My soul is laid low in the dust. Revive me according to your word!
Parallel Translations
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My soul is laid low in the dust. Revive me according to your word!
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My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.
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DALETH. My soul cleaveth unto the dust; quicken Thou me according to Thy word.
Cross-references (21)
Passages linked to Psalms 119:25 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 30:6 Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
- Psalms 71:20 You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
- Psalms 119:159 Consider how I love your precepts. Revive me, Yahweh, according to your loving kindness.
- Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.
- Psalms 44:25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the earth.
- Psalms 143:11 Revive me, Yahweh, for your name’s sake. In your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble.
- Romans 7:22-24 For I delight in God’s law after the inward man, but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?
- Psalms 119:40 Behold, I long for your precepts! Revive me in your righteousness.
- Psalms 119:88 Preserve my life according to your loving kindness, so I will obey the statutes of your mouth.
- Psalms 119:93 I will never forget your precepts, for with them, you have revived me.
- Psalms 119:156 Great are your tender mercies, Yahweh. Revive me according to your ordinances.
- Psalms 80:18 So we will not turn away from you. Revive us, and we will call on your name.
- Psalms 119:37 Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in your ways.
- Psalms 119:107 I am afflicted very much. Revive me, Yahweh, according to your word.
- Psalms 119:149 Hear my voice according to your loving kindness. Revive me, Yahweh, according to your ordinances.
- Philippians 3:19 whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.
- 2 Samuel 7:27-29 For you, Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, have revealed to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore your servant has found in his heart to pray this prayer to you. “Now, O Lord Yahweh, you are God, and your words are truth, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. Now therefore let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you; for you, Lord Yahweh, have spoken it. Let the house of your servant be blessed forever with your blessing.”
- Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. Dust will be the serpent’s food. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,” says Yahweh.
- Psalms 22:15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.
- Romans 8:2-3 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;
- Matthew 16:23 But he turned, and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (19 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 25. My soul cleaveth to the dust He means…
25. My soul cleaveth to the dust He means that he had no more hope of life than if he had been shut up in the tomb; and this must be carefully attended to, that we my not become impatient and grieved, whenever it may please God to make us endure various kinds of death. And, by his own example, he instructs us, when death stares us in the face, and all hope of escape fails, to present our petitions to God, in whose hand, as we have elsewhere seen, are the issues of death, and whose peculiar prerogative it is to restore life to those that are dead, (Psalm 68:21) As the combat is hard, he betakes himself to the promises of God, and invites others to do the same. The expression, according to thy word, is an acknowledgment, that should he depart from God’s word, no hope would be left for him; but as God has affirmed that the life of the faithful is in his hand, and under his protection, shut up as he was in the grave, he yet comforted himself with the expectation of life.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, it is almost brought to the grave,…
That is, it is almost brought to the grave, and without thy word I cannot live.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 119:25 DALETH. My soul cleaveth unto the dust:…
Psa 119:25 DALETH. My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.
Ver. 25. My soul cleaveth unto the dust] Those princes, my persecutors (Saul’s counsellors), have brought me to death’s door, as Psa 44:25; Psa 22:15. I am in a forlorn condition; as far below hope as they are above fear. Theodoret expoundeth it of humility; and Theodosius the emperor used these words, when reproved by Ambrose for the slaughter at Thessalonica, he lay on the ground and humbly begged pardon (Theod. Eccles. Hist. l. 5, c. 18).
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain My soul cleaveth unto the dust; I am in…
DALETH
My soul cleaveth unto the dust; I am in evident danger of present death, through the rage and power of mine enemies; I am like one laid in the grave, without all hopes of recovery. So this phrase is used Psa 22:15.
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Quicken thou me; preserve my life, or revive me and raise me out of the dust by thy almighty power.
According to thy word; according to thy promise.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here is, I. David's complaint. We should have thought…
Here is, I. David's complaint. We should have thought his soul soaring to heaven; but he says himself, My soul not only rolls in the dust, but cleaves to the dust, which is a complaint either, 1. Of his corruptions, his inclination to the world and the body (both which are dust), and that which follows upon it, a deadness to holy duties. When he would do good evil was present with him. God intimated that Adam was not only mortal, but sinful, when he said, Dust thou art, Gen 3:19. David's complaint here is like St. Paul's of a body of death that he carried about with him. The remainders of in-dwelling corruption are a very grievous burden to a gracious soul. Or, 2. Of his afflictions, either trouble of mind or outward trouble. Without were fightings, within were fears, and both together brought him even to the dust of death (Psa 22:15), and his soul clave inseparably to it.
II. His petition for relief, and his plea to enforce that petition: "Quicken thou me according to thy word. By thy providence put life into my affairs, by thy grace put life into my affections; cure me of my spiritual deadness and make me lively in my devotion." Note, When we find ourselves dull we must go to God and beg of him to quicken us; he has an eye to God's word as a means of quickening (for the words which God speaks, they are spirit and they are life to those that receive them), and as an encouragement to hope that God would quicken him, having promised grace and comfort to all the saints, and to David in particular. God's word must be our guide and plea in every prayer.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Make me to understand the way of thy precepts,....…
Make me to understand the way of thy precepts,.... The meaning of them, to have a more comprehensive, clear, and distinct knowledge of them; and to be led into the way they direct unto, and walk therein;
so shall I talk of thy wondrous works; the works of creation, providence, redemption, and grace; with more knowledge and understanding, with more spirit and cheerfulness, with more readiness and liberty, more to his own satisfaction, and for the good of others: or, "meditate on thy wondrous works" (z); being in the ways of God, and freed from the distractions of the world and business of it.
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(z) "meditabor", Pagninus, Montanus, Gejerus, Michaelis; "ut mediter", Junius & Tremellius, Cocceius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The dust - I am in danger of present…
The dust - I am in danger of present death: I am like one laid in the grave. Quicken - Preserve my life, or raise me out of the dust. Word - According to thy promise.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain LETTER ד DALETH. - Fourth Division
LETTER ד DALETH. - Fourth Division
Verse 25. My soul cleaveth unto the dust] It would be best to translate נפשי naphshi, my life; and then cleaving to the dust may imply an apprehension of approaching death; and this agrees best with the petition.
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Quicken thou me] חיני chaiyeni, "make me alive." Keep me from going down into the dust.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 119:25. My soul cleaveth unto the dust —…
DALETH.
Psa 119:25. My soul cleaveth unto the dust — That is, as some understand it, I am in danger of present death: I am like one laid in the grave; so this phrase is used Psa 22:15. Quicken thou me — Preserve my life, or raise me out of the dust; according to thy word — According to thy promise. But the psalmist, probably, rather complains in these words of his affections being apt to cleave to worldly objects, which are but dust, and prays for quickening and purifying grace to render him more spiritually minded. And every one whose affections are set on things below has reason to make a similar confession, and to pray, as he did, for quickening and regenerating grace, to raise him to those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain My soul cleaveth unto the dust - This commences…
My soul cleaveth unto the dust - This commences a new division of the psalm, in which each verse begins with the “fourth” letter of the Hebrew alphabet - Daleth (ד d), equivalent to the English “d.” There is nothing in the sense to separate it from the other parts of the psalm. The word rendered “cleaveth” means to be glued to; to stick fast. It has the sense of adhering firmly to anything, so that it cannot easily be separated from it. Compare the notes at Psa 63:8. The word “dust” here may mean either the earth, and earthly things, considered as low, base, unworthy, worldly; or it may mean the grave, as if he were near to that, and in danger of dying. DeWette understands it in the latter sense. Compare Psa 44:25; Psa 22:29. Yet the word cleave would hardly suggest this idea; and the force of that word would be better represented by the idea that his soul, as it were, adhered to the things of earth; that it seemed to be so fastened to them - so glued to them - that it could not be detached from them; that his affections were low, earthly, grovelling, so as to give him deep distress, and to lead him to cry to God for life and strength that he might break away from them. This expresses what is often felt by good people, and thus presents one of the forms of religious experience. Compare Rom 7:14-15.
