November 10, 2019 -- Psalm 119:50 -- Standing tall for our God

This is my comfort in my affliction,

that your promise gives me life.

Psalm 119:50 English Standard Version

The word “affliction” can also have the sense of “humiliation”—those who serve the LORD will suffer for their faithfulness. They will encounter everything from skepticism to imprisonment for their dedication to the Holy One. Students may be humiliated by their teachers, who act as if their godless belief system is superior, and such teachers mock their students mercilessly. Employees, seeking to honour the commandments of their King, will not work on Sundays and such people can suffer consequences for their commitment to Jesus. A woman may meet a man she is very interested in, but learning he is not a true, dedicated-to-Jesus Christian will not be open even to dating him because such a relationship is in violation of her commitment to the Word of God.

Likely many Christians cannot identify with this particular verse of Psalm 119 because they have not been willing to suffer for the sake of Jesus. They would rather not identify with Jesus in His suffering and that means they bow to peer pressure or cave in doing what they claim their convictions would forbid in order to stay in step with the norms of society. If this sounds like you, then this verse is a wake-up call: to fortify your minds, and steel your resolve and re-commit yourselves to being faithful to the LORD of Glory no matter the consequences. Here is the firm foundation for such confident living.

Those who bear affliction, humiliation and suffering for the sake of Jesus’ Name will be comforted. In fact the word “comfort” has the sense that there will be urgent, persistent, steadfast streams of comfort pouring into the soul of the afflicted. It is the Spirit of God Whom Jesus describes as His Comfort. It is the Spirit of God, sent from the Father to the believer, Who takes up residence in the heart, mind and soul of the believer fortifying him to endure all things for the glory of Jesus. The Spirit of all Comfort reminds us that what the world sees is skewed and wrong. Believers see it as it is: Jesus is on the throne of heaven, conquering evil, bringing all thrones and powers, dominion and authority to submission and one day this will all be revealed. Those who stood firm as soldiers in the army of Jesus will receive their reward. All that is temporal and passing in this world will be swept away and the believer will finally see with their eyes what faith now sees: the eternal inheritance which is being prepared for all who kept fervent love for Jesus as the fire in their breast and the guiding vision of their lives.

Where we read “promise” the Hebrew and the Greek translation of the Hebrew called the Septuagint has “word”. Remember John 1 and I John 1 where Jesus is described as “the word”. He is the Word of God Who takes on flesh—God with Us. He is true God and true Man so that everything He reveals can be trusted and counted as utterly true.

Second, in Jesus we have life. We are instructed: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). The power of Jesus is such that in His Great Name we have life now that unfolds in ever greater measure into all eternity. Our every moment here on earth is infused with the great anticipation of the day when we will see Jesus and be ushered into the presence of our Father in Heaven. What can mere mortals here on earth do to us now? We live with the vision of Jesus Christ and of the weight of glory that is about to be given us!

With the great Irish hymn writer we cry out: “Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart, naught be all else to me, save that thou art—thou my best thought by day or by night, waking or sleeping, they presence my light. Be thou my battle shield, sword for my fight; be thou my dignity, thou my delight, thou my soul’s shelter, thou my high tower; raise thou me Heavenward, O Power of my power.” Amen.