This is my comfort in my affliction:
For thy word hath quickened me (Psa 119.50).
Everyone suffers, including, and we might say, especially Christians. The reason is that Christians must suffer all the common and ordinary trials which are our lot simply because we are human beings in a fallen world. Conversion does not usher you into a state of “health and wealth” beyond what you might have enjoyed as an unbeliever, despite the misguided assurances of modern false teachers. But beyond those universal troubles, real Christians should expect to enter the kingdom of God only through much tribulation (Acts 14.22). We alone can expect to be persecuted for Christ’s sake (John 15.19-20; 2 Tim 3.12). We alone know the agonies of partially-redeemed souls yearning for perfect sanctification and feeling plagued by our remaining sins (Rom 7.24). We are not denying the joys of the true Christian experience, nor the blessed hope of our salvation (Rom 7.25), but rather stressing the solid biblical teaching that followers of the crucified Lord Jesus are called to have fellowship with Him in His sufferings (Phil 1.29; 3.10).
Indeed, the psalmist in our text testifies of suffering “affliction,” a rich word in the Hebrew connoting “misery, suffering, a state of hardship and trouble, with a focus on the experience of this state by the speaker.” The psalmist says, “my affliction,” and this is a present reality, though he was eminently spiritual as he was writing the inspired text. May the Lord deliver us from making judgments about anyone’s spirituality, including our own, which are directly tied to how much or little he or she may be suffering at the time! The best Christians may suffer the most horrible circumstances; Job’s experience should have forever settled this matter (Job 1.8).
Therefore, real Christians need to know where our comfort in affliction can be found. We can endure anything if God will strengthen and support us in it, but without His grace, we are undone!
God uses many means to comfort His people. Our text today brings a chief means, and perhaps the chief means, to our attention. The Word of God is the substance and the cause of our comfort.
THE WORD IS THE SUBSTANCE OF OUR COMFORT
By substance, I mean “the solid basis in reality or fact.” Many times we have known of certain well-meaning persons trying to comfort the afflicted with ill-founded promises meant to foster hope. “Don’t worry; you’re going to beat this terminal cancer and live for a long time.” But this is cruelty in disguise, because it does not have a solid basis in reality or fact. It is wishful thinking, and will probably prove to be a lie in the end. Believing lies may provide a sense of temporary relief, but they leave one poorly prepared to face reality and take the actions that are really in his own best interests.
When the psalmist says, “This is my comfort in my affliction,” it is apparent that he is referring to the absolutely true Word of God, for the previous verse says, “Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope” (119.49). This Word is my comfort in my affliction. The Hebrew for comfort or consolation means “that which causes encouragement, implying hope.” God’s Word of gospel promise is the solid basis in reality that soothes and strengthens the believing soul under trials. No matter how strong the persecutors without, or how raging my inward corruptions, as the Lord lives, He will perform His Word, and His Word toward me, a believer, is a word of deliverance and salvation.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end (Jer 29.11).
While the original context of this blessed text had historical reference to Jews in Babylonian exile, they were types of gospel redemption for God’s elect through all time. As Christians are “in Christ,” God’s beloved Son, all the love and faithfulness God will exercise toward His Son is ours too. Our legal and spiritual union with Christ is the factual basis upon which we can know for sure that all the promises of God’s glorious gospel of redemption apply to us. As Robert Hawker wrote,
Be the outward appearances of things what they may, yet the Lord is everlastingly pursuing one and the same invariable plan of mercy. His providences may vary, but his grace never can. It is the deficiency of our faith, and not a defect in the covenant, which makes a believing soul to stagger, and call in question divine faithfulness.
What afflictions are you suffering as a Christian? No matter what they are, there is a promise in Scripture upon which you may hope and take courage! Persecutors, remaining sin, the common trials of this life—all will be forever swept away when Christ returns and makes all things new! Keep this in mind and you will feel, along with the saints of all ages, that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom 8.18). That is because the Word of God in Scripture is the substance of our comfort.
THE WORD IS THE CAUSE OF OUR COMFORT
The first line of this inspired couplet is connected causally to the second, “for thy word hath quickened me.” The Hebrew verbal form suggests the original means “kept me alive,” or, “revived” me. Being addressed to the Lord, “Thy Word” certainly refers to God’s own Word, and in the context of Psalm 119, consistent with the other verses, this refers to Scripture.
In other words, God’s Word is my comfort in my affliction, because God’s Word has kept me alive. Spiritual preservation of the soul is probably especially in view. If we may paraphrase it in the negative, it seems the psalmist is saying, “If it had not been for God’s Word of promise, I would have sunk into complete despair, but Your Word, O Lord, has kept me from reverting into state of spiritual death or total apostasy.”
Scripture wielded by the Spirit has the power not only to beget spiritual life, but also to sustain it. The Word of God is the Seed of regeneration in the first place and the Bread of continuing spiritual life, the means of spiritual health, vigor, and vitality.
God’s people are a hardy lot, able to endure the most harsh and barren conditions, and even to flourish in them. Church history is replete with examples of poor, suffering saints whose spirits remained strong even while robbed, exiled, vilified, and martyred. Multitudes of Romans were converted through the courageous faith of Christian believers in the coliseums willing rather to be devoured by lions than to renounce their Savior. Martin Luther would not recant the gospel testified to in his books though practically the whole world of Christendom stood against him, and his life was threatened many times. And who knows how many Christians have resisted all Satanic temptations to suicide and chosen instead, most deliberately, to continue living in great weakness and pain from day to day?
What life-giving, soul-cheering resource continually supplies these afflicted souls with fresh courage to keep on living for God? As the psalmist says, “Thy Word hath quickened me.” Even novice Christians know enough to realize this.
Remember the teaching of Psalm 1.
Blessed is the man
That walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor standeth in the way of sinners,
Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord;
And in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
That bringeth forth his fruit in his season;
His leaf also shall not wither;
And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The Scriptures are “the rivers of water” that constantly supply the refreshment of soul necessary to constant fruitfulness, freshness, and genuine spiritual prosperity—these Scriptures which are the constant resort and comfort of the godly in their afflictions. “Thy Word has quickened me;” it is the cause of our comfort.
Sometimes pastors counsel professing Christians who are very miserable and seem to be without comfort in their trials. Often the problem can be traced back to their neglecting the means of grace God has provided them. “Where have you been reading and studying in the Scriptures lately, and how has that been helping you?,” we might ask. “Well, to be honest, pastor, I don’t really read the Bible much anymore.” That’s like telling the doctor you’ve been feeling very weak for a few days and then confessing you haven’t eaten in a week.
Brethren, once again in our text the Lord is challenging us to believe His Word. One of the marks of a true, saving faith in Christ is a great appreciation for the absolute centrality of Scripture to our spiritual experience. Where that appreciation is great, we will, by faith, be diligent in His Word, and our souls will benefit from hearing again and again His assurances of faithful love to us. May He grant us a heart to be diligent in His Word. Amen.
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