A Warrior Voices entry by Pastor Isaac Crockett
I had just returned home with my family from being out of state for an evangelistic outreach. Bags of fast food in our hands, we stepped out of the minivan expecting the usual greeting from our little dachshund. Instead, she cowered upstairs. Our bedrooms were ransacked, drawers emptied, belongings scattered. A Pennsylvania State Trooper later stood with me in the middle of the mess. He mentioned how thieves often search underwear drawers for valuables. I joked about clean underwear being valuable in our house, then added something more serious: “They didn’t get my real treasure.” He looked puzzled until I said, “My real treasure can’t be stolen, because my real treasures come from the Lord.”
That night, earthly security was stripped away. The few items that had been stolen stung less than the loss of safety inside our own home. When life takes what we value, be it security, reputation, health, or relationships, it is then we discover whether God is truly enough.
The longest prayer in the Bible, Psalm 119, records a man facing affliction and opposition, but he trusts in God’s Word through it all. In the CHETH section of Psalm 119, we read:
“The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words. I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise. When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments. Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law. At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules. I am a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts. The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love; teach me your statutes!”
Psalm 119:57-64 (ESV)[1]
Three marks reveal when the Lord is genuinely your portion.
First, swift obedience flows from a satisfied heart.
The psalmist does not merely know the Word, he turns his feet and hastens to keep it (vv. 59-60). “Portion” carries deep Old Testament weight. The Levites received no tribal land because the Lord Himself was their inheritance.[2] When God is your portion, knowledge becomes action. Thomas Brooks wrote that God is “a soul-satisfying portion . . . he that has him cannot but sit down and say, I have enough.”[3] Leaders who treat the Bible as optional information rather than marching orders eventually drift when pressure comes.
Second, unstoppable perseverance rises even in darkness.
Enemies set snares and rob him, yet he refuses to forget God’s law (v. 61). At midnight, the darkest hour of night, he rises to give thanks for God’s righteous rules (v. 62). This is not grim endurance; it is thankful praise rooted in an unshakeable treasure.
A couple of years ago I visited a poor Christian family in a Muslim-majority country whose twelve-year-old son was tortured, killed, and his body dismembered by men from respected families. Because the family was a poor Christian family, justice never came. In their simple home, their most treasured possession was the family Bible, kept wrapped and honored. While I was visiting, their young daughter reverently brought the Bible out and read aloud from Psalm 1, the passage she was learning in Sunday school. In the face of unspeakable loss and ongoing injustice, they still declared that the Lord was their portion. Their satisfaction was not in circumstances or earthly justice, but in God and His Word. Can we join the psalmist in praising God in times of difficulty, like Paul and Silas, who were able to persevere in praise to God at midnight when they were in jail unjustly in Acts 16?
Third, genuine fellowship grows naturally.
The man whose portion is the Lord becomes a companion of all who fear God and keep His precepts (v. 63). He sees God’s steadfast love filling the earth and still cries out, “Teach me your statutes!” (v. 64). Deep satisfaction in God creates deep connection with God’s people. Isolation is the enemy’s strategy; brotherhood in the Word is the warrior’s strength.
The same God who sustained that poor Christian family in their darkest valley and who enabled a psalmist to praise at midnight is the One who calls you to make Him your portion today. When safety is stripped away, when injustice seems to win, or when the night feels endless, He remains enough.
Just months ago, on Good Friday, a U.S. Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle was shot down over Iran. Both crew members ejected successfully. The pilot was rescued quickly, but the weapons systems officer, a highly respected colonel, was left alone, wounded, and behind enemy lines in the treacherous Zagros Mountains. Iranian forces hunted him for more than thirty-six hours. From a high ridge he finally transmitted a three-word message from his radio: “God is good.” On Easter Sunday he was dramatically rescued in what was called an “Easter Miracle” by President Trump.[4] Shot down, isolated, and pursued, yet praise came first. That is midnight praise in the middle of danger. When God is truly your portion, even the threat of death cannot steal your song. We have a Good Shepherd who gave His life so that we can know the Lord as our eternal inheritance.
One concrete step this week: Identify a clear command from Scripture you already know. Obey it deliberately and without delay before the day ends. Whether leading your family, leading a team, or standing with a brother.
