December 30, 2019 -- Psalm 119:83 - - Wineskins in the smoky trials

For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke,

yet I have not forgotten your statutes.

Psalm 119:83 English Standard Version

There are very many interpretations of this enigmatic text. Since those of us living in West generally don’t use wineskins to hold wine this verse took some digging to figure out. Wineskins are “bottles made of animal skin” made by sewing such skins together. If the wineskin is new and filled, then it is placed over the smoke so that in moderate heat the wine inside ages and matures properly. Alternatively, if the wineskin is empty, then it shrivels if it is over the smoky fire.

The interpretative key is in the next line: “Yet I have not forgotten your statutes”. The writer of this Psalm, while expressing feelings of emptiness and longing, has make a conscious decision to fill his heart and mind with the statutes of God. Without such statutes—which are the laws of God that have been tested and proved to be valid—the psalmist is empty and shriveled. Without the statutes of God he has no defense against the chaos of the world around him. When he is filled with the knowledge of God’s statutes, he compares that to a wineskin filled with new wine, which, when set over a smoking fire becomes properly aged and perfected. He is, through the circumstances of his life, maturing for the glory of God.

The patterns of our sinfulness have already been well-established in our lives. If we are honest with ourselves we must admit we run to our sins at the least little hiccup in our lives. We want to be soothed, we seek to please ourselves. Yet, ultimately, such strategies fail. In sharp contrast, the psalmist has realized the only way to live when the smoky trials rise against him, is to be filled with the knowledge of God. By studying them and learning them he is allowing God’s statutes and His promises to flow into every part of his life. As we are filling ourselves and filled with the Word of God, the trials and sufferings of our life will serve to age and mature us well in His holy service.

A whole new year is nearly upon us. May 2020 be a year of clarity for you—one in which you make the resolution to keep the word of God clearly in view and by living it out every day so prove it to be true. And seeing the truth of God’s word and how by it you stand firm in every trial, you then will see—in ever greater measure—the glory of God. May you know Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the Word.

May the Spirit of God direct you to the spout

where the blessings of God are poured out

and the Kingdom of Christ is rises all about.

Spirit of the Living God, we confess to turning away from trials and struggles which You have appointed for us to endure so that we would be matured and perfected. We pray, Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds so that in all humility we will be filled with the statutes of God our Father, delighting in the Word of God, which brings us to Jesus Christ. May it be our resolution in 2020 to be filled with Your Word, Mighty God, so by Your Word and the Spirit’s work of sealing it in us, You will be our Guide and Savior, King and Counselor in all things. Amen.