“It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.”
It is good for me that I have been humbled, so that I might learn your statutes. The reflection that humiliation was beneficial ('good for me') because it led to law-learning ('might learn your statutes') reframes suffering positively. This verse interprets suffering as pedagogical.
Church Fathers on Psalms 119:71
1. From its commencement, dearly beloved, does this great Psalm exhort us unto bliss, which there is no one who desires not....And therefore this is the lesson which he teaches, who says, “Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord” Psalm 118:1. As much as to say, I know what you wish, you are seeking bliss: if then you would be blessed, be undefiled. For the former all desire, the latter fear: yet without it what all wish cannot be…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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