Video: Psalm 65:11

Thou hast brought us into a net, thou hast laid afflictions on our back: (Psalm 65:11 DR)

The proving of the soul by fire was the various temptations and tribulations which assail us in this life, especially by means of suffering in its myriad forms. Such a testing—like gold or silver proved by the refiner’s fire—is unpleasant but is the means by which God brings the soul out of vice and sin and into virtue and holiness. And like the fires of the furnace which burn away the dross from precious metals, so the fires of suffering and tribulation can burn away attachments to the things of this world.

The Psalmist now expands further upon this proving, utilizing a further set of metaphors to illustrate the various means of such testing. It is important to note that—as in the previous passage—these things are not simply spoken of as things which have occurred or that God allowed to happen, but rather are directly attributed to His hand. Thus the Psalmist says: Thou hast brought us into a net, Thou hast laid afflictions on our back: Thou hast set men over our heads.

In all these forms of trials and sufferings it is God who has brought them about. And while one could certainly say that God allows them in His permissive will, at the same time the Scriptures often attribute to the Lord what He allows to happen. In the testing of Job it is Satan who instigates the whole affair and who is the agent of Job’s afflictions, yet after the first round of testing we read:

And the Lord said to Satan: Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a man simple, and upright, and fearing God, and avoiding evil, and still keeping his innocence? But thou hast moved me against him, that I should afflict him without cause. And Satan answered, and said: Skin for skin, and all that a man hath he will give for his life: But put forth thy hand, and touch his bone and his flesh, and then thou shalt see that he will bless thee to thy face. And the Lord said to Satan: Behold he is in thy hand, but yet save his life. (Job 2:3-6 DR)

Thus, even though Satan was the one who afflicted Job in both occasions, yet in both occasions the Lord is considered the ultimate cause, as it were, of that affliction; He says, that I should afflict Him without cause. Of course, to Satan’s limited intellect it seemed without cause, for his entire premise about Job’s motivation was incorrect. God, however, knew Job’s heart, and thus the affliction was to try him as silver is tried. He allowed Job to be afflicted so as to be proven and found righteous, and in this manner His allowing of Job’s affliction is spoken of as if God was the One who afflicted Him.

The Psalmist speaks in a similar manner, that God is the One Who has brought into the net and laid afflictions on the back and set men over the head; each of these metaphors is an explication of the proving that God brings upon His people so as to sanctify them and ultimately deliver them from their sins:

Thou hast led us into a trap: not that we might be caught and die, but that we might be tried and delivered from it. Thou hast laid tribulations upon our back. For having been to ill purpose lifted up, proud we were: having been to ill purpose lifted up, we were bowed down, in order that being bowed down, we should be lifted up for good. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 65, 16.)

The mystery of suffering and God’s will is not one that we can craft a formula for, but the Scriptures demonstrate over and over that the righteous will suffer, and even though we may not know the reason for that, in a very real sense we do—it is that we might be cleansed of our sins and mortify our sinful passions and the loves and desires of the flesh so as to reap a harvest of righteousness.

When we ask the reason for our sufferings or tribulations or whatever, we generally are looking for a natural, humanly understandable explanation that fits nicely into a formula wherein sin equals suffering and righteousness equals blessedness, the latter of which—if we are honest—generally means getting more of the goodies of this world that we desire. The heresy of the prosperity gospel is probably nearer to each of our hearts than we care to admit. But God in His wisdom brings trials and sufferings into our lives to root out these attachments to this world, to turn the affections of our heart away from earthly things and onto those of heaven. If we never suffered in this life, we might never lift our eyes heavenward, for our happiness would be too easily found here.

But the chastisements that God allows and even brings upon us are for our good, to discipline us in humility and righteousness. The Scriptures go so far as to call these chastisements consolations:

And you have forgotten the consolation, which speaketh to you, as unto children, saying: My son, neglect not the discipline of the Lord; neither be thou wearied whilst thou art rebuked by him. (Hebrews 12:5 DR)

The reason these afflictions are a consolation is that they are not meant to destroy but to correct:

For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (Hebrews 12:6 DR)

If we are never caught in these nets, if we never have these afflictions laid on our back, if we are never set upon by wicked men, we are not living a life of blessedness but rather in great spiritual danger:

But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are made partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons. (Hebrews 12:8 DR)

Chastisement and suffering and affliction have the salutary effect of affording us the possibility of growing in humility, of recognizing our need for God even as He lays His hand upon us in correction. But even in this midst of this chastisement there is the hope and confidence that we have been made sons whom God receives, and thus we as sons partake in that chastisement which is wrought by the charity of God. St. Paul elsewhere explicitly links the charity of God received in Baptism—the means of being adopted as a son of God—to this suffering and chastisement:

And not only so; but we glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience trial; and trial hope; and hope confoundeth not: because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us. (Romans 5:3-5 DR)

Whatever metaphor the Psalmist uses for the various afflictions and tribulations which assail the Church and her members, they all come from the hand of God so as to purify her members as silver is purified and to bring them into righteousness and justice:

Now all chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring with it joy, but sorrow: but afterwards it will yield, to them that are exercised by it, the most peaceable fruit of justice. (Hebrews 12:11 DR)

The Psalmist thus sees God’s hand in his afflictions and sufferings, and for him that is not a cause of distress but rather of joy, for though these things have happened, they have not destroyed him but rather proved him. As he says elsewhere:

It is good for me that thou hast humbled me, that I may learn thy justifications. (Psalm 118:71 DR)

The learning of these justifications is equivalent to the fruit of justice that St. Paul speaks of, and in the humility of chastisement we are laid bare before our Lord Who desires our purification and sanctification, and as a loving Father disciplines us that we might learn to let go of the love of the things of this world and set our affections on Him alone as His beloved sons.

In this vale of tears we will inevitably be afflicted by suffering and sorrow. This can either embitter us in cynicism and despair or can humble us so that we turn to the Lord Who has brought such afflictions upon us that we might be brought back to Him:

All these things the Church has suffered in sundry and various persecutions: She has suffered this in Her individual members, even now does suffer it. For there is not one, that in this life could say that he was exempt from these trials. Therefore there are set even men over our heads: we endure those whom we would not, we suffer for our betters those whom we know to be worse. But if sins be wanting, a man is justly superior: but by how much there are more sins, by so much he is inferior. And it is a good thing to consider ourselves to be sinners, and thus endure men set over our heads: in order that we also to God may confess that deservedly we suffer. For why do you suffer with indignation that which He does who is just? Thou hast laid tribulations upon our back: Thou hast set men over our heads. God seems to be angry, when He does these things: fear not, for a Father He is, He is never so angry as to destroy. When ill you live, if He spares, He is more angry. In a word, these tribulations are the rods of Him correcting, lest there be a sentence from Him punishing. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 65, 16.)

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