Quicken thou me - Cause me to live; give me vigor and strength to break away from this which binds me fast, and to rise above these low propensities.
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According to thy word - That is, either according to thy promises made to thy people to aid them when they are in distress; or, according to the principles of thy word, that I may live as thy word requires. Who has not found his soul so cleaving to dust - to earth - to worldly things - as to feel himself degraded by it, and to lead him to cry out with earnestness that God would give him strength, life, vigor, that his soul might rise to better things?
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain ד, Daleth.
ד, Daleth.
25-32. My soul cleaveth unto the dust—Now is presented a soul in deep affliction, as if the trial in the previous division had gone against him; as if he had suffered the loss of all things, and worse was yet to follow.
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The way of lying—In trouble one is strongly drawn to hold untruthful views of providence, of his persecutors, and of his own merits. This can but aggravate his case. Sentiments of truth and justice are then peculiarly salutary. They help one to “rise o’er fear, and doubt, and care.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 25. The Psalmist is in deep distress. He lies…
25. The Psalmist is in deep distress. He lies prostrate, crushed and unable to rise (Psa_44:25; Psa_7:5; Psa_22:15); but he can pray that God will revive him, and give him fresh strength and joy in life according to His promise. On the prayer quicken or revive me see above, p. 705. Cp. Psa_71:20; Psa_80:18; Psa_85:6; Psa_138:7; Psa_143:11.
according to thy word] For life is repeatedly promised as the reward of obedience to the law of God. See Deu_8:3; Deu_30:6; Deu_30:15; Deu_30:19-20; Deu_32:47.
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25–32. Daleth. In the midst of humiliation and trial the Psalmist protests the sincerity of his purpose, and prays for deepened knowledge to keep him true and steadfast.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (25) Cleaveth to the dust.—The same figure is used…
DALETH.
(25) Cleaveth to the dust.—The same figure is used in Psa_22:29; Psa_44:25, in the former of death, in the latter of deep degradation and dishonour.
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The prayer, “make me live,” suggests that the dust of death is here prominently in view, as in Tennyson’s “Thou wilt not leave us in the dust.” Else we might rather think of the dryness of summer dust as a type of despondency and spiritual depression.
“A wicked whisper came, and made
My heart as dry as dust.”—COLERIDGE.
It was this verse which the Emperor Theodosius recited when doing penance at the door of Milan Cathedral for the massacre of Thessalonica (Theodoret, v., 18).
Quicken thou me according to thy word.—See Psa_119:88; Psa_119:107; Psa_119:145; Psa_119:154; Psa_119:156. This reiterated prayer, with its varied appeal to the Divine truth, lovingkindness, constancy, must certainly be regarded as the petition of Israel for revived covenant glory, though, at the same time, it offers a wide and rich field of application to individual needs.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain My soul cleaveth unto the dust. My soul is…
dDALETH.
My soul cleaveth unto the dust. My soul is greatly depressed lies, as it were, in the dust of death. (comp. Psa_44:25) Quicken thou me according to thy Word. Raise me up to life and health and vigor.
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Vers. 25-48. Spiritual enlargement.
Throughout our whole life, as godly men, we have to recognize
I A DOWNWARD TENDENCY. "My soul cleaveth to the dust" (ver. 25). Our eyes are inclined to "behold vanity" (ver. 37). There is that within us and that around us which constitute a temptation to put our trust in man rather than in God, to seek our portion in worldly advantage rather than in the service and friendship of Christ, to allow ourselves to decline from a wise moderation to an unwise and even guilty indulgence, to set our hearts on the things which are below and to be too little affected by the inheritance beyond.
II THE DIVINE POWER TO QUICKEN. "Quicken thou me" (vers. 25-40). God can "enlarge our heart" (ver. 32). By the incoming and indwelling of his Holy Spirit he can raise the thoughts and the hopes that are beginning to droop or to settle; he can so "enlarge" our sympathies and our affections that we love the best and take deep delight in the highest; he can so revive us that our spiritual languishing and despondency pass into full acquiescence and cheerful hope (ver. 28), and we become strong for waiting and for action; he can so continuously affect us, and thus so establish us, that we shall abide in reverential service all our days (ver. 38). By these holy influences instilled into our soul, acting quietly but effectually on the hidden springs of our nature, God "grants us his Law graciously" (ver. 29). Left to ourselves, we sink and suffer; upheld, quickened by God"s renewing power, we walk in wisdom and in piety, nay, we rise Christwards, heavenwards. This is
III THE SPIRITUAL ENLARGEMENT WHICH ENSUES. It is found in many forms; it is active in many spheres. It includes:
1. Salvation from the worst evils. "Salvation" generally (ver. 41) from spiritual declension, which is an insidious and dangerous adversary; also from any sudden fall into sin and shame; and more particularly from "covetousness" (ver. 36), that evil spirit of selfishness which craves what God has not given, and issues in the strivings of an injurious ambition or in the mutiny of a discontented heart.
2. Whole-heartedness in obedience (ver. 34). All the powers and instincts of our nature leagued in a holy alliance of obedience to God.
3. Promptness and cheerfulness of obedience. We should not only walk, but run in the way of God"s commandments (vers. 32, 60). Readiness and quickness to obey, in the little child, is the acceptable thing to the human parent: is it not equally so to the Divine?
4. Steadfastness in holy service (vers. 31, 33, 34).
5. Liberty (ver. 45). Sin at its worst means utter slavery; godliness at its best means perfect freedom. When we so love God"s Law, when we are so filled with the desire to do the will of Christ and to please him, that we find his Word no sort of restraint upon us, that we move happily along those lines in which we are free to go as far and as fast as we please, then we are "at liberty." Liberty is only found in its perfection when, as in God, inclination is perfectly parallel with duty. God"s statutes are not our bonds; they are our songs (ver. 54).
6. Utterance (vers. 27, 43, 46). When the heart is enlarged the mouth is opened, and free, fearless speech comes forth. At first, indeed, there may be the hesitation of inexperience and self-distrust; but when this initial stage is past, there is fullness and fearlessness of utterance. We declare, with joyful lips, the grace and the truth which have enlightened and emancipated ourselves. But we must not overlook the fact that, while God"s promises are great, there is
IV THE CONDITION TO BE FULFILLED PRAYER. The psalmist frequently reminds us of our duty and privilege in this respect. In confession or supplication he calls our attention to it in vers. 23, 25, 26, 37. We may not expect the spiritual enlargement which comes from God"s visitation unless we are daily, earnestly, expectantly, asking God to come to us and dwell within us, in all his gracious, victorious power.
Vers. 25-32. Clinging to God.
Such seems to be the tone and spirit of this section. There has been the waking up to a great peril, and hence there has come the tightening of the grasp on God, the clinging to him with the greater tenacity because of the one peril seen and felt.
