Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:25
My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.
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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 ( 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.
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?
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:25
My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken Thou me according to Thy Word.
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.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
LETTER DALETH. – Fourth Division
Verse 25. My soul cleaveth unto the dust] It would be best to translate naphshi, my life; and then cleaving to the dust may imply an apprehension of approaching death; and this agrees best with the petition.
Quicken thou me] chaiyeni, “make me alive.” Keep me from going down into the dust.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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.
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
25-27. Submitting ourselves indepression to God, He will revive us by His promises, and lead us todeclare His mercy to others.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
d DALETH.–The Fourth Part.
Ver. 25. DALETH. My soul cleaveth unto the dust,…. Either to the dust of death, having the sentence of it; being almost in despair of life, upon the brink of the grave seemingly, and free among the dead: or in a very low estate of mind, in great dejection and humiliation, rolling himself in the dust, and putting his mouth in it; if there might be any hope of deliverance; but despairing of it, unless the Lord appeared; or finding a proneness in him to the corruption of nature, the body of sin and death, which was very powerful and prevalent, ensnaring and captivating; and particularly to worldly things, comparable to dust, for their lightness, emptiness, and unprofitableness; which often have an undue influence on good men, and to which their affections are too much glued; and which greatly affect the exercise of grace and religious duties, and bring a deadness upon the soul, and make the following: petition necessary:
quicken thou me according to thy word; such who are quickened together with Christ, and who are quickened by his Spirit and grace, when they were dead in trespasses and sins, have often need to be quickened again, and to have the work of grace revived in them; which is done when grace is drawn forth into lively exercise, and which is necessary to the performance of duty; and this is done both by means of the word of God, which, as it is used for the quickening dead sinners, so for the reviving of drooping saints; see Ps 119:50. And according to his word of promise, who has promised never to leave his people, nor forsake the work of his hand, but perform it until the day of Christ; Jarchi and Kimchi think reference is had to the promise in 2Sa 12:13; and Aben Ezra to De 32:39.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The eightfold Daleth. He is in deep trouble, and prays for consolation and strengthening by means of God’s word, to which he resigns himself. His soul is fixed to the dust (Psa 44:26) in connection with such non-recognition and proscription, and is incapable of raising itself. In Psa 119:25 he implores new strength and spirits ( as in Psa 71:20; Psa 85:7) from God, in conformity with and by reason of His word. He has rehearsed his walk in every detail to God, and has not been left without an answer, which has assured him of His good pleasure: may He then be pleased to advance him ever further and further in the understanding of His word, in order that, though men are against him, he may nevertheless have God on his side, Psa 119:26-27. The complaint and request expressed in Psa 119:25 are renewed in Psa 119:28. refers to the soul, which is as it were melting away in the trickling down of tears; is a Piel of Aramaic formation belonging to the later language. In Psa 119:29-30 the way of lies or of treachery, and the way of faithfulness or of perseverance in the truth, stand in opposition to one another. is construed with a double accusative, inasmuch as has not the rigid notion of a fixed teaching, but of living empirical instruction. (short for , Psa 16:8) signifies to put or set, viz., as a norma normans that stands before one’s eyes. He cleaves to the testimonies of God; may Jahve not disappoint the hope which to him springs up out of them, according to the promise, Psa 119:31. He runs, i.e., walks vigorously and cheerfully, in the way of God’s commandments, for He has widened his heart, by granting and preserving to the persecuted one the joyfulness of confession and the confidence of hope.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| 4. DALETH. | |
25 My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.
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. iii. 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 (Ps. xxii. 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.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Dateth Section
Scripture v. 25-32:
Verse 25 laments “my soul (very life) cleaveth unto the dust. Quicken thou me according to thy word,” from the place of the wounded, the afflicted, the dying; “Make me alive with peace and joy,” is the idea, Psa 44:15; Psa 22:15; Isa 26:19; Rom 5:4-5. See also Psa 71:20; Psa 80:18; Psa 143:11; Psa 119:37.
