Can I ask you some practical life questions?
Have you ever felt that your season of life is bearing down hard on you? Has there ever been a time when life was just difficult? Whether it’s consequences from bad decisions, tough things happening that are outside of your control, fears or anxieties as you think about the future, or even past issues that just keep coming back to mind, we all have things that seem to press down upon us.
How do you face the difficulties or miseries in your life?
Do you try to pull yourself up by your bootstraps? Do you depend on your productivity, planning, and/or organizational abilities? Do you brush them aside for another day, entertain them away, and/or deny that they even exist? What about when you have time to stop and reflect, and then that gnawing trouble (or troubles) come(s) back to the fore? How do you deal with the afflictions or difficulties you face in everyday life? Where do you turn? King David provides some insight, let’s see what he says…
This is my comfort in my affliction,
that Your word has revived me.
Psalm 119:50
In Psalm 119, David (inspired by the Holy Spirit) powerfully and masterfully lays out the wonders of God’s Word. It’s as though David is holding the most elegant and magnificent diamond in his hands and he stretches it out into the sky for us to see its penetrating splendor as the sun radiates through each intricate facet. In this discourse, David lets us into a vulnerable position that he was facing in verse 50. It’s as if David is admitting that he is weak and tired–that life simply has not dealt an easy hand to him and he needs something. His was a life of difficulties ranging from musically easing the pain of a tormented king, to abrupt job transitions, to having to prove himself to earn the hand of woman, to marriage struggles, to being a spear target, to making a home living hand-to-mouth in caves, to the loss of his best friend, facing the loss of several children, and many more difficulties. To put it plainly, David faced affliction. So, what does this word affliction mean? The word basically means misery or an oppressed situation. The idea would be like someone continuing to place heavy weights on your chest until you can barely breathe. Or being put in an arm-bar hold with your opponent not letting up even though you’re tapping out. We’re not told specifically what this affliction was that David was facing at the moment, but suffice it to say it was bearing down upon him.
However, in the midst of this trouble David finds comfort. The word comfort here is the Hebrew noun nechamah (nekh-aw-maw), which can mean encouragement or consolation. The word is used only one other time in the Hebrew Bible, and it is found in Job 6:10, “But it is still my consolation, and I rejoice in unsparing pain, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.” Here, Job, after receiving bad advice from friends, takes comfort that he didn’t set aside God’s Word despite his terrible life circumstances. And so, David, like Job, finds comfort from God.
Notice that David doesn’t say that the affliction goes away, or that he is even asking that it would go away. In fact, in verse 71, he says “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.” Isn’t that amazing?! David wasn’t looking for a way out, he was recognizing the way through!
What was the way through?
A revival or re-life! God preserved him with life! The word David used is revived, which means to give life or preserve alive. It’s a mysterious work of the Father–He didn’t take David out of the difficult season; no, no, He gave him life in the season! What specifically was the instrument that God used to give him life? His Word! This is the same word used in Psalm 12:6, “The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.” God’s Holy and undefiled communication to man! The Statutes of God are pure and are life-giving! Where else would we turn?
How does this apply to us today?
- God is still in the business of giving life, and it’s through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Word, became flesh and dwelt among us. Why would He do such a thing? To restore fellowship with God and man through redeeming (buying back) sinners that were condemned to eternal misery and torment separated from Him with His life offered on the cross as an acceptable sacrifice to God. His love grants us life, and his life lets us love. But how?
- The Holy Spirit of God, the Comforter, the Paraclete (One who comes alongside to comfort) now dwells in us through faith in the finished, holy-wrath-satisfying work of Christ upon the cross. This means that we can read and understand His Words, see also 1 Corinthians 2.
- The Word of God is still available for us to read, but we must, like David, hold it up and see all the glorious facets therein.
- It’s never too late! If you have wondered away, closed the Book, or forgotten more than you ever could read, don’t delay–come back to the Bible! Therein God speaks. You will know Him, learn from Him, and find that He gives you life! His means are a mystery, but David is a testament to its potency. Come back.
- If you’re reading the Bible for knowledge, then you will only go so far. It’s one thing to know about God, and a totally different thing to know God. Jesus is not simply a school Professor, though He taught; no, He is the Lord, and in Him is life.
- Jesus said in John 6, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” In other words, man is looking for physical food and physical drink to sustain them, but that only lasts for a little while. Just like all our material things on this earth the reprieve of physical pain is temporary, and then there quickly returns the hunger pangs and insatiable thirst. However, there was a more significant purpose of Christ, which was to give life to a spiritually dead soul and restore fellowship with God. This new life (re-birth) comes through Christ, a recognition of one’s sinful state separate from God, a response of faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross dying in the place of His people paying the penalty for their sin, and a reforming of one’s life through the power of the Holy Spirit that finds its source for life in the very Word of God.
Are you in a difficult season? Is life pressing in? Are you looking for a way out? If you are, then you’re not alone, but let me present another alternative way of thinking…
Will you pick up your Bible with me today? Will you drink from the life-giving fountain? Will you feast from the table of Heaven? Will you set aside all the distractions and simply soak, meditate, and read the Word of God?
There is life to be found–life indeed!
Until He calls us home, may we be found ruminating upon, remembering, and reforming our lives to His Precepts. O God, help us!
— December 11, 2015