I THE PENITENT CONFESSION AND PRAYER. (Ver. 1) The psalmist owns that the world is getting too much and terrible power over him; that his soul, instead of mounting up to God in holy aspiration and endeavor, cleaves to the dust; and he dreads lest he should fall away altogether, and therefore prays, "Quicken thou me," etc.
II HE ENCOURAGES HIMSELF BY RECALLING GOD"S ANSWERS TO HIS PRAYERS IN THE PAST. When before he had made like confession and supplication, it had not been in vain.
III HE PRAYS DEFINITELY for what he feels will really help him.
1. That God should teach him his statutes. (Ver. 26) That God should do this; he cannot teach himself, others cannot teach him, but God can. This is what we all want.
2. That God should make him understand his Word. He had heard it, read it, but he wanted that deep realization of it which only a true understanding of it could supply.
3. And he wanted this that he might bear effectual testimony. "So shall I talk," etc. (ver. 27). Such testimony would not only bless others, but would react on himself, as it ever does, and would be one of the effectual ways in which God would quicken him.
IV HE TELLS THE LORD HOW GREAT HIS TROUBLE IS, and prays and pleads for help.
1. His trouble was that he feared he was losing hold of God. He was breaking his heart over it, for, to a godly man, there is no greater trouble than to feel as if every good in him, all that God had given him of his grace, were falling away from him. That is trouble indeed.
2. He prays for help. "Strengthen thou me." As if he would say he could not hold on much longer; unless help came, he must give way.
3. He pleads the Word of God. "According to thy Word" (see homily on ver. 25).
V HE CONFESSES AND PRAYS AGAINST THE EVIL WAY INTO WHICH HE HAD FALLEN way of lying." Not so scholars say the habit of falsehood and lies in common Speech, but rather of unfaithfulness, falseness to God. Uttering vows and never fulfilling them, making holy resolves and forgetting and breaking them. How many do this! How easy it is to fall into this way! We use strong impassioned expressions in hymns and prayers, and when we look for the corresponding acts they are not to be found. And this, like the veriest vice, does, as Burns says "... hardens all within, And petrifies the feeling.
Well, therefore, may he pray, "Remove from me," etc. He asks for two things:
1. The taking away of the old evil. In all spiritual reformation this must come first. Repentance is just this. Then:
2. The imparting of God"s Law. The forming and fashioning of the soul after that Law.
VI HE MAKES PROTESTATION.
1. That his will is ever on Gods side. (Ver. 30) "I have chosen," etc. His deliberate choice and preference is, not the way of lying, but the way of truth, and hence he keeps ever before him God"s judgments.
2. That he has acted according to his resolve. He has stuck unto God"s testimonies. He had held on, clung tightly. He could appeal to the Lord"s knowledge of this, and plead that he should not be put to shame.
3. That he will live the quickened life if God will enlarge his heart by shedding abroad therein his own love and the knowledge of his will. S.C.
"Quicken thou me.
I THE DEPLORABLE CONDITION THAT CALLED FOR THE ANSWER TO THIS PRAYER. It was a very sad one; for consider:
1. What it was that the psalmist confesses that his soul cleaved to. "The dust." By this contemptuous phrase he means the things of this world generally. And he is right in thus speaking. Not that in themselves the things of this world are no better than dust. Health, wealth, success, reputation, power, pleasure the things that men strive after these have their value, and that is far higher than mere dust. But it is when these things are put in opposition to, and too often preferred before as they are things that are spiritual and eternal, and that have to do with the destiny and character of the soul, that then they are rightly called "dust." And they are like the dust, not only by their comparative worthlessness, but for other reasons their power to defile the soul. Even the believer, though, by the blood of Christ, he is made clean, yet needs so Christ tells us that he wash his feet. (Joh_13:10) Contact with the world"s dust, inevitable though it be, involves the continual need of the washing of the feet, that is, that portion of our spiritual nature that is exposed to the world"s defiling power. And how blinding is this dust! Men can see nothing as it really is, when thus blinded. And how suggestive as to the destiny of the soul that cleaveth to it to be driven away "like the chaff which the wind driveth away"! Its proper place is under our feet; but how terrible that the soul should cleave to it!
2. And that the soul should do this. For think of what the soul of man is. Its nature formed in the image of God. Its capacity able to commune with God, to become like God. Its destiny eternal blessedness or woe. The cost of its redemption nothing less than the precious blood of Christ. The strife that is ever going on for its possession between the gracious powers of heaven on the one side, and the awful powers of hell on the other. Can that be of small account concerning which all this can be said? And yet it is this soul which, too often, cleaves to the dust.
3. And that the soul should cleave to it. The attractions of this world we cannot but see, and their fascination we cannot but feel, and the devil is ever busy to make that attraction more fascinating still. But that we, the redeemed of the Lord, the temples of the Holy Ghost, should yield to this, and not only yield, but be so mastered as to cleave thereto, as the limpet cleaves to the rock, spite of all efforts to detach it, how deplorably sad all this is! And yet our consciences must own how deplorably common a fact this is. Blessed be God, if we are led to see it, to mourn over it, to confess it, as here; and, best of all to turn to the sure remedy. For note
II THE HELP THAT IS CRAVED. "Quicken thou me.
1. The psalmist was wont to pray this prayer very often. Seven times over in this psalm does it occur (vers. 25, 37, 40, 88, 149, 150, 159).
2. What does he mean by it? Not the bestowment of spiritual life he had this already, or he would never have made this confession and prayer; but "more life and fuller," the enlivening and reinvigoration of the soul, this is what he craved.
3. And he turns to God for this. It is God"s work; he alone can answer this prayer. Man does not even know what life in its meanest forms is, much less is he able to create it. How, then, should he be competent when it is the highest form of life that is needed?
4. But this does not mean that we are to be absolutely passive in the matter. We are not. We can and we must pray for it, as does the psalmist here.
5. And never does God refuse such prayer when coming from a sincere heart. See the miracles of our Lord how he quickened into life again the child-daughter of Jairus; the young man, the widow"s son; and Lazarus, on whom corruption had already fastened. Nothing can bar his power.
III THE PLEA THAT IS URGED. "According to thy Word." This answers to our "through Jesus Christ our Lord;" for he was the Word, the means by which we read the heart of God. He was the Word incarnate. But in the days before his advent, the Word which is here told of served the same end; not so much the written Word as that message of God to the soul which came through the written or spoken Word. Now, according to that, in harmony with the love, truth, wisdom, power, of that, so is it prayed, "Quicken thou me.
IV LET US PRAY THIS PRAYER. Maybe we need it, though we do not think so. Dislike of prayer and holy service, fret and anxiety, worry and continual care about earthly things for ourselves or for our children, such are some of the signs that we need thus to pray. And think of the harm that such cleaving to the dust must ever involve. S.C.
Quickening the exhausted.
In this verse there is characteristic extravagant Eastern figure, which is difficult for the calmer Western mind to appreciate. Such exaggerated descriptions of mental conditions seem to us untruthful. The presentation does not accord with the fact. But the Eastern would urge that his mode of speech suggests the fact, and does not pretend to state it. And that is strictly true which it suggests. We may think of the worm, laboriously creeping over the ground, and longing to become a butterfly, and be quickened into the higher life that is possible to it. It is possible to find allusion to the custom of sitting in sackcloth and ashes as an expression of mourning. Sitting in dust is the attitude of humiliation, and so it fittingly expresses the depressed and exhausted spiritual mood of the psalmist. It may be that in the Christian life we ought never to be depressed; it is certainly the fact of Christian life that we often are . Depression does not always come as response to outward circumstances, but it often does; and we may think of conditions that encourage it.
