21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #4)

Photo by Tom Pumford on Unsplash

                "My Soul"

Psalm 119:25, 28

“My soul clings to the dust;
         give me life according to your word!” (v.25)

“My soul melts away for sorrow;
    strengthen me according to your word!” (v.28)

As I read this passage today, it is apparent that the psalmist is being honest with the Lord about the stress of the crisis he is facing. The idea that his “soul clings to the dust” describes a death-like experience. He is basically saying, “This is killing me!” but immediately transfers his fatalistic assessment into a prayer of faith, asking that the Lord impart to him “life according to your word” without which he could not continue.

Verse 28 continues the same sentiment regarding his soul, this time using the emotion of sorrow instead of the physical description of being laid prostrate in the dust. The result in both cases is the same—without the life/strength supplied by the word of the Lord—he is dying inside and out. But the hope we find in this passage is that the writer knew that God’s word does strengthen and give life!

I must ask myself, “Do I treat the Word of God as though it were a life-and-death issue for me?” If I am honest, I am faced with the truth that sometimes, I do depend fully on God’s Word, and sometimes I don’t—yet it is just that.

From as early as the Lord’s directive in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:16) to its reiteration to the Israelites on the eve of their entrance into the Promised land (Deut. 32:46-47), to the teaching of Jesus Christ himself as he prepared his followers for life in his kingdom, the message is the same.

• John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
• John 6:63, 68-69 “’It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life…’  Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’”

When we “thrust away” the help that comes through God’s word we like the Jews who persecuted the Apostle Paul “judge ourselves unworthy” of the “eternal life” his word proclaims but regardless of our background our response to “the word of the Lord” is an indicator of our being appointed to eternal life (Acts 13:46, 48). Are we, like the psalmist, acutely aware of our need for the life and strength of God in our lives? 

Psalm 6 "O Lord—How Long?"

Psalm 6:3-5

My soul also is greatly troubled.
    But you, O Lord—how long?

Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;
    save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
For in death there is no remembrance of you;
    in Sheol who will give you praise?

Comments:

As you probably know by now, I love the honesty of the psalms. Here David asks the raw question of his troubled soul, one of the questions men and women have asked throughout history—“How long?” In the pain, agony, and grief of his crushing circumstances, his lament echoes that of Job. What Job struggled with was making sense of his suffering and desired an audience to plead his case. Here in Psalm 6, David recognizes that the Lord is hearing his lament but questions when the Lord would respond. In his mind time was limited. He desires to praise the Lord but believed that once dead there would be no opportunity to remember the Lord. His understanding of the resurrection was limited. I included verse five in this post as an example. When we read the Bible we need to remember the concept of progressive revelation. Biblical theology teaches us that the great doctrines of the faith were not given fully developed in the first books of the Bible, but are revealed step by step according to God’s great plan. It is important for us to remember that David didn't have complete knowledge of the immortality of the soul, thus his urgency to see deliverance in this life. You don’t see a strong concept of the resurrection develop until the writings of the prophets.

Cemetery on the Mt. of Olives

Certainly, this concept is clarified and completed in the New Testament. Ironically—in our day where as Christians we know that we will not only remember the praises of the Lord after we die but we will see him face to face—there are too few who remember his praises here on earth.

There are a couple of things in this passage that David understood very well—his own need and God’s steadfast love for him. I too am convinced of those same two things. This week I hope we can all say “Amen!” to that!

Oh, and don't forget that having poured out his lament to the Lord, having asked his burning question, David acts on the belief that God has already answered and delivered (v.8-9)!