Psalms 119:81-96: a reflection

81My soul faints for your salvation. I hope in your word. 82My eyes fail for your word. I say, “When will you comfort me?” 83For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke. I don’t forget your statutes. 84How many are the days of your servant? When will you execute judgment on those who persecute me? 85The proud have dug pits for me, contrary to your law. 86All of your commandments are faithful. They persecute me wrongfully. Help me! 87They had almost wiped me from the earth, but I didn’t forsake your precepts. 88Preserve my life according to your loving kindness, so I will obey the statutes of your mouth. 89LORD, your word is settled in heaven forever. 90Your faithfulness is to all generations. You have established the earth, and it remains. 91Your laws remain to this day, for all things serve you. 92Unless your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. 93I will never forget your precepts, for with them, you have revived me. 94I am yours. Save me, for I have sought your precepts. 95The wicked have waited for me, to destroy me. I will consider your statutes. 96I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commands are boundless.

This section of the long psalm on God's word comes from a place of affliction. The psalmist is persecuted, worn down, fainting: My soul faints for your salvation; I have become like a wineskin in the smoke. Yet through it all he clings to God's word, and he makes a striking confession: Unless your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. It was God's word, delighted in and held onto, that kept him alive when affliction would otherwise have destroyed him.

Notice what sustained the psalmist through his suffering: God's word. He was persecuted, fainting, nearly wiped out; but he did not forsake God's word, and it revived him. Indeed, he says that without the delight he found in God's word, he would have perished in his affliction. God's word was not a mere duty to him in his suffering; it was his delight and his sustenance, the thing that held him up when everything else was giving way. And he rested, too, in its permanence: your word is settled in heaven forever.

That points us to where to turn in our own affliction. When we are worn down, persecuted, fainting, we need something to sustain us, something that does not give way when everything else does. The psalmist found it in God's word, delighted in and held onto. When affliction comes, do not neglect God's word as though it were a luxury for easier times; turn to it, delight in it, let it revive and sustain you, as it sustained the psalmist. God's word is settled forever, a sure ground when all else fails, and it can hold you up when affliction would otherwise crush you. Delight in it, and let it keep you alive in your affliction, as it kept the psalmist.

Lord, in his affliction, persecuted and fainting, the psalmist clung to your word and confessed that unless your law had been his delight, he would have perished in his affliction; your word revived and sustained him when all else was giving way. Turn me to that same sustenance in my own affliction. When I am worn down, fainting, hard-pressed, I need something to hold me up, something that does not give way when everything else does. The psalmist found it in your word, delighted in and held onto. When affliction comes, keep me from neglecting your word as though it were a luxury for easier times; help me turn to it, delight in it, and let it revive and sustain me. Your word is settled forever, a sure ground when all else fails, and it can hold me up when affliction would otherwise crush me. Help me delight in your word, and let it keep me alive in my affliction, as it kept the psalmist.