Who sang the strained words of this psalm?
Though rulers sit together and slander me,
your servant will meditate on your decrees…
I am laid low in the dust;
preserve my life according to your word…
My soul is weary with sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word
What was he suffering? Who were those against him?
And as he suffered, did he ever doubt?
Did he ever doubt: did God really part the Red Sea? Could it be that Moses just waited for the tide to ebb?
Did he ever doubt: will I really believe this God, who would have me stone my own son to death should he be rebellious? Who commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son? Who tortured the pious Job for a reason He would not reveal?
But in his affliction, where else could he turn? And when the doubt dissolved into tears, and the uncertainty into renewed obedience, he began to sing:
I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
I have set my heart on your laws…
This is my comfort in my affliction,
your promise gives me life…
Uphold me according to Your word, so that I may live,
And do not let me be ashamed of my hope.
And as he sang and prayed, the arrogant mocked him unmercifully. But he did not turn from the law (119:51).
(And let’s imagine there were therapists back in Babylon. Would they call his prayer a symptom? Would they ask: what repressed emotions is he compensating for? How strange a way of processing grief?)
The man must have lived and died in Babylon. Did he ever live to see his prayers answered? Did he ever get the comfort of a sing? A whisper? We cannot know.
But can know that, 630 years later, he was vindicated. Because there stood Yeshua. Exactly as promised. God walking in the flesh, opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf (Isaiah 35:5). The faith of the singer was proven. The prophecy was fulfilled. The law served its purpose.
And so I imagine the struggling man of this prayer now. I imagine him, wherever he may be, as he looks down upon the Earth, watching in wonder as a million choirs sing the prayer he once cried on his knees.