Psalm 119, Verse 143

You forewarned us, Adonai, while You were here on earth, that in this world we will have trouble. Yet You also encouraged us to take courage for You have overcome the world. It is this hope that serves as a deep anchor for our souls. Trouble and anguish may possibly only increase in the coming days, but we do not need to be shaken for underneath us is always be Your everlasting arms. Because You have overcome the world, let Your strength be the strength with which we live. Because You have overcome, let the peace that You give, not the peace of the world, flood our hearts. As for us, let Your commandments continue to be a delight for as You taught me, in it is our safety.

Lately, I have found myself drawn to Psalm 119. Charles Spurgeon beautifully describes it thus:

There is no title to this Psalm, neither is any author's name mentioned. It is not just long only; but equally excels in breadth of thought, depth of meaning, and height of fervour. It is like the celestial city which lieth four square, and the height and the breadth of it are equal. Many superficial readers have imagined that it harps upon one string, and abounds in pious repetitions and redundancies; but this arises from the shallowness of the reader's own mind: those who have studied this divine hymn, and carefully noted each line of it, are amazed at the variety and profundity of the thought.

It contains no idle word; the grapes of this cluster are almost to bursting full with the new wine of the kingdom. The more you look into this mirror of a gracious heart the more you will see in it. Placid on the surface as the sea of glass before the eternal throne, it yet contains within its depths an ocean of fire, and those who devoutly gaze into it shall not only see the brightness, but feel the glow of the sacred flame. It is loaded with holy sense, and is as weighty as it is bulky.

The Psalm is alphabetical. Eight stanzas commence with one letter, and then another eight with the next letter, and so the whole Psalm proceeds by octonaries quite through the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, from Aleph to Tau.

I thought I should post a verse each day in the hope that we all, including myself, may get an opportunity to reflect on them.