Though I Am Like a Wineskin in the Smoke (Psalm 119)

Though I Am Like a Wineskin in the Smoke

 

Psalm 119

 

I have never thought to write a sermon on Psalm 119 simply because it is too long to cover in a sermon. Still it is a great wild repository of heavenly treasures that needs to be mined carefully and diligently, and I would like to share with you what I’ve dug from the repository. As we see, Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, consisting of 176

verses. This is an acrostic poem, in which each set of eight verses begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The text on the right shows the original version of the first set of eight verses, each of which starts with the first letter Alef (א). As the Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters shown as below, the total number of verses becomes 176 (22 x 8). This psalm is mainly the Psalmist’s prayers to God, and his resolutions regarding the Word of God. In this poem, the Word of God is called in a number of different terms. The most frequent term is “The Law of the Lord,” which appears 46 times in this psalm. It is also called “Statute” (23), “Way” (4), “Precept” (21), “Decree” (22), “Command” (22),

“Word” (29), and “Promise” (13). (As I counted based on the NIV Bible translation, these counts may be slightly different from others). Most of the verses in this poem include one or two of these terms denoting the Word of God, but verses 84, 90, 121, 122 and 132 do not.

 

This psalm begins with this statement: “Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord” (v. 1). And it ends with this lamenting prayer: “I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands.” The beginning and the end are quite contrasting with each other. While the psalmist sees the ideal image of the blessed at the beginning, he seems to be in the middle of the journey to this blessing. He has two contradictory aspects in his one life. He is a lost sheep that has strayed from the shepherd. Still he remembers the commands of his shepherd. So he is praying to be sought and found by the shepherd. He eagerly seeks God’s guidance through His Word. This journey is not a joyous travel. It is rather a weary trudge with many agonies. In verse 83, the psalmist says, “Though I am like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget your decrees.” I think this is the summation of the singer’s life, describing also what we Christian go through and achieve through our lives.

 

Here “a wineskin in the smoke” is the skin of a sheep that is hung in the middle of hot and sooty smoke. This is to be prepared as a leather bottle of wine. Through the smoking process, the skin becomes dry, tough, soft, and mature, and then, it is transformed completely and now can be filled with wine, which is the Word of God that is the psalmist’s ultimate delight (24, 77, 143, 174). I believe this is the progress that all of God’s people walk through their lifetime. The fully trained wineskin is comparable to our Christian faith that is for holding the Word of God in our heart. 1Peter 1:7 also says, “These (all kinds of trials) have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” In this psalm as well, the singer mentions “affliction” in connection to his transformation several times. Verse 67 says, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.” Verse 71 also says, “It is good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.” He believes that it is God’s hand that brings such afflictions to him, saying, “I know, Lord, that your laws are righteous, and that in faithfulness, you have afflicted me” (75). Through this process, he is learning what he has in his heart. In other word, his faith is growing until he finds the preciousness of God’s Word.

 

While the psalmist is going through the transformation process like a wineskin, there are two things that never change. One is the Word of God, and the other is the World. Figuratively saying, the psalmist is in the wilderness between the two like the Israelites in the wilderness who left Egypt but haven’t yet entered the Promised Land. As he confessed at the end, he is like a straying lost sheep. He cries to God, “I am a stranger on earth; Do not hide your commands from me” (19). Let’s see his view of the world and the wicked in the world. The world is characterized by its being without God and God’s Word. It has its own ways that the psalmist calls “evil path” (101) and “wrong path” (104, 128). The wicked in the world are faithless against God, disobeying His Word (158). They ignore God’s words (139), forsake God’s laws (53), and stray from God’s decrees (21, 118). Instead, they, arrogant, lift up themselves as the rulers of this world, and unite their strength and wisdom against God (23) and against God’s people. Their hearts are callous and unfeeling (70). They are liars who smear the honest with their falsehood (69). They are double-minded people (113), looking nice and kind outwardly but devising wicked schemes secretly (150) in order to dig pits and trap the innocent (85). They oppress (121), persecute (84), and wait to destroy the righteous (95). They do evil “without cause” (78, 86, 161) only because they are evil. They have the delusion that these evil paths lead them to honor and glory like that of God. But God rebukes the arrogant (21) and discards the wicked like dross (119). Their delusions come to nothing (118). Salvation is far from the wicked because they do not seek out God’s decrees (155). It is because they are far from God’s law (150).

