Steadfast in Suffering
Scripture Reading: Psalm 119:81-88
“For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke,” the Psalmist wrote. While it is an analogy that was more easily understood when those words were written, it isn’t beyond our grasp to get the point. Bottles or containers for wine were made of animal skins. Their usefulness depended on not being dried out a cracked. Pliable and soft leather worked best as it does for most things even today. Being hung where it was constantly exposed to smoke from a fire would naturally dry out a wineskin and change the way it looked, felt, and smelled.
The Psalmist is acknowledging how persecution was affecting him. It was changing him in some ways and not for the better. I appreciate this. He puts his reaction and response to suffering down on a shelf we can all reach. He isn’t elevating himself of the way he handled his difficulty to a heroic, superhero status level. He isn’t making it out to seem like he wasn’t touched by it and he walked through the fire without getting seared by the heat. He is human.
He is suffering. But he is also steadfast. His hope is in God’s word (vs. 81). He has not forgotten God’s statutes (vs. 83). He has not forgotten God’s precepts (vs. 87). This is key. The Psalmist’s example isn’t of a man skipping along and merrily whistling a happy tune as life caves in around him. His suffering is real and painful and it is having a tangible effect on him. His example is how to be steadfast in suffering. He holds fast to God by holding fast to God’s word.