Verse 26 recounts ‘ “I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: Teach me thy statutes;” In prayer he had confidentially committed his whole case of affliction to the Lord, as a sick man to a physician, or a client to his lawyer, Psa 118:5; Psa 118:21; Psa 37:5. He yearns to know the law of the Lord, that he might obey it, 1Ki 8:36; Psa 25:4; Psa 25:8-9; Psa 27:11; Psa 86:11; Psa 143:8-10; Psa 119:107; Psa 119:149; Psa 119:156; Psa 119:159.
Verse 27 asks to be made to understand the way of the Lord’s precepts, with the pledge, “so shall I talk of thy wondrous works,” v. 18; Psa 145:5-6; Psa 26:7; Psa 8:3.
Verse 28 confides “my soul melteth (continually) for heaviness; strengthen thou me according to thy word.” In anguish his soul was drooped, due to his suffering, from which he asked for strength, Job 16:20; Num 11:15; 2Sa 22:40.
Verse 29 appeals for the Lord to remove from him “the way of lying,” the way of every unfaithfulness, in which he had not kept the covenant of the Lord, to which he was pledged.
To make sacred pledges of covenants, to God, man, or the church, then break them, is “the way of lying,” which every covenant breaker should confess as David did, or this Psalmist; He then asks that God grant him “the law graciously” or to understand it, as a gift of grace, v.27; Heb 8:10; See also Joh 17:17; Pro 30:8; Isa 44:20; Jer 16:19; Eph 4:22-25; 1Jn 1:8; 1Jn 2:4.
Verse 30 asserts that the Psalmist has chosen the way of truth, the word of the Lord, as his strict rule of conduct, which he has laid out before him, which he has resolved to follow, Jos 24:15; Joh 17:17; Psa 119:160; Psa 119:173; Isa 26:7.
Verse 31 recounts, “I have stuck to thy testimonies,” a good thing “to stick to,” and he asks the Lord, “put me not to shame,” or do not disappoint my hopes for peace and joy; For steadfastness is to be cherished, Jos 23:8; Deu 6:17; Psa 119:6.
Verse 32 concludes “I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shaft enlarge my heart,” 1Ki 4:29; Isa 60:5; 2Co 6:11. The idea is I will serve you better, more expansively, run the race course better, doing your bidding fervently, when you have removed my afflictions, given me joy again, 1Co 9:24; Gal 5:7; Php_2:16; Php_3:12-14.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
25. My soul cleaveth to the dust (409) 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, (Psa 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, (410) 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.
(409) The original word for my soul might here, as in verse 28, be translated I myself, or my life, and then, cleaving to the dust may imply an apprehension of approaching death; and this agrees best with the petition. “By dust is here probably meant the sepulchre or grave, as in Psa 22:15, so that the Psalmist is to be understood to say, ‘The dangers which surround me are such as threaten my death;’ and he immediately adds, ‘Revive me according to thy word,’ i. e. , Make me glad by delivering me from these perils, in agreement with the promises which thou hast given me.” — Walford
(410) Arnobins and Augustine interpret thy word as signifying, in this place, thy promise. See verse 28, and Psa 44:25.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
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.
The prayer, make me live, suggests that the dust of death is here prominently in view, as in Tennysons 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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
, 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.
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.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Daleth. The Grace of Being Confirmed in the Truth.
v. 25. My soul cleaveth unto the dust, v. 26. I have declared my ways, v. 27. Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts, v. 28. My soul melteth for heaviness, v. 29. Remove from me the way of lying, v. 30. I have chosen the way of truth, v. 31. I have stuck unto Thy testimonies, v. 32. I will run the way of Thy commandments,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
DALETH.
