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“My soul longs for your salvation; I hope in your word. My eyes long for your promise; I ask, ‘When will you comfort me?’ For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, yet I have not forgotten your statutes. How long must your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me? The insolent have dug pitfalls for me; they do not live according to your law. All your commandments are sure; they persecute me with falsehood; help me! They have almost made an end of me on earth, but I have not forsaken your precepts. In your steadfast love give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth.” – Psalm 119:81-88
Where can you go in the Bible to help overcome all the stress and hardship that we “always” seem to be under? (“Always”…is not true but… there are days and weeks that it “feels” that way, right?) Where does the Bible teach us about joyfulness, happiness in the Christian life? Psalm 119 is the largest place in the Scriptures that talk about this and it does while at the same time talking about hardship and affliction in the psalmist’s life. Just like us!
David feels the same type of hardship and afflictions we do for since the Fall this has been true in every age with ALL people. His soul longs for God’s salvation…he wishes to be relieved of the craziness of life, but as a child of God he points himself to the promises of God rather than despair…the promises that are found in God’s Word. He is clear in his desire to be strengthened and delivered from his present misery; “My soul longs for your salvation; I hope in your word. My eyes long for your promise; I ask, ‘When will you comfort me?’” He says, “My soul longs…My eyes long…” just like us he wants so badly to experience these promises of God so that he can endure in this life and flourish. In these passages he is NOT asking for God to correct all the wrongs against him…but He is seeking God’s strength and wisdom for endurance. As the leader of God’s people he takes His job seriously and he wants to be seen by God’s people as Him standing in God’s promises.
But in the next verse we see why he is so insistent towards God. He has seemingly come to the end of his rope and he is afraid that he is not useful to God anymore when he says, “For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke…” This is an interesting and descriptive statement of how David sees himself at this point. “…like a wineskin in the smoke…”would bring to mind for his readers the act of placing a wineskin in a chimney to dry it but then forgetting it and it dries out, wrinkles and becomes useless. His sins and the sins of others against him have weakened him to the point of his feeling “useless” before the face of God. Do you ever feel that way?
We want to be useful for God but, are we stopped in our tracks because we are convinced of our uselessness? Well, you may be tired…you may be worn…you may be weary…but don’t listen to Satan or any other voices telling you that you are useless…not in the Lord’s family. You may have been weakened but then that is often the time the Lord chooses to use you to do His will…Paul said, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” He understood what David is saying here especially as David finishes his thought with, “…yet I have not forgotten your statutes.” David knows…Paul knows…the power of God’s Word to be able to endure life’s messiness…moving his towards joy…joy in God’s Word. Do we?
Then in the next moment he asks, “How long must your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me? The insolent have dug pitfalls for me; they do not live according to your law. ” You see, it is okay for us to ask God to relieve our suffering…even to ask Him such questions as the ones above. Because we know His promises and we are wanting to experience those promises but the problem comes when we want it in our time frame, and then acting like children, we won’t be satisfied unless God acts in the manner we wish for Him to act. Even though David is asking for relief he is not questioning whether it will come but rather, “How long…” Interesting, he is not asking why he must endure (actually, many of us would ask, Why do I need to suffer?), but he asks for how long will he need to endure. Life is a marathon so endurance will be all our lives and we need to make peace with that as David has in our text. But he also knows something else … he is not asking if judgment will come but knowing God’s promises that judgment will come on His enemies he asks the stronger question, When? Oh, that we were just as certain that God would keep His promises!
David then says, “All your commandments are sure; they persecute me with falsehood; help me! They have almost made an end of me on earth, but I have not forsaken your precepts.” While God’s commandments are sure and certain and true those who are false seek to use God’s Word… against him. But David take’s heart in the Word of God and God’s promises found there in. When we can’t see what God is doing, we can yet have faith that He is doing His will because His Word says He is always working on behalf of His own for His own glory. Spurgeon often said, “When you don’t understand and you can’t see His plan; when you can’t trace God’s hand, trust His heart.”
Then David finishes this section with these wonderful words of faith, “In your steadfast love give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth.” David knows where his strength comes from. He knows in what and in Whom… his joy and happiness rests. David knows where his peace is found. David knows where true justice lies. David knows who will ultimately make all things “right” but in the meantime he keeps going to God for life that he might keep proclaiming God’s truth to all who will and can listen.
There is a lot to focus on today but the only person that will enable us to see through the fog of this fallen life is Christ…our true happiness and joy. So like David and the believers of old we must go to His Word, rest in Him and do as He directs us to do from His Word. That is…no matter how hard life gets Do Not Forsake His Precepts and Hope in His Word…this is the foundation of rejoicing always in the Lord …which is the primary message of Psalm 119!
In His Grip,
Pastor Mike
