Unless thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished in mine affliction.
The psalmist looks back on suffering that nearly finished him, and names what kept him alive: delight in God's law. The hard question behind the verse is what God's word is worth when everything you can see has turned against you.
God's word does not shift, and neither does God. One writer shows what that steadiness does for a heart under pressure:
When we have His word, we can count on it as sure as what is in heaven; it does not change, any more than God Himself does... Here is a moral, willing obedience in a renewed heart. When circumstances were all against him, it was hard to hold firm unless the moral side of the law had its power. God seemed to be outside the circumstances, but the inward delight in the law of God held the heart fast.
DISCUSS: depth score is low — no quote on the page explains the verse's key words (delight, affliction, perished). Consider retrieving one quote that defines these terms and replacing the weakest of the six current quotes.
This trial is not mild. It is the kind that makes God look absent:
God allows circumstances so overwhelming that, to the eye, they would appear to be beyond His control. Will the tried soul keep its faith in God? It is indeed sustained, because deep within he delights in God's Word, even when he can no longer see God's hand in what is happening around him. With this inward delight in God's Word the soul is revived.
The verse does not call the law his duty or his study material. It calls it his delight. Two other ways of reading fall short of that:
Sometimes, even after conversion, we only read the Scriptures out of a sense of duty. This will always be so, more or less, where we do not enjoy the liberty of grace. Others will read their Bibles eagerly, but mainly to learn their contents, to gain knowledge. Neither way of reading can produce the meditation our psalm describes.
The word "unless" points to a real outcome the psalmist escaped. The same warning reaches anyone who neglects the Bible:
The psalmist realizes too that unless God's law had been his delight, he would have perished in the affliction the Lord allowed to try him. How true for us too: if we neglect the Word of God, the results here and now can be disastrous. But when someone has purposed to live by the truth of God's Word, he will not forget those valuable precepts (v. 93). It is by these that one really lives, for God is the life-giver.
Pressure does not create a person's relationship with Scripture; it exposes it. One writer sets the psalmist beside the seed that fell among thorns:
How different the psalmist's experience is from the case the Lord Jesus described in the parable of the sower. He spoke of the seed that fell among thorns — those who hear, "but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature" (Luke 8:14). Circumstances may show up how shallow we are, or show that we are rooted and grounded in Him and His Word. Let us then daily delight in the reading and study of His Word.
The psalmist does not just survive. Something new grows out of the whole ordeal:
If it had not been for Jehovah's law, which sustained his heart, he would have perished under the pressure of affliction. In truth, how precious to have the word in such a world! ... Another and more confident thought grows up out of all this exercise — "I am yours."
- Settled. His word never changes, any more than God Himself changes. You can lean on it when nothing on earth holds.
- Tested. The trouble was heavy enough to hide God's hand from sight. That is when inward delight in His word proves itself.
- Delighted. Reading from duty or for facts will not carry anyone through. The psalm assumes a heart that enjoys the word.
- Sustained. Without that delight he would have perished. With it he was revived, and he will not forget the precepts he lives by.
- Owned. Out of the whole exercise comes a more confident word still — "I am yours."
I will never forget thy precepts; for by them thou hast quickened me.
The psalmist has come through affliction, and here he makes a vow. He ties together two things we often keep apart: remembering God's commands, and receiving life from them.
Confidence in God's word is one thing. Trouble tests it, and this verse records what survives the test.
The psalmist has expressed his confidence in God's Word. But there comes a time when his faith is tested. God allows troubles so overwhelming that, to human sight, they would seem beyond His control. Will the tested soul keep its faith in God then? It is indeed held up, because deep inside he delights in God's Word, even when he can no longer see God's hand in his outward circumstances. With this inward delight in God's Word the soul is revived.
God's law also works inside a person, and it works there in a different way. It meets the conscience and the heart, and the result is life.
In the soul God's law also proves its power to sustain. It works there in a very different way, yet it still shows the divine virtue in it. As law it asserts God's sovereignty, and the conscience answers with homage, the heart with delight. So, despite the disorder he feels, God is there; and the soul is cheered and given strength. What has done this leaves its own unique effect, impossible to forget. One lives by it to God.
That explains the vow. The precepts cannot be forgotten, because of what they have already done in him.
Older translations end the verse "you have quickened me." Commentators read that word in two ways. One line of teaching sees the word of God giving life outright to those who have none.
God's word doesn't just give information, it gives life. God's word is powerful and effective, and is life-giving. How many there have been who have never heard a preacher but have picked up God's word, or just part of God's word, read it and found life. God's word is life-giving. It can totally change the spiritually dead; it makes them alive.
Others read it differently. The same psalm keeps asking for a quickening the psalmist has already received.
The Psalmist says that God's Word has quickened him in verse 50, yet again and again he desires to be quickened. Clearly the word here carries more the sense of being revived, of being restored to fuller life. In Old Testament times man was still on trial. God had given the law to test him, and life on earth was still held out as the outcome of perfect obedience to it. Only in the New Testament is that trial over, and man is declared dead in trespasses and sins. So only in the New Testament does the full truth of quickening appear.
The verse does not stop at a private benefit. What the word does in sorrow leads the heart up to God Himself.
The word has power to sustain the heart in sorrow, and power to quicken and restore the new man inside. That power gives purpose of heart, as we become aware how divinely precious the word is. And this leads up to God in the awareness that we are His. I do not say it creates the thought, but it leads the heart to be conscious of it; and so to look to Him who is faithful to save and deliver.
A revived heart does not stay content with its own revival.
The means God uses to revive us is usually His Word: "I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life" (Ps. 119:93). This very personal encouragement in fellowship with God stirs up a further desire in our hearts: that the whole people of God may be revived. So we pray, always aware of our own weakness and failure, "O LORD, revive Your work" (Hab. 3:2).
- Tested — the trouble is real, and God's hand drops out of sight. The heart holds His word inside when the outward evidence is gone.
- Given — the word does not only inform, it acts: conscience gives homage, the heart gives delight, and "one lives by it to God."
- Disputed — commentators differ on "quickened" here. Some read it as life given to the spiritually dead. Others read it as revival, a restoring to fuller life.
- Owned — this reviving power gives purpose of heart, and leads the soul up to God in the awareness that we are His.
- Spreading — the word that revives one believer turns into a prayer for God's whole work.