Scripture: Psalm 119:50 – “This is my comfort in my distress, that your promise gives me life.” (NRSVUE)
There are a couple of less-than-comforting lines from the 1987 film The Princess Bride. The first is, “Life is pain… Anyone who says differently is selling something.” The second is, “Well, who says life is fair? Where is that written? Life isn’t always fair.” And this is in a story where, at least in the movie version, all the heroes live happily ever after.
So, what does that say about us? Our lives are full of pain, of disappointment, of shocking losses and slow declines. Nothing we love in life ever lasts forever, even if it lives beyond us. And though we have a sense of what is good and honest and true, those virtues never seem to win out. Life is painful and unfair.
Congratulations. We have accepted how things are bad. So, how do we get to that happily ever after? I think we need to look upon what God has told us through the Bible and through our own experiences, as unhappy as they may have been.
Psalm 119 is the lengthiest of the psalms, as well as the longest chapter in the whole bible. That is because it is a single prayer made of up twenty-two eight-line stanzas, each beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. As the whole, the psalm is about living with the Torah, with the laws and promises of God.
In stanza seven (beginning with the letter “zayin” or “z”), the tone shifts from praise to petition as the psalmists looks upon all the troubles of life. But no matter how much he is derided by the arrogant or how indignant he is because of the wicked, he never loses hope. His faith in God and in the precepts of hope and purpose he finds in the scriptures help him through everything he faces. “This is my comfort in my distress, that your promise gives me life.” Even when he is in a world of trouble, he feels blessed because of his relationship with God.
So, life is painful, and life is unfair. We too lament our sorrow and rant in anger against injustice. But what keeps us going are the promises of God. The promise that life is not the end. That love endures. That God carries us and comforts us no matter what happens to us.
This is why faith is so important, because it is how we face the pains of each new day. Stand on the promises of God. It is the start of joy and peace and your own happily ever after.
Prayer: God of power and majesty, hear the prayers of my broken heart. Let me find comfort in your promises of life and love. Amen.
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