“Happy is the able-bodied man whom you correct, O Jah, and whom you teach out of your own law.”—Ps. 94:12.
WHEN was the last time you, in word or in deed, fell short of God’s righteous ways and standards? Likely you do not have to think back very far, perhaps just a few hours or days, for all of us sin, failing to reflect properly God’s glory.—1 Ki. 8:46; 1 John 1:8-10.
We can be happy that in his love Jehovah desires and is able to correct us. “The One correcting the nations, can he not reprove, even the One teaching men knowledge? Happy is the able-bodied man whom you correct, O Jah.” If we ‘let ourselves be corrected’ by Jehovah, we will be happy, for we will be in harmony with him.—Ps. 94:10, 12.
Christians can trust the Bible’s assurance, “Whom Jehovah loves he disciplines.” (Heb. 12:6) God often corrects us in such a gentle and mild way that we may not even recognize it as correction. Perhaps we read something in his Word that leads us away from an undesirable course or corrects our thinking. At other times correction from God may be more pointed and even somewhat painful. Yet he knows the degree and the method of correction that are best for us. (Jer. 30:11) How fine it is when we willingly accept his correction, for God provides discipline out of love as a father does for a dear son! It is also much wiser for us to accept any limited or restrained correction that Jehovah God gives us than for us to be punished to the point of extermination.—Jer. 10:24; Heb. 12:5.
Sometimes God offers correction through humans. He sent prophets and judges to the nation of Israel. But he can provide wise correction even on an individual basis. One of Job’s false “comforters” had to acknowledge that Job had “corrected many.” (Job 4:3; 16:2) What a blessing it must have been to receive wise correction from Job, a man outstanding in godly devotion! We can ask ourselves, though, ‘Am I open to helpful correction of this sort, correction from a human but which is based on God’s perfect wisdom?’
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