ZAIN. Remember the word for thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.
The psalmist's whole case here rests on one thing: a word God spoke to him. He does not ask for a new promise. He asks God to act on the one already given — and God Himself is the one who put that hope in him.
The prayer sounds strange at first, since God forgets nothing. But the request says more about the one praying than about God's memory.
It may seem unnecessary to ask the Lord to remember. But we know that He makes allowances for the weakness of our faith. The Word of God had caused the psalmist to hope, and the Lord certainly could never forget that.
Reminding God of what He has said is not out of place. Scripture invites it, and the supply of promises to pray back is huge.
It is the psalmist who asks the Lord to remember His Word! The Lord has given precious promises. Someone has tried to count all the promises given in the Bible and has found more than 30,000 of them! … We have this interesting word in Isaiah 62:6, "you who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest." The best basis for prayer is the solid promises of God. Remind God of what He has said!
Notice who caused the hope. The believer did not produce it; God did, by His word. That is why the plea rests on solid ground.
God has caused His servant to trust in His Word. So he can look to God with complete confidence to fulfil that Word. He knows that God must be true to His Word. This confidence in the stability of God's Word had been his comfort in the middle of affliction. His confidence in the Word grew out of the life the Word had given him.
The soul has already said yes to what God said. Now it waits for God to do the same, in circumstances that offer no other support.
But the soul has counted on God's word; God has taught and led the soul to do it, and now it looks for God to put His Amen to it (the man, by grace, has already put his own). This confidence of faith in God's word had been its comfort in affliction. Here was something firm and steady for hope. It brought in God's faithfulness and testimony — God Himself as the hope of the soul — when everything around was against him and there was nothing to lean on.
Darby also shows what this hope does under attack:
This humble, patient obedience, quietly accepting insults, had been mocked and scorned by the proud. But faith in His word kept the soul from turning aside. It held firm in the sorrow… What made it obedient made it confident: God was the one it looked to, and this kept the sight and memory of faith clear.
The hope of verse 49 and the comfort of verse 50 come from the same source. The New Testament says the same about the Scriptures.
But the psalmist was a wise man, made wise by the Word that he loved… He turned to God and His word… He knew the source of hope and comfort and peace. It was the word that had caused him to hope (v. 49), and that same word was his comfort in his affliction (v. 50). This reminds us of a beautiful New Testament word: "that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope" (Rom. 15:4).
Why does God's word do this when human wisdom cannot?
Unlike the imperfect, even unworkable, philosophies of mankind, God's word shows the sorrows and trials of this life in their true and proper character. It sheds the light of heaven on the gloom of earth.
- Word given. God spoke first; the hope in this verse traces back to a promise He made, not to a mood the believer manufactured.
- Hope caused. God made His servant trust the Word. So the servant can look to Him with full confidence to keep it — He must be true to His Word.
- Remembrance pleaded. Asking God to "remember" allows for our own weak faith. Scripture even invites us to put the Lord in remembrance of what He has said.
- Amen awaited. The soul has put its Amen to God's word. Now it waits for God to put His — steady ground when nothing else offers support.
- Comfort produced. The word that gave hope becomes comfort in affliction. It holds the believer steady under the scorn of the proud and casts heaven's light on earth's darkness.
This is my comfort in mine affliction; for thy word hath quickened me.
Psalm 119:50 comes from a section where the writer is mocked and afflicted, with nothing outward to lean on. Here he names the one thing that holds him: comfort in trouble, and the life-giving power of what God has said.
Verse 50 does not stand alone. One commentator traces the same word doing double duty — it gave him hope, and now it comforts him:
But the Psalmist was a wise man, made wise by the Word that he loved. Though he felt the hard words spoken against him, and felt them keenly, he did not retaliate. He turned to God and His word. He knew the source of hope and comfort and peace. It was the word that had caused him to hope (v. 49), and that same word was his comfort in his affliction (v. 50).
Romans 15:4 speaks of the "encouragement of the Scriptures"; older translations say "comfort." One writer links that word to the comfort of this verse:
In Romans 15:4 we read of the "comfort of the Scriptures." Here again the word has the force of encouragement. Psalm 119 has some 174 verses that refer to the word of God, and in verse 50 the Psalmist uses the usual word for comfort. Verses 76 and 82 again tie comfort to the word of the Lord.
The comfort comes as we take God's promises for ourselves. Notice, too, what the writer never asks for:
We make these great and precious promises our own by faith: we thank the Lord for every promise the Holy Spirit brings before us in our daily reading. It is in making them our own that we experience the "comfort in my affliction." It is when we thank the Lord for His promises that we experience what the Psalmist affirms: "your promise gives me life." Notice, there is no prayer for deliverance from the affliction! Although the affliction remains, the comfort is there so that we may be able to bear it, and be victorious in it.
Older translations read "your word has quickened me" here. One writer notes that the Psalmist asks for this quickening again and again:
The Psalmist says that God's Word has quickened him in verse 50, yet again and again he longs to be quickened. He evidently uses the word more in the sense of being revived, of being restored to more vigorous life.
Another writer draws from the same phrase where life comes from, and what has no part in giving it:
Outward ceremonies have nothing whatever to do with giving or sustaining life. To think so is to mistake what they are for. Life comes only by the word of God, in the power of the Spirit — "your word has quickened me." The process is not external and mechanical. It is a moral one, dealing with the heart and conscience.
Where did such confidence come from? Not from himself:
God has caused His servant to trust in His Word; therefore, with the utmost confidence, he can look to God to fulfil His Word. He knows that God must be true to His Word. This confidence in the stability of God's Word had been his comfort in the middle of affliction. The Word had quickened him, and his confidence in it grew out of that.
The proud mocked his quiet obedience. Here is what the comfort did for him under that scorn:
There was something firm and steadfast for hope. It brought in God's faithfulness and testimony — God Himself as the hope of the soul — when everything around him was against him, and there was nothing to lean on. And this is comfort, true comfort, in affliction. That very word had quickened the soul itself. The proud scorned and mocked this humble, patient obedience that quietly accepted insult. But faith in His word kept the soul from turning aside. It held fast in the sorrow.
- Promise — The word that gave him hope (v. 49) is the same word that comforts him in his affliction (v. 50).
- Life — "Quickened" here means revived, restored to fuller life. The word gives that life and works on the heart and conscience; no outward ceremony can do it.
- Comfort — The word here has the force of encouragement. Romans 15:4 ties the same idea to the Scriptures.
- Bearing — He never asks God to remove the affliction. The trouble stays, and the comfort makes it bearable and turns it into victory.
- Steadfastness — God must be true to His word. Faith in it held the soul steady under the scorn of the proud, right through the sorrow.