CAPH. My soul fainteth for thy salvation; I hope in thy word.
The psalmist is worn down to nothing while he waits. This part of the psalm records a prayer God has not yet answered. Two things in him give way — his soul and his eyes — yet one thing does not: his grip on what God has said.
The ESV says the soul "longs"; older translations read "faints." The word carries the sense of being used up. One writer gives the literal sense as a soul being consumed. He sees a man who has run out of every other option.
We cannot help ourselves; nor can anyone else help us. That is why we have this heartfelt cry: "My soul is being consumed for Your salvation…" (literal rendering). It is good to realise day by day what we sometimes sing in a hymn: "Now none but Christ can satisfy." Have we found this secret yet?
The trouble here is not new but deeper. As the weight grows, the writer leans not on his own strength but on what God has spoken.
Verses 81-88 go further. The pressure of the power of evil is greater, and the cry more earnest, but the word is fully trusted. This blessed revelation of God Himself, of His will and favour, that in which He cannot lie, maintains the heart through all. How precious to have a revelation of Himself as sure as Himself!
Earlier in the psalm this man asked God for comfort. It has not come, and the delay itself becomes part of the trial.
The godly man in trouble had looked to the Lord for comfort (v. 76), but the answer is slow and the pressure grows. He faints for deliverance. His eyes fail as he looks for the word to be fulfilled… Still, the deepening trial only brings out his confidence in God. His soul may faint, but hope in the Word of God remains: his eyes may fail, but faith still looks to God for comfort.
The verse holds two halves that pull against each other: a soul at the end of itself, and a settled hope. One writer explains why the two belong together.
In the extreme of necessity, his soul fainting for the deliverance that can come from God alone, His word is what he waits on in hope. There is plenty of comfort there, which still needs a living God to make it good. Faith fearlessly stakes everything on Him for this. But He sometimes seems slow to make His pledge good. This leaves room for exercise. That exercise is not against faith after all. It assumes faith, and faith finds in it its only means of existence. Faith has to do with what is not seen.
The next line of the psalm asks when the comfort will come. One writer treats that question as a lesson, not a failure.
Do we detect a note of impatience? "When will You comfort me?" Had he not been hoping in His word? (v. 81). Why does the Lord not act quickly? Do not let appearances discourage you… We sometimes want to limit the Lord to our timing. But we should leave everything in His hands. He is never too late. We must learn to persevere in faith and hope and the study of His Word, and take our eyes off our circumstances.
Commentators differ on what "salvation" means here. Some read it as deliverance for Israel still ahead, and mark a difference between that hope and the Christian's.
Here the prayer is urgent, as wickedness grows fast and he feels his weakness in the severest trial. This is not the hope of the Christian, who like Christ is to go on high. It is deliverance, as Israel expects and shall have, when God's judgments fall openly on the enemy.
Others read the same lines more broadly. They are the exercise of any afflicted believer under attack, looking to God for strength to hold His testimony.
In deep distress and exercise of soul the afflicted one looks for the Lord's salvation and the comfort of His word… In these hard conditions the righteous look to the Lord for help in their extremity. They count on His life-giving power, which gives the strength to keep His testimony.
- Consumed — Where the ESV says the soul "longs," a literal rendering is "consumed" — spent, used up. The cry comes from someone who cannot help himself and knows no one else can.
- Held — The soul may faint and the eyes may fail, but hope in God's word stays standing. The trial exposes confidence instead of destroying it.
- Hidden — Faith deals with what is not yet seen. God's delay is not the enemy of faith but the room where faith works.
- Delayed — The cure for impatience is not to hurry God but to take our eyes off our circumstances. He is never too late.
- Delivered — The salvation he waits for is real and coming. Commentators differ on its scope. Some read it as Israel's future rescue, others as help for any afflicted believer. Both rest the waiting on the same spoken word.
Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?
Here the writer's prayer has gone unanswered and the strain is building. His eyes ache from watching for God to keep His word. His question is not whether comfort will come, but when.
Earlier in the psalm he had asked God for comfort. No answer came.
The godly man in trouble had looked to the Lord for comfort (v. 76), but the answer is delayed and the pressure expands. He faints for deliverance; the eyes fail in looking for the fulfilment of the word... Nevertheless, the deepening trial only serves to bring out his confidence in God. His soul may faint, but hope in the Word of God remains: his eyes may fail, but faith still looks to God for comfort.
Enemies press him all through this part of the psalm. One writer reads that danger as the reason he has nowhere else to turn.
Conscious of being under attack, the writer seeks refuge with the Lord and His Word. His only hope is in the Lord, and so it is for you and me.
The word he waits on is full of comfort. But one writer points out that a promise still needs a living God to act on it — and that the wait has a purpose.
His need is at its worst, and his soul faints for a deliverance that God alone can give. God's word is what he waits on in hope. There is plenty of comfort in that word, but it still takes a living God to make it good. The word boldly pledges God to do it; yet the pledge sometimes seems long in being redeemed. So there is room for testing, and testing is not against faith after all. It assumes faith, and only in faith can it exist: faith has to do with what is not seen.
