65 You have dealt well with Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word. 66 Teach me good discernment and knowledge, For I believe in Your commandments. 67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word. 68 You are good and do good; Teach me Your statutes. 69 The arrogant have forged a lie against me; With all my heart I will observe Your precepts. 70 Their heart is covered with fat, But I delight in Your law. 71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes. 72 The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.The theme of God's Word runs throughout this Psalm, and this stanza has to do with suffering relative to God's Word in a particular way. But suffering isn't the most frequently used word here besides references to God's Word. We see the word good/well used more often than the word suffering. The Psalmist begins the stanza with this thought: You have dealt well with Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word (v. 65). He understands God's goodness, and this is his interpreting factor for his sufferings. You are good and do good (v. 68); It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes (v. 71).
Probably most of us struggle with interpreting our sufferings in the light of God's goodness, but verse 72 holds the key to why the psalmist saw God's goodness preeminent in his sufferings. The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver pieces. It holds the key for our own sufferings as well. When we know God through His Word, we learn to know His inherent goodness, and that goodness is expressed in all He sends to us or allows to reach us. He is good and does all things well.
The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
Psalm 119:72
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