Psalm 119 - Zayin: Remembrance to Revival

"Zayin. Remember the word to Your servant,

In which You have made me hope.

This is my comfort in my affliction,

That Your word has revived me.

The arrogant utterly deride me,

Yet I do not turn aside from Your law.

I have remembered Your ordinances from of old, O LORD,

And comfort myself.

Burning indignation has seized me because of the wicked,

Who forsake Your law.

Your statutes are my songs

In the house of my pilgrimage.

O LORD, I remember Your name in the night,

And keep Your law.

This has become mine,

That I observe Your precepts."  

(Psalm 119:49-56 NASB95)

 

 

Lord, we challenge not the strength of Your memory, but recall the strength of Your promises as we set our hope on You.  Through current affliction (v.50), derision (v. 51), wickedness (v. 53),  wandering (v. 54), and darkness (v. 55) the Psalmist remembers Your faithfulness in the past (v. 52), Your name in the night (v. 53), to the point of revival to obedience as a most prized possession above all else (v. 56).

 

‘This octrain deals with the comfort of the word. It begins by seeking the main consolation, namely, the Lord's fulfilment of his promise, and then it shows how the word sustains us under affliction, and makes us so impervious to ridicule that we are moved by the harsh conduct of the wicked rather to horror of their sin than to any submission to their temptations. We are then shown how the Scripture furnishes songs for pilgrims, and memories for night-watchers; and the Psalm concludes by the general statement that the whole of this happiness and comfort arises out of keeping the statutes of the Lord.’[1]


[1] Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, Treasury of David, on Psalm 119 - Zayin, e-Sword edition

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