- Blessed
Psalm 94:12
Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord,
And teachest him out of thy law.
If you are chastened and taught, then you will be blessed. The promise of a blessed person is explained fully in other places where God blesses a person in all the ways possible. The blessing promised here is conditioned upon being chastened and being taught. We do not seek chastening, but we do seek teaching from the Word.
Chastening comes when and where and how God chooses; we do not have to look for it nor can we avoid it. It will come; the only question is recognizing it, accepting it and learning from it. Too often, however, we complain about it and fight against it and resist it, and so sadly we learn nothing from it. If God loves us as sons, discipline is to be expected. When we are disciplined we will be blessed: Hebrews 12:11: Chastening “yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” We learn by pain the consequences of a certain behavior and so we repent and will not continue such behavior. When that happens we are “trained by it” and in this way chastening brings blessings.
A better way of learning, instead of chastening, is to be taught out of God’s Law. The Word of God will teach us to do behaviors that bless and avoid behaviors that bring discipline. The Holy Spirit will be our Teacher and Guide while we study, understand, meditate, and learn to obey the principles of the Ten Commandments. When our actual living is so transformed by the Spirit’s use of God’s Law we are taught; righteous living is shaped by the Law but powered by the Gospel; when we are taught we are blessed.
Good consequences result from a heart changed by repentance and faith in the Gospel. The indwelling Spirit uses the Word of God to teach outward changes which bring blessings to the man; the indwelling Spirit also uses life experiences and afflictions to discipline and chasten for our learning and our good; this chastening bring blessings to the man.
The Lord is relentless in His hounding love, both teaching to obey and also disciplining when we don’t obey, and He won’t stop until we are perfected, when we are transformed by our own physical death and resurrection. Until then, He hounds because He wants to bless us.