 

Then how is the Word of God in the psalmist’s eyes? The Word of God is good (39), true (151), right (137), and righteous (7, 75, 106). The psalmist confesses that God’s promises have been thoroughly tested (140), and God’s statutes are fully trustworthy (138). It is interesting that God’s promises have been thoroughly tested so that they become fully trustworthy to us. I believe this is the true meaning of “test” or “trial.” When we go through a trial, the trial is not testing our faith. Actually the trial is testing our faith in God’s promises. What is eventually proven is less the genuineness of our faith than the genuineness of God’s promise. And at the end of the trial, our faith in God’s promise is refined and strengthened. The psalmist says, “Though I am like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget your decrees” (83). This shows clearly what was happening while the singer was suffering in the smoky darkness. He couldn’t open his eyes and see ahead. The burning pain reached his inner organs. But he remembered God’s word. He held it like his lifeline. In fact, God’s word is being tested through his suffering. Whether his promise of salvation is true or not is subject to the psalmist’s trial. And after all, the smoke blows away, and the Word of God remains in his heart, of course, enshrined firmly in his refined faith. Imagine that he forgot God’s decrees when he was like a wineskin in the smoke. Then, even if he survives the trial, he gains nothing. He is merely an empty skin, and rejected. In this sense, all our sufferings and trials must go with God’s Word step by step, and moment by moment. Then, we, after all, have the same testimony as that of the psalmist, “I would have perished in my affliction if your law had not been my delight” (92).

 

The Word of God is the exact representation of God Himself. God is good and what He does is good (68). God is righteous (137) and His righteousness is everlasting (142). God is faithful (75) and His faithfulness continues through all generations (90). And these attributes are all applied to the Word of God. In fact, God gave His Word to us so that the Word becomes “God with Us (Immanuel).” The psalmist lists the divine natures of God’s Word. He says, “Your word is eternal” (89, 160), “Your statutes that you established last forever” (152), “Your commands are boundless” (96), and “Your word stands firm in the heavens” (89). As God is sought, loved, feared, and treasured, so is God’s Word by the psalmist. It looks almost impossible to fathom how deeply the singer is committed to the Word of God. To him, God’s Word has many names. It is his delight (24, 77, 143), the joy of his heart (111), the theme of his song (54), his counselor (24), a lamp for his feet and a light on his path (105), and his heritage forever (111). The Law of God is more precious to him than thousands of pieces of silver and gold (72), sweeter to his mouth than honey (103), and lovable more than gold, pure gold (127). The Word of God gives him wisdom (98), light (130), understanding (130), and peace (165). Simply saying, God’s Word is wonderful (129). With all these, we must remember that we cannot please God without keeping, loving, and obeying God’s Word. God’s Word is the most humble form of God’s presence among us, and nevertheless, it is exactly the same as God in glory and honor. The glorious Word of God wants to find a dwelling place in me who is like a sheep “that has gone astray and turned to my own way” (Isaiah 53:6). This dwelling has to go through a long and tedious process of transformation, turning the useless flesh skin into a useful wineskin. It is because the Word of God is God Himself, pure and holy, faultless and unchangeable.

