Psalm 119:61
(This is an entry from a devotional commentary I am working on from Psalm 119 entitled ‘God and His Word’. The introduction can be found here, successive entries have covered the 22 sections of the Psalm, and following entries verse by verse.)
"The cords of the wicked have encircled me,
But I have not forgotten Your law."
‘The cords of the wicked have encircled me’. Emotion, or reality? For the Christian, it is hard to tell, for our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), the world system has a different ruler (1 John 2:15-16, 1 John 3:13, 1 John 5:19), and we are hated in big and small ways because of Jesus (John 15:18-19). I guess you could say there are ‘micro-aggressions’ which are debatable and macro-aggressions which are historical and very real today. We are surrounded by this, and it challenges our perception of reality. Should I just go along? There is a sense in which I must be content and at peace with You, but I can never be at peace with sin. Lord, how do I endure? ‘But I have not forgotten Your law.’ Surely You are true though every man be found a liar (Romans 3:4). Surely indignation is the right response to this immersive injustice (Psalm 119:53), yet there is comfort in You (Psalm 119:52) - yes, only in You in Your word! Notice the comfort comes before the indignation because it is needed! May I go back to where I started, never forgetting Your law and comforting myself in You, God of truth (Psalm 31:5, Isaiah 65:16). When surrounded, I find perhaps the sweetest refuge (Psalm 27:3-4).
‘Ungodly men grow worse, and become more and more daring, so that they go from ridicule to robbery. Much of this bold opposition arose from their being banded together: men will dare to do in company what they durst not have thought of alone… How much the ungodly have plundered the saints in all ages, and how often have the righteous borne gladly the spoiling of their goods! [Hebrews 10:34]... Neither his sense of injustice, nor his sorrow at his losses, nor his attempts at defence diverted him from the ways of God… He might have forgotten himself if he had forgotten the law; as it was, he was ready to forgive and forget the injuries done him, for his heart was taken up with the word of God. The bands of the wicked had not robbed him of his choicest treasure, since they had left him his holiness and his happiness… He could not be either bribed or bullied into sin. The cordon of the ungodly could not keep God from him, nor him from God- this was because God was his portion, and none could deprive him of it either by force or fraud. That is true grace which can endure the test: some are barely gracious among the circle of their friends, but this man was holy amid a ring of foes.’[1]
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