My soul melts away for sorrow;
Strengthen me according to your word!
Strengthen me according to your word!
Psalms 119:28
How telling! The
psalmist clearly expresses his hardship. Life has gotten hard, and it affects
his soul. And he isn't reluctant to let God know about that. If there is
anything true of the Psalms, it's that they are honest.
There is another
thing that I think worth noting here. And it is something that can be easily
missed. Our friend didn't write 'strengthen me by
you word' but rather 'according to your
word'. This makes a difference. He's not praying that the Spirit apply some
truth of the Scriptures to his soul so that he can be helped - though that sort
of things does happen. No, rather, in this situation, the psalmist is looking
at what God has said in His word, and he wants God to act accordingly. The
psalmist is remembering how God pledged Himself to him, how God promised to
rescue him from any situation, how God assured him of a good future and all the
rest. This is the psalmist saying to God, 'I remember what You told me in the
Scriptures. You made some astounding statements. I'm counting on You to come
through on all of them'. It seems to me that that's something for us to
imitate.