Text: Psalm 119:41-50
Let Your mercies come also to me, O Lord – Your salvation according to Your word. So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, For I trust in Your word. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, For I have hoped in Your ordinances. So shall I keep Your law continually, Forever and ever. And I will walk at liberty, For I seek Your precepts. I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, And will not be ashamed. And I will delight myself in Your commandments, Which I love. My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, Which I love, And I will meditate on Your statutes. 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.
Devotion
It is good to live with the Lord in His Word, always waiting for His mercy and in every need relying on His salvation. “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Rom 8:31)? At His altar no one can harm you. Whoever can answer his mockers, so that he has entrusted himself to the Lord’s Word, has an impenetrable shield against their attacks. And when the mockers ask: “Where is your God, where is your God now” (Psa 42:3, 10)? and it pierces through our bones, and when God hides Himself, even from us, then we experience a little of what Christ felt in His great suffering, then it is good to be able to say: “Lord, I rely on Your Word. I wait for Your promises to come.”
So it is also when everything goes against us in life, so that the world really becomes too difficult. How many thousand troublesome things are not spread over the earth! Your only child or your most beloved child dies, perhaps even a difficult death, or something happens to him which hurts you even deeper. Your faithful, trustworthy spouse is sick, and you are troubled in heart, but your work of love is rewarded and recovery comes, only to have a relapse and have your spouse taken by an incurable disease. – You work yourself free of debt, only to be ruined by helping a friend in need. – You plant a beautiful mission church and gather a beloved congregation, only to have “Christian” robbers destroy the whole thing.
Children of men, put your trust in the Word of the Lord, and everything will be like Peter’s wearisome fishing: he worked all night and caught nothing, but he got the boat full in the morning. Be silent, and patient, and wait for the Lord! In the midst of need He brings relief, so that you can walk freely and sing with Job: “Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21)! But if you cannot now rejoice in the Lord’s Word, still you can find comfort in that Word, and if you cannot now understand what the Lord does, still know that He understands it, and you shall also understand it in heaven. He bruises, in order to heal; He takes, in order to give. Believe in Him, entrust yourself to Him, and all you lose shall be won, even if it seems to you to be lost forever. Yes, He shall do it, though your faith is so very weak.
Closing Prayer
“All my confidence now and always I have in You, O Lord! You are my comfort. Your Word and voice in all my need shall be my heart’s joy.” Help me to say this, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Hymn
Though I be of joys bereft,
And by sorrows overtaken,
Yet I know a solace left:
I am not by Thee forsaken;
Jesus, Thou canst aid afford,
Full of comfort is Thy Word.
At Thy word in faith I press
Onward through this vale of sadness;
By Thy grace I shall possess
Victor-palms in heav’nly gladness;
To my latest hour, O Lord,
I will trust Thee at Thy word.
Liebenberg: Jesus, Herre! paa dit Ord L 482:3-4 LHy 413:3-4 tr. C. Døving alt.;
tune: Gaa nu hen og grav min Grav (LHy 413); alternate hymn: Thy way and all thy sorrows ELH 208