Psalm 119:49-50 “Never forget your promises to your servant, for they are my only hope. They give me strength in all my troubles; how they refresh and revive me!” (TLB)

It seems I’ve written about Psalm 119 before, for Lent in 2023. When we write a reflection, we are given four Scripture readings to choose from, based on the church lectionary. And just by chance I got Psalm 119:42-72 again. Try as I might to choose a different Scripture to write about, I was drawn again to Psalm 119.

As I wrote before, Psalm 119 is thought to have been written by King David. He praises the word of God and how his words give him hope and comfort him in his “afflictions.”

2024 and early 2025 were challenging times for my husband and me, especially financially. We knew we needed to sell our house and move. Our house was too big for us, needed repairs, and we still owed on it. But how did we sell it in its condition, where would we go, and what else could we afford? The answers to these questions evaded us. And created a lot of tension!

In Psalm 119, King David talks of being “afflicted.” That was certainly happening to us! It seems the more we face trouble and the more we suffer, the more we turn to God. King David did this and that’s what I did. I turned to God and prayed and prayed for him to guide us and deliver us from our financial troubles. I did this for what seemed like a long time. Then, seemingly out of the blue, we got an offer on our house by a real estate broker that I happened to meet at our neighbor’s house. The offer would give us everything we needed! However, even after this miracle, we still needed to find another place to live. But where? For a month, we had no idea where we would go. Then, somewhere we had considered years ago presented us with an opportunity. We found a nice house in a 55+ neighborhood in Mount Vernon, Washington, and here we are! And we are no longer financially strapped.

Turning to God in our afflictions, finding joy in his commands, promises, precepts, and decrees, as King David called them in Psalm 119, brings us joy and hope in ways we can’t imagine. I can say that because it happened to us.

Sarah Thompson