Psalms 119:49 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.
The Psalmist understood that God could never forget His word. Speaking in the manner of men, this was a plea for God to fulfill the promises stated in His word. God wants His people to plead His stated promises back to Him in prayer. “This is, as Augustine said of his mother, ‘bringing before God his own hand-writing.’ Will he not remember his word?” (Bridges) “When we hear any promise in the word of God, let us turn it into a prayer. Spurgeon said that he often carried with him a small book of God’s promises (“Clarke’s Precious Promises”) “If God’s word to us as his servants is so precious, what shall we say of his word to us as his sons?” (Spurgeon)
The Psalmist understood that his trust and hope in God’s word should not be credited to his own spiritual greatness or genius. It came because God worked in him to hope in His word. The word of God is worthy of such hope. When recalled how faithfully and powerfully God’s word had brought him life in the past, he found comfort in his present affliction.
There is no specific prayer for help. Instead, there are “statements by the writer that he trusts what God has written in his law and will continue to love it and obey its teachings. It is a way of acknowledging that suffering is common to human beings.” (Boice)
All should remember that the word of God gives life, hope, comfort There was specific comfort in remembering Your judgments of old, O Lord. So we are comforted and strengthened in hope as we remember how God has dealt with men and circumstances in the past. “The grinning of the proud will not trouble us when we remember how the Lord dealt with their predecessors in bygone periods; he destroyed them at the deluge, he confounded them at Babel, he drowned them at the Red Sea, he drove them out of Canaan: he has in all ages bared his arm against the haughty, and broken them as potters’ vessels.” (Spurgeon)
Does it ever seem like you run to God’s word in time of need, trials, testing, trouble, and then when reflecting back on your life you see how you kept it at arms length in times of blessing? Does this even make sense to act this way?
Imagine a good friend who you reach out to in times of stress and trouble. They are always there for you and help comfort you through that time in your life. They make time for you. They listen to you. They encourage you. They help in many ways. Now fast forward to the other side of valley you have walked through. Times are better and you, with the help of your friend, are back on your feet again. What kind of person would we be considered if, at that point, we stop speaking to our helpful friend? What kind of person would just use this helpful friend in times of trouble and not in times of blessings?
Do we do this with God? Do we seem Him as an ATM with an unlimited “Help” card that we can use at will? He is worthy of so much more. He wants to be Lord of our life. He wants us to see His mighty hand, steadfast love, and awesome power in both times of trials and blessings. He wants us to willingly and with a longing heart want to hear His quiet small voice. He wants us to do His will. He wants us to trust His plan and purpose for our life.
If you are in a time of trial, turn to Him. If you are in a time of blessing, run faster to Him each day. In all things give thanks. At all times Honor God. Do not forget He is worthy of all praise, honor, glory with our absolute humble service and obedience – ALL OT THE TIME
