“Affliction”

 

Psalm 119:49-53 

Remember the word to your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope.

This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has given me life.

The proud have me in great derision, yet I do not turn aside from Your law.

I remembered Your judgments of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself.

Indignation has taken hold of me because of the wicked, who forsake Your law.

 

The fact that the godly in the world shall suffer persecution is made evident here as well as throughout the Old and New Testaments.  Ungodly men scorned Jesus, and Jesus said to His disciples that they should expect the same scorn that He endured.

The proud hold the godly in derision.  A sure mark of grace is extreme sensitiveness to the exceeding sinfulness of sin.  That sensitivity will make you a candidate for criticism and scorn by those who enjoy worldliness. 

 

When affliction occurs, this passage teaches us to call upon God to fulfill His promises.  The first thing we should do in the face of affliction is to open God’s Word and locate the promise that meets our case and then plead it.  With God’s divine justice and goodness at work in our situation, we will have “hope.” 

 

Verse 51 provides the warning that pain should not lead us away from God’s Word.  It should not make us doubt God’s goodness.   Job could say: Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. We should do no less.