On Sunday mornings here at First Presbyterian Church we are working our way through the one hundred nineteenth psalm as a way to help us know and love the Word of God better, because as we’ve begun to see, the nature and character and power of the Word of God is the great theme of this particular psalm. So, if you have not done so already, would you turn there now with me please, Psalm 119; page 512 if you’re using one of our church Bibles.
We’ve come today to the fourth stanza of this extended acrostic poem, that’s verses 25 through 32, each line of which begins this time with the Hebrew letter, “daleth.” In the previous section, the psalmist was struggling with suffering. It was suffering caused by circumstances external to himself, suffering imposed upon him by other people. He was enduring opposition and persecution and hostility from those who once walked in God’s commandments but who have not wandered away from them. This time, however, while it’s clear that the focus remains on suffering, it is suffering caused now by factors internal to himself. This part of the psalm is about the believer’s experience of sorrow. He’s wrestling with profound sadness and he goes with it to God in prayer and he engages it with God’s holy Word. And so this is a treatment plan for soul sorrow. A treatment plan for soul sorrow.
Now if you’ve been with us for the last few weeks as we’ve looked at Psalm 119, you will remember each line of each stanza begins with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, one letter per stanza, moving through all twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. But this stanza takes the alliteration to a whole new level. Not only does each line begin with the same first letter, the letter “daleth” in this case, but the two main divisions of this stanza are also indicated by each line ending with the same final letter. So verses 25 to 28 all end with the Hebrew letter “kaph,” and 29 through 32 all end with “yodh,” which by the way means you never get to complain ever again about my alliteration in sermons. Okay? It is profoundly Biblical!
Much more importantly, it also means there are two obvious sections in this stanza indicated by the way that each of those sections ends consistently. And the first of those two sections is also indicated by the two parallel statements with which it begins and ends, each describing the psalmist’s profound personal struggle. Do you see them in verse 25 and verse 28? He says, verse 25, “My soul clings to the dust.” Verse 28, “My soul melts away for sorrow.” And in between those two bookends, those two statements of his personal struggle, he pours out his heart to God for his help. That’s the first section. The second section, verses 29 to 32, is much less about what the psalmist wants God to do for him and is much more about what he resolves to do by the help and grace of God enabling him himself. He is going to do certain things and make certain commitments as he looks to the Lord.
And throughout these two sections we are going to see the word “way” or “ways” repeated five times over in these eight verses, tying this whole stanza together. So we could say the first section is about the sorrowful psalmist crying to the Lord that he might receive instruction in God’s way. That’s verses 25 through 28. The sorrowful psalmist crying to the Lord that he might receive instruction in God’s way. And the second section, 29 to 32, is about the sorrowful psalmist committing to the Lord and resolving to walk in God’s way. So he’s crying to the Lord to receive instruction in walking in God’s way, and then he’s committing to the Lord and resolving to walk in God’s way.
One more thing before we pray together and then look at those two themes. I can’t help but wonder if the form of this fourth stanza isn’t meant to teach us something about the way we all must learn to deal with soul sorrow. This is a stanza, as we’ve begun to see already I think, remarkable for its artistic intricacy and its complexity; a complexity of form designed perhaps to remind us that soul sorrow, the kind of sorrow he is dealing with here, is often equally complex in its roots and causes and aggravations. If you’ve ever battled this kind of sadness, you’ll know firsthand it rarely responds to the kind of cliches and oversimplifications that people who are not suffering often send our way. Pep talks and slogans do not reach a heart clinging to the dust, melting for sorrow. But the message of this part of Psalm 119 is that the beauty and the artistry of the God of all grace is more than adequate for the often tangled needs of our sad, sore hearts.
Well before we look at the passage, let’s stop now and ask for the Lord to help us and to give us eyes to see what His Spirit is saying to the church. Let us pray.
God, we bow before You. We make the psalmist’s prayer our own. Make us understand the way of Your precepts. We will meditate on Your wondrous works. Put false ways far from us and graciously teach us Your Law. For Jesus’ sake, amen.
Psalm 119 at verse 25. This is the Word of God:
“My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word! When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes! Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word! Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me. I cling to your testimonies, O Lord; let me not be put to shame! I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!”
Amen, and we praise God that He has spoken in His holy, inerrant Word.
