Psalm 119:50

Today we come to the second verse in the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Zain

Psalms 119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.

The verse begins with the demonstrative pronoun this. The pronoun this points to a person or thing that is present in space, time, or thought. It especially points to something that has just been mentioned, as is the case here. In the previous verse the psalmist mentioned the word of God to him, upon which God had caused him to hope. The word of God to me that gives me hope is indeed my comfort in my affliction.

Now just what is comfort?

Comfort - Strengthening; encouragement, incitement; aid, succour, support, countenance (appearance of favour).

The psalmist found in God’s word a source of strength, encouragement, and support when he was in affliction. Do you? Does your Bible truly help you cope with the hardships of life? Does it open to you a window of hope beyond what you are suffering? It should, because that is what it was written to do.

Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Consider some of the things you can expect from the Lord because He has promised them to you in His word. This is God’s word upon which He has caused you to hope. You can expect Him to supply all your need (Philippians 4:19). When you confess your sins to God, you can expect Him to forgive them and to cleanse you of them (1JO 1:9). As you go through life with its heap of troubles, the Lord has promised to help you, to strengthen you, and to always be there for you (Isaiah 41:10; 43:2; Hebrews 13:5-6). You can count on the Lord to never permit you to be tempted above your ability to bear (1Corinthians 10:13). You may confidently expect the Lord Jesus Christ to come back for you and to take you to His Father’s house where He has prepared a place for you (John 14:1-3). Are not all these things a comfort to you in your affliction?

The reason God’s word was a comfort to the psalmist was because it quickened him. Let’s look again at the definition of quicken.

Quicken – To give or restore life to; to make alive; to vivify or revive; to animate. To give, add, or restore vigour to (a person or thing); to stimulate, stir up, rouse, excite, inspire.

Afflictions have a way of draining us, of wearing us down. They can sap the life out of us. In such a state we need our vigour restored. We need stirring up. And that is what God’s word of hope does for us. Charles Spurgeon wrote: “Troubles which weigh us down when we are half dead become mere trifles when we are full of life.” When the word of God revives you and stirs you up, it strengthens you and helps you, that is, it comforts you. It makes your affliction more bearable. When this happens, then you can say from experience: This is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me.

And if the word of the Lord is not bringing you comfort, if it is not stirring you up, then you might well ask yourself if you are truly the Lord’s servant. For this verse and the one that precedes it are talking about God’s word to His servant. The benefits of quickening and comfort belong to those who submit to the Lord as His servants.

Let me conclude this meditation with a word of warning. When you are being stressed and drained by the afflictions of life, be very careful about what you turn to for comfort. The devil will be only too ready at those times to offer you sources of comfort that in the end will destroy you. Examples of such faulty sources of comfort would be alcohol or drug abuse, gluttony, gambling, overmuch pleasure, unhealthy relationships, fornication, or adultery, to name some. In all your afflictions, let your first recourse for support be to your God and His word. Wait patiently for Him. Never forget that it is “through patience and comfort of the Scriptures” that we have hope (Romans 15:4, cited above). The Lord will bring relief in due time.

Psalms 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

And when the good Lord has tried you in the furnace of affliction and exercised your patience, you will be the better for it. Let this prospect be your comfort in your affliction.

Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Psalm 119:49

We are now ready to take up the next octave of Psalm 119 entitled Zain. The ai is pronounced like the ai in the word aisle. But before we get into this let me state something. Some have said that while they appreciate these meditations on Psalm 119, they prefer when I do blogs on different subjects. But if you look past the fact that Psalm 119 is prefixed to every meditation and pay careful attention to what I am writing, you should notice that many different topics are addressed in this psalm. The psalmist mentions a wide range of human experiences and emotions. It is obvious that the psalmist is processing all of his life with all its myriad of experiences through the word of God, which is precisely what we, who are servants of God, should do. There is a great example being set before us in this psalm. Sometimes I go back and read previous meditations I have written from this psalm and I am amazed at the breadth and depth of information I have already mined from it. So I ask you to look beyond the fact that we are dealing with the same psalm and consider the tremendous variety of information that can be gleaned from it. With that off my chest, let’s come to today’s verse.

Psalms 119:49 ZAIN. Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.

