Psalms 119:50 Meaning and Explanation
“This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →People in pain get offered a great deal of advice. Psalm 119:50 reports what actually worked for one sufferer. The affliction is still present in the sentence. Something inside it kept him alive, and he names what that was: God's word had quickened him, and the memory of that revival became his comfort while the trouble continued.
Affliction is named plainly, and comfort is located inside it. What revived the psalmist was God's word, which gave him life when his circumstances offered none.
The Context of Psalms 119:50
Verse 50 sits in the seventh stanza of the acrostic, verses 49 through 56, each line of which begins with the same Hebrew letter. The stanza opens in verse 49 with a plea that God remember the word on which he caused his servant to hope. Verse 50 answers that plea with testimony. What follows describes derision from the proud, remembered judgments that brought comfort, horror at the wicked who forsake God's law, and statutes that became songs in the house of the writer's pilgrimage. The stanza closes at verse 56.
What Does Psalms 119:50 Mean?
The sentence begins by pointing: 'This is my comfort in my affliction.' The demonstrative reaches back to verse 49 and forward to the reason that follows, gathering God's remembered word into one small word, this. Comfort names relief given to someone in distress, and affliction names pressure, humiliation, the sense of being pressed down. The two words sit in the same clause without either one canceling the other. Then comes the ground: 'for thy word hath quickened me.' Quickened in older English means made alive. The claim is medical in its force. Something in God's speech restored life to a person who was losing it.
Quicken becomes one of this psalm's signature requests. The writer asks God to quicken him in verses 25, 37, 88, 107, 149, 154, and 159, always according to God's word, lovingkindness, or judgments. Verse 50 explains why he keeps asking. He has experienced it already. Elsewhere in the psalm affliction receives an unexpected verdict: verse 67 says he went astray before he was afflicted, verse 71 that it was good for him to be afflicted so he might learn God's statutes, and verse 75 that God in faithfulness afflicted him. Verse 50 belongs to that honest and hard-won cluster of lines.
Paul wrote that whatever was written before was written for our learning, so that through patience and comfort of the scriptures we might have hope. That sentence reads like a commentary on this verse. Jesus himself answered the tempter in a wilderness by saying that man lives by every word proceeding out of the mouth of God, which is exactly the claim made here. Words from God carry life in them. A person flattened by circumstances can be raised by a sentence, and Psalm 119:50 records one such person saying so from the middle of his trouble rather than after it ended.
Psalms 119:50 in the Original Language
chiyyathni (חִיָּתְנִי), 'quickened me' -- from the common Hebrew verb for living. In this intensive form it means to make alive, revive, or preserve alive, which is why older English rendered it with the word quicken.
Bible Verses Related to Psalms 119:50
“Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.”
- Psalm 119:92
“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
- Romans 15:4
“I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O LORD, according unto thy word.”
- Psalm 119:107
“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
- John 6:63
Where Psalms 119:50 Echoes in Scripture
Romans 15:4 gathers the experience of this verse into a principle. Paul says the older scriptures were written for our instruction, so that through patience and the comfort they give we might hold on to hope. Psalm 119:50 is one worshipper's account of that happening; Romans 15:4 is the general statement. Read together they invite anyone in affliction to expect the same effect from the same source, and they explain why the psalm keeps circling back to God's word under pressure.
How to Apply Psalms 119:50 Today
Comfort that only distracts wears off by morning. This verse points toward comfort that revives. In hard seasons we can keep a few passages close, so that God's own words stay available when our own run out. Reading aloud helps when concentration is gone. So does asking someone to read to us. Many people find it steadying to write down the date when a particular verse carried them, since remembering a past revival becomes its own comfort the next time affliction arrives.
Reflection & Prayer
Which words from God have actually revived me, and where did I put them? A prayer to borrow: Lord, this affliction is heavier than I expected. Speak to me in a way that puts life back into me. Let your word be my comfort here, inside the trouble, until the trouble lifts or I am strong enough to carry it.