I DEPRESSION FOLLOWS ON THE DIFFICULTIES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS OF BUSINESS LIFE. "Souls cleave to the dust" of worldly care. When things will not go rightly, mind and heart are very full day and night, and brooding always tends to encourage fears, and to make the dark things grow darker. When the soul is full of care, better things are pushed out, and faith fails. At such times we need the prayer, "Quicken thou me give me life, new life, life of energy to battle with difficulty; life of hope to keep me in good cheer.
II DEPRESSION FOLLOWS ON BODILY PAIN AND VARYING CONDITIONS OF HEALTH. Then the "soul cleaves to the dust," self and feeling are made too prominent; they force themselves out of place and proportion; and all truth seems discolored and distorted. Illustrate by the effect of looking through colored glad. The self of feeling can never give other than distorted views of life. At such times we need the prayer, "Quicken thou me give me the life of strength to bear; give me to keep sure of the fatherliness of chastisement, and to cherish the trustful and patient spirit of a son.
III DEPRESSION FOLLOWS ON AFFLICTIONS AFFECTING THOSE WHOM WE LOVE. We cleave to the dust of kindred, and are afflicted in their afflictions. Some of our worst times of depression are times of sympathy. Then we need to pray, "Quicken me into the life of trust, that will enable me to commit all I love to God." True Christian life is a series of Divine quickenings into higher forms of life. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 25-32. Here, it seems to me, we have…
Ver. 25-32. Here, it seems to me, we have the Psalmist in trouble bewailing the bondage to earthly things in which he finds his mind to be held. His soul cleaves to the dust, melts for heaviness, and cries for enlargement from its spiritual prison. In these verses we shall see the influence of the divine word upon a heart which laments its downward tendencies, and is filled with mourning because of its deadening surroundings. The word of the Lord evidently arouses prayer (Ps 119:25-29), confirms choice (Ps 119:30), and inspires renewed resolve (Ps 119:32): it is in all tribulation whether of body: or mind the surest source of help.
This portion has 'D' for its alphabetical letter: it sings of Depression, in the spirit of Devotion, Determination, and Dependence.
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Ver. 25. My soul cleaveth unto the dust. He means in part that he was full of sorrow; for mourners in the east cast dust on their heads, and sat in ashes, and the Psalmist felt as if these ensigns of woe were glued to him, and his very soul was made to cleave to them because of his powerlessness to rise above his grief. Does he not also mean that he felt ready to die? Did he not feel his life absorbed and fast held by the grave's mould, half choked by the death dust? It may not be straining the language if we conceive that he also felt and bemoaned his earthly mindedness and spiritual deadness. There was a tendency in his soul to cling to earth which he greatly bewailed. Whatever was the cause of his complaint, it was no surface evil, but an affair of his inmost spirit; his soul cleaved to the dust; and it was not a casual and accidental falling into the dust, but a continuous and powerful tendency, or cleaving to the earth. But what a mercy that the good man could feel and deplore whatever there was of evil in the cleaving! The serpent's seed can find their meat in the dust, but never shall the seed of the woman be thus degraded. Many are of the earth earthy, and never lament it; only the heaven born and heaven soaring spirit pines at the thought of being fastened to this world, and bird limed by its sorrows or its pleasures.
Quicken thou me according to thy word. More life is the cure for all our ailments. Only the Lord can give it. He can bestow it, bestow it at once, and do it according to his word, without departing from the usual course of his grace, as we see it mapped out in the Scriptures. It is well to know what to pray for, David seeks quickening: one would have thought that he would have asked for comfort or upraising, but he knew that these would come out of increased life, and therefore he sought that blessing which is the root of the rest. When a person is depressed in spirit, weak, and bent towards the ground, the main thing is to increase his stamina and put more life into him; then his spirit revives, and his body becomes erect. In reviving the life, the whole man is renewed. Shaking off the dust is a little thing by itself, but when it follows upon quickening, it is a blessing of the greatest value; just as good spirits which flow from established health are among the choicest of our mercies. The phrase, "according to thy word, "means according to thy revealed way of quickening thy saints. The word of God shows us that he who first made us must keep us alive, and it tells us of the Spirit of God who through the ordinances pours fresh life into our souls; we beg the Lord to act towards us in this his own regular method of grace. Perhaps David remembered the word of the Lord in De 32:39, where Jehovah claims both to kill and to make alive, and he beseeches the Lord to exercise that life giving power upon his almost expiring servant. Certainly, the man of God had not so many rich promises to rest upon as we have, but even a single word was enough for him, and he right earnestly urges "according to thy word." It is a grand thing to see a believer in the dust and yet pleading the promise, a man at the grave's mouth crying, "quicken me, "and hoping that it shall be done.
Note how this first verse of the 4th octonary tallies with the first of the "Quicken me." While in a happy third (17). "That I may live"... "Quicken me." While in a happy state he begs for bountiful dealing, and when in a forlorn condition he prays for quickening. Life is in both cases the object of pursuit: that he may have life, and have it more abundantly.
The eight verses alphabetically arranged:
25. (D)epressed to the dust is my soul: quicken thou me according to thy word.
26. (D)eclared have I (to thee) my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.
27. (D)eclare thou to me the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.
28. (D)ropping (marg.) is my soul for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
29. (D)eceitful ways remove from me; and grant me thy law graciously.
30. (D)etermined have I upon the way of truth; thy judgments have I laid before me.
31. (D)eliberately I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O Lord, put me not to shame.
32. (D)ay by day I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Theodore Kubber.
Ver. 25. My soul cleaveth unto the dust. The Hebrew word for "cleaveth" signifies "is joined, ""has adhered, ""has overtaken, ""has taken hold, ""has joined itself." Our soul is a polypus: as the polypus readily adheres to the rocks, so does the soul cleave to the earth; and hardly can it be torn from the place to which it has once strongly attached itself. Though thy soul be now more perfect, and escaping from the waters of sin has become a bird of heaven, be not careless; earthly things are birdlime and glue; if you rub the wings against these thou wilt be held, and joined to the earth. Thomas Le Blanc.
Ver. 25. My soul cleaveth unto the dust, etc. The word rendered "cleaveth" means to be glued to; to stick fast. It has the sense of adhering firmly to anything, so that it cannot easily be separated from it. The word "dust" here may mean either the earth, and earthly things, considered as low, base, unworthy, worldly; or it may mean the grave, as if he were near to that, and in danger of dying. De Wette understands it in the latter sense. Yet the word cleave would hardly suggest this idea; and the force of that word would be better represented by the idea that his soul, as it were, adhered to the things of earth, that it seemed to be so fastened to them so glued to them that it could not be detached from them; that his affections were low, earthly, grovelling, so as to give him deep distress, and lead him to cry to God for Life and strength that he might break away from them. Albert Barnes.
Ver. 25. My soul cleaveth unto the dust, etc. The first clause seems intended to suggest two consistent but distinct ideas, that of deep degradation, as in Ps 44:25, and that of death, as in Ps 22:29. The first would be more obvious in itself, and in connection with the parallel referred to; but the other seems to be indicated as the prominent idea by the correlative petition for quickening in the last clause. "Quicken, "i.e., save me alive, or restore me to life, the Hebrew word being a causative of the verb to live. Joseph Addison Alexander.
