention. It was not until he was put in the crucible of suffering that he “came to himself,” like the prodigal son, and then he “called upon the name of the Lord.” There are some who would never call upon His name did they not feel His chastening rod.
However we perceive it in the process, what a blessing God has bestowed upon us when He causes or allows some trial or testing in our lives that drives us at last to Himself. The New Testament elaborates on this Divine principle this way:
“Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby [Heb. 12:6-11].”
Certainly not all suffering is to be interpreted as chastening, but when it is, it is a wonderful evidence of God’s love for His wayward child, seeking to humble him until he will “call upon the name of the Lord” and be a candidate for God’s gracious exaltation. “I was brought low, and He helped me.” And see what great good came out of it: “I love the Lord because He hath heard my voice and my supplication (v.1).” The relationship between the child and the Father was restored and love revived in a heart that had grown cold.
Now there is an interesting alternate reading of this verse. The ARV renders the last clause, “I was brought low and He saved me.” This translation captures the fact that God not only uses affliction to “help” His wayward child back into a right relationship with Himself, but He has and may use the same principle to bring the arrogant sinner to his knees (literally), wakening him to his need for repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, bringing him to salvation, a proper love for God and the joy of eternal salvation.
An acquaintance of mine described with gratitude the physical pain that sent him to the doctor who diagnosed his heart condition which, unattended, could have taken his life. How many a believer today can testify with joy of the “trouble and sorrow” that moved him to seek the Great Physician and find the remedy for that spiritual heart trouble which could have resulted in eternal death and damnation. Such will join in chorus with the Psalmist and say, “I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications!”
“Trouble and sorrow” could prove to be one of the best things that ever happened to you!
For an understanding of His ways,
"Pastor" Frasier
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