Reflection Questions
When safety, security, or something you valued was taken from you, did it drive you closer to God as your portion or expose where your heart was truly anchored?
In your current season, what would it look like to “rise at midnight” in praise or to obey quickly even when it costs something?
Pastor Isaac Crockett is the pastor of East Lawrence Baptist Church and a TV and radio co-host for Stand In the Gap Media. Find him at StandInTheGapMedia.org and ELBaptist.org.
FAQ’s
Who wrote Psalm 119, and what is the CHETH section?
Psalm 119 does not name its author, though tradition has connected it to figures from David to Ezra. What is certain is its design. It is the longest chapter in the Bible, built as an acrostic of twenty-two stanzas, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with every verse in a stanza opening with that stanza’s letter. The CHETH section covers verses 57 through 64, the eighth stanza, and it opens with the declaration that anchors this devotional: the LORD is my portion.
What does “the LORD is my portion” mean?
Portion is inheritance language. When Israel divided the land of Canaan, every tribe received an allotment except the Levites, because the LORD Himself was their inheritance (Numbers 18:20; Deuteronomy 10:9). To say the LORD is my portion is to say that God Himself, not land, wealth, security, or status, is what you have and what you need. Jeremiah says the same thing from the rubble of Jerusalem in Lamentations 3:24. It is the confession of a man who has lost earthly holdings and discovered he still holds everything.
What does it mean to rise at midnight to praise God?
Psalm 119:62 describes the psalmist rising at midnight, the darkest hour, to give thanks for God’s righteous rules. This is not grim endurance. It is deliberate, thankful praise offered when circumstances give no reason for it. Paul and Silas lived it in Acts 16:25, singing hymns at midnight in a Philippian jail with their feet in the stocks. Midnight praise is the mark of a heart whose treasure cannot be touched by the dark.
Why did the Levites receive no land in Israel?
God assigned the tribe of Levi to serve at the tabernacle and later the temple rather than to farm an allotment. In Numbers 18:20 the LORD tells Aaron directly that He is their portion and their inheritance among the people of Israel, and Deuteronomy 10:9 repeats it. The arrangement was not a penalty. It was a statement that the man who has God has more than the man who has land.
How does Psalm 119:57-64 connect to the rest of Scripture?
The portion language reaches back to the Levites (Numbers 18:20) and forward to Lamentations 3:24, where Jeremiah declares the LORD his portion in the middle of national catastrophe. The midnight praise of verse 62 finds its New Testament echo in Acts 16:25 with Paul and Silas. And the whole stanza points to the Good Shepherd who laid down His life so that His people could know the Lord as their eternal inheritance.
How does a leader make God his portion in practical terms?
Pastor Crockett names three marks. Swift obedience, because a satisfied heart turns knowledge into action without delay. Perseverance in darkness, because the man whose treasure is secure can praise at midnight. And genuine fellowship, because deep satisfaction in God creates deep connection with God’s people. The concrete step is simple: take one clear command from Scripture you already know and obey it deliberately before the day ends.
What is the main message of Psalm 119:57-64?
Because God has revealed Himself in His Word, a person can find full satisfaction and real transformation through the Bible. Circumstances can strip away security, possessions, health, and even justice, but they cannot touch the treasure of the man whose portion is the LORD. That treasure produces obedience, sustains praise in the darkest hours, and binds believers together.
Footnotes:
[1]Psalm 119:57-64, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001). Scripture quotations in this entry are from the ESV.
[2]Numbers 18:20; Deuteronomy 10:9. The Levites received no allotment of land because the LORD Himself was their portion and inheritance.
[3]Thomas Brooks, An Ark for All God’s Noahs in a Gloomy, Stormy Day (1666; repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2020). Quotation verified word for word against the Banner of Truth text.
[4]Details of the April 2026 F-15E shootdown and rescue are drawn from public reporting, including “’God is good’: Inside the high-risk US mission to save a wounded airman shot down in Iran,” Fox News, April 6, 2026; “How a U.S. Airman Shot Down in Iran Was Rescued,” Time, April 5, 2026; and President Trump’s “Easter Miracle” statement to NBC News, April 5, 2026.
Leave a Reply