Ver. 25. My soul cleaveth to the dust, etc. In this verse, David hath a complaint; "My soul cleaveth to the dust"; and a prayer; Quicken thou me according to thy word. The prayer, being well considered, shall teach us the meaning of the complaint; that it was not, as some think, any hard bodily estate which grieved him, but a very sore spiritual oppression (as I may call it), bearing down his soul; that where he should have mounted up toward heaven, he was pressed down to the earth, and was so clogged with earthly cogitations, or affections, or perturbations, that he could not mount up. His particular temptation he expresses not; for the children of God many times are in that estate that they cannot tell their own griefs, and sometimes so troubled, that it is not expedient, albeit they might, to express them to others.
And hereof we learn, how that which the worldling counts wisdom, to the Christian is folly; what is joy to the one, is grief to the other. The joy of a worldling is to cleave unto the earth; when he gripes it surest, he thinks himself happiest, for it is his portion: to take heed to his worldly affairs, and have his mind upon them (in his estimation) is only wisdom. For the serpent's curse is upon him, he creeps on the earth, and licks the dust all the days of his life. This is the miserable condition of the wicked, that even their heavenly soul is become earthly. Qui secundum corporis appetentiam vivit caro est, etiam anima eorum caro est; as the Lord spake of those who perished in the Deluge, that they were but flesh, no spirit in them; that is, no spiritual or heavenly motion.
But the Christian, considering that his soul is from above, sets his affection also on those things which are above: he delights to have his conversation in heaven; and it is a grief to him when he finds his motions and affections drawn down and entangled with the earth. His life is to cleave to the Lord; but it is death to him when the neck of his soul is bowed down to the yoke of the world. William Cowper.
Ver. 25. My soul cleaveth to the dust. "Look up now to the heavens." So once spake the Lord to Abraham his friend, and he speaketh thus to us also. Alas! why must it be so always that, when we come to know ourselves even but a little, we are constantly answering with the mournful sigh, "My soul cleaveth to the dust"? Ah! that is indeed the deepest pain of a soul which has already tasted that the Lord is merciful, when, although desiring to soar on high, it sadly feels how impossible it is to rise. There is much hidden pain in every heart of man even in the spiritual life; but what can deeper grieve us than the perception that we are chained as with leaden weights to things concerning which we know that they may weary but cannot satisfy us? Nay, we could never have supposed, when we first, heard the Psalm of the Good Shepherd, that it could issue from a heart that panteth after God so often and so bitterly; we could never have imagined that it could become so cold, so dry, so dark within a heart which at an earlier period had tasted so much of the power of that which is to come. Have we not formerly, with this same Psalm, been able to vaunt, "I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches"? But afterwards, but now perhaps... Oh sad hours, when the beams of the sun within seem quenched, and nothing but a blond red disc remains! The fervency of the first love is cooled; earthly cares and sins have, as it were, attached a leaden plummet to the wings of the soul which, God knows, would fain soar upwards. We would render thanks, and scarce can pray; we would pray, and scarce can sigh. Our treasure is in heaven, but our soul cleaves to the earth; at least earth cleaves on all sides so to it, and weighs it down, that the eye merely sees the clouds, the tongue can but breathe forth complaints. Ah, so completely can the earth fetter us, that the heavens appear to be only a problem, and our old man is like the Giant of Mythology, who, cast to the ground in the exhausting combat, receives by contact with his mother earth fresh strength. Oh, were it otherwise! Shall it not at last, at last be altered?
Dost thou really desire it, thou who out of the depths of thy soul so complainest, and canst scarcely find more tears to bewail the sorrow of thy heart? Well is it for thee if the pain thou sufferest teach thee to cry to God: "Quicken thou me, according to thy word." Yea, this is the best comfort for him who too well knows what it is to be bowed together with pain; this is the only hope for a heart which almost sinks in still despair. There is an atmosphere of life, high above this dust which streams to us from every side, and penetrates even the darkest dungeon. There is a spring of life by which the weary soul may be refreshed; and the entrance to this spring stands open, in spite of all the clouds of dust which obscure this valley of shadows here. There is a power of life which can even so completely make an end of our dead state, that we shall walk again before the face of the Lord in the land of the living, and, instead of uttering lamentation, we shall bear a song of praise upon our lips. Does not the Prince of life yet live in order also to repeat to us, "Awake and rejoice, thou that dwellest in the dust; "and the Spirit, that bloweth whither he listeth, can, will, shall he not in his own good time, with his living breath, blow from our wings the dust that cleaveth to them? But, indeed, even the gnawing pain of the soul over so much want of spirituality and dulness is ever an encouraging sign that the good work is begun in our hearts: that which is really dead shivers no more at its own cold. "My soul cleaveth to the dust, " sayest thou, with tears? thus wouldest thou not speak except that already a higher hand between the soul and this dust had cleft a hollow which was unknown to it before. No one has less cause for despair than he who has lost hope in himself, and really learns to seek in God that, which he deeply feels, he least of all can give himself.
Yes, this is the way from the deepest pain to procure the best consolation; the humble, earnest, persevering player, that he who lives would also give life to our souls, and continue to increase it, till freed from all dryness and deadness of spirit, and uprooted from the earth, we ascend to the eternal mount of light, where at last we behold all earthly clouds beneath us. This the God of life alone can work; but he is willing nay, we have his own word as pledge, that he promises and bestows on us true life. Only, let us not forget that he who will quicken us "according" to his word, also performs this through his word. Let us then draw from out the eternally flowing fountain, and henceforth leave it unconditionally to him, how he will listen to our cry, even though he lead us through dark paths! Even through means of death God can quicken us and keep us alive. Lo, we are here; Lord, do with us as seemeth good to thee! Only let our souls live, that they may praise thee, here and eternally! J. J. Van Oosterzee (1817-1882), in "The Year of Salvation."
Ver. 25. Cleaveth to the dust. Is weighed down by the flesh which itself is dust. James G. Murphy.
Ver. 25. The dust, is the place of the afflicted, the wounded, and the dead. Quicken me, viz., to life, peace, and joy. A. R. Fausset.
Ver. 25. Quicken thou me, etc. Seeing he was alive, how prays he that God would quicken him? I answer, The godly esteem of life, not according to that they have in their body, but in their soul. If the soul lacks the sense of mercy, and a heavenly disposition to spiritual things, they lament over it, as a dead soul: for sure it is, temporal desertions are more heavy to the godly than temporal death. According to thy word. This is a great faith, that where in respect of his present feeling he found himself dead, yet he hopes for life from God, according to his promise. Such was the faith of Abraham, who under hope, believed above hope. And truly, many times are God's children brought to this estate, that they have nothing to uphold them but the word of God; no sense of mercy, no spiritual disposition; but on the contrary, great darkness, horrible fears and terrors. Only they are sustained by looking to the promise of God, and kept in some hope that he will restore them to life again, because it is his praise to finish the work which he begins. William Cowper.
Ver. 25. Quicken thou me. This phrase occurs nine times, and only in this Psalm. It is of great importance, as it expresses the spiritual change by which a child of Adam becomes a child of God. Its source is God; the instrument by which it is effected is the word, Ps 119:50. James G. Murphy.
