Audio Transcript

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast. On Monday, we talked about the radiance of eternity and our joy there. But we are back to reality, this fallen reality, as we read Psalm 94 together. It’s the psalm we read tomorrow, a psalm all about pain, provoking this question from a listener named Matthew.

“Dear Pastor John, hello, and thank you for the APJ podcast. I listen every week to both you and Tony, and I am truly grateful for your work and faithfulness. My question comes from Psalm 94, particularly from the verse: ‘Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord’ (verse 12). This psalm speaks about the godly enduring persecution from the wicked (verses 1–7, 16–23), as well as enduring ‘days of trouble’ (verse 13) and the ‘heavy cares of heart’ (verse 19). I’ve been wondering if these three categories are all forms of discipline that God uses for the psalmist, and for us today. Does God discipline his children through persecution, by allowing us to go through times of trouble, and by placing heavy cares on our hearts? Are each of these experiences considered forms of discipline in our lives? And if so, what does it all mean for the Christian? Thank you!”

Destruction or Discipline?

Right in the middle of this psalm — namely, in verse 12 out of the 23 verses — comes the statement about the Lord’s discipline. It says, “Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law, to give him rest from days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked” (Psalm 94:12–13). So, it’s clear that, until the wicked are completely vanquished, there will always be days of trouble and persecution for God’s people.

And though this trouble may be designed by the wicked for our destruction, nevertheless it is designed in a disciplinary way by God for our discipline. Here’s Psalm 94:5–7: “They crush your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage. They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, ‘The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.’” So, clearly, the wicked don’t view their persecution as discipline. They see it as destruction. But just like in Genesis 50:20, what they mean for evil, God means for good.

So, the wicked have one purpose in our persecution, and God has another purpose. Theirs is destruction; God’s is discipline. Then Matthew, this fellow who’s asking us these questions, asks, Alongside the discipline of persecution, are there two other ways that God disciplines us — namely, days of trouble and heavy cares of heart?

Now, I wouldn’t say it quite like that — namely, that there are separate categories of discipline — because in the context of this psalm, the persecution is at least part of what makes the days of trouble. And persecution is at least part of what makes the heavy heart. Days of trouble include days of persecution, and cares of heart include cares about persecution. So, they’re not strictly three categories. But I think what Matthew really cares about is this: Does the Lord discipline us with persecution, with days of trouble, with heavy cares of heart, whether that trouble and those cares come from persecution or some other source? That’s the concern.

And the answer is certainly yes. Yes, he does discipline us that way. The New Testament gives really clear confirmation of the way the Lord disciplines us, whether by persecution or various troubles or heaviness of heart. Let’s look at one example for each of these sources of discipline, and along the way I think it will be clear what discipline really means.

Discipline in Persecution

First, Hebrews 12:3–4: “Consider [Christ] who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” So, clearly, persecution is in view here, leading even up to bloodshedding like Jesus.

“The deepest lessons of faith and holiness and peace come mostly through hard days, not easy days.”

And then he goes on in Hebrews 12:5–7: “And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord’” — that’s referring back to the persecution — “‘nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.’ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.” So, the very persecution that is leading some to shedding their blood, God calls loving discipline of his precious children.

What’s the point of such discipline? Four verses later, we get the answer to that question. It says, “[God] disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:10–11). So, those who have been trained by it, they get holiness, or “the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

This text teaches that God sees to it that trouble comes into the life of his precious children, even to the point of shedding our blood, and the aim of God’s providence in bringing that trouble is that we might share his holiness, “the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Mature Christians all over the world bear witness to the fact that the deepest lessons of faith and holiness and peace have come mostly through hard days, not easy days.

Discipline in Trial

Why that is becomes clearer with the second example of God’s discipline — namely, through kinds of trouble. Not just persecution, but other kinds.

Here’s James 1:2–3: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” So, the picture seems to be that when these various trials come, various troubles of all kinds, they threaten to break your faith — but God’s purpose is not the breaking of your faith but the strengthening of your faith. Evidently, James and the early Christians were just as aware in those days that when you put a muscle under stress, like in weight lifting, the stress hurts — it even breaks down muscle — but in fact, in the process, it makes the muscle rebuild stronger. That’s what steadfastness is. It’s a tested faith put under pressure, a disciplined faith, and it is able then to endure greater trials to come.

So, connecting back with the aim of holiness in chapter 12 of Hebrews, the point seems to be that stronger faith protects you from temptation and thus advances your holiness. They have the same aim, ultimately. And now you might think, But wait a minute, Pastor John, you seem to be assuming that God brings these various trials, but the text didn’t say that. Why do you assume that? Well, we can see it in the third example of how God uses heaviness of heart.

Discipline in Despair

So, we have persecution, various troubles, and now heaviness of heart to produce stronger faith.

Here’s 2 Corinthians 1:8–9: “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.” Now, there’s the heaviness of heart owing to life-threatening trial. Paul was despairing of staying alive. It goes on: “Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

Now, when Paul says that the purpose of this life-threatening, crushing burden was to help his faith, his reliance on God, whose purpose was that? It isn’t Satan’s, and it isn’t his adversary’s purpose. They’re not trying to make Paul’s faith stronger. Who is it? It’s God.

That’s why I think we can say that God sees to it that the troubles we have, whether persecution or some other heaviness of heart, are designed, not by Satan, not by wicked men, but by God for our holiness, for our fruitful righteousness, for our peace, for our strengthened faith, for our greater reliance upon God, and thus for our joy.

So, Matthew, even if persecution and troubles and heaviness of heart are not distinct categories of divine discipline in Psalm 94, you are right to think that they are indeed aspects of God’s merciful, fatherly, loving discipline for our good.