Happy and Blessed - Pt. 8

Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life. The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law. When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort, O Lord. Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake your law. Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning. I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law. This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept your precepts. (Psalm 119:49-51 ESV).

 

As we noted earlier, we don’t know who wrote Psalm 119. Some people have suggested that maybe the prophet Daniel wrote it. If he did, the words in this section could echo his own life experience (cf. Daniel 6:6-27). His story is so familiar to all of us who have read the Scripture. Filled with hatred, Daniel’s ­rivals mocked and scorned him. Daniel was a highly effective leader, and King Darius of Babylon put him in charge of one-third of the kingdom. But Daniel’s enemies hated him so much that they tricked the king into making a new law: “Whoever prayed to any god or person besides Darius the king would be thrown into the ­lions’ den.” They did this because they knew Daniel prayed only to God and would never pray to Darius. Soon Daniel was seen praying to God, and he was thrown into the lions’ den at sundown the same day. All through that night, however, God protected Daniel, and his life was spared.

 

These words of our reading today from Psalm 119 provide an inspiring example. The psalmist’s suffering drives him deeper into God’s Word, and he meditates on it even as he waits sleeplessly through the night, finding comfort in God’s promises. I cannot imagine the stress and anxiety that Daniel went through in that experience. I also cannot discount the stress and anxiety you or I may have experienced. I may have never been thrown into a pit of ravenous lions, however, I have known what it is like to seem hopeless and alone in a seeming insurmountable circumstance. It is precisely at that moment when we must learn to trust God.

 

No one likes to suffer, but we can take courage that suffering can actually move us closer to God. As we meditate on God’s Word, we experience ever more deeply his love and the comfort of his promise to preserve us. As the writer says, Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning. I remember your name in the night (v. 50). When the night appears the darkest, then remember the name of our God and Savior! That is the moment we shall see the light and recognize nothing and no one is greater than He is!