Reminders of Comfort
Reflections • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 26:49
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· 126 viewsIt seems like so many people these days are dealing with anxiety like never before. The author of Psalm 119 describes the details of his own stress, and points us towards an answer to anxiety.
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81 My soul faints with longing for your salvation,
but I have put my hope in your word.
82 My eyes fail, looking for your promise;
I say, “When will you comfort me?”
83 Though I am like a wineskin in the smoke,
I do not forget your decrees.
84 How long must your servant wait?
When will you punish my persecutors?
85 The arrogant dig pits to trap me,
contrary to your law.
86 All your commands are trustworthy;
help me, for I am being persecuted without cause.
87 They almost wiped me from the earth,
but I have not forsaken your precepts.
88 In your unfailing love preserve my life,
that I may obey the statutes of your mouth.
Alright, I admit that I spent some time this week watching my share of some March madness basketball. I like to see a good upset in the brackets if for nothing else because of the absolute joy and enthusiasm on the faces of an underdog team when they pull off the big win and move on to the next level of the dance. It’s fun to see those games in the early rounds. But it seems to me that those kinds of stories can only last in the early rounds. It’s pretty unlikely we’re going to see a 15 seed team getting into the final four—let alone play for the NCAA championship. Somewhere along the path of those brackets, the adrenaline runs out, the energy just isn’t enough to carry them anymore.
This is a bit of what we see in the mind of today’s passage. We get a picture here of someone whose energy is fading. It’s one of the key words in this section of Psalm 119 from verses 81-88. The Hebrew word colah occurs three times in these eight verses. It is a word that carries the idea of being used up, emptied, drained, wiped out, deteriorated. I highlighted it in English in your outline with red. You see it in verses 81, 82, and 87. My soul faints; my eyes fail; they almost wiped me from the earth. All three of those using the same Hebrew word colah to convey the idea of being used up, drained, emptied. The author is saying, it feels like I just have nothing more to give.
And it is in this time that the writer is looking for some form of comfort, some kind of relief. And we see how this plays out in the other words of section in Psalm 119. Specifically, notice that there are five appeals to God for assistance, and five corresponding statements of assurance. These are marked in the outline for you as well. The appeals are in blue, and the assurances and highlighted in yellow.
Three times the psalmist brings his appeal to God in a question. And they are all questions of timing. How long? When? I’m used up here; I’m spent; my energy is gone – is it going to be much longer? This is the kid in the back seat of the long car trip who can’t stop asking: Are we there yet? It is never a question of if, rather it is a question of when. This is important. The point for the psalmist is not an issue of certainty. Rather, it is an issue of timing. He is not asking: But what if…? He is asking: But what now?
For every one of those five appeals to God—when, how long, help me, preserve my life—there is a balancing statement of assurance. This is the place where the author finds comfort in his place of waiting for the Lord’s deliverance. Look at those five statements; they all have the same theme. I have put my hope in your word; I do not forget your decrees; All your commands are trustworthy; I have not forsaken your precepts; that I may obey the statutes of your mouth. Every one of these statements of comfort circles back to God’s Word. This is the place to which the psalmist returns for comfort.
Over the past few weeks as we have looked closely at sections of Psalm 119, I have focused our attention by going verse-by-verse. Today I want us to back up a bit and consider from these words something about what might be going on in the mind of the writer which helps make better sense of these words.
With the repeated expression of colah—being used up, drained, emptied—we get the feeling of loss taking place. This is the picture of a person who has in some profound and ongoing way experienced some significant loss. There are no hints in these words as to what those losses might be. And that’s okay. In fact, maybe that’s the point. It is left undefined so that you and I have a place to enter into story of God’s Word here.
Experiencing loss is a part of life in this broken world. That takes shape in so many ways. Maybe you have friends that have fallen away from contact and you lose some relationships that were once cherished. Maybe you didn’t make the varsity team this year and all your other friends did. Maybe the job you really wanted and worked so hard for slipped away. Maybe declining health or chronic pain has kept you from being as physically active as you once were. Maybe a close friend or family member passed away. Maybe retirement years bring on a sense of less fulfilment in your daily tasks and chores. Maybe the world is changing so fast and is just not the same as you remember it being.
