In Psalm 119:83 the Psalmist declares: “Though I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget Your statutes.” What a picture of a total commitment to the Lord and His word: even if he dies, even if he is consumed like a wineskin on fire, yet he will not relent in his commitment to God and His word.

Like Job, his attitude is “Though he slay me, yet I will trust in Him” (Job 13:15) – and in this case, specifically in His word. In a land where so much of our “Christianity” is a mile wide and an inch deep, may we prove to be those with a devotion which is unshaken even in trials, who will yet proclaim in the midst of our pain: “Though I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget Your statutes”!