Moving through Psalm 119, we come to Teth, verses 65 – 72.

It’s theme is simple: sometimes God needs to get our attention.

Some dog trainers use a collar that the trainer can remotely activate to give a small electric stimulus, a tingle. The purpose of the tingle is to get the dog’s attention so it will respond to the spoken command. The objective is to get the dog to respond to the command without using the collar to get his attention.

I think the same thing is going on here:

You have dealt well with Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge, For I believe 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…It is good for me that I have been afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes. (Psalm 119.65 – 68, 71, NKJV)

The testimony of one who was “afflicted”

• You have dealt well with your servant.
• Before I was afflicted I went astray.
• It is good that I was afflicted that I might learn your statutes.

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. – C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, emphasis mine