These verses compose the fourth part of this divine Psalm. Whether David, the supposed writer of it, thus complains in himself; or whether it means the Son of David, who in another part declares, that he is brought into the dust of death, I am not able to determine; Psa 22:15 . But if, as the sinner’s surety, Jesus was thus brought down to the earth, well may it be supposed that our souls cleave to the dust. O for grace, everlastingly to be sending forth the prayer of faith, to be quickened with continued renewings in Christ Jesus! The melting of soul, and the enlargement of the heart, are sweet and gracious feelings, when under divine influences. Lord! I would say, grant these blessed effects from day to day, in Christ Jesus!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
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).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 119:25-32 (Daleth)
25My soul cleaves to the dust;
Revive me according to Your word.
26I have told of my ways, and You have answered me;
Teach me Your statutes.
27Make me understand the way of Your precepts,
So I will meditate on Your wonders.
28My soul weeps because of grief;
Strengthen me according to Your word.
29Remove the false way from me,
And graciously grant me Your law.
30I have chosen the faithful way;
I have placed Your ordinances before me.
31I cling to Your testimonies;
O Lord, do not put me to shame!
32I shall run the way of Your commandments,
For You will enlarge my heart.
Psa 119:25 The first line gives the existential setting of the psalmist (cf. Psa 44:25). He feels he is close to death, whether by sickness or rebellion is unstated, but Psa 119:23 implies court intrigue (although because of the acrostic structure of the Psalm, it is uncertain if literary context or rhyming is the guiding factor).
The psalmist has a series of prayer requests.
1. revive me according to Your work, Psa 119:25 b – BDB 310, KB 309, Piel imperative, cf. Psa 119:37; Psa 119:40; Psa 119:88; Psa 119:93; Psa 119:107; Psa 119:149; Psa 119:154; Psa 119:156; Psa 119:159. It can mean
a. preserve
b. revive
2. teach me Your statutes, Psa 119:26 b – BDB 540, KB 531, Piel imperative, cf. Psa 119:12; Psa 119:26; Psa 119:64; Psa 119:68; Psa 119:108; Psa 119:124; Psa 119:135; Psa 119:171
3. make me understand the way of Your precepts, Psa 119:27 a – BDB 106, KB 122, Hiphil imperative, cf. Psa 119:34; Psa 119:73; Psa 119:125; Psa 119:144; Psa 119:169
4. strengthen me according to Your word, Psa 119:28 b – BDB 827, KB 1086, Piel imperative. BDB suggests the verb in Piel means
a. fulfill, in Psa 119:106
b. confirm, here
5. remove the false way from me, Psa 119:29 a – BDB 693, KB 747, Hiphil imperative. The false way is a direct contrast to the everlasting way of Psa 139:24.
6. graciously grant me Your law, Psa 119:29 b – BDB 335, KB 334, Qal imperative, God’s revelation is the faithful way (cf. Psa 119:30).
Psa 119:30-32 Notice the number of things the psalmist will do, or has done, because of God’s providing understanding through His revelation.
1. he prayed (Piel perfect), Psa 119:26 a
2. he chose (Qal perfect) the faithful way, Psa 119:30 a
3. he placed (Piel perfect) God’s revelation before himself (lit. accounted God’s ordinances worthy), Psa 119:30 b
4. he cleaved (Qal perfect, cf. Psa 119:25) to God’s revelation, Psa 119:31 a (in Deu 10:20 it is used of clinging to God; in this Psalm God’s person and revelation are merged)
5. he will run (Qal imperfect) the way of God’s revelation, Psa 119:32 a
Psa 119:32 b For You will enlarge my heart God will increase (lit. enlarge, BDB 931, KB 1210, Hiphil imperfect) the psalmist’s capacity to understand and act on that knowledge of God.
For heart see SPECIAL TOPIC: THE HEART .
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
dust. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Adjunct), App-6, for the dead, as in Psa 30:9. Ecc 12:7.
