Its A Positional Thing

Psalm 119:71 

It was good for me to suffer,
so that I might learn your statutes. 

When I got my first forecaster job in Bismarck, North Dakota, I thought I was "it on a stick!" "I got a forecaster job, I can forecast, I just came out of college, I know everything!" Yep, those were my thoughts. It wasn't too long after taking that job that I got humbled real quick. The forecast called for rain, and for the most part it was raining, but then one city after another started reporting freezing rain. None of the computer models said it would be freezing rain, so I decided not to update the forecast and just keep the forecast as rain. One of the lead forecasters saw what was happening, asked if I was going to update the forecast, I said "no, because the computer models said it wasn't going to happen." He quickly updated the forecast to put in freezing rain, and, it was a good thing he did. But that really humbled me...in front of everyone that was on shift that day. I realized I had a lot to learn!

A lot of people would look at Psalm 119:71 and ignore it because, "hey, why is it good for me to suffer, won't God take care of it so I don't have to suffer?" When things are going well for us, a lot of us don't even think about God much less thinking that we need Him, but when we start to suffer or hurt or things aren't going our way, we go right to Him. God really doesn't want us to suffer, He would really like for us to keep Him at the forefront of our minds, continually seeking Him. Unfortunately for most of us that is not the case. I find it interesting that the Hebrew word used in this scriputre for suffering is "anah." This also means humbled. When we humble ourselves before God, what happens? We positionally put ourselves where we are seeking God. I believe this is what the psalmist meant when he wrote this, that it is good to suffer/be humbled, because it reminds us that we AREN'T God, that we need Him...CONSTANTLY!