Commentators read the closing question in different tones. One hears something restless in it, and answers the restlessness with a call to stop reading God's timing off our circumstances.
Do we detect a note of impatience? "When will You comfort me?" Had he not been hoping in His word? (v. 81). Why doesn't the Lord act quickly? "Hope deferred makes the heart sick" (Prov. 13:12). Do not let yourself be discouraged by appearances... We sometimes want to limit the Lord to our time. Sometimes we cannot see the reason for such and such a thing. But we should leave everything in His hands. He is never too late. We must learn to persevere in faith and hope and the study of His Word, and take our eyes off our circumstances.
Others hear the cry of a man whose life is short and who cannot hold out much longer. In that reading, the suffering itself becomes his plea before God.
This blessed revelation of God Himself, of His will and favour, is the one thing in which He cannot lie, and it holds the heart up through everything. How precious it is to have a revelation of Himself that is as sure as He is!... But he was a poor, short-lived creature, and if he was to taste mercy it was time for God to act... So sorrow itself and great pressure, where there is integrity, become a plea with God.
One writer turns this exhaustion into a lesson. Being emptied is what prepares a person to receive.
It is necessary for us to get to the end of ourselves, to despair of our self-sufficiency. When we get to the end of our own resources, then we realise that our Father's full giving has only just begun. We feel empty like a wineskin left in the smoke. Our spiritual energy seems shrivelled up. When we realise our own nothingness, then we are ready for His fullness to be shown on our behalf.
The section does not end with the question of verse 82. It ends with a prayer that reaches past rescue to renewal of the man himself.
Aware of all this, the believer turns to God — not only for outward deliverance, but for new life within. Revived in soul, he will be able to walk in obedience to the Word.
- Looking. His failing eyes are fixed on a promise. He strains for God to keep His word while an earlier prayer still waits for its answer.
- Waiting. The gap between a pledge and its keeping is not the enemy of faith. It is faith's working room, because faith deals with what is not seen.
- Asking. The question "When will You comfort me?" is honest. Commentators differ over whether it carries impatience, but either way the sufferer is still speaking to God.
- Emptying. Dried out and worn down, he reaches the end of his own resources — which is where God's fullness begins to show.
- Reviving. The cry ends higher than it started: not just get me out, but make me alive, so that obedience to the Word can go on.
For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; I do not forget thy statutes.
Verses 81-88 of Psalm 119 belong together. In them the writer's prayer has gone unanswered so long that he feels dried up and useless — yet he still holds on to God's statutes. How does faith behave when the pressure has burnt all the freshness out of a person?
Older translations say "bottle" where the ESV says "wineskin". Both mean a leather bag for holding liquid. One writer draws out both halves of the picture — what the skin was for, and what the smoke did to it:
He had become like a wineskin in smoke. The wineskin was meant to hold the wine that makes the heart of man glad. But the smoke had darkened it and defeated that purpose, so he felt dried up and unable to work as he should. "Yet," he says, "I have not forgotten Your statutes."
The dryness is not a passing mood. It comes from long, grinding opposition, and one writer sees a familiar strategy behind it:
He is really exhausted. The strain and stress have been unbearable. Of course Satan's strategy is to wear us out! It was by the constant nagging of Delilah that Samson's soul was "vexed to death" (Judges 16:16). She wore him out.
Earlier in the psalm the writer had asked God for comfort. The problem here is that the comfort has not come. The waiting itself is the trial:
The godly man in trouble had looked to the Lord for comfort (v. 76), but the answer is slow to come and the pressure grows. He faints as he waits for rescue. His eyes fail as he looks for the word to be fulfilled. In soul he becomes dried and withered like a bottle in the smoke. Still, the deepening trial only brings out his confidence in God. His soul may faint, but his hope in the Word of God remains. His soul may be withered, but it does not forget God's statutes.
The word he holds is full of comfort, but that promise still needs a living God to make it good. The gap between the promise and the payment is where faith is tested:
He is in the deepest need. His soul faints for a rescue that can come from God alone. God's word is what he waits on in hope. There is plenty of comfort in it, yet it still needs a living God to make it good. The word pledges Him for this without fear; but the pledge sometimes seems slow to be paid. So there is room for the soul to be exercised, and this after all is not against faith. It assumes faith, and faith finds in it its only way of living: for faith has to do with what is not seen.
The word "yet" is the hinge of the verse. He will not let go of God's statutes, and his suffering itself becomes something he can bring to God:
Verses 81-88 go further. The pressure of the power of evil is greater, and the cry more earnest, but he trusts the word completely. God has revealed Himself, His will and His favour, and in this He cannot lie. This blessed revelation holds the heart up through everything. How precious it is to have a revelation of Himself as sure as Himself! He appeals on two grounds: the extreme of his distress — he is dried up like a bottle in the smoke — and the fact that he dare not forget God's statutes... So sorrow itself and great pressure, where there is integrity, become a plea with God.