- The Sorrowful Psalmist, Crying to The Lord for Instruction in His Way
Let’s think first of all about the sorrowful psalmist crying to the Lord that he might receive instruction in God’s way. Crying to the Lord for instruction in God’s way. Look at verse 25 first of all. “My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to Your word!” What an apt description of the depths of sorrow, isn’t it? “My soul clings to the dust.” He is, by his own admission, stuck in the mud. His soul adheres to the dust. There’s an echo there of the curse of God from Genesis 3:19, “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” The psalmist is feeling his mortality; the tendrils of death wrap themselves around his heart. If we were paraphrasing in contemporary parlance we might say, “I don’t feel alive inside anymore.” That’s his experience here.
He repeats the point, doesn’t he, in equally graphic terms, in verse 28. “My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to Your word!” Literally he says, “My soul melts for heaviness. Isn’t that a graphic way to describe a depressed heart – heaviness. Sorrow covers him like a weighted blanket. He is dissolving under his weight.
Now what does a Christian do when that’s their experience? When your soul clings to the dust, when you don’t feel alive inside, what should you do? When you’re dissolving under the suffocating weight of sadness, what do you do? Well start here. Start where the palmist begins. Notice he names this experience in the presence of God. He owns it. He’s unflinching in expressing the depths of what is going on in his heart, isn’t he? He’s not papering over the cracks; he’s not putting a brave face on it. He’s owning it. But he is still looking away from himself to the Lord with it. His gaze is not endlessly inward, and that’s vital. You never will find an antidote for sorrow in yourself. You need to look up and away from yourself to the Lord your Redeemer.
Notice too that verses 25 and 28 have essentially the same request affixed to them. Do you see that? In verse 25 he says, “Give me life according to Your word!” Verse 28, “Strengthen me according to Your word!” He wants to be revived and renewed and strengthened. And the common ground of his appeal in both 25 and 28, this is not just a general request for life and strength without any basis for confidence that God will answer. Look at what he says. “Give me life according to Your word! Strengthen me according to Your word!” The Hebrew term for “word” there is the Hebrew word, “debar.” It can mean “word,” just a unit of communication. It can also mean “the word of promise,” which is almost certainly what the psalmist has in mind here. “Strengthen me according to Your promise, to Your covenant commitment never to leave me nor forsake me, to work all things together for my good that nothing will ever interpose itself between me and the grip of Your love.” When you’re drowning, you need somewhere to stand that will lift your head up above the water. Stand on the promises of God. Stand on His promise. Plead and press His promise before His throne. “You promised, O Lord. Your own honor is on the line! Keep Your Word!”
There’s another vital strategy the psalmist uses as he battles soul sorrow we mustn’t miss. Look at verse 26. “When I told of my ways, You answered me; teach me Your statutes!” He remembers confessing his ways to God in the past, naming the paths he has taken, both the good and the bad. He recalls pouring out his heart to the Lord, walking through all he has done in prayer with his God. And as he looks back on that, he remembers when he did it, God answered his cries. In the past, he remembers answered prayer.
When I was a young teenager in school in Glasgow, a Christian classmate shared the Gospel with me nearly every day for two years before I became a Christian myself. And one of the things that really gripped me was him telling me that when he prayed, God answered him. These were not audible answers, but the Lord answered his prayers by His Word spoken to his heart, and in God’s providence, directing his steps. And it really struck me that unlike the empty, nominal religion that I had grown up with, that had been so focused on mere ritual and empty tradition, this was a living, vital, healthy, vibrant relationship; a communion, a fellowship with God. That was profoundly compelling to me. And the psalmist is testifying to that same reality as he looks back on his own Christian life. This is not a one-sided religion. He remembers he’s cried to God in the past and God has answered his prayers. And as he brings those answers to mind, he’s using them to strengthen his faith in this moment of sadness and sorrow for future grace. He’s looking back and saying, “Yes, God has heard me and answered me. He’s always been faithful to me and He will be again.” And so he looks to the future with new confidence. He who has heard you, hears you still. He who has heard you, hears you still.
And look at the cries for fresh help that he offers in verses 26 and 27. You’ll notice what he prays for. You see it in 26 and 27? “Teach me your statutes! Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works.” It might help us to pause here for a moment and try to understand what he’s really asking for. When he prays, “Lord, teach me. Make me understand,” he isn’t saying, “Lord, help me find the right theology textbook.” He is not inviting God to teach him classroom-style, mere information, as if soul sadness was a math problem to be fixed by getting the equation correct. He isn’t say, “I’m missing that one great, knockout argument that will make everything suddenly click and make it make sense and I won’t be sad anymore, so teach me.” No, he’s actually asking for something much slower and frankly far more painful, which is perhaps one reason why we don’t really pray like this very much when we feel the way the psalmist feels. He’s asking the Lord to do whatever it takes in and through his sorrow and sadness to make him see the truth of God in new and healthier ways. He is saying, “Lord, do what is necessary, whatever it takes, so that I finally learn what You’re like, what the life of faith and trust in You really means.” And we need to be warned – when God answers that prayer it is rarely an easy experience.