When the psalmist asks the Lord to remember His word, there is no implication here that God ever forgets it. God is omniscient. He knows everything and, therefore, nothing ever slips His mind, most especially His own word. Rather, the psalmist is using a mode of expression very common in speech. We often tell someone to remember something or not to forget something. When we do this, we are simply bringing something before that person that they have said or that they are supposed to do. When we tell someone to remember something they said, we are also telling that person that we remember. The psalmist remembers what God has said and is pleading that before Him, which occurs often in the Bible. The most effective way to pray to God is to ask Him to do what He has promised to do. By so doing we are showing the Lord that we take His word very seriously and that we build our expectations upon it. This honours God in that it demonstrates our faith in His truthfulness to do what He promises and in His power to be able to bring it to pass.

I find the insights of Charles Spurgeon about this verse to be rich.

“This verse is the prayer of love fearing to be forgotten, of humility conscious of insignificance and anxious not to be overlooked, of penitence trembling lest the evil of sin should overshadow the promise, of eager desire longing for the blessing, and of holy confidence which feels that all that is wanted is comprehended in the word.”

Observe that the psalmist asked God to remember His word unto thy servant. The psalmist is referring to himself in the singular. He is applying the word of God to himself in particular. And that is the privilege of every servant of God. When you read the Bible, read it as though God is speaking to you in particular, because He is! Take the promises He has made to you and turn them back to Him in prayer. Prayers that are centered in God’s word are sure to be heard.

1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

But just you remember that this word is a word to God’s servant. You have no place praying a prayer like this if you are in rebellion against God, if you are serving self, or mammon, or something other than the Lord. This is a servant’s prayer!

The psalmist described God’s word as a word upon which thou hast caused me to hope. The psalmist built his expectations upon what God said. Men may promise you many things and thereby raise your hopes. But men do not always follow through on what they promise, either because they cannot or they will not. We should all make it a priority to make good on our word to others. But sometimes things occur so that we cannot do as we promised. We mean well, but we just do not have the absolute control of all things that always permits us to follow through on our intentions. But God has no such problems. He has the power at His disposal to always fulfill His promises. His great works in creation and in the government of this universe, and His promises that He has fulfilled thus far give us good reason to hope in His word. Hence we can say to God that He has caused us to hope in His word. He has given us the reason to expect Him to do as He has said.

But this thing of God causing us to hope in His word goes a step further. If we hope in God’s word, we obviously believe it. We have faith in it; we trust it. Faith and hope work in tandem. You certainly would not find much hope in something you did not believe.

Jeremiah 17:7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

And if we have such faith, we have it because we are born of God, because God has brought us from spiritual death unto spiritual and eternal life so that we may hear, receive, and believe His word. And believing His word, we build out hope upon it.

1 John 5:1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead….

Without the work of God in giving us spiritual life in the new birth, we would neither hear nor receive His word. Thus we would have no cause to hope in His word.

John 8:47 He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Thanks be to God for His saving grace that has caused us to hope in His word.

Psalm 119:48

We come today to the last verse in this octave entitled Vau. Recall that unlike the other octaves, every verse in this octave is connected by some word to the verse that precedes it. And such is the case with verse 48. By means of the word also it links up with verse 47.

Psalms 119:48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.

Both verses 47 and 48 mention that the psalmist has loved God’s commandments. In verse 47 we saw that loving God’s commandments leads to delighting oneself in them. In verse 48 the psalmist brings forth something else that loving God’s commandments will also lead to. So both verses are talking about the effect in one’s life of loving God’s commandments.

My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments. Think about this. Anytime you undertake to do any work with your hands, you lift up your hands unto the task, whether it be driving a vehicle, washing dishes, combing your hair, raking leaves, typing a document on your computer keyboard, reading a book, or repairing something. You can’t very well work with hands that are hanging down. By this expression of lifting up his hands unto God’s commandments the psalmist is telling us that he is going to apply himself to the task of keeping them.

Recall from our last meditation that the verb phrase I have loved is in the present perfect tense, meaning that the psalmist loved God’s commandments in the past and continued to love them in the present. Now the effect of loving God’s commandments is doing them. We pointed out last week the general principle that what you have loved up to now will determine what you will enjoy in the future. Now we can state another general principle from the verse we consider today: What you have loved up to now will determine what you will do in the future. The character of our lives is shaped by what we love. If we have loved God’s commandments we will lift up our hands to them. It will not be drudgery to execute the tasks God has assigned us in His commandments if we love them.

1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

And I will meditate in thy statutes. This is something else that will flow out of having loved God’s commandments. Not only will he apply his hands to God’s commandments, but he will also apply his heart and mind to them, by meditating in them. He will consider them, study them, which is what it means to meditate in them. It is not enough just to hear and read God’s word. You need to think about what you hear or read. If you love it, you will think about it. And that brings us to a third general principle that we can add to the other two: What you have loved up to now will determine what you will think about in the future. We more readily think about the things we truly love.

