Behold, happy [is] the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:
Ver. 17. Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth] This behold holds forth a paradox, a strange sight, viz. an afflicted man, a blessed man. This the world wondereth at, and can as little conceive of, or consent to, as the Philistines could of Samson's riddle of meat out of the eater, &c. How can these things be, say they? It will never be, saith sense; it can never be, saith reason; it both can be, and will be, saith faith: the property whereof is to gather one contrary out of another; life out of death, happiness out of misery, assurance of deliverance out of deepest distresses, and to believe God upon his bare word, and that against sense in things invisible, and against reason in things incredible. What if the afflicted man be Enosh (that is the word here), a sorry, sickly, miserable man, so the world esteemeth him? yet blessed is the man (there he is called Geber, the gallant man) "whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law," Psalms 94:12. Oh the happiness, the μυρισμακαριοτης, the present and future happiness of that man whom God correcteth, and withal instructeth, chastening him with pain upon his bed, and in addition opening his ears to counsel, and sealing his instructions, Job 33:16; Job 33:19, disputing him out of his evil practices, with a rod in his hand.
Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty] Fret not, faint not, be not so impatient as to think that either thy crosses come not from God, or not in mercy, or that he is not all sufficient to bear thee up under them, or to help thee out of them. Set not light by his love tokens (this is one of those two extremes Solomon warns us of, Proverbs 3:11, neither despise afflictions, nor despond under them). See my Treatise called God's Love Tokens, and the Afflicted Man's Lessons, p. 37-39, &c. Loth we are to take up the cross, and when called to carry it, we shrink in the shoulder: no chastening seemeth joyous, but grievous; as averse the best may be to it, as a sick man is to those physical slibber sauces; he had as soon have died almost as take them down. How then, alas! will wicked men do to drink off that cup of God's wrath that hath eternity to the bottom? Psalms 75:8. Let the saints be content, and say, Ferre minora volo, ne graviora feram, I wish to bear the lessor so I will not bear the greater. "It is the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed," Lamentations 3:22, that we are set safe from the wrath to come, whatever here betideth us. It is the chastening of the Almighty, who could as easily crush us as correct. See Isa 13:6 Joel 1:15 .