Quicken . . . me = Give me life, or keep me alive. The first of nine prayers for quickening (Imperative), verses: Psa 119:37, Psa 119:40, Psa 119:88, Psa 119:107, Psa 119:149, Psa 119:154, Psa 119:156, Psa 119:159. Twice as a statement of fact, verses: Psa 119:50, Psa 119:93.
word. As in Psa 119:9; but some codices read ‘ words” (plural)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 119:25. My soul cleaveth unto the dust:
It sticks to it as though it were glued to it; my soul cannot be lifted up, at least by myself, out of its sadness, and its earthiness. The psalmist was not one who could boast of perfection. He had to lament that the earth, which was in him by nature, made even his soul cleave to mother earth. He did not like it; he was not content that it should be so, and therefore he breathed this prayer:
Psa 119:25. Quicken thou me according to thy word.
Lord, there is nothing but life that can bring me up out of the dust, for death lurks in the dust, and the duel tends to death. Put life into me, Lord, thy life, the divine life. Thou hast promised to do this, therefore, do it, Lord, according to thy word. That is a prayer which is always sure to succeed, for it is based upon the promise of God. Hath the Lord promised anything? Then he will surely perform it; and you cannot use a better argument in prayer than to say to him, Do as thou hast said; or, as the psalmist puts it, Quicken thou me according to thy Lord.
Psa 119:26. I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me:
I have made a full confession to thee, my God. I have owned my fault wherein I was wrong, and I have thanked thee for thy grace given to me in anything wherein I was right.
Psa 119:26. Teach me thy statutes.
O Lord, let me not have such a sorry tale to tell again. If my copy of thy handwriting has been badly written, set it for me afresh, I pray thee: Teach me thy statutes.
Psa 119:27. Make me to understand the way of thy precepts:
Let me know, O Lord, what the way of thy precept is; get me into that way; and then, oh help me to keep in it all my life!
Psa 119:27. So shall I talk of thy wondrous works.
A man never talks rightly of Gods works till he knows Gods ways, and it is idle to talk of them if there is no doing at the back of the talking; so the psalmist prays, Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works. To preach, and not practice, is very bad preaching; but first to understand the way of the Lord, then to run in it, and then to speak of it, this is well.
Psa 119:28. My soul melteth for heaviness:
The Hebrew word is droppeth. The psalmists soul was like water dripping from the eaves of a house in time of rain. There are two sorts of sorrow, the sorrow that rushes like a mighty torrent, and the sorrow, which is perhaps the worse of the two, which goes drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, like the constant dripping which wears away stones, and which makes even the boldest heart to feel the attrition: My soul melteth, dissolveth, droppeth, drippeth for heaviness:
Psa 119:28. Strengthen thou me
The psalmist does not ask to have the trouble removed; but he prays, Help me to bear it. Whenever there is a thing that is hard, the right way to get through it is to get something that is still harder. If God will give us an adequate supply of his grace, hard times will not wear us away. So the psalmist prays, Strengthen thou me
Psa 119:28. According unto thy word.
See how he clings to that expression, according unto thy word. He knows the power of that argument, and therefore he uses it again and again.
Psa 119:29. Remove from me the way of lying:
Do not let me fall into any untrue habits. Do not let me profess to have had an experience which I have never felt, or talk about holy things of which I know nothing experimentally. Keep me from everything that has any trace of falsehood in it.
Psa 119:29. And grant me thy law graciously.
For thy law is truth, and when thy grace brings thy law home to my heart, all that is false will be banished from me.
Psa 119:30. I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me.
I have laid them before me as a man puts his model in front of him that he may work to it. It is well for us to have Gods way and Gods judgments always before our eyes, that we may be duly impressed and rightly guided by them.
Psa 119:31. I have stuck unto thy testimonies:
Just now, the psalmist said that his soul stuck to the earth; yet, at the same time, he was sticking to Gods testimonies, for every good man is two men. There is a new-birth-man who sticks to Gods testimonies, and there is that old carnal nature in us which cleaves to the dust.
Psa 119:31-32. O Lord, put me not to shame. I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
That is, When thou shalt give me liberty of heart, then I will run in the way of thy commandments. When the impediments are removed, when the sin, which doth so easily entangle me, is taken away, then will I run with delight in the way of thy commandments.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Psa 119:25-32
Psa 119:25-32
STROPHE 4
PRAYER FOR STRENGTHENING AND FOR DELIVERANCE FROM HUMILIATION
Daleth
“My soul cleaveth unto the dust:
Quicken thou me according to thy word.
