Psalms 119:143. Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delight.
What a curious mixture this verse describes! Here is a man full of trouble and anguish, and yet full of delight at the same time. Little do they understand human nature, and especially gracious human nature, who cannot comprehend this paradox. There are many seeming contradictions in the Christian life, and this is one of them: "Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me:" - as dogs lay hold of their prey, - "yet thy commandments are my delights." The apostle Paul pictured another such a case as this when he wrote, "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed," and he also described the Christian paradox, "As unknown, and yet well known, as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." May we all understand these paradoxes is our own experiences!
Psalms 119:143. Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delight.
What a curious mixture this verse describes! Here is a man full of trouble and anguish, and yet full of delight at the same time. Little do they understand human nature, and especially gracious human nature, who cannot comprehend this paradox. There are many seeming contradictions in the Christian life, and this is one of them: "Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me:" - as dogs lay hold of their prey, - "yet thy commandments are my delights." The apostle Paul pictured another such a case as this when he wrote, "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed," and he also described the Christian paradox, "As unknown, and yet well known, as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." May we all understand these paradoxes is our own experiences!