You may remember William Cowper’s famous poem testifying to this very reality in his own life, almost echoing precisely the vocabulary in terms of this portion of Psalm 119:
“I asked the Lord that I might grow in faith and love and every grace. Might more of His salvation know and seek more earnestly His face. Twas He who taught me thus to pray and He I trust has answered prayer, but it has been in such a way as almost driven me to despair. I hoped that in some favored hour, at once He’s answer my request, and by His love’s constraining power subdue my sin and give me rest” – just like that. “Instead of this He made me feel the hidden evils of my heart and let the angry powers of hell assault my soul in every part. Ye more with His own hand He seemed intent to aggravate my woe, crossed all the fair designs I schemed, blasted my gourds” – like Jonah – “and laid me low. ‘Lord, why is this?’ I trembling cried. ‘Wilt Thou pursue Thy worm to death?’ ‘Tis in this way,’ the Lord replied, ‘I answer prayer for grace and faith. These inward trials I employ from self and pride to set thee free and break thy schemes of earthly joy that thou may’st find thy all in Me.’”
That’s what the psalmist is praying for when he prays, “Teach me and make me understand.” Not quick fixes, not a spiritual band-aid to get me through, not a supernatural “get out of jail free” card when I’m in a jam. He realizes he can’t ask God to fix him without expecting God to change him. You can’t have divine instruction without divine renovation. And that doesn’t happen in a classroom. It happens in the operating theater. It is spiritual heart surgery for which he is praying, necessary but painful, vital but not simple, not quick, and not easy. There are no quick fixes for soul sorrow, are there?
But we should look at the psalmist’s example and remember the Lord hears and answers prayer, we can plead His promises and say to Him, “Give me life. Strengthen me according to Your covenant commitment, Your Word of promise.” For example, Jesus said – I think this may be the most extraordinary promise in the Bible – Jesus said, John 14:14, “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it” – there’s a promise to stand on. Spurgeon somewhere called God’s promises “the checkbook of faith.” Every promise is a check drawing on God’s own accounts, signed with the name of Jesus Christ, in whom all the promises of God are “Yes” and “Amen.” So plead God’s promise. God to Him. Ask Him, albeit with fear and trembling, not just to be made better, made to feel better, but to be taught whatever the lessons may be the Lord would have you learn about Him and His Word and His ways, through and in the trials and the tears He has given you to endure.
Before we move on, let’s not miss the psalmist’s stated intent to meditate on God’s wondrous ways if God will answer his prayer for divine instruction. Do you see that language in verse 28? “Make me understand the way of Your precepts and I will meditate upon Your wondrous works.” That’s the same language, you will remember, that we saw him use last time when he asked the Lord to open his eyes that he might behold “wondrous things” out of God’s law. And we saw when we dealt with that language last time that talk about God’s wonders in the Old Testament scriptures is often a way to talk about His saving acts of rescue and deliverance. In our terms, it’s a way to talk about the Gospel. It’s a way to talk about the Gospel. And the lesson that teaches us is really very important. When God answers the painful prayer to be instructed through all our sorrow, it is not to ourselves that He will turn our gaze, but it will also be to His wondrous ways, His mighty saving acts, it will be to His Gospel that He will direct our attention.
When in our soul sadness we cry to God to give us understanding in the way of His precepts, as difficult and slow and hard as the lessons He teaches us in answer to that prayer can be, their result will be to bring us to a new and deeper appreciation for the wondrous ways of redeeming love. God’s agenda in your sorrow does not terminate on your feeling better. It terminates on your deepening devotion to Jesus Christ. If you pray through tears for understanding, you may not ever get to know why God has allowed your sorrows in the past or in the present. He may never answer with understanding of your situation, but He will answer with deepening insight into His own wondrous ways. He will teach you about His Son, the Man of Sorrows who was acquainted with grief, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will teach you more of the depths of His love for you in Jesus Christ, the wonder of your Savior’s tender compassion who was touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And He will show you how, in the tears of Jesus Christ, even your tears have been sanctified and made holy. And so here in verses 25 through 28 do you see the sorrowful psalmist trying to the Lord that he might receive instruction in God’s way?