Ver. 25 Quicken thou me according to thy word. Where there is life there will be the endeavour to rise the believer will not lie prone in his aspirations after God. From the lowest depths the language of faith is heard ascending to God most high, who performeth all things for the believer. The true child cannot but look towards the loving Father, who is the Almighty, All sufficient One. Have you not found it so? But will you mark the intelligence that shines around the believer's prayer? He prays that the Lord may quicken him according to his word. The word may be regarded in the light of the standard after which he is to be fashioned; or the Psalmist may have in view the requirements contained in the word regarding the believer's progress; or he may be thinking of the promises found therein in behalf of the poor and needy when they apply. Indeed, all these significations may be wrapped up in the one expression "according to thy word" the standard of perfection, the requirements of the word, the promises concerning it. The great exemplar of the believer is Christ, of old it was the Christ of prophecy. Then the requirements of the Lord's will were scattered through the word. The Psalmist, however, may be dwelling upon the large promises which the Lord hath given towards the perfecting of his people. You see after what the spiritual nature aspires. It is quite enough to the natural man or the formalist that he be as the generally well behaved and esteemed among professors the spiritual man aspires beyond he aspires after being quickened according to God's word. Judge of yourselves. John Stephen.
Ver. 25. Quicken thou me according to thy word. By thy providence put life into my affairs, by thy grace put life into my affections; cure me of my spiritual deadness, and make me lively in my devotion. Matthew Henry.
Ver. 25. Quicken thou me according to thy word, Albeit the Lord suffer his own to lie so long low in their heavy condition of spirit, that they may seem dead; yet by faith in his word he keepeth in them so much life as doth furnish unto them prayer to God for comfort: "Quicken thou me according to thy word." David Dickson.
Ver. 25 Quicken thou me. To whom shall the godly fly when life faileth but to that Wellspring of all life? Even as to remove cold the next way is to draw near the fire, so to dispel any death, the next way is to look to him who is our root, by whom we live this natural life. All preservatives and restoratives are nothing, all colleges of physicians are vanity, if compared with him. Other things which have not life, give life as the instruments of him who is life, as fire burneth being the instrument of heat. "When heart and flesh fail, God is the strength of my heart." As a man can let a fire almost go out which had been kindled, and then blow it up, and by application of new fuel make it blaze as much as ever: so can God deal with this flame of life which he hath kindled. Paul Bayne.
Ver. 25. According to thy word. The word removes deadness of conscience and hardness. Is not this word a hammer to soften the heart, and is not this the immortal seed by which we are begotten again? Therefore David, finding his conscience in a dead frame, prayed, "My soul cleaveth to the dust; quicken thou me according to thy word." The word is the first thing by which conscience is purified and set right. John Sheffield, in "A Good Conscience the Strongest Hold, "1650.
Ver. 25. According to thy word. What word doth David mean? Either the general promises in the books of Moses or Job; which intimate deliverance to the faithful observers of God's law, or help to the miserable and distressed; or some particular promise given to him by Nathan, or others. Chrysostom saith, "Quicken me according to thy word: but it is not a word of command, but a word of promise." Mark here, he doth not say secundum meritum meum, but, secundum verbum tuum;the hope, or that help which we expect from God, is founded upon his word; there is our security, in his promises, not in our deserving: Prommittendo se fecit debitorem, etc.
When there was so little Scripture written, yet David could find out a word for his support. Alas! in our troubles and afflictions, no promise comes to mind. As in outward things, many that have less live better than those that have abundance; so here, now Scripture is so large, we are less diligent, and therefore, though we have so many promises, we are apt to faint, we have not a word to bear us up. This word did not help David, till he had lain so long under this heavy condition, that he seemed dead. Many, when they have a promise, think presently to enjoy the comfort of it. No, waiting and striving are first necessary. We never relish the comfort of the promises till the creatures have spent their allowance, and we have been exercised. God will keep his word, and yet we must expect to be tried.
In this his dead condition, faith in God's word kept him alive. When we have least feeling, and there is nothing left us, the word will support us: "And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith, giving glory to God" (Ro 4:19-20). One way to get comfort is to plead the promise of God in prayer, Chirographa tua injiciebat tibi Domine, show him his handwriting; God is tender of his word. These arguments in prayer, are not to work upon God, but ourselves. Thomas Manton
Ver. 25. One does not wonder at the fluctuations which occur in the feelings and experience of a child of God at one time high on the mountain, near to God and communing with God, at another in the deep and dark valley. All, more or less, know these changes, and have their sorrowing as well as their rejoicing seasons. When we parted with David last, what was he telling us of his experience? that God's testimonies were his delight and his counsellors;but now what a different strain! all joy is darkened, and his soul cleaveth to the dust. And there must have been seasons of deep depression and despondency in the heart of David given as a fugitive and wanderer from his home, hunted as a partridge upon the mountains, and holding, as he himself says, his life continually in his hands. Yet I think in this portion of the Psalm there is evidence of a deeper abasement and sorrow of heart than any mere worldly suffering could produce. He had indeed said, "I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul"; but, even in that moment of weak and murmuring faith, he knew that he was God's anointed one to sit on the throne of Israel. But, here there is indication of sin, of grievous sin which had laid his soul low in the dust; and I think the petition in Ps 119:29 gives us some clue to what that sin had been: "Remove me from the way of lying." Had David you may well ask in wonder had David ever lied? had he ever deviated from the strait and honourable path of truth I am afraid we must own that he had at one time gone so near the confines of a falsehood, that he would be but a poor casuist and a worse moralist who should attempt to defend the Psalmist from the imputation. We cannot read the 27th chapter of the 1st of Samuel without owning into what a sad tissue of equivocation and deceit David was unhappily seduced. Well might his soul cleave to the dust as he reviewed that period of his career; and though grace did for him what it afterwards did for Peter, and he was plucked as a brand out of the burning, yet one can well imagine that like the Apostle afterwards, when he thought thereon he wept, and that bitterly. Barton Bouchier.
Outlines Upon Keywords of the Psalm, By Pastor C. A. Davis.
Ver. 25-32. Quickening. Prayed for with confession (Ps 119:25-26). When obtained shall be talked of (Ps 119:27). Desired for the sake of strength (Ps 119:28), of truthfulness (Ps 119:29-31), and of activity (Ps 119:32).
Ver. 25.
1. Nature and its tendency.
2. Grace and its mode of operation.
3. Both truths in their personal application.
Ver. 25. Quicken thou me, etc.
1. There are many reasons why we should seek quickening.
(a) Because of the deadening influence of the world. "Thy
soul cleaveth, "etc.
(b) The influence of vanity (see Ps 119:37).
(c) Because we are surrounded by deceivers (see
Ps 119:87-88).
(d) Because of the effect of seasons of affliction upon us
(see Ps 119:7).
2. Some of the motives for seeking quickening.
(a) Because of what you are a Christian; life seeks more
life.
(b) Because of what you ought to be.
(c) Because of what we shall be.
(d) In order to obedience (see Ps 119:88).
(e) For your comfort (Ps 119:107, 50).
(f) As the best security against the attacks of enemies
(Ps 119:87-88).
(g) To invigorate our memories (Ps 119:93).
(h) Consider (as a motive to seek this quickening) the
terrible consequences of losing spiritual life; or, in
other words, lacking it in its manifest display.
3. Some of the ways in which the quickening may be brought to us.
(a) It must be by the Lord himself. "Quicken me, O Lord."
(b) By the turning of the eyes (Ps 119:37).
(c) By the word (Ps 119:50).
(d) By the precepts (Ps 119:93).
(e) By affliction (Ps 119:107).
(f) By divine comforts.
4. Enquire where are our pleas when we come before God to ask for quickening.
(a) Our necessity (Ps 119:107, etc.).
(b) Our earnest desire (Ps 119:40).
(c) Appeal to God's righteousness (Ps 119:40).
(d) To his lovingkindness (Ps 119:88, 149, 156).
