“I am worn out waiting for your rescue, but I have put my hope IN YOUR WORD. My eyes grow tired looking for what you have promised. I say, “I have become like a WINESKIN IN SMOKE. But I don’t forget TO FOLLOW YOUR ORDERS.” (Psalms 119:81-83) No matter how bad things get; I’m going to obey you!
In the previous two verses, David recognized that it was good for him to be afflicted; he recognized that affliction enabled him to KNOW GOD’S DECREES (‛êdâh: proof, evidence of its truth), and that it was the Lord who in faithfulness allowed affliction to come into his life. And now, in this stanza, THE FULL WEIGHT OF AFFLICTION pressed upon the Psalmist, and he cried out in verse 83, “I am like a wineskin in smoke.” Wineskins would become parched, dry, and shriveled from the HEAT and SMOKE of THE FIRES. A “wineskin in the smoke” became SYMBOLIC OF SUFFERING to the point of shriveling up with sorrow. John MacArthur explains it this way: “Just as smoke will dry out, stiffen and crack a wineskin thus making it useless, so the psalmist’s affliction has DEBILITATED HIM.”
We see from the context that the David had many enemies. Verse 84b – “When will you punish my persecutors?” Verse 85a – “The arrogant dig pits to trap me…” Verse 86b and 87a – “HELP ME, for I am being persecuted without cause. They almost wiped me from the earth…”
It’s Ok for us to EXPRESS OUR FEELINGS TO GOD and to be honest when we feel like what we are going through is too much and to cry out HELP ME GOD! But then as David, tell God how much we LOVE HIM and LOVE HIS WONDERFUL WORD!
David said, “I LOVE YOU, LORD. You give me strength.” (Psalms 18:1) “LORD, I REALLY LOVE YOUR LAW! ALL DAY LONG I spend time THINKING ABOUT IT.” (Psalms 119:97) He loved it so much, “I have HIDDEN YOUR WORD IN MY HEART that I might not sin against you.” (Psalms 119:11)
THE BOTTOM LINE IS THIS, “When a man’s ways PLEASE THE LORD, He makes even his enemies to BE AT PEACE WITH HIM.” (Proverbs 16:7)
Your Personal Pastor -Bill Stockham