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Comfort during trials and testings only comes from God's Word
Psalm 119:49–56 (KJV 1900)
49 ZAIN.
Remember the word unto thy servant, Upon which thou hast caused me to hope.
50 This is my comfort in my affliction: For thy word hath quickened me.
51 The proud have had me greatly in derision: Yet have I not declined from thy law.
52 I remembered thy judgments of old, O Lord; And have comforted myself.
53 Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked That forsake thy law.
54 Thy statutes have been my songs In the house of my pilgrimage.
55 I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night, And have kept thy law.
56 This I had, Because I kept thy precepts.
Introduction
Encouraged by the life of Charles Spurgeon.
His willingness to go into homes during the great plaque to comfort families
His stand for truth against people that question the sufficiency and necessity of Scripture
His openness about his struggles with depression but his commitment that God’s Word would bring comfort; and was the only place worthy of searching for answers.
You may be surrounded with all the comforts of life and yet be in wretchedness more gloomy than death if the spirits are depressed.
You may have no outward cause whatever for sorrow and yet if the mind is dejected, the brightest sunshine will not relieve your gloom.
… There are times when all our evidences get clouded and all our joys are fled.
Though we may still cling to the Cross, yet it is with a desperate grasp.
Spurgeon warned his students to be aware of situations in which they may be more susceptible to depression.
when you have prolonged illness or physical problems
when you do intense mental or “heart” work
when you’re lonely or isolated
when your lifestyle is sedentary and you overwork your brain
after success
before success
after one heavy blow
through the slow pile of trouble and discouragement
in exhaustion and overworking
The desperate need for comfort can find us at any time on this pilgrimage.
Spurgeon understood that depression isn’t always logical and its cause is not always clear.
There are times, he said, when our spirits betray us, and we sink into darkness.
We all need comfort.
One of the negative results of the Fall of Man is fear, anxiety, and depression.
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden are so afraid they hide themselves from the presence of God.
Fear comes from actual or perceived danger.
Fear often takes away our obedience and trust in God’s away.
Rather than turn to their Creator in trust, they fled from Him.
Anxiety is a subset of fear.
Anxious people are excellent meditators, they simply meditate on what could happen rather than on God and His Word.
“We have interpreted what we know about God from our experience instead of interpreting our experiences in light of what is true about God from the Scriptures.”
This is often referred to as our Great Disorder.
Depression and discouragement come into our life and will be compounded if we look to this world for our comfort.
It would be as drinking salt water for our thirst.
Recognize that in being desperate for comfort it is vital that we desire His Word above all else
There is nothing that tempts me toward idolatry than my desire to find comfort outside of God.
Obedience is difficult.
Disobedience gives the allusion that comfort is more readily accessible through sin then it is from waiting upon the Lord.
Recognize the need for comfort in my affliction.
Psalm 119:50 “50 This is my comfort in my affliction: For thy word hath quickened me.”
1. Look to the promises of God for hope.
Psalm 119:49 “49 ZAIN.
Remember the word unto thy servant, Upon which thou hast caused me to hope.”
We are not reminding God has we would remind someone to pick up something at the groceries.
“Remember” is a prayer for God to fulfill the promises he made to his people; which is His servants.
It is a word of promise in which the psalmist has put his hope.
“caused me to hope”
Reminder hope is not an uncertain wish but it is an expectation based on the promises of God.
Psalm 42:5 “5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?
Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him For the help of his countenance.”
Biblical hope not only desires something good for the future — it expects it to happen.
The Lord has given us a promise on which we may hope
The Lord has given us promises and we can have a hard time laying hold of them.
We can have a hard time believing them.
Church in Indiana looked like it was going to close.
They laid hold of the promise of John 12:32 “32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
So how are we able to sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
How are we able to sorrow with rejoicing and grieve with hope and be comforted in our affliction?
Our Lord has made promises to us and by His Spirit He has enabled us to have hope in those promises!
2. Turn to God’s Word for God’s comfort.
Psalm 119:50 “50 This is my comfort in my affliction: For thy word hath quickened me.”
The word comfort conveys an idea of easing.
Have you ever been desperate for comfort?
Stephanie found me dressed in the bathtub the one time that I experienced a kidney stone.
I was desperate for comfort.
I needed Stephanie to tell me I was going to be okay.
(Carsen told me he gets this)
Here's how we walk with the Lord in the midst of trial.
He's given us promises and those promises both comfort us and they quicken us.
They bring life.
The psalmist is dealing with the affliction of ridicule.
Psalm 119:51 “51 The proud have had me greatly in derision: Yet have I not declined from thy law.”
Derision: The act of laughing at in contempt.
Lamentations 3:14-15 “14 I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.”
Jeremiah remembered and turned to God’s word in the midst of affliction for comfort.
One thought (this I recall to mind) crowded out the hopelessness that threatened to overwhelm him.
Lamentations 3:20-21 “20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.”
This truth is eternal
Psalm 119:52 “52 I remembered thy judgments of old, O Lord; And have comforted myself.”
Old does not mean irrelevant.
This is wonderfully comforting.
Psalm 93:2 “2 Thy throne is established of old: Thou art from everlasting.”
God’s judgments have stood the test of time with all its conflicts and pains; God’s word is eternal—ever reliable and ever binding.
Luke 21:33 “33 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.”
Truth is immortal.
- Hubmairer
Fight fleeting temptations with the eternal, never-changing, all satisfying Word of God by living in obedience to God’s Word and not in giving into the temptation to find comfort in this world.
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