(e) The plea in the text: "according to thy word"
(Ps 119:28, 107). See "Spurgeon's Sermons, "No. 1350:
"Enlivening and Invigorating."
Psalms 119:26*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken Thou me…
Psa_119:25
My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken Thou me according to Thy Word.
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Cleaving to the dust
Several verses of this long psalm begin with the same words: My soul melteth away from very heaviness; my soul hath longed for Thy salvation; my soul is always in my hand; oh, let my soul live, and it shall praise Thee. Often as the expression occurs it is the recognition from old time, and even under the old dispensation, of something in us, not imagination, not memory, not intellect, not even conscience; something which is real, important, and everlasting; something of which the health and disease, the welfare and adversity, the happiness and misery makes itself felt, can be marked and recorded, and is of vital moment to the being, the I, myself, I, of the immortal accountable man.
I. A dire malady of the soul. It is not the occasional, but the habitual loss of interest in things spiritual. It is the inability ever or anyhow to hold conscious intercourse with Him who is our life. It is the hanging for hours over a prayer which will not speak; or, to take the commoner case, it is rather the acquiescing in that dumbness, treating it as a misfortune, or calling it a sin, yet going on in it as though a hardship or else a punishment, but in either view to be let alone and made the best of. It is the shelving of the Bible as a book which may have a voice for others, but which has no voice for us. It is the going about the daily business as a machine that has neither heart nor will in it.
II. The possible causes of a condition so lamentable. Either the strength has been undermined, before any effort was made after God, by some evil habit of boyhood, youth, or manhood, fatal to moral and spiritual energy; or else the very virtue has gone out of the religion by the attempt to serve two masters, the one in name and appearance, the other in deed and in truth. But without this last and saddest supposition, there may have been at some point a definite failure in duty or affection which has given a shock to the better nature from which it has never recovered, and of which this paralysis of the higher being is the Nemesis and the retribution. Yet, again, without any such definiteness of cause and effect, there is much of explanation in that Egyptian taunt of old, Ye are idle, ye are idle, in its bearing upon the secret life and the Godward relationship. Men who are vigorous in all else, in business or polities, in field sports or personal habits, are unmanly and effeminate in spiritual effort.
III. The cry for help. My soul cleaveth to the dust; and, though I was taken from the dust, and to dust shall return, yet God breathed into me afterwards a living soul, and that soul is not dust, and that soul must return to the God that gave it. Tell me, thou man of God, how to snap this chain, how to disengage this attachment of the God-breathed soul to the dust from which its mere shell and husk were taken.
IV. The answer to the cry. The psalmist seems to have had but one answer to this request. It forms the last part of the text: Quicken Thou me; oh, quicken Thou me. You see hew he felt that the thing impossible with men is possible with God. To cleave to the dust before God, consciously and purposely, in the sight of God, is at once to pray, to beseech Him to look upon you, and to call Him in to witness my misery, is to pray. We de not say--for it would be untrue--that the soul which has long cleaved to the dust will all at once spread her wings for the everlasting flight. It is not so. It would not be a moral doctrine to leave out of sight and mention efforts, daily possible relapses and frequent disappointments. Only we say, that which God has once done in quickening, God will do again, day by day; will de again and again without upbraiding; and will not leave you until He has done it effectually. (Dean Vaughan.)
The soul reluctantly made fast to earth
I. A confession. The psalmist felt that his mind had become sordid.
1. One in such a state will neglect duty. It is a burden, because there is no pleasure felt in the performance.
2. A state of relapse is generally marked by a heartless performance of those duties which are not entirely neglected.
3. This state is always attended with a pressure of worldly care.
4. The wandering believer must be the subject of small enjoyments.
II. A prayer.
III. The plea used by the psalmist in his guilty and gloomy circumstances. Quicken Thou me according to Thy Word, according to Thy gracious promises. In making this plea, the psalmist discovered both his humility and his faith.
IV. Conclusion.
1. The subject gives us a humiliating picture of the human heart.
2. The subject gives us enlarged views of the mercy of God, that He will make beings so depraved the objects of His affectionate regard. (D. A. Clark.)
Quickening grace
I. The psalmists complaint. My soul cleaveth unto the dust. This is the complaint of one:
1. Conscious of the spirit of worldliness. Worldliness is a false relation to human creatures and to worldly things.
(1) An unnatural thing--that the immortal should be loaded with thick clay.
(2) A dishonourable thing--to subordinate the spirit to things and relations which it ought to use and rule.
(3) A destructive thing. Being too much with the world, coveting it, finding our pleasure in it, forgetting its higher uses, we lose our spiritual insights, sensibilities, strivings, delights, and become of the earth earthy. To be carnally minded is death to all the nobler senses.
2. Conscious of the bondage of sorrow. Cleaving to the dust suggests sitting in dust and ashes, as Job did when he was overwhelmed with grief. If we loved the world less, many woes would cease to consume and exhaust us. If we thought more of the honour that cometh from God, we should be less troubled by the reproach of men; if we thought more of the treasures of the soul, we should be less afflicted by the moth and rust which dissolve material treasures; if we lived more in the higher world of thought and feeling, we should be less affected by the ebb and flow of an ever-changing world of shadows and echoes.
II. The psalmists appeal. Quicken Thou me according to Thy Word. This appeal is to the right source.
1. God quickens us by granting new insight into the highest truth. The perception of a great truth invigorates our whole nature (Psa_36:9).
2. God quickens us by kindling in us a new affection to Himself and to whatever reflects Him. When the love of God is shed abroad in the heart, the power and tyranny of terrestrial life abate.
3. God quickens us by inspiring us with a new hope. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Enlivening and invigorating
I. Reasons why we should seek quickening.
1. The deadening influence of the world.
2. The influence of that which is actually sinful (verse 37).
3. We are surrounded by deceivers (verses 87, 88).
4. In seasons of affliction we are apt to fall into a dark, cold, dead state of mind (verse 107).
II. Motives for seeking quickening.
1. Because of what you are. Life is always aiming at more life.
2. Because of what you ought to be--like Jesus Christ; He was full of life.
3. Because of what you shall be. You are to be a pure spirit in heaven; be spiritual now.
4. In order to obedience (verse 88).
5. Because it will be your comfort (verse 107).
6. As the best security against attacks of enemies (verses 87, 88).
III. Some of the ways by which this quickening may be wrought in us. Of course the Lord Himself must do it. In prayer it must be sought, because by His power it must be wrought. God quickens His people:
