Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort,
According to thy word unto thy servant (Psa 119.76).
Moved by the Holy Spirit, the psalmist here prays earnestly for comfort. “I pray thee” is emphatic expression, like, “Please! I beg you!” with a focus on the desire of the speaker, used to heighten a sense of urgency.1 If we generally despise such pleas, we exhibit the ungodly trait of pride2 and influence of Stoicism.3 The more our true humanity is restored, the more we will be sensitive to the importance of right feeling and of our need to look above for deepest consolation.
The origin of the original Hebrew translated comfort “seems to reflect the idea of ‘breathing deeply,’ hence the physical display of one’s feelings.”4 The second part of Isaiah, “The Book of Comfort,” begins with this word: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem” (Isa 40.1-2). The substance of the message to be preached for the comfort of God’s people begins this way, “Cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (Isa 40.2), and it is followed by some of the most explicit statements
of the entire OT concerning the coming Messiah and the great deliverance he would accomplish for them. In NT terms, this is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We would note four things about this gospel consolation from the suffering one’s prayer request.
Several times the psalmist had just confessed his painful afflictions (119.67, 71, 75). He had acknowledged that these had benefited him spiritually and therefore that it was good for him to have been afflicted. He also recognizes that these trials are the outworking of Providence, sent by God himself, as an expression of his faithfulness. And now by faith this man of God begs from him, not relief from affliction, but in it (cf. 2 Cor 12.8-10).
Though the Lord himself had chastened him, the pious heart looks to the same Lord, without bitterness toward him or despair of his goodness, for a supply of comfort! This is how a living faith views God.
The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever (Psa 103.8-9).
Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up (Hos 6.1).
Don’t let any suffering God appoints for you make you doubt his love and power and goodness. He who brought you into the fire is able to preserve you in it and bring you through it, but you must persist in earnest prayer to your sovereign Lord.
TO ALL HIS BELIEVING SERVANTS
The psalmist refers to himself as God’s “servant.” In this context the word designates a worshiper of the true and living God, one who serves him as an act of service to him, which is not bondage but a joyous and liberating experience.5
There is not a hint of merit in this relationship, as if God owed anything to his servant, but rather loyalty between them. “Lord, I am trusting you and living for you; I am your servant.” This is a confession of personal and evangelical faith in an OT way of speaking.
Only those who believe the gospel have a personal claim by grace upon its blessings. Jesus “came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power [right or privilege] to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1.11-12).
We stress this both to keep unbelievers from presumption on God’s grace and also to encourage sincere Christians to rely upon it.
Blessed be his name, notwithstanding our faults we are still his servants, and we serve a compassionate Master (Spurgeon, in loc.).
All God’s servants have common grounds of comfort: every one of God’s servants may plead with God as David does (Manton, in loc.).
Even if your conscience bears witness that you have not been a true servant of God, the richness of gospel consolation can be yours by faith. “Be not afraid; only believe” (Mark 5.36) and you will know that your dead soul has been quickened by the God who has loved you from eternity as one of his own, and that you too can lay hold of this deep comfort.
AN EXPRESSION OF HIS MERCIFUL KINDNESS
“Let thy merciful kindness be for my comfort,” literally, “Let be / your mercy / for my comfort.”
The word for mercy is “chesed,” a word appearing hundreds of times in the OT and rendered elsewhere by the beautiful compound “lovingkindness.” It is an OT counterpart to the NT word “grace.”
Thus, the psalmist seeks God himself to be the comfort so desperately needed; particularly, God in his abundant love, favor, and faithfulness to his elect. As John Piper has said, “God is the gospel.”6
All that he needs, and all that he asks for, is, a sense of his merciful kindness upon his soul. . . . All the candles in the world, in the absence of the sun, can never make the day. The whole earth, in its brightest visions of fancy, destitute of the Lord’s love, can never cheer nor revive the soul. Indeed, it matters little where we are, or what we have. In the fullness of refreshing ordinances, unless the Lord meets us, and blesses us with his merciful kindness for our comfort, it is “a thirsty land, where no water is.” Absalom might as well have been at Geshur as at Jerusalem, so long as he “saw not the king’s face” (Cf. 2 Sam 14.23-24). Nothing that the Lord “gives us richly to enjoy” will satisfy, if this source of refreshment be withheld. The worldling’s inquiry is—“Who will show us any good?” The Christian forms his answer into a prayer— “Lord! lift thou up the light of the countenance upon me” (Psa 4.6).7
So this comfort is an internal blessing which may be enjoyed even in the most painful and severe circumstances. It is to know, deep down, that the Lord is full of merciful kindness, and that his merciful kindness is certainly mine.
GUARANTEED BY HIS STEADFAST PROMISE
Such faith has been thought inherently presumptuous by some, as if no one can know for sure that they are and will be saved.
However, once we realize that we could never be good enough in ourselves to deserve God’s love, and that it comes to the unworthy for the glorification of God’s grace alone, and that the gospel promises God’s favor to everyone who takes him up on his free offer, then assurance can be seen as a blessedly real possibility.
Indeed for any and all who have faith, at least a tiny seed of assurance has already been sown in their hearts! As faith grows and matures, so we can expect an increase in the strong assurance enjoyed by the happiest believers.
Contrary to what many think, it is not a mark of great spirituality to be kept in perpetual suspense about one’s standing before God. The gospel is an ironclad promise of God’s merciful kindness to any and all who repudiate self-sufficiency and self- righteousness and receive Christ as the gracious Father’s free gift to the unworthy. Faith is an open and empty hand that suddenly feels the warm, nail-pierced hand of God’s Son taking it in solemn pledge of his everlasting love, as a suitor takes his fiancé’s hand and promises to marry her. Does she honor him if she goes about saying she is not sure whether he will keep his word? Our bold testimony of Christ’s favor by grace, far from being foolhardy, gives him the credit he is due.
It is likewise with our ardent, believing prayers for gospel consolation in our trials. “Lord, your word to your servant was that you love me and will be faithful to me until the end. Now in my afflictions, let your lovingkindness be felt deeply in my heart and so comfort me.” If you are willing by faith to pray this way like the psalmist, then you can also know that you have God’s favor and its consequent blessing, even eternal life, for that is guaranteed by God’s steadfast gospel promise.
Lord Jesus! I would seek for a renewed enjoyment in thy merciful kindness. I would not forget, that it was this that brought thee down from heaven—that led thee to endure the death of the cross—that has washed me in thy precious blood—that visits me with many endearing tokens of thy love. Oh, let all my days be spent in the sense of this merciful kindness for my comfort, and in rendering to thee the unworthy returns of grateful, filial service.8
Don’t let unbelief, pride, and Stoicism hold back the overwhelming flood of these gospel blessings in your heart and life. “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him” (Psa 34.8). Amen.
Notes:
1. DBL #5528.
2. The foundation of a belief in self-sufficiency which absolutely kills the spirit of supplication directed toward God in prayer.
3. An ancient Greek philosophy advocating indifference to pleasure and pain, now influencing slogans like “grin and bear it” and “keep a stiff upper lip.” Stoicism denied a personal Creator-God and any need for a savior (NDT).
4. TWOT 1344.
5. DBL 6269, TWOT 1553a.
6. Book of the same title.
7. Charles Bridges, in loc.
8. Ibid.
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