In Prayer, Praise and Promises
Read Psalm 119:81-88
Some days everything seems to go wrong. Every phone call brings bad news. The mail is nothing but bills. The children come home from school with some kind of injury or a bad report. Work is frustrating. What do you do when you have one of these days?
“My soul faints for Your salvation, but I hope in Your word. My eyes fail from searching Your word, saying, ‘When will You comfort me?’ For I have become like a wineskin in smoke, yet I do not forget Your statutes…. The proud have dug pits for me, which is not according to Your law” (vv. 81-83,85). Here’s a man who was fainting and failing. He was like a wineskin in the smoke. Wherever he walked there was a pit for him to drop into. What did he do? He turned to God. His source of hope was His Word.
If you hope in circumstances, you will be disappointed, because they change. The psalmist hoped in the Word and trusted in God’s faithfulness, and God comforted him.
People will fail you, but God never will. “All Your commandments are faithful” (v. 86). The psalmist clung to the comfort, hope and faithfulness of God, and as a result he experienced revival. “Revive me according to Your lovingkindness” (v. 88). God came with a Breath of fresh, heavenly air–the Holy Spirit–and revived him.
