This morning, I want to begin with a verse of
scripture from Psalm 119. It is verse 83. And it is a most curious text.
Would you listen please as I read it with you? The psalmist wrote:
83For
I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes.
(Psalm 119:83 – KJV)
If you attend here regularly and if you usually
look up the scripture text for my sermons, you probably know that I usually
read from the New International Version translation of the Bible. It is a
very good translation of the scriptures, the pew Bibles in front of you are of
that version and it seems to be the translation that most of you use.
But for this morning, I decided to read the text
from the King James translation of 1611. I did that because of one word in
this verse. The word is “bottle”.
The New International translation reads like this:
83
Though I am
like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget your decrees.
I thought the term “bottle” from the KJV would be
more descriptive for the title for this message but I will tell you that the
term “wineskin” is probably more accurate for the word-picture the psalmist
was painting.
I thought it likely that bottles, as we know them,
had not even been invented by the time of Jesus, much less by the time this
psalm was written. However, with a little bit of research, I learned that the
first known glass bottles were produced in about 1500
B.C. by the Egyptians. That is about
500 years before the probable date of this psalm. Archaeologists have
uncovered some of these Egyptian bottles. They were formed by placing molten
glass around a core of sand and clay. The core was then dug out once the glass
cooled. This process of making bottles was time-consuming and complex, so
they were considered a luxury item in the ancient world.
The Hebrew word “nah own” used in this
verse can be translated as either ‘bottle” or “skin”. Since we do not know
for certain the identity of the author of this psalm, we do not know if he
would have had access to luxury items like glass bottles. In any event, it is
far more likely that the psalmist, whoever he was, used animal skins to store
liquids, as that was the common practice among the people of his land and of
his day. Animal skins were more readily available than glass bottles and were
much easier to carry than earthenware vessels.
Let’s download this image and see if we can
discover the meaning behind the picture.
The Psalmist here is referring to an experience in
his life where he sees himself on the brink of ruin. He uses the term
"wineskin in the smoke" as an illustration of how he felt.
Drinking containers in ancient times were usually made of skin. These skin
bottles were often hung in a tent. When a fire was needed inside, since there
was no chimney, the skin would absorb the smoke.
Eventually, the skin would become hard and shriveled because of the smoke and
could become brittle or even fragile.
As I said, the psalmist sees himself in an
experience in his life that had made him feel like he was on the brink of
ruin. He was being colored by the experience; hardened by it; even fragile or
vulnerable because of what he has endured.
You might be feeling like a bottle in the smoke
this morning. Let’s look at this image to see if we can find some reassurance
for those of us who smell of smoke today.
I.
GOD’S PEOPLE WILL ENCOUNTER SMOKE
Let’s get this out of
the way first: God’s people will encounter smoke in their lives. Any preacher
who tells you that if you are a Christian, you will sail through life with no
trials, no troubles and no temptations is not telling you the truth.
God’s people have
always been subjected to affliction. Think of Job whose trials are
legendary. The Hebrews were oppressed in Egypt. The Israelites were
constantly under attack in Canaan. The Jews were enslaved by the Assyrians
and by the Babylonians. The church of the New Testament was persecuted by the
Jews and by the Romans.
God’s people have
always been subjected to affliction. You will often find them in the smoke.
I believe that raises
the question of where the smoke comes from? I do not believe there is any one
answer. Rather, the smoke comes from various sources.
Sometimes the smoke in
our lives is a part of God’s correction of us. Proverbs 3 teaches us:
11 My son, do not despise
the Lord’s discipline and do not
resent his rebuke, 12 because the
Lord disciplines those he loves,
as a father the son he delights in.
In Revelation 3:19, the
Jesus expresses much the same idea when he said, “Those
whom I love I rebuke and discipline.”
We receive the Father’s
correction because we are not orphans and our loving Father has as His goal
that we will be conformed into the image of Christ. His priority is not our
comfort but our conformation.
The smoke we experience
is not always because of God’s correction. Sometimes it is a natural
consequence of our own choices. The old adage is: if you play with
fire, you will get burned. Here’s a corollary: if you play with fire, you
will experience some smoke.
Some choices bring
their own consequences. If we choose to lie, cheat and steal, we will get a
bad reputation. If we choose to drive recklessly, we may get injured. If we
decide to be a Cubs fan, we will likely be frustrated. Sometimes the smoke is
a natural consequence of our choices.
Have you ever noticed
that some sins bring their own punishment? If we are unforgiving, we will
become bitter and relationships will suffer. The Bible teaches that there
will also be eternal consequences to being unforgiving. God can use these
consequences to correct us but He does not necessarily send them; sometimes
they are the natural result of our choices.
Sometimes we encounter
smoke just because of circumstances. We live in a fallen world with
the results of sin all around us. No one goes through life without
experiencing illness, disappointment, sorrow or grief. God may not have
caused it and it may not always be a consequence of our choices; it can simply
be the circumstances of the time and place since we live in world marred by
Adam’s sin.
