It Was Good For Me To Be Afflicted

Teth

Ninth letter of the Hebrew Alephbeth.

Good is the main word of this acrostic song, in Hebrew the word "good" begins with the letter teth...the word is "tov".

The poem begins with a plea: Do good to your servant...; it continues: Teach me knowledge and good judgment. He reminds himself: You are good, and what you do is good; It was good for me to be afflicted, so that I might learn your decrees.

What is the definition of good?

Good is personal: it is God.
Good is objective: it is commands, decrees, prcepts, law, word.
Good is existential: it is what God does.
Good is...good: I delight in your law.

We live in a messed up world. There are things I have messed up. I share a last name with those who have messed up. I pastor messed up people. I carry wounds because of others who are mess-ups. But for all the ways that our world is messed up, there is a way that is good...there is a good judgment to be found, a good God to be reconciled with, a good deed to be done. As hard as it may be to know and do what is good, like the psalmist we go to God often and intensely: Do Good To Your Servant.

My mess ups may mess me up for awhile, but I - like many of my friends who have messed up...we will someday say (hopefully sooner than later) It was good for me to be afflicted...so that I would learn from my mess ups and learn your good decrees/commands/judgments/law/word.

Ironically, my mess ups are my means of attaining what is good...if I take what God gives...in his timing, from his people that he sends to me.