81. My soul longs for your salvation;
I hope in your word.

82. My eyes long for your promise;
I ask, “When will you comfort me?”

83. For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke,
yet I have not forgotten your statutes.

84. How long must your servant endure?
When will you judge those who persecute me?

85. The insolent have dug pitfalls for me;
they do not live according to your law.

86. All your commandments are sure;
they persecute me with falsehood; help me!

87. They have almost made an end of me on earth,
but I have not forsaken your precepts.

88. In your steadfast love give me life,
that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth.

RELATED TO GOD

Years ago I went through a season of unemployment that was excruciating. At the time, I was married with multiple children and I experienced intense agony over how I would provide for my family. God taught me to trust Him in that season more deeply than if my circumstances were more comfortable and I was in a cushy job.

In this stanza, David describes his intense sense of agony amidst his many difficult circumstances. Specifically, his soul is longing for God’s salvation (v. 81) and his eyes are longing for God’s promised comfort (v. 82). He describes his experience of unrelenting persecution requiring incredible endurance (v. 84). He needed this endurance because people have been trying to trip or entrap him (v. 85, lit. “dug pitfalls”) and persecuting him with lies (v. 86, lit. “falsehood). In fact, his persecution is so intense he feels like he is going to die (v. 87). David must have been experiencing a lot of agony!

In the last verse of this stanza, the Psalmist gathers up all this agony and places it at God’s feet. In verse 88, David prays for reviving life according to God’s covenant fidelity (Hebrew: chesed). Earlier in chapter 8, we looked at the Hebrew word, chesed, that points to God’s good and powerful leadership and begins with the Hebrew letter Heth. Here in verse 88, David writes K’chas-d’cha (כְּחַסְדְּךָ). This is the same root word here in verse 88 as earlier in verse 64 but with the Hebrew letter kaph (כּ) attached to the front of the word.

This letter kaph at the beginning of the word serves as a preposition. As a preposition, kaph means like, as, or according to. As a part of speech, prepositions show a relationship between two things. Here, David uses this small preposition to illustrate his heartfelt desire for a correspondence between two things: his struggling life and God’s good leadership. He is trying to hitch his agony and great need onto God’s good and powerful leadership. David uses a simple preposition to help him prayerfully and pleadingly cry out for his agony to better align with God’s goodness so he can obey the words of God’s mouth.

Where are you experiencing a sense of agony in your life right now? Try praying like David by trusting in God’s chesed, His good and powerful leadership, to guide you and revive you according to His covenant fidelity and your ultimate blessing!

Hebrew Treasure excerpt written by Thomas Boehm.
From The Psalm 119 Journey by Steve Allen, ©2022.
Used with permission.