Psalm 119:143

We continue working our way through the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Tzaddai.

Psalms 119:143  Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights.

I don't think I need to define the word trouble.  Our lives are full of experiences that define that word for us.  But let’s define the noun anguish and the verb phrase take hold.

Anguish – Excruciating or oppressive bodily pain or suffering, such as the sufferer writhes under.  Severe mental suffering, excruciating or oppressive grief or distress.

Take hold – fig. To get a person or thing into its (or one’s) ‘hold’ or power; usually with of; of a feeling, a disease, etc.:  to seize and affect forcibly and more or less permanently.

In this case the trouble that took hold of the psalmist was also characterized as anguish, which means that it was a particularly severe and oppressive trouble.  I am sure you can all attest to the fact that there are troubles and then there are troubles!  There are those troubles we encounter that make other troubles look like a cake walk in comparison.  And it was this anguishing kind of trouble that had taken hold of the psalmist.

Now observe that the psalmist did not go looking for trouble and anguish.  They came after him and seized him.  And seizing him, they oppressed him.  This was not a trouble that the psalmist could free himself from.  It was forced upon him. 

Nevertheless, as oppressive as the trouble was, he could still say:  yet thy commandments are my delights.  This phrase echoes what was written in verse 92 of this psalm:

Psalms 119:92  Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.

When commenting on this psalm we saw that delight is defined as pleasure, joy, or gratification felt in a high degree.  Therefore, the psalmist did not allow his trouble and anguish to sap him of all joy.  He kept to his Bible notwithstanding, and found something there to offset his grief and make it more supportable so that it did not destroy him.  And as we noted when commenting on verse 92, he found delights, plural, in God’s word.  There are numerous things in God’s commandments to cheer the soul if they be received in faith.  I know this from personal experience.  Just this week I am dealing with some troubles that are causing me grief, which is not anything unusual for a pastor.  But in the midst of this I studied Hebrews 2:5-13 in preparation to conduct an evening Bible study.  Just studying about the Lord Jesus Christ, His incarnation to suffer and die for our sins, and His subsequent glorification delighted my soul and gave me relief from my grief.  The trouble is still there, but so is the delight.  Therefore, I can relate to the apostle Paul who described himself “as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing” (2Corinthians 6:10).

And not the least of these delights we find in God’s word is the fact that the trouble and anguish God’s children experience in this world are the only hell they shall ever know, because Christ has made eternal satisfaction for their sins.  On the other hand, trouble and anguish will be the lot of the wicked for all eternity since this is precisely what God will render to them in the Day of Judgment.

Romans 2:5  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

6  Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

7  To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:

8  But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,

9  Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile….

Furthermore, today’s verse reveals to us the character of the psalmist.  You can tell a lot about a person by noticing what his delights are.  Thomas Manton said it well:  “Men are good and bad, as the objects of their delights are:  they are good who delight in good things, and they are evil who delight in evil things.”