Psalm 119:63-72 ט (Tet)
A journey through Psalm 119
You are good and do good
You have dealt well with your servant, O Lord, according to your word.
Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.
Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.
You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.
The insolent smear me with lies, but with my whole heart I keep your precepts;
their heart is unfeeling like fat, but I delight in your law.
It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.
The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
(ESV)
Why do bad things happen to good people? The psalmist, like us, wrestled with the intersection of God’s goodness, human wrongdoing, and personal affliction. Since the first example of willful disobedience (Genesis 3), humans have pursued the power of God in order to usurp it and make themselves rulers and judges over others. Could God ensure that they never succeed? Yes. Why doesn’t He prevent people from doing evil and inflicting harm? The afflictions and arrogance described in this stanza expose how far humans have fallen in their rebellion compared to the ordered goodness of God’s instruction. Paul wrote to the Romans, “if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin“ (Romans 7:7). The instruction and statutes of God reveal that no person is good; we have all participated in the rebellion against God’s design (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus identified God as the source and standard of goodness, saying, “No one is good except God alone“ (Mark 10:18). In this passage, the psalmist declares the goodness of God even when surrounded and mistreated by the proud and insolent people of the world. He declares God’s goodness, recognizing that his own actions and decisions led him away from the Lord, but his afflictions became the signposts he needed to return. He saw his trials as pointing him to the instruction of God, something worth far more than any earthly reward.
You are Good
Words from the Hebrew root ט־ו־ב, associated with goodness, appear six times in these eight verses. They describe God’s character, the way God treated the psalmist, the recognition of affliction’s benefits, and the comparison to the wealth of the world. The key statement comes from verse 68 where the psalmist proclaims, “You are good.” Everything the Lord does comes from His character of goodness. He does good because He is good. Spurgeon put it this way:
God is essential goodness in himself, and in every attribute of his nature he is good in the fullest sense of the term; indeed, he has a monopoly of goodness, for there is none good but one, that is God (p 3925).
To say God is טוֹב (ṭôḇ) is a confession that God is beautifully complete, morally perfect, and lacking nothing. God is good, and the work that He does comes out of His nature. He is not measured by a standard of goodness outside Himself; He is the source and fullness of goodness. In the broader scope of Scripture, when God created the world and called it “good,” He meant that the created order was whole and purposeful, a reflection of His nature. The word in Genesis for “good” is this same word, טוֹב (ṭôḇ). When He created Adam and Eve in His own image, they were together a reflection of goodness, not only in doing morally right, but being exactly what God designed them to be. And still, they chose (for themselves and for all of humanity to come after them) rebellion, autonomy, and pursuing personal wisdom and power apart from God. Their choice did not change God’s character, but alienated them from the intimate fellowship they had enjoyed in the garden.
You Do Good
In spite of human nature and its pursuit of personal power, God continues to do good because His nature is unchanged. The psalmist said, “וּמֵטִיב (ûmêṭîḇ)—You do good,” recognizing that out of God’s perfect goodness comes instruction that leads to sound judgment, knowledge, and a desire to keep the commands of God. Keeping the commands is not for God’s benefit, for He does not need our approval or praise, but obedience reflects our love for God and gratitude for His mercy and grace, neither of which we deserve.
When we recognize the goodness of both God’s character and His work in us, we can withstand the assaults of the people around us who deride, defraud, and defame us (Spurgeon 3925). The psalmist knew the value of God’s instruction as better than riches. When we study the Word with the intent to follow its precepts, we can stand against the evil of the world without argument or pride. Spurgeon noted,
If we try to answer lies by our words we may be beaten in the battle; but a holy life is an unanswerable refutation of all calumnies*. Spite is balked if we persevere in holiness despite all opposition (p 3925-26).
God’s goodness was fully revealed in the person and work of Jesus: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us“ (Romans 5:8). The law is a mirror that allows us to see who we are: proud, rebellious, and condemned by our determination to rule ourselves and others apart from God’s statutes. The “abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness“ come to us from God’s character, not because we deserve them, but because He is good and He does good (Romans 5:17). Our response should be to imitate the pattern of the psalmist by relying on His commands, keeping His precepts, and learning His statutes. We, too, can learn from the “bad things” that happen to us that God’s goodness will not change. Affliction is not a good thing, but through it, we can learn to trust the Lord who is good and to delight in His instruction, which is worth more than anything on earth.
Post from 2020:
What does it look like to keep the Lord’s precepts with our whole heart? From this passage, I see three main qualities:
1. Know that God is good.
2. Know that God does good.
3. Recognize difficulties as opportunities.
The Bible reminds readers over and over of the goodness of God. From creation to crucifixion, God’s goodness is demonstrated through both beauty and love beyond measure.
Everything God does is good. That’s sometimes hard to imagine, especially when evil seems to prevail in the world. But God does not do evil. God gives freedom to choose, and inevitably, humans overwhelmingly choose evil (usually as self-centered quest for power over others) over good. History speaks to the nature of people to prefer happiness over holiness and personal gain over good. Current events magnify just how hopeless humans are without the atoning love of Jesus.
Difficult times are opportunities to learn good judgment and godly wisdom in the face of challenges. That’s really hard sometimes. It’s the actionable part of knowing and there are days where it’s easier to sit in the funk of just how disappointing or unpleasant or hard life and people can be.
Jesus dealt with the same human emotions we do. His response to them? Luke 5:16 says, “Jesus would often go to some place where he could be alone and pray” (Contemporary English Version CEV). Time with the Father reignited Jesus in his work, and it can do the same for us. Hard things and hard times need to push us closer to God and His goodness and out of our own heads.
God is good. God does good. Difficulties are opportunities to know God’s goodness.
A NOTE:
Psalm 119 is too rich and too vast to leave to my own thoughts. Six years ago I was content to share my personal responses as I navigated the events of the summer of 2020, but since then, I have learned to frame my responses in light of scholarship and thoughtful research.
Psalm 119 is also too rich and too vast to delve deeply into centuries of scholarship for anything less than a multi-volume publication, the scope of which is beyond a simple devotion on Substack. For this project, then, I have decided to limit my external references to a few trusted sources that will be listed in the “References and Resources” at the end of each article. Primarily, I will rely on the wisdom of Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s treatment of Psalm 119 in The Treasury of David: The Complete Seven Volumes, the NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, and Blue Letter Bible online for its translations. Bible Gateway has extensive resources and I will include those as I use them.
References and Resources
BibleProject. “Vocab Insight: Tov / Good.” BibleProject, https://bibleproject.com/videos/vocab-insight-tov-good/. Accessed 7 June 2026.
Blue Letter Bible. Sowing Circle, 1996–2025, www.blueletterbible.org. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.
Coogan, Michael D., et al., editors. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 2018.
DeSoto, Sergio. “Tov.” Sergio DeSoto, www.sergiodesoto.com/keywords/tov. Accessed 8 June 2026.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Crossway Bibles, 2001. Bible Gateway, www.biblegateway.com. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.
The Holy Bible, Holman Christian Standard Bible. Holman Bible Publishers, 2015.
Spurgeon, Charles H. The Treasury of David: The Complete Seven Volumes. Hendrickson Publishers, 2004. Kindle ed. (Note: A hard copy in three volumes is available here.)*
Walton, John H., and Craig S. Keener, editors. NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible. Zondervan, 2019. (Note: the NRSV is out of print, but the NIV is available here, and the NKJV here.)
*I cannot recommend this text highly enough. Each page’s wisdom demands reflection and return to the Scriptures.