Day 1153: An age old problem - Psalm 119 vs 81 - 88

81 My soul longs for Your deliverance, but I hope in Your word. 82 My eyes are weary for Your word, saying, “When will You comfort me?” 83 For I have become like a wine skin dried in the smoke, yet I have not forgotten Your statutes. 84 How many days are given to Your servant? When will You provide judgment on those who persecute me?

85 The proud have dug pits for me, and they do not live in accordance to Your law. 86-87 All Your commandments are faithful; I am persecuted without cause; help me! They have almost consumed me on the earth, but I have not abandoned Your precepts. 88 Revive me according to Your loving-kindness, that I may keep the testimony from Your mouth. Psalm 119:81-88 English Standard Version.

These posts are interspersed now and then with a Psalm, and today we're looking at eight verses from Psalm 119. What was the problem the writer was so sorely troubled by? Vs 81-82

It was the age old problem of when God appears to be far away when the believer is going through deep trials and opposition. The writer was longing for deliverance. He was longing for God's comfort. He has grown weary from searching. In vs 83 says he felt like a wine skin that has been left too long in the smoke. And yet he was able to say that he had not forgotten God's teachings!

I say it was an 'age old' problem because it was a road that servants of God had often walked down. And it's a road that Christians today will still travel. Jesus said: “A servant is not greater than his master.’If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15:20) But what was it that made this man's problem seem worse? Vs 84-85.

He found it more difficult because those persecuting him were proud, and cared nothing for God's commands. Does that strike a chord with what Christians are facing today? The strongest opposition comes from those who “don't live in accordance to God's law.” They have dug pits which they hope will trap Christians. Pits of 'hate speech', and pits of 'being offended'. Apart from feeling that God was silent, he wondered how long such opposition would last. He may even have wondered how many days he had left to live, for he says in the next section that “They have almost consumed me on the earth!”

He knew he was standing for what was true. God's word is faithful on every subject. So those who were opposing him were doing it without cause. There was no reason for their hatred. All he could do was to rely on what God had spoken, and to cry out to God for help. And he was doing that despite his life being in danger. Perhaps he was feeling that his faith was growing weak, so he asks God to revive him in loving-kindness so that he could press on.

I realize that many who read this might not be facing such opposition. God's grace may have caused our path to fall in pleasant places. But Jesus anticipated the struggles that some might have to go through, and told a parable of a women who was desperately seeking justice from a worldly judge. And because she kept coming to him, he eventually gave in to her request saying, “Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.” And the Jesus said: “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily.” Luke 18:1-7

We read that Jesus told that parable to encourage believers to pray always, and to never lose heart. But He finished it by saying “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” God's silence is an age old problem. But let us not give up clinging to the truth of His word, and seeking His face in our prayers. He hears, and He will answer in His time.