Psalm 119:81-88
Psa. 119:81 My soul faints for Your salvation,
But I hope in Your word.
Psa. 119:82 My eyes fail from searching Your word,
Saying, “When will You comfort me?”
In this part of the Psalm, David is looking for righteousness and justification. He is at a breaking point. David gets honest with himself. His soul – mind, will, and intellect are failing and in need of salvation. However, he recognizes that when we fail, and our efforts fail, there is still one place you can always get hope again: His Word. So he is not giving up yet.
The reality is that we all have been in that place before. We tried everything in our own strength to realize that we always end up short. The answer will never be ourselves but God and His Word. Even if it takes time to see His salvation, we should never lose focus.
In times like these, we can ask questions. When God, will I see your salvation? David asks lots of questions. When will you punish the unrighteous? When will you arise and deliver me from my enemies? We have an invitation from God:
Come now and let us reason together – Isaiah 1:18.
Put Me in remembrance, let us content together, state your case that you may be acquitted – Isaiah 43:26.
Psa. 119:83 For I have become like a wineskin in smoke,
Yet I do not forget Your statutes.
Psa. 119:84 How many are the days of Your servant?
When will You execute judgment on those who persecute me?
David continues to describe how desperate his situation is. In Biblical times the wineskins were hung in the smoke of the fire. The steady heat of the smoke helps to quicken the process of maturing the wine. David knew this and understands that he is in the process with God. However, he does wonder how long the process will last and how long he can last.
He wants to see justice on those that persecute him and adds to his difficulty. We feel the same way. If we see others suffering, we don’t feel so bad about our suffering.
There are two things Jesus guarantees us. First, we will be offended, and we will suffer if we live godly lives – Luke 17:1 with Matt 5:10. I love what Paul says:
2Cor. 4:9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed
The process of God is not to kill us but to kill our flesh or old nature. We don’t want to crucify the things of our flesh and allow them to die; God has a process to help us. In John 12, Jesus says: “Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it cannot bring forth much fruit.”
Psa. 119:85 The proud have dug pits for me,
Which is not according to Your law.
Psa. 119:86 All Your commandments are faithful;
They persecute me wrongfully;
Help me!
Pits in biblical times spoke of hard times, difficult times, and even struggling. It represented the wilderness experience for Israel on their way to the Promised Land. Remember Joseph? His brothers threw him in a pit. He ended up in prison(hole) before he was restored to rule in Egypt. Paul and Silas in jail were in the pit or inner cell where all the waste was collected, yet singing and praising God – Acts 16-16-40.
Jer. 2:6 Neither did they say, “Where is the LORD,
Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt,
Who led us through the wilderness,
Through a land of deserts and pits,
Through a land of drought and the shadow of death,
Through a land that no one crossed
And where no one dwelt?
The afterlife or abode of the dead was also described in these terms. My soul goes down into the pit. David says that He will not leave my soul in the pit. David compares the plans of the proud to those that have only one thing on their minds, to destroy him. He knows that the Law of God is good – Psalm 19:7 and keeps one from the snares of the enemy. The law is not like the proud.
Psa. 119:87 They almost made an end of me on earth,
But I did not forsake Your precepts.
Psa. 119:88 Revive me according to Your lovingkindness,
So that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth.
David keeps having hope. If God revives him, he will have a testimony to tell. The enemy almost succeeded but could not get him to turn his heart away from the precepts of God. The word David uses here for “precepts” carries the meaning of one who has a mandate or the authority to appoint.
The mandate he has from God is to honor His Word above all else. So if he gets through this, if God revives him according to what he knows is God’s character, then he will keep the testimony of God’s mouth, His Word, as his mandate.
We all get to a place where we are desperate. We all get into a place of feeling overwhelmed. We all have those “pit” seasons where we feel alone and abandoned. What about those times when it seems like God is not speaking?
Silence is just silence, never abandonment. He never leaves us or forsakes us.
