Psalms 119:81-88

כ , Caph.

81-88. My soul fainteth Affliction and trial are again upon him. “The clouds return after the rain.” The exact point of the grief is expressed in Psalms 119:83.

A bottle in the smoke One hung up on the tent poles clear of the heads of the inmates, and, of course, where the smoke finds its way toward the hole in the peak of the tent. It means useless, unemployed, idle. Possibly the writer was in prison, as Paul afterward languished at Rome.

Very bitter, worse than death, to a free, generous soul, is such enforced idleness. The crown of those who suffer should be brighter than that of those who are active. It is in these trying days that the psalmist wishes to rest his fainting soul on the testimony of God’s mouth.