Psalm 119:47

The psalmist links the verse we consider today to the preceding verses by the word and.

Psalms 119:47 And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.

The man to whom God’s mercies have come (verse 41), who trusts in God’s word (v. 42), who hopes in God’s judgments (v. 43), who keeps God’s law continually (v. 44), who seeks God’s precepts (v. 45), and who is unashamed to speak of them before kings (v. 46), is a man who is going to find pleasure in God’s commandments. His Bible will be a source of joy for him in time to come.

The psalmist states: “I will delight myself in thy commandments.” What makes you most happy with yourself? Matthew Henry’s comment on this is most insightful:

“I will never be so well pleased with myself as when I do that which is pleasing to God.”

Observe the verb tenses in this verse. I will delight is the future tense. I have loved is the present perfect tense. According to Wikipedia and other resources I have checked, the present perfect tense is “used to express a past event that has present consequences.” The psalmist had loved God’s law in the past and he continued to love God’s law in the present, as he wrote later in this psalm:

Psalms 119:97 O how love (present tense) I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

Having loved God’s commandments, the psalmist was sure to delight himself in them in the future. From this we may draw a conclusion in general about life: What you have loved up to now determines what you will enjoy in the future. The things you most care about and place your affections upon are the things that have the greatest potential to bring you pleasure. Now some persons or things we have loved can disappoint our expectations and bring us grief in the future. But such will never be the case with God’s unfailing word.

It is interesting that the psalmist loved God’s commandments. When we studied verse 19 of this psalm, I pointed out that “this word commandment not only refers to those things that God has commanded us to do…but that word also refers to God’s government of this universe. Everything in this universe is subject to the command of God. It was created and continues to function by the commandment of God.” The psalmist loved the government of God over His creation. But he also loved God’s commandments as they pertain to the things God ordered him to do. He loved being under God’s authority. The person who loves being subject to God’s commandments is the person that is going to delight himself in them. If you resent any commandment God has given you, then to that degree you resent His authority over you. Such a rebellious attitude toward God’s authority is a poison that will spread and rob you of your pleasure in God’s word. If you want to enjoy your Bible study and your pastor’s teaching in the future, make sure you have the right attitude toward God’s word today.

Psalm 119:46

In this octave the psalmist has besought God: “take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth” (verse 43). Having the law of God at his disposal, the psalmist will keep it forever and thus walk at liberty (verses 44-45). Now by means of the word also the psalmist adds the following resolution:

Psalms 119:46 I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.

Having the word of God in his heart, mouth, and life, the psalmist resolves that he will unashamedly speak of it, even before kings. Now this is significant when you remember that princes “did sit and speak against” him (verse 23). But the psalmist would not be intimidated by this. He will stand before kings themselves and boldly speak of God’s testimonies. He will be ashamed of neither his Lord nor of His words. Connecting this verse to the one that precedes it, Charles Spurgeon wrote:

“This is part of his liberty; he is free from fear of the greatest, proudest, and most tyrannical of men.”

No power in this earth no matter how great it was would cause the psalmist to shrink from speaking of God’s testimonies. A man like this is walking at liberty. He is truly a free man! Today’s verse reminds us of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who would not bow to King Nebuchadnezzar’s image of gold even under threat of a painful death. God’s testimonies forbad them to worship any other god but Jehovah and to bow down before any graven image. They were not ashamed to own those testimonies before the king. We also think of the apostle Paul who spoke of God’s testimonies before the governor Felix (Acts 24), before the governor Festus (Acts 25), and before king Agrippa (Acts 26). And then Paul appealed to be heard by Caesar Augustus himself. Indeed, he would speak of God’s testimonies also before kings, and would not be ashamed. Paul was not ashamed to speak God’s truth before kings because he was empowered by the Spirit of God.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; 9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel....

How could any believer in his right mind be ashamed of the One Who saved his soul and conquered death! It is sad to see a professing Christian cower before an angry relative, or a scornful professor in the classroom, or unbelieving friends. Showing such cowardice before these of lesser stature, it is almost certain he would never stand up for his faith before judges, governors, and kings. And being thus ashamed to own his Lord and His words, the Lord will be ashamed of him at His coming. Hear the words of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Mark 8:38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Now that is a frightful prospect! More frightening than anything we might suffer for boldly speaking of the testimonies of our Lord before the most powerful kings of this earth.