The Comfort of Paul is also Ours

God has comforted me in His Word this week as I read through some of Paul’s epistles. As I meditated on The Word, I imagined Paul there, in prison, receiving comfort. From whence did his comfort come?

I know he received many visitors, as he notes in his letters.

Psalms 42.11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God

But I imagined him receiving much comfort from the Psalms and other of God’s Word. I think Paul must have memorized and meditated on much of the Old Testament, brilliant as he was. God put into Paul’s heart exactly what he would need for his days ahead.

God does the same for us. We often don’t realize it at the moment, but God orchestrates our hours and days and meetings with others all the time. He is comforting us, preparing us, and equipping us; giving us exactly what we will need now and for the days ahead.

Look at Psalms 119.17 – 24, and imagine the comfort Paul must have received. Imagine receiving that comfort, yourself:

Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.

My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.

Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments.

Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies.

Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.

Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellers.

Some days may not feel joyful. But we still have joy: God filled us with His Holy Spirit when He called us by name. David knew the joy of the Lord, the joy of KNOWING His salvation. On those tough days, when David was feeling far from his Lord because of evil in his own life and evil around him, he called out to his God:

Psalms 51.12 – 17:

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

What comfort does God bring you from His Word?

Psalms 39.7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

Psalms 121:

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.