I declared my ways, and thou answeredst me:
Teach me thy statutes.
Make me to understand the way of thy precepts:
So shall I meditate on thy wondrous works.
My soul melteth for heaviness:
Strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
Remove from me the way of falsehood;
And grant me thy law graciously.
I have chosen the way of faithfulness:
Thine ordinances have I set before me.
I cleave unto thy testimonies:
O Jehovah, put me not to shame.
I will run the way of thy commandments,
When thou shalt enlarge my heart.”
A constant feature of this psalm is the repetition. For example, Psa 119:26 b is exactly the same as Psa 119:12 b. Also, there are many other instances of the same thought appearing in different terminology. “Put me not to shame” (Psa 119:31) is exactly the same thought as that of Psa 119:22 a. There are literally dozens of similar examples. As Professor Cheyne is reported to have said, “It is a sweetly monotonous meditation.”
“Quicken thou me” (Psa 119:25). This expression, rendered, “Give me life” in the RSV is repeated a number of times throughout the psalm.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 119:25. Cleaveth unto the dust is a figure of speech, meaning the low condition to which the enemies of David were trying to bring him. But he asked to be quickened or enlivened by the word. Psa 119:26. Declared my ways means he had professed or declared how he wanted to conduct himself. As a guide in such a life, David wished to be taught the divine statutes.
Psa 119:27. The first clause of this verse is like the preceding verse in thought, only the Psalmist uses the term precepts that he wished to understand. After having understood them, he proposed to talk about them to others.
Psa 119:28. Soul is used for the whole being. Melteth signifies a state of depression or discouragement. But David never quite gave up hope. When things looked very dark and trying he always turned to the word tor help.
Psa 119:29. There had been so much falsehood devised against David by henemies that he prayed for the is removal of all such activities. Granting. him the law does not imply that God would deny anyone the benefit of it. The Psalmist meant he craved the help of that law in combatting those who were devising falsehoods against him. Psa 119:30. In this verse the Psalmist considers the way of truth as the equivalent of walking after the judgments of the Lord.
Psa 119:31. A mere profession of interest in a thing, or an occasional use of it, will not avail very much, hence David said he stuck or clung to the divine testimonies. On that condition he felt free to pray for help in avoiding an experience of shame.
Psa 119:32. To run the way means travel it eagerly, referring to the to pointed out in the command- way Enlarging the heart has about ments. the same thought as opening up an avenue of opportunity. Paul wrote along the same line of thought in 2Co 6:11.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
soul: Psa 22:15, Psa 44:25, Isa 65:25, Mat 16:23, Rom 7:22-24, Phi 3:19, Col 3:2
quicken: Psa 119:37, Psa 119:40, Psa 119:88, Psa 119:93, Psa 119:107, Psa 119:149, Psa 119:156, Psa 119:159, Psa 71:20, Psa 80:18, Psa 143:11, Rom 8:2, Rom 8:3
according: Deu 30:6, 2Sa 7:27-29
Reciprocal: Psa 119:50 – for thy Psa 119:154 – quicken Mat 26:41 – the spirit Rom 7:14 – but Gal 5:17 – the flesh
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
119:25 DALETH. My soul cleaveth unto the {a} dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.
(a) That is, it is almost brought to the grave and without your word I cannot live.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
4. A prayer for greater understanding 119:25-32
The writer felt the need of the refreshment that God’s Word can provide (Psa 119:25; cf. Psa 119:37; Psa 119:40; Psa 119:50; Psa 119:93; Psa 119:107; Psa 119:149; Psa 119:154; Psa 119:156). He then called on the Lord for understanding, strength, and security (Psa 119:26-29). He promised to obey God when he received greater understanding because he valued the law highly (Psa 119:30-32).