Being emptied is not the end of the story. One writer turns the picture around:
It is necessary for us to get to the end of ourselves, to despair of our self-sufficiency. When we get to the end of our own resources, then we realise that our Father's full giving has only just begun. We may feel empty like a bottle in the smoke. Our spiritual energy may seem shrivelled up like a wineskin. When we realise our own nothingness in this way, then we are ready for Him to show His fullness on our behalf.
Commentators also read this section as the words of the godly in Israel under persecution. Their strength to hold on is not their own:
They count on His life-giving power, which gives them the strength to keep His testimony.
- Smoke — a wineskin should hold wine that gladdens the heart. In smoke it dries out and cannot do its work. That is how the writer feels about himself.
- Strain — the dryness comes from long opposition. Wearing a person down over time is a real tactic, as Delilah showed with Samson.
- Slowness — the trial here is the delay. He asked God for comfort, and the answer is slow to come.
- Sureness — the word he waits on is as sure as the God who gave it. The waiting exercises faith; it does not work against it.
- Statutes — he holds on to God's word, not to his own strength. His distress becomes a plea, and his emptiness makes room for God's fullness.
How many shall be the days of thy servant? when wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me?
Psalm 119's eleventh section (verses 81–88) is the prayer of a believer whose faith holds while rescue does not come. Verse 84 sets a short life against a long wait for judgment.
The stanza belongs to a stretch of the psalm where the pressure keeps rising and heaven stays quiet. One writer sums up the whole section as the experience of a believer left waiting.
The exercises of a saint whose prayer remains for a while unanswered.
The same writer traces how the delay works on the man, and how verse 84 arrives as the natural end of that pressure:
The godly man in trouble had looked to the Lord for comfort (v. 76), but the answer is delayed and the pressure grows. He faints for deliverance. His eyes fail as he looks for the word to be fulfilled. He becomes dried and withered in soul, like a wineskin in the smoke. Yet the deepening trial only brings out his confidence in God. His soul may faint, but hope in the Word of God remains; his eyes may fail, but faith still looks to God for comfort. His soul may be withered, but it does not forget God's statutes. Life is brief, the days are slipping away; when will God end the trial?
The first half of the verse measures the trouble against a lifespan. One commentator marks where that measuring hits a limit:
In verse 84 he raises the fact that his days are so short. Yet God does not step in to defend him against those who keep persecuting him. But if we look at things from the viewpoint of our limited days, we fall short of a proper viewpoint. For one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Yet we all find it very hard to accept God's viewpoint.
The second half asks God to act as judge. One writer ties that appeal to promises God made to Israel, and to commands the psalmist can plead as promises:
But he feels how brief his days are. So he pleads for the judgment Israel needs before their earthly promises can be fulfilled. When will that time come? … Meanwhile the pits dug by the proud open in front of them, unchecked by Jewish law. The psalmist thinks of those commandments. By upholding righteousness, they must imply a God who will be faithful to the righteous. So he can plead them as if they were promises — "faithful commandments." And he too has tried to be faithful to them. That is why he seeks his shelter from those who persecute him wrongfully.
He can ask because of the path he is walking:
In the eleventh section the cry becomes more urgent. He is under the pressure of trial, and his soul faints for deliverance. He looks to Jehovah to carry out judgment, because he is walking in Jehovah's precepts. And the proud persecute him wrongfully — they pay no attention to Jehovah or to His law.
Commentators do not treat God's slowness as neglect. Writing on a psalm with the same question, one puts two reasons behind the silence:
Though the time seems endless, it is God's wisdom that delays the answer. Part of the reason is that He is patient toward the ungodly. But He also knows how much His servants need a long trial of heart, so that faith may be both tested and strengthened.
Asking God to judge people is not how Christians are told to pray, and writers here mark the difference plainly. Comparing this kind of cry with the dying words of Stephen, who asked God not to hold his killers' sin against them, one commentator distinguishes two eras:
What would not be suitable on our lips is quite suitable on theirs, for when God is about to take up His "strange work" of judgment, it is right to ask Him to do it quickly. He is going to make it a short work in the earth — only what is short to Him may seem long to the creature.
The stanza does not end at verse 84. By verse 88 the prayer has changed shape:
The saint turns to God. He asks not only for outward deliverance, but for inward quickening, so that, revived in soul, he may walk in obedience to the Word.
- Waiting. The verse sits in a section where the answer is delayed and the pressure grows.
- Days. He weighs his short life against God's silence. That is the very place where our view of time falls short of God's.
- Ground. He can plead for judgment because he walks in God's precepts. The proud persecute him wrongfully and pay no attention to God's law.
- Wisdom. The wait is not neglect. God is patient toward the ungodly, and He uses the delay to test and strengthen faith.
- Era. Writers place this cry for judgment in an age of judgment, not in the present day of grace. What is short to God can feel long to us.