Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
I know, O Lord - I feel assured; I entertain no doubt on the subject. This was the conviction of the mind of the psalmist in affliction. Mysterious as the trial may have been, hard as it may have been to bear, long as it may have been continued, and varied as may have been the forms of the trial, yet he had no doubt that it was all right; that it was for the best purposes; and that it was in strict accordance with what was best.
That thy judgments - This does not here refer to the laws of God, but to the divine dealings; to those afflictions which came in the way of judgments, or which might be regarded as expressive of the divine view of his conduct and life.
Are right - Margin, as in Hebrew, "righteousness." They were in accordance with what was right; they were so strictly just, that they might be called righteousness itself. This implied the utmost confidence in God, the most absolute submission to his will.
And that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me - In faithfulness to my soul; in faithfulness to my own best interest. It was not arbitrary; it was not from malice; it was not that the affliction had come by chance; it was because God loved his soul, and sought his welfare. It was because God saw that there was some good reason why it should be done; that there was some evil to be checked; some improper conduct to be corrected; some lesson which he would be the better for learning; some happy influence on his life here, and on his happiness in heaven, which would be more than a compensation for all that he would suffer.
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