Psalms 55:19
God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.
God hears and brings affliction upon wrongdoers who will not be corrected, laying upon them the punishment they have deserved, and in this He acts in justice. That retribution stands together with the exposure of human wickedness and of divine anger against sin, yet in the same setting mercy and loving-kindness are also made known.
In prophetic vision David entered beforehand into something of the inward experience of Christ in conflict with the enemy and in suffering, so that the psalm discloses the suffering side of His life beyond what is fully set forth in the Gospel narratives. There Christ is seen in humiliation as the substitute for man, taking human weakness, infirmity, and sin upon Himself so completely as to identify Himself with man in every failing and suffering, bowed very low beneath their weight and pouring out His soul in anguish for help from God, and when viewed in this light the greatness of His sacrifice is revealed.
Those who pass through life with no changes and no interruption of ease do not come to fear God, so crossed plans and lessened resources are to be accepted with resignation as merciful discipline. Affliction is favor, for it drives wanderers home and moves the ruined to seek God, turning the valley of trouble into a door of hope. God sends it because He knows the danger, hedging the way with thorns to keep from following lying vanities and forsaking mercy, trying only for profit and only so far as can be borne. The love that did not spare His own Son is the pledge that no good thing will be withheld.