My Comfort In My Affliction

“This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.”

I was working my way through Spurgeon’s Treasury of David on Psalm 119 when I came across verse 50. I can testify that I have had this experience, not once but many times. I am thankful for it. Sufferings and afflictions or hardships and trials all have a way of directing the believer to look elsewhere for comfort or relief. For many, the first resort may be the doctor or a counselor or a friend. I have proven enough times now in my Christian walk that these are completely insufficient. It is not that they do not help, but they can do two things to us.

First, they may cause us to depend on them more than we should, and second, they limit the power of God to us in our thinking. We begin to trust them before God. When that happens idolatry has taken place. All hardships and trials, no matter what they are, must be taken to God first of all, and there must be no turning to man just because we don’t receive a lightning bolt from heaven with the answer or the cure. The Christian Church, contrary to what we may say, always seems to look to man for help. The help of man is vain. It is because we have a preponderance of goods and services (both in the store and church), with the aim to make our lives as easy and as comfortable as possible, that we have forgotten to really trust God. We even boast “in God we trust.” Just what does that mean? It means that you are totally dependent on God and no one else. Now this verse before us lists four words that are important to note. There is the word “comfort,” then “affliction,” then “promise,” and finally “life.”

The word “comfort” only occurs here and in Job 6:10 in this form. The origin of the root form seems to reflect the idea of “breathing deeply,” hence the physical display of one’s feelings, usually sorrow, compassion, or comfort. The root word is connected to the following words: repentance, sorrow, consolation and comfort. The root word is also the word behind the names of Nehemiah and Nahum. Job 6:10 says “This would be my comfort; I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.”

Job’s comfort is that he has not denied the words of the Lord, and this connects to the startling words that he would even exult or rejoice in unsparing pain. Job’s words in the previous verses of Job 6 refer to God crushing him, to God letting his hand loose and cutting him off. In the midst of those thoughts he says verse 10. We do not to think like this at all anymore. We seek relief above all else. We want out, and perhaps once we’re delivered or comforted then we refer to God. We have it backward. Instead of seeking God first, we go to any other means for deliverance. Perhaps in moments of extreme danger or trouble we cry out to God, but soon enough we may forget God and his deliverance and seek the help of man.

Seeking God first does not mean we are heroes over pain or suffering. We are not Stoics. We do not seek pain for pain’s sake. We don’t look for suffering for suffering’s sake. Rather, when we find ourselves in these situations, we must go to God first and stay there awhile. I don’t know if I could think like Job. Who would ever exult in unsparing pain? But it appears that Job’s mind is on God. He had not denied the Holy One or his words. Likewise, David’s comfort in his affliction in Psalm 119 is that God’s promise gives him life. David is thinking on God’s word to him. Do we ever think that perhaps God has brought suffering to us in order to teach us about himself and his ways? Do we ever look to God and seek to prove his word?

When our Lord Jesus is greatly distressed in Gethsemane, he desires that his disciples watch with him and pray, but we all know that the real issue is between Jesus and the Father in his prayer. Jesus desires only to do the will of the Father. He desired to do God’s will not grudgingly but thankfully. Psalm 40:8 says “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” These are words spoken of Messiah by David. But will you notice the last phrase of that verse? David mentions that God’s law was within his heart. What does this mean for Jesus? It was Scripture that filled the mind and heart of our Lord. This should be a great lesson for us. What shall we fall back on in times of crisis? Surely it must be God’s Word, in particular, God’s promises to us. This is what David emphasizes in Psalm 119:50.

The word “affliction” refers to a number of things. There is the idea of pain or suffering and also the idea of poverty or misery. In other words, what David expresses is something that has put him on the lowest rung of the ladder. Whether it was a direct assault by man in persecution, or hardships of life, or illness that has stretched him out, or a lack of means, it was something that caused him suffering. He felt it. David does not tell us whether he had sought relief elsewhere. Verse 50 stresses that the only help he is looking for is from God because God keeps his word. David also says in Psalm 119:92 these words; “If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.” It was God’s word that kept David going in his afflictions, and it wasn’t merely the Word itself, but the fact that he was delighting in the Word. To delight in the Word means to meditate in and on the Word. It means thinking about the Word and how to apply it. It is easy to apply the Word when things are going well for us, but just let a little trial come our way and then we seem to struggle with the Word and cannot see how to apply it. The word for “promise” is the word for “utterance” or “speech.” There is a generality about the word in usage. It refers to spoken words, to speeches, to opinions. It is singular here in verse 50, which is probably why the ESV translates it “promise.” But it is not just anybody’s word. It is God’s Word that David is referring to. All of God’s Word is important but we tend to particularize his specific promises to us. There is nothing wrong with this unless we highlight them above the rest of God’s Word. The entire Psalm 119 is about the Word of God and David’s relationship to it. Virtually every single verse focuses in some form or another on the Word of God. David’s comfort is that it is God’s Word to him.

The word “life” refers to the sustaining of life, the preserving of life, or the maintaining of life. It has the idea of restoration. David could confess that it was God who had restored his soul (Ps. 23:3). It is God’s Word that gives us life, that picks us up. This is because it causes us to think about God and his ways with us. For instance, if you sin against God and then seek to read the Word, you know that the Lord will confront you in it. God’s Word confirms what God says through the Spirit who dwells within us. In other words, we must listen to the Word and then respond accordingly. If we have sinned, then we must confess our sins and forsake them. If we are seeking answers from God, then we must trust him to reveal himself to us through his Word in answer to our needs.

So when we are in trouble, whether it be from sickness or hardship, the only hope we have is to seek the Lord. Second Chronicles 16:12 says “In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but sought help from physicians.” What did good King Asa do that was wrong? He sought help elsewhere for his disease. He went to the physicians and not to God. He did not believe that God could help him. Was he comforted in life? No! He was not. Conversely, David sought the God of all comfort (2 Cor. 1:3) as promised in the Word and was comforted.