Matins Devotion: December 18, 2024

Psalm 119:81-88

As you all know, I love a good literary image, a quick little phrase that says in a few words what lesser writers could take a hundred pages to convey. And we have one of those in our reading from Psalm 119 this morning. As the psalmist describes what it looks like for him to long for God’s salvation, as he cries out for the merciful hand of his God, he says, “for I have become like a wineskin in the smoke yet I have not forgotten your statutes.”

A wineskin in the smoke. What does that fantastic little phrase mean? Well, here’s a quick little explanation from the notes in the Lutheran Study Bible. “Items stored in crossbeams of the roof could be ruined if hung too close to the hearth’s heat and smoke. The psalmist says he has become shriveled and darkened from the heat and smoke, forgotten by others and even, seemingly, by God. But he has not forgotten God’s Word.”

So there you have it. And this is often what it feels like to be languishing in this world of a sin as you wait for the promises of God to arrive. You feel wrinkled up and worn out, burnt and shriveled. You feel collapsed in on yourself, ruined and constantly at risk of everything spilling out–all your tears, your anger, your sorrow, your pain.

But when you do, don’t forget the statutes of the Lord. Don’t forget His word, His promise. Jesus Christ because as a wineskin in the smoke for you at the cross. He was abused and scored, hated without cause. But the one who kept the Lord’s statutes, the one who fulfilled the Lord’s commandments has taken away your condemnation. He has forgiven your sins and clothed you in the right to live forever. That once shriveled wineskin, that once dead Jesus rose from the grave. And the day is coming when He will bless you to watch Him lift you from your own tomb, touch your skin, restore it, and welcome you into the un-shriveled glory of His eternal kingdom.