Psalms 119:28 - Meaning and Application

Here David opens his heart about his sorrow: “My soul melts from heaviness.” This is the same thought as in Psalm 119:25, “My soul clings to the dust.” Heavy grief can make a person feel as if life is wasting away, like a candle burning down. A repentant soul melts with sorrow over sin, and even a patient believer may feel this way under suffering. In such times, it is wise to pour out our prayer before God.

David then asks for God’s help. He wants strength to bear his trouble well and to receive support from God’s grace. “Strengthen me in my soul, according to your word,” he says, because God’s word, like the bread that gives life, strengthens the heart to face whatever God allows. He asks for strength to do his duty, resist temptation, and carry the weight of affliction, so that his spirit will not fail. This fits the promise in Deuteronomy 33:25, “As your days, so shall your strength be.”

He also asks God to keep him from using any sinful or dishonest way to escape trouble. “Remove from me the way of lying,” he says. David knew he was inclined to this sin, since in a tight place he had deceived Ahimelech, a priest, (1 Samuel 21:2) and later Achish, the Philistine king, (1 Samuel 21:13, 1 Samuel 27:10). Hard times can tempt people to excuse a lie as a harmless trick or a necessary self-defense. David prays that God would keep him from that path, so he does not settle into it. Every godly person should fear a life of deceit and ask God to keep them from it.

Finally, David asks to be governed and protected by God’s law: “Grant me your law graciously.” The king of Israel was required to copy God’s law for himself (Deuteronomy 17:18), but David wants more than written words. He wants the law written on his heart, because only then does a person truly possess it and use it well. He asks for this gift again and again, because those who know and love God’s law always want to know it better and love it more. He calls it a gracious gift, and rightly so. We should treat God’s law as a precious gift, thank him for it, pray for it, and value it highly, because God is truly gracious to those whom he makes gracious by giving them his law.