At times, we will find
ourselves in the smoke because we choose to be disciples of Jesus. If
you make it your mission to be like the Master, you will find yourself in the
smoke. John’s gospel, in chapter 15, verses 18-21 quotes Jesus:
18
“If the
world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you
belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not
belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the
world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No
servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will
persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do
not know the One who sent me.”
Just know this, if you
decide to follow Jesus, you will have to walk through the smoke…because that
is where he walked.
II.
GOD’S PEOPLE WILL BE STUNG BY THE
SMOKE
Not only will God’s
people encounter smoke, they will be stung by the smoke. It will cause their
eyes to water; it will cause them to hurt; and they will be colored by the
experience.
That is to be expected.
After all trials that we do not feel are not trials at all.
Temptations that are not tempting are not temptation and trials that are not
felt are not really trials. I used my thesaurus to find synonyms for
“trials”. Listen to these.
Synonyms for trials:
·
Ordeals
·
Hardships
·
Pain
·
Suffering
·
Troubles
·
Misery
·
Distress
·
Burdens
·
Worries
·
Difficulties
·
Anxiety
·
Tribulation
Doesn’t it just follow
that if you experience trials that you will feel them? Again, if they are not
felt, they weren’t really trials. If it doesn’t smart, it isn’t smoke.
Trials that are not felt
are not trials and trials that are not felt are not profitable.
Hymn number 299 in our hymnal is the song “More
Love to Thee” by Elizabeth Prentiss. Mrs. Prentiss was the wife of a
Presbyterian minister. She was often described by her many friends as “a very
bright-eyed little woman with a keen sense of humor.” Although Elizabeth was
strong in spirit, she was frail in body. Throughout her life she was almost
an invalid, scarcely knowing a moment free of pain.
She wrote the words to the song “More Love to
Thee” during a time of great personal sorrow following the deaths of two of
her children in a short period of time. For weeks she was inconsolable. In
her diary she wrote, “empty hands, a worn-out, exhausted body, and
unutterable longings to flee from a world that has so many sharp experiences.”
Elizabeth Prentiss spent much time in prayer and
meditation while she tried to cope with this smoke that was burning her eyes.
While she was meditating and praying one evening, the words of this song were
born.
The song, as it was written, has four stanzas. In
our hymnal, only three are printed. Listen to the one that was omitted:
Let sorrow do its work, send grief and pain;
sweet are Thy messengers, sweet their refrain, when they can sing with me,
more love, O Christ, to Thee, More love to Thee, More love to Thee.
I think that is my favorite verse of this or any
hymn. “Let sorrow do its work”. What a loss if we go through the smoke and
do not profit from it. If we are going to experience the trials, we ought to
feel them so we can benefit from them.
But note this also: trials that are not endured
render us useless. A wineskin that is consumed by the heat and the smoke
is of no value. The smoke must be endured, the storms must be weathered, the
suffering must be borne. If we allow them to destroy us, we are made useless
– not just for the Kingdom of God but for anything.
III.
GOD’S PEOPLE WILL NOT BE BLINDED BY
THE SMOKE
The
psalmist wrote:
83
Though I am like a
wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget your decrees.
He
had resolved not to allow the smoke to blind him to God’s Word.
Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible with
176 verses. It is an alphabetical acrostic in which each of the first eight
verses begin with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, each of the next
eight verses begins with the second letter and so on through all 22 letters in
the Hebrew alphabet.
All 22 stanzas, all 176 verses, all 946 Hebrew
words are about God’s Law. The psalmist says God’s Word revived him,
strengthened him and comforted him. As a result, he said God’s Word was the
lamp for his feet and the light for his path. He resolved to hide it in his
heart so he would not sin against God.
And, in verse 83, our text for this morning, he
said that no matter what afflictions he experienced, he was determined not to
forget God’s Word. Even if he was stung by the smoke, colored by it, hardened
by it and made vulnerable because of it, he would still hold on to the Word of
God. Just as an ancient wineskin might be black and wrinkled outwardly while
retaining choice wine within, so God’s people, though afflicted and affected
by the smoke of trial, will still hold to God’s Word.
Hide God’s laws in your soul where the smoke cannot
reach.
Please note that the
smoke is not the fire. Smoke colors but it does not consume. Just because
you must go through the smoke does not mean that you have to be destroyed.
Resolve to be like the psalmist who, though he felt like a bottle in the
smoke, yet he determined that would not forget God’s statutes, His standards,
His instructions.
CONCLUSION:
The New Living
Translation of Psalm 119:83 reads:
83 I
am shriveled like a wineskin in the smoke, exhausted with waiting. But I
cling to your principles and obey them.
The Message has rendered the verse like this:
There’s smoke in my
eyes—they burn and water, but I keep a steady gaze on the instructions you
post.
The phrases may vary but
the meaning does not. In this life, smoke is inevitable. Remembering God’s
statutes is optional…optional but essential for God’s child if they are to
endure and remain faithful unto death.
Please accept this word
of encouragement today:
Be not dismayed whate’er betide, God will take
care of you.
INVITATION:
#328 – “God Will Take Care of
You”
