Context No. 4313 of 4322 · Psalms
Context · Reflection
Psalms 119:49-64: in context
49Remember your word to your servant, because you gave me hope. 50This is my comfort in my affliction, for your word has revived me. 51The arrogant mock me excessively, but I don’t swerve from your law. 52I remember your ordinances of old, LORD, and have comforted myself. 53Indignation has taken hold on me, because of the wicked who forsake your law. 54Your statutes have been my songs in the house where I live. 55I have remembered your name, LORD, in the night, and I obey your law. 56This is my way, that I keep your precepts. 57The LORD is my portion. I promised to obey your words. 58I sought your favor with my whole heart. Be merciful to me according to your word. 59I considered my ways, and turned my steps to your statutes. 60I will hurry, and not delay, to obey your commandments. 61The ropes of the wicked bind me, but I won’t forget your law. 62At midnight I will rise to give thanks to you, because of your righteous ordinances. 63I am a friend of all those who fear you, of those who observe your precepts. 64The earth is full of your loving kindness, LORD. Teach me your statutes.
In the midst of affliction and mockery from the arrogant, the psalmist finds his comfort in one place: God's word. This is my comfort in my affliction, he says, that your promise gives me life. When he is afflicted, when the arrogant deride him, when the cords of the wicked entangle him, he turns to God's word and finds in it comfort and reviving life. Remember your word to your servant, he prays, in which you have made me hope.
What stands out is that the psalmist's comfort in hard times comes not from changed circumstances but from God's word. The affliction remained; the mockery continued. Yet God's promises gave him life and hope in the midst of it. He remembered God's word in the night, sang God's statutes in the house of his pilgrimage, and found his afflicted soul revived by what God had said.
When we are troubled, mocked, or entangled by difficulty, and our circumstances do not change, we can find, as the psalmist did, comfort and reviving life in God's word. His promises give hope where circumstances give none; his word revives the afflicted soul. To turn to Scripture in affliction, to remember God's promises in the night, is to find a comfort that does not depend on our troubles lifting, but on the sure word of God.
When I am afflicted and my circumstances do not change, do I turn to God's word for comfort as the psalmist did, finding in his promises a reviving life and hope that does not depend on my troubles lifting but on the sure word of God?
Sources
- Psalm 119:50: "This is my comfort in my affliction, for your word has revived me."
- Psalm 119:49: "Remember your word to your servant, because you gave me hope."
- Psalm 119:52: "I remember your ordinances of old, LORD, and have comforted myself."