Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O LORD,
and whom you teach out of your law.
— Psalm 94:12
As the psalmist implores the Lord to avenge His people from the wicked who are mistreating and oppressing them, he pronounces this wonderful blessing — one that is well worth examining.
He declares that those whom the Lord disciplines are a blessed people. Many times we pursue blessings as a goal. Some are even encouraged to remain Christians simply because they are told that blessings are coming. We look at blessings as a reward for our Christian faith.
And indeed, the Bible is full of promises of blessings. One such well-known verse is when Paul writes to the Ephesians:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
— Ephesians 1:3
Paul pronounces here that believers are already blessed. There have been many interpretations of this verse, most of them quite confusing — suggesting that we have already been blessed with money, wealth, and health, but that the unfortunate thing is that all of these blessings exist in the spiritual realm and therefore require some work to transfer them into the physical.
The deeper problem, however, is that our definition of blessing is not in sync with what the Bible actually describes as blessing. In our health-and-wealth-focused world, we have come to define blessing as something like being rich, healthy, popular, famous, or happy. And while those things could be considered blessings, the biblical definition is certainly not limited to them.
The danger of defining blessings so narrowly is that we end up defining anything outside of that definition as a curse. Much like the people in John 9 who looked at the blind man and asked who had sinned — the man or his parents — that he should be born blind, we look at sickness, poverty, pain, suffering, and loneliness as curses, and cannot associate those experiences with blessing at all.
However, this is not the view the psalmist takes. His pronouncement of blessing falls upon the person whom the Lord is disciplining.
Scripture Interprets Scripture
One of the wonderful things about Scripture is that Scripture interprets Scripture, and this is not the only place where we see the positive nature of divine discipline. In Proverbs we read:
My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD or loathe His reproof, for whom the LORD loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
— Proverbs 3:11-12
This is quoted in Hebrews 12:
Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines.
— Hebrews 12:5-6
And in Revelation 3, we are also told:
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.
— Revelation 3:19
The word for discipline carries the meaning of chastening, instructing, and admonishing. And this is precisely what the psalmist calls blessed. In effect, what the psalmist is saying is that those whom the Lord cares for enough to discipline, to chasten, to admonish, and to instruct — those are the ones who are blessed. And if you consider the whole counsel of the Word of God, you will notice that those are not only blessed, but they are the very people who are loved by God.
In Hebrews 12, the author goes on to ask a pointed rhetorical question — that if a person is not disciplined by their father, then that person is illegitimate and not truly a son.
The Nature of Discipline
Discipline is not an easy process. It often involves struggle, pain, and many ups and downs. It confronts our weaknesses and vulnerabilities. It challenges our ego and our false sense of self-sufficiency. But the one sure thing about discipline is that its goal is always to make one better — to improve, to realign one’s perspective, lifestyle, and ways so that they are in accordance with the one doing the disciplining. In this case, God disciplines us to correct our ways so that we are aligned with His ultimate purpose for us — to glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever.
Given the world’s distorted view of blessing, it is very easy to look at a person being disciplined by God and conclude that they are being cursed by God.
A fitting example is the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12. When he had the thorn in the flesh, he prayed to God to remove it — and God reminded him that His grace was sufficient, and that His power is made perfect in weakness. The conclusion Paul arrives at is remarkable:
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
— 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
The psalmist points this out in the second line of the verse as well — that the process of disciplining involves God teaching that person from His very law. This is what discipline entails: it realigns us with what the Word of God declares.
Praying For Blessings
Many times we pray for blessings. We pray that the Lord opens the windows of heaven and pours out rain upon us. But very rarely, when we are praying for those blessings, do we have the disciplining of the Lord in mind.
My prayer is that we would be a people who, when we think about and ponder the blessings of the Lord, do not shy away from including the Lord’s discipline and teaching from His law — so that we may walk in the way everlasting.
May we be like the psalmist in Psalm 139:23-24, who says:
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
— Psalm 139:23-24
Amen.
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