At certain times and on certain days and through certain seasons of life we deal with feelings of loss; that we don’t matter as much, that we do not contribute as we once did, that our place of belonging has dried up, that our circle of close relationships is being emptied. Dried up, emptied – colah. Every one of us no matter what our age or place in life knows what it is like to experience loss from time-to-time.
Perhaps these losses from time-to-time leave us in different places. We all respond and cope with loss in different ways. Sometimes we respond with denial—it’s not affecting me; I can deal with it in my own way. Sometimes we respond with frustration—I wish I could have it back like it was before. Sometimes we respond with despair—I just don’t even know what I am going to do now. sometimes we respond with defiance—if I just press back hard enough, I can make this loss go away and have everything back again. Here’s the point; we all experience loss in some way, and we all react somehow. This is every single one of us.
So then, let’s work this out. What can we pick up from this poet writing Psalm 119 that shows us something about how to deal with the stress and anxiety of loss?
He finds comfort again and again in the one thing he can return back to again and again. He goes to the Word of God. Because it is in the Word of God that he finds the path forward. When all other paths in front of him leave him drained, empty, used up, the Word of God affirms a path in which he can abide.
It is a focus that shifts from that which he cannot do anything about to that which he can do something about. He cannot rescue himself from the losses he has experienced and continues to live within. But—even with loss—he can abide in the path provided to him by the Word of God. And this brings him comfort.
That’s instructive for us. It’s a good reminder in this psalm—not just a reminder of where our comfort comes from, but a reminder about how to embrace that comfort and live within that comfort. Look at how this works. It is a path that acknowledges the place of waiting for God to bring salvation. But it is also a path that gives us direction while we wait for God’s salvation.
When we confront issues of loss and stress and anxiety, there is perhaps no one in the Bible who has dealt with more of this than Job. Job is the ultimate example in the Bible of someone who had to confront stress that must have just torn his soul apart as one loss after another pounded upon him.
But even with everything that was taken away from Job and robbed from his life, there was one thing that could never be taken away from him. Job could continue to abide in the way of the Lord. Job could continue to follow in the path of God’s Word. Nothing could ever take that away from him. Nothing can ever pull any one of us away from abiding in the path of God’s Word.
This is what comfort looks like when we put it into action. You and I cannot do anything about losses that may have occurred in our lives. But we can abide in the path of God’s Word. That’s something we can do. That’s something no one can take away. Wherever your life is at right now and however you got there doesn’t ever change the fact that right now every one of us can abide in the path of God’s Word. Whatever you’ve done in your past and whatever wrongs you’ve committed and whatever bridges you’ve burned cannot ever change the fact that right now every one of us can abide in the path of God’s Word. Whatever struggles you’ve endured, whatever wrong has been done to you or forced upon you, whatever feelings of shame or guilt you may continue to have cannot ever change the fact that right now every one of us can abide in the path of God’s Word.
Nothing ever takes that. You are never too far away from God’s love to be turned away from the path of his Word. You are never so far from God’s grace that he cannot reach you and turn your life around onto the path of his Word. You have never wandered too far away that he cannot call you back. You have never been away so long that his grace could ever fade away or lose its grip on you.
If life is awesome and you could never ask for anything better, then do so by abiding in the path of God’s Word. If you’ve been dealt a heavy blow and hardship seems to overwhelm you, you can still abide in the path of God’s Word. If stress and anxiety just seem to have a hold on your life as you bounce from one circumstance to the next, you can still abide in the path of God’s Word. If you feel stuck and it seems like the world keeps on moving forward and leaves you behind and there is nothing you can do about it, you can continue to abide in the path of God’s Word.
Let that be you one sure and abiding comfort. Nothing ever takes you away from Jesus. Nothing ever separates you from his grace. Nothing in this life ever pulls the path of his Word away from you. Nothing ever closes to way to the path of his Word. It is a sure and promised thing that the path of God’s Word will always be there for you. Because it is a sure and promised thing that Jesus is always holding you. Up or down; good or bad; may we always be able to say that it is well with my soul.