Though I am like a wineskin in the smoke, I have not forgotten your Word. Psalm 119:83
Wine-bottles of the East are skins. The custom was to hang the skin of wine in the smoke of a fire to mellow the wine and bring it to perfection. So what's the point? The psalmist finds consolation in this metaphor that my afflictions have "meaning" and "mercy." They have been sent by the Creator to act on me like the smoke does on the wine. The Tuck commentary says: Under all these afflictions, may we refuse to part with our faith. Yet, we falter. Yet, we don't forget the Word either. R. Tuck says: "What seems to be in mind is a long waiting-time, which was also a time of suffering and strain." Waiting for God. Watching for God as this world passes away. And Tuck says the major question is this: "What was he doing during this hard waiting-time?" ... Holding fast to his integrity; keeping obedience and trust; persistently ordering his life according to the Divine statutes. Send your Word, O God! And may we throw ourselves on the Divine rhetoric.
Wine-bottles of the East are skins. The custom was to hang the skin of wine in the smoke of a fire to mellow the wine and bring it to perfection. So what's the point? The psalmist finds consolation in this metaphor that my afflictions have "meaning" and "mercy." They have been sent by the Creator to act on me like the smoke does on the wine. The Tuck commentary says: Under all these afflictions, may we refuse to part with our faith. Yet, we falter. Yet, we don't forget the Word either. R. Tuck says: "What seems to be in mind is a long waiting-time, which was also a time of suffering and strain." Waiting for God. Watching for God as this world passes away. And Tuck says the major question is this: "What was he doing during this hard waiting-time?" ... Holding fast to his integrity; keeping obedience and trust; persistently ordering his life according to the Divine statutes. Send your Word, O God! And may we throw ourselves on the Divine rhetoric.
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