1. By His Word (verse50).
2. By affliction (verse 107).
3. By means of Divine comfort (verse 50).
IV. Where are our pleas when we come before God to ask for quickening? What arguments shall we use?
1. Use first the argument of your necessity. Whatever that necessity is, particularize it, as David does in verse 107.
2. Plead the earnest desire that God has kindled in you (verse 40).
3. Appeal to His righteousness.
4. Plead His lovingkindness (verse 38).
5. Plead His Word (verses 25, 107). (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A cry from the dust
It sounds like a paradox for the spiritual man to say that he is bound by the material, and cannot emancipate himself from it. A paradox, however, only at first sight, and only in seeming. For it is only the spiritual man who is sensible of the humiliations and the degradations of the material, and therefore impatient of them. If he were of the dust, he would be content to remain on the dust-level. He would be in his own element, satisfied with it, unconscious of any higher aspirations. It is a question of spiritual sensitiveness. This is why it is that in the diaries of the saintliest people you find the deadliest self-accusation. John Bunyan, in his Grace Abounding, paints himself as a villain of the deepest dye for peccadilloes that would never have troubled an ordinary conscience. His spiritual nature was like the outer membrane of the eyeball, and the presence of an infinitesimal evil in his soul caused him the acutest pain. We seem, even the best of us, to be ever sinking back to our native element; the spiritual is ever reverting to the original animal. This, indeed, is the source of all our conflict. Our souls cleave unto the dust, because we are dust. We are not, however, to despise and hold cheap even our corporeal parts. Matter is evil only when we sustain a wrong relation to it. First the natural, afterward that which is spiritual. But then the spiritual must dominate the natural. When we take Christ fully into our hearts, the higher elements within us become regal, and the lower subside into their place. They are not suppressed. If they were, our manhood would be left incomplete. But they are subordinated. We are no longer carnally minded, though the flesh is still with us. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus introduces a new and regnant principle into the soul, to which the animal passions and fleshly instincts transfer their allegiance. And it is while this process is going on, and because it is going on, that such confessions as that of our text break from the struggling heart. We no more belong to the dust when we can make this confession and offer its accompanying prayer. It is the sign and the song of our uprising. By force of old habit we cling to the dust, but not with longing, rather with loathing; not with desire for it, but with passion for freedom from it. We are often like the miserable fly struggling to extricate it, s cloyed wings from the honey which is its lawful food, but to which it has been too passionately addicted. The poor thing wants to rise, it tries to soar, but it is, as it were, glued to the lower element, and will be suffocated in it, unless some friendly finger comes to the rescue. There is the picture of our condition. Fain would we ascend to the heights of spiritual communion, fain would we breathe the heavenly air and behold the vision of God, but our sins and foolishness cause us to cleave unto the dust. But for us, too, as for Paul, there is the friendly aid. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (J. Halsey.)
Depression
I. It is not a strange experience for believers to be in this depressed condition, the soul cleaving to the dust.
Sometimes there may be physical causes connected with a mans state of health, and sometimes other providences of God are concerned in producing this state of things, but it is a stage in a mans spiritual history. There are many causes which have to do with it. Generally it is connected with indwelling sin. More particularly it arises in connection with the failure of faith on the part of believers. Looking at it from the side of Gods providence, it is permitted by God just as a step in the believers history; because it is necessary that the believers history should include an enlarged acquaintance with himself, with his own insufficiency, with his own tendency to unbelief, and darkness, and sin.
II. It is not characteristic of a believer to be contented in this condition. How should he be? If he is a believer he has faith in the living God, and in the power of a life-giving Christ. Now, can any man have a believing consciousness that there is this living and life-giving Christ, this Mediator, this Redeemer, and be contented with an experience which in so humiliating a way contrasts with Christ and the fit state of Christs people? The believer has faith also in the life-giving Spirit and in the mission and work of the Holy Ghost in its peculiar power and gentleness and love. What it is, perhaps, he can hardly feel when his soul is cleaving to the dust; but he believes it. How can a man who believes this be content to go on with his soul cleaving to the dust? And, again, the believer has the conviction and persuasion that his proper home and portion are above; that there is a heaven on high containing all elements that are pure and suitable to the life and blessedness of God, and he is on the way to it, and his Lust is that, through Gods mercy, he will reach the country he seeks. And with these experiences how can he be contented to lie in the dust, making no progress at least not feeling that he is making progress? Therefore he casts himself on God in prayer.
III. There is a sure refuge for the believer with reference to this case of his. There is life for those who feel in themselves so much that looks like death. Quicken thou me--give me life, cause me to live--according to Thy Word. This cry is not merely a cry of distress. He has the Word which he can plead made known to him. What Word? There are many particular promises adapting the provisions of the Gospel to the experience of believers; but we should always have regard to the root promise when we betake ourselves to God. That promise was given to Abraham: I will be a God unto thee. Therefore, he whose soul cleaves to the dust is met and satisfied by that great promise that out of an experience in itself no way good to us or glorifying to God may come lessons good for us and glorifying to God. Application:
1. There is great reason for hopefulness in the condition of believers even when their souls cleave to the dust. There is comfort for the sorrowful, refreshing for the weary, strength for the weak, life for the faint, and forgiveness of sins for sinners.
2. There is great reason for earnestness. It is not a fitting thing that people should be contented while their souls are cleaving to the dust. There should be earnest and instant recourse to God, with the expectation that something very different from cleaving to the dust shall presently be ours.
3. There is a sure reward for those that seek the Lord. (R. Rainy, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Daleth. The Grace of Being Confirmed in the Truth.…
Daleth. The Grace of Being Confirmed in the Truth. —
v. 25. My soul cleaveth unto the dust, is often in great spiritual depression; quicken Thou me, daily filling him with new life and strength, according to Thy Word, it being the privilege of the believers to remind the Lord of His promises and to demand His assistance at such times of affliction.
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v. 26. I have declared my ways, stating that he would follow the paths of God’s Word, and Thou heardest me, accepting his promise as a prayer for assistance; teach me Thy statutes, for it is at such a time that the positive and clear statements of the Word of God uphold the believer’s determination.
v. 27. Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts, to have a clear conception of the directions of God pertaining to man’s conduct in all situations of life; so shall I talk, ponder, always think about, of Thy wondrous works, declaring the miracles of grace and kindness which God performed in his interest, this being the experience of all believers.
v. 28. My soul melteth for heaviness, is dissolved in the heat of affliction; strengthen Thou me according unto Thy Word, setting him upright, so that he may walk with a firm tread and fear no dangers.
v. 29. Remove from me the way of lying, of unfaithfulness, of denial of the truth, and grant me Thy Law graciously, the believer asking this only as a gift of mercy on the part of God, since he knows that he is in no way worthy of it. It is by the grace of God that we still have His Word, and we should appreciate it accordingly.
v. 30. I have chosen the way of truth, of faithfulness to the Lord; Thy judgments have I laid before me, deliberately selecting them to direct his way of conduct in seeking the approval of the Lord.
v. 31. I have stuck unto Thy testimonies, clinging to the revealed truth with all his heart; O Lord, put me not to shame, permitting him to become an object of mockery by withholding His strength and help from the believer in every emergency.
v. 32. I will run the way of Thy commandments, not with slow and lagging steps, but with cheerful eagerness, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart, because God widens and expands the heart of the faithful with such virtues as are well-pleasing to Him, this including also the zeal for His Word and for true sanctification. Constant study and contemplation of God’s Word will result in joyful service of God, in growth in all Christian virtues.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 This is the name of the fourth letter of…
DALETH
This is the name of the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In the Hebrew language, each line of verses 25-32 begins with this letter.
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My life clings to the dust
This is an idiom. Possible meanings are that 1) he thought that he would die soon, or 2) he lay in the dust because he was very sad, or 3) he realized that he desired the worthless things of the earth. (See: Idiom)
Give me life by your word
This is an idiom. Here "life" refers to purpose and significance, not just biological life. (See: Idiom)
by your word
"according to your promise"
my ways
What a person does or how he behaves is spoken of as if it were a road or way. AT: "what I have done" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
life
word of God
statute
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 119:25-32 Daleth (ד): Though the poet feels anguish and…
119:25-32 Daleth (ד): Though the poet feels anguish and sorrow, he entreats the Lord to revive him because he wants to obey the Lord. Suffering and death may result from the Lord’s chastening (118:17-18; 119:67, 71, 75), but his instruction revives the weary soul (see 119:12).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.