Walking Through Darkness Without Light
The man speaking has been walled in, hunted, left walking in darkness, and says his hope from our Father has perished. Midway he calls one thing to mind, mercies new every morning, and holds it. Then grief returns: confession, prayer blocked, a plea against enemies.
3 1I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath. 2He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness without any light. 3Surely against me he turns his hand again and again, all day long.
4He has worn away my flesh and my skin; he has broken my bones. 5He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. 6He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.
7He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed down my chains. 8Even when I call out and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. 9He has blocked my ways with cut stones; he has made my paths crooked.
10He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding. 11He drove me off my path and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate. 12He bent his bow and set me as the target for his arrow.
13He drove the arrows of his quiver into my vitals. 14I have become the laughingstock of all my people, their mocking song all day long. 15He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with bitterness.
16He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in the dust. 17My soul has lost all peace; I have forgotten what happiness is. 18So I say, "My endurance has perished, and so has my hope from our Father."
19Remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall! a a v19 The hinge of the book. Having asked our Father to remember his affliction, the poet turns in the next breath to what he himself will call to mind — and finds mercy new every morning. 20My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. 21But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
22The covenant love of our Father never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24"Our Father is all I need," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."
25Our Father is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of our Father. 27It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.
28Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; 29let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope; b b v29 Putting one's mouth in the dust was an ancient posture of complete humility and surrender before God. 30let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and be filled with insults.
31For the Sovereign Father will not abandon forever. 32Though he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his covenant love; 33for he does not willingly afflict or grieve people. c c v33 Here is the turning point of the whole book: our Father does not wound from his heart. His judgment is real, but it is never what he delights in — his compassion always outlasts his discipline.
34To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, 35to deny a man justice in the sight of the Most High, 36to deprive a man of justice in his case—the Sovereign Father does not approve.
37Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Sovereign Father has commanded it? 38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamity and good come? 39Why should a living man complain about the punishment for his sins?
40Let us examine and test our ways, and return to our Father! 41Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to our Father in heaven: 42"We have sinned and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
43You have wrapped yourself in anger and pursued us, killing without pity; 44you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. 45You have made us scum and refuse among the peoples.
46All our enemies open their mouths against us; 47panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction." 48My eyes flow with streams of water over the destruction of my people.
49My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, 50until our Father looks down and sees from heaven. 51My eyes bring grief to my soul at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
52I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause; 53they flung me alive into a pit and cast stones on me; 54water closed over my head; I said, "I am lost."
55I called on your name, my Father, from the depths of the pit; 56you heard my plea: "Do not turn a deaf ear to my cry for help!"
57You came near on the day I called on you; you said, "Do not fear!"
58You have taken up my cause, Sovereign Father; you have redeemed my life. 59You have seen the wrong done to me, my Father; judge my cause. 60You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.
61You have heard their taunts, my Father, all their plots against me, 62the lips and thoughts of my assailants against me all day long. 63Watch their every move; I am the object of their mocking song.
64You will repay them, my Father, according to the work of their hands. 65You will give them hardness of heart; your curse will be on them. 66You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of our Father.
