The eleventh stanza of Psalm 119 is perhaps the most bleak portion of the entire chapter. You can see what I mean in Psalm 119:81-84:

At this point in Psalm 119, we are almost to the halfway point, and it seems as if the psalmist is in his darkest moments. And yet, the end of this dark and hopeless stanza gives us a glimpse of hope yet to come, which we will look at more closely next week.

This passage, in verse 84, is the first verse that does not contain one of the terms used for God’s Word throughout Psalm 119. I think that is significant. Very often, in our darkest moments, we can easily lose sight of what God may be doing, feeling bleak despair and hopelessness. That may be where the psalmist finds himself as well, losing sight of the promises of God due to the dark circumstances facing him at this moment.

These four verses contain a lot of information about those who are persecuting the author, and causing his distress and suffering. These enemies of this man of God seem to be completely occupying his thoughts. I know this is true for me, and I suspect it is for you as well. When things are going wrong, they consume our minds, they are all we can think about, and we worry ourselves to the point of exhaustion in the process.

But, as we will see next week at the end of this stanza, there is comfort and hope, and they are to be found in God’s Word.

And that’s the lesson that we can take from this passage, that even when things seem to be the darkest, we can find solace and strength in the Word of God, knowing that he has not left us, and will never do so.

We can rest assured that he has everything under control.

Question: When things seem to be the worst, where do you turn? To your worries? Or to the Word? You can leave a comment by clicking here.