Misery Loves [All] Company; Psalm 119

May the mumbling commence!

Did yesterday’s mumblings leave you at dis-ease?  Psalm 119 also shows us were our comfort should come from.  It also underlines the cliché that “misery loves company.”  Read another passage from the longest chapter of the Bible:

I know, O Lord, that your laws are righteous,

and in faithfulness you have afflicted me. 

May your unfailing love be my comfort,

according to your promise to your servant. 

Let your compassion come to me that I may live,

for your law is my delight. 

May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me without cause;

but I will meditate on your precepts. 

May those who fear you turn to me,

those who understand your statutes. 

May my heart be blameless toward your decrees,

that I may not be put to shame. (Verses 75-80)

God, in His great faithfulness, afflicts us.  The Lord afflicts us with dis-ease at unrighteousness and injustice.  When we experience this kind of dis-ease, we get an infinitesimal measure of how God feels.  Yet, God loves us.  God’s unfailing love is our only true source of comfort.  Dis-ease from unrighteousness and injustice comes from loving and delighting in Jesus, God’s Word made flesh.  It comes from no wrongdoing.  In fact, this kind of dis-ease often comes from making the righteous and unpopular stand.

And misery loves company.  May those who fear the Lord be drawn to the children of God and their particular brand of dis-ease that puts vulnerable people at ease.  Making the choice for dis-ease at unrighteousness and injustice means waiting (Verse 82).  It means that Jesus’ Spirit will sustain us through affliction (Verse 92) and preserve our lives (Verse 107).  This kind of dis-ease is a theme in Psalm 119 (Verses 143, 153, and the verses mentioned before).

And, lest we misunderstand, this dis-ease, though not based in wrongdoing, is not based upon personal righteousness.  It is based upon the righteousness of the Lord alone and on His Son.  We have all, like sheep, gone astray.  Read the last two verses of Psalm 119:

Let me live that I may praise you,

and may your laws sustain me. 

I have strayed like a lost sheep.

Seek your servant,

for I have not forgotten your commands.  (Verses 175-176)     

Not one of us deserves to live in the eyes of God.  But we are sustained through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  May we never forget the lessons that Jesus taught and the example of his godly life of submission.

Thank you, O Great Shepherd, for seeking us!

Thank you, O God, for the dis-ease that You grant us so that Your will may be done in our hearts and in the world.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out