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¹⁵³ Look on my affliction and deliver me,
    for I do not forget your law.
¹⁵⁴ Plead my cause and redeem me;
    give me life according to your promise!
¹⁵⁵ Salvation is far from the wicked,
    for they do not seek your statutes.
¹⁵⁶ Great is your mercy, O Lord;
    give me life according to your rules.
¹⁵⁷ Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,
    but I do not swerve from your testimonies.
¹⁵⁸ I look at the faithless with disgust,
    because they do not keep your commands.
¹⁵⁹ Consider how I love your precepts!
    Give me life according to your steadfast love.
¹⁶⁰ The sum of your word is truth,
    and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

This section is the other side of what we saw in verses 145-152. The Psalmist continues to pray the word of God because he knows the Lord definitely will keep his promise. Even if he doesn’t see the evidence right here and right now, he knows that because of who the Lord is he won’t be let down.

Sometimes it is this lack of answer which can lead us to begin to give up on praying and even for us to lose faith in the word of God. Why is this not an issue for the Psalmist? Look at verses 154 and 159. He knows these things will come “according to your promise” and “according to your steadfast love”. God hasn’t just made promises because he felt like it one day, but today that feeling has passed. No - his promises are dependent on a serious covenant promise (that is what steadfast love means).This is unbreakable. The Lord can no more break this promise than he can stop being God. 

The Psalmist couldn’t be clearer about that in verse 160. If you had to ask him to sum up the Scriptures in one word he would say “true”. And so if there are things in God’s word which have not happened yet, the answer is we must wait. And keep praying. 

Of course if that is the case, then there will always be people around who will point this out and say that God’s word is nonsense (verses 157-158). It was always the case. Just think about the days of Noah. But we don’t let them dictate how we view God’s word. Like the Psalmist we do not swerve from what he says.