Psalms 119:49-64: a reflection

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.

This section of the great psalm of God's word is written from the middle of affliction. The arrogant mock the psalmist mercilessly, the wicked try to bind him, and yet he does not swerve from God's law. What holds him steady is God's word: remember your word to your servant, he prays, in which you have made me hope; this is my comfort in my affliction, that your word gives me life. In his suffering, Scripture is not an abstract thing but a lifeline, a source of comfort and revival.

The psalmist has made God's word the center of his life. Your statutes have been my songs, he says, in the house of my pilgrimage; at midnight I rise to give thanks to you. He remembers God in the night, meditates on his word, and finds in it his deepest comfort. And he makes a great confession: the Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words. God himself, known through his word, is his treasure and his stay, more than enough to sustain him through every hardship.

This psalm shows you where to turn in affliction. When you are mocked, pressed, or suffering, God's word can be your comfort and your life, a lifeline that revives when everything else fails. Make Scripture the center of your life now, in good times, so that it is there to sustain you in hard ones, your song in the house of your pilgrimage, your comfort in the night. And hold onto the psalmist's confession: the Lord is my portion. When affliction comes, the God you know through his word is enough to see you through.

Lord, in affliction the psalmist found your word to be his comfort and his life, and he confessed, the Lord is my portion. When I am mocked or pressed or suffering, let your word be my lifeline, reviving me when everything else fails. Make Scripture the center of my life now, so that it sustains me in hard times, my song and my comfort. And be my portion, enough to see me through every affliction. Amen.