 

As mentioned earlier, this psalm contains the psalmist’s prayers and his resolutions regarding God’s Word. Here are many prayers, but most of these prayers can be categorized into one of two groups. One is “Teach-me-your-word” prayers, and the other is “Do-me-according to your-word” prayers. He is so desperate to learn the Word of God, and out of this desire, he prays, “Teach me your laws” (12, 26, 33, 64, 68, 108, 124, 135). He wants to deepen his understanding of God’s Word, praying, “Cause me to understand the way of your precepts” (27), “Give me understanding to learn your commands” (73), “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law” (18), etc. In addition to these prayers for learning and understanding, he also prays to God “according to the Word of God.” For example, he prays, “Be gracious to me according to your promise” (58), “Do good to your servant according to your word” (65), “Preserve my life according to your word” (25, 37, 107, 149, 154, 156), “Sustain me according to your promise” (116), “Strengthen me according to your word” (28), “May your unfailing love come to me according to your promise” (41), “Direct my footsteps according to your word” (133), “Deliver me according to your promise” (170), and many others. He urges God to “Remember your word to your servant” (49), and “Fulfill your promise to your servant so that you may be feared” (38). He cries to God, “It’s time for you to act; your law is being broken” (126). The psalmist’s prayers tell us what to pray for and how to pray. First of all, we should pray for learning and understanding the Word of God. And then, based on our understanding of God’s word, we should pray for the fulfillment of the Word upon us, upon the world, and upon God Himself for His name, His kingdom, and His glory. In other words, we cannot pray properly without knowing and understanding God’s Word. We may pray “according to my will.” For this, the singer prays, “Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain” (36). He also prays, “Never take your word of truth from my mouth” (43). For our life of prayers, we should set our heart and our mouth firmly on the Word of God. We should keep our heart and our mouth “holy” so that they are consecrated as the dwelling place and voice of God’s Word.

 

The psalmist’s prayers are followed and supported by many of his resolutions and practices. Although there are many things the psalmist desires to do, I would like to mention mainly two things: One is meditation of God’s Word in his heart, and the other is obedience to God’s Word in his everyday life. The psalmist sets his heart on God’s laws (30, 36, 112), hides God’s words in his heart (11), and meditates on them all day long (15, 23, 48, 97, 99, 148).  He stands in awe of God’s laws (120), and his heart trembles at God’s word (161).  He longs for God’s laws at all times (20, 40, 131), loves them (48, 97, 113, 127, 159), and delights in them (14, 16, 47, 70). He trusts God’s commands (66), puts his hope in God’s word (74,114), and holds fast to God’s statutes (31). With all these commitments of his heart, the psalmist also obeys the Word of God sincerely and faithfully. We can find several verbs in this psalm describing his faithful practice of God’s Word, some of which are “keep” (2, 22, 34, 55, 69, 112, 115), “walk” (1), “follow” (3, 14, 63, 80, 106, 166), “obey” (8, 18, 34, 56, 60, 67, 100, 129, 134), “run” (32), and “haste and do not delay” (60). With this heart and everyday life, we may call the psalmist the incarnation of God’s Word as demonstrated fully by the life of Jesus Christ our Lord when he was with us in flesh. In Isaiah 53:2b, the coming Messiah is described in this way: “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” He was like a shrunken wineskin after having been severely treated with many trials. But he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth (Isaiah 53:7). With his full and willing obedience, the will of God was accomplished in his hands (53:10b).

 

The psalmist says, “Though I am like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget your decrees.” In fact, it is when I am like a wineskin that God’s word is fulfilled and its genuineness is proved. It was when Abraham’s body was as good as dead (Romans 4:19) that God gave him a son as promised, and then he became obedient to God’s Word until willingly sacrificing the son as a burnt offering to God. It was when Moses was a humble shepherd, “more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3), that God called him as a deliverer of God’s people Israel, and then he became obedient to God’s Word until confronting Pharaoh face to face. This is the spiritual truth that God’s Word dwells and prospers in our humble faith refined through many trials. Although it sounds overwhelming, we have no choice. The Word of God does not change. The World does not change. But we are transformed from a flesh skin to a wineskin that can hold the Word of God in it. With this hope, we are truly blessed even in the smoke as long as we do not forget the Word of God. How precious is the Word of God! It is truly our salvation and our life forever and ever!!!