Psalm 94 · a question people ask
"Blessed is the man whom you discipline, LORD" (94:12). Does the psalm mean that every hardship is God's discipline?
The psalm doesn't say that. It doesn't say what the discipline is, and it doesn't call the troubles of 94:5-6 discipline: those are what the wicked do, and the psalm asks God to act against them (94:2) and ends by saying he does (94:23). What it puts beside discipline is teaching: "and teach out of your law" (94:12) (tap discipline, teach). Brown-Driver-Briggs gives the verb as "discipline, chasten, admonish", and Strong's as "to chastise, literally (with blows) or figuratively (with words); hence, to instruct". The same verb is in Deuteronomy: "as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you" (Deuteronomy 8:5). And the psalm says what the discipline of 94:12 is for: "that you may give him rest from the days of adversity" (Psalm 94:13). These notes don't go further than the psalm does, or say which hardships in anyone's life are discipline.
The verses
“Rise up, you judge of the earth. Pay back the proud what they deserve.”
“They break your people in pieces, LORD, and afflict your heritage. They kill the widow and the alien, and murder the fatherless.”
“Blessed is the man whom you discipline, LORD, and teach out of your law, that you may give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit is dug for the wicked.”
“He has brought on them their own iniquity, and will cut them off in their own wickedness. The LORD, our God, will cut them off.”