- The Sorrowful Psalmist, Committing to The Lord as He Resolves to Walk in God’s way
Then secondly in 29 to 32, we see the sorrowful psalmist committing to the Lord to walk in His way. He is committing, he is praying for instruction to understand God’s way and then he prays with resolve, committing to walk in God’s way. Look at verse 29 please. Notice again this confessional mode, confessional tone. “Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law!” He’s about to declare his resolve to walk in God’s way in verses 30 through 32, but don’t think for a moment, as he makes these bold claims to commitment, that he thinks, “I’ve got this and I can do this in my own strength.” Not at all. Before he moves to determine and to commit and to resolve, he starts with confession. “I’ve taken false ways. I’ve turned off the narrow path of obedience. I’ve wandered down blind alleys. I’ve followed my own best wisdom. I’ve listened to the apparent wisdom of the world and it’s only ever proven to be a deceptive cul-de-sac and a dead end. It is a way of falsehood I now realize. So, God, before I commit never to take a dead-end turn again, would You please put false ways far from me and graciously teach Me Your law?”
He is utterly dependent as he turns now to make a commitment, a renewed commitment to obedience, he is utterly dependent on the grace of God to empower and enable his obedience. Do you see that? Look down at verse 32 at the other end of this section of the stanza and see the same note of grace sounding there as well so that grace forms bookends around the second stanza all around his commitment to obedience much like his sorrow forms bookends around the first stanza. Verse 32, “I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!” When God enlarges his heart, that is when God works in him to enable him and empower him, then he will run in the way of God’s commandments. “Graciously teach me. Enlarge my heart. All of my resolve. I set Your rules before me,” verse 30. “I cling to Your testimonies,” verse 31. “I will run in the way of Your commandments,” verse 32. All his own commitments, they are literally bounded and encompassed and surrounded by God’s prior commitment to him in His marvelous grace.
And isn’t that an important reminder? It’s good to make resolutions, to set our minds on a determined course of new obedience. Make a plan. Establish good routines. Build in accountability. Use helpful tools. Get help from other people. Set God’s rules before you. Cling to His testimonies. Run in the way of His commandments. Yes, we need to do all of that. But be sure as you do to learn from the psalmist here to continue always in a posture of dependence upon God’s grace, even as you resolve to be obedient. We’ve got to get this right you know because sometimes we distort the way God’s grace works so that we imagine all we need to do is let go and let God and we are wholly passive and God is going to do it all and we expect to do nothing. Or at other times, we are tempted to think the Christian life is merely a matter of hard graft and stern discipline and we just need to pull ourselves together and buck up, you know, and we never really look to God in Christ with urgency and dependence for His grace.
And of course, both are entirely wrong. The psalmist has got it right though, hasn’t he? We must obey but God’s grace puts strength in our arm and iron in our wills and perseverance in our steps. We must make every good resolution and we must always cling, never stop clinging to God’s enabling power to fulfill those resolutions. He will graciously teach us. He will enlarge our hearts. He will so that we may. Some of us think grace relieves us of the need to work hard at holiness. Others think that Christianity is a matter of personal discipline and nothing else. But Gospel Christians rest on the Lord Jesus Christ who graciously teaches us His law and enlarges our hearts in the power of the Holy Spirit.
One last thing. Did you notice there is progress in this psalm from where he starts to where he ends? Do you see that? “My soul clings to the dust. I’m stuck in the mud. I’m constrained and trapped.” That’s verse 25. But verse 32, “I will run in the way of Your commandments when You enlarge my heart.” That word “enlarge” has connotations of a wide place. What a difference. He was stuck, now he runs free in a wide place that God in His grace has made for him. And that trajectory, you can go, even in your soul sorrow. Isn’t this good news? You can go – here is a testimony to it- by God’s grace from being stuck in the mud to running free once again. And that should fill us with hope.
If that hope is to be realized, however, let’s not miss the nature of the path to freedom. You see it in verse 32? It might seem counterintuitive, but the path to freedom, to a wide place in which to run free, he says, is the way of God’s commandments. The path to freedom is the way of God’s commandments. Our culture right now sees moral absolutes only as constraint, as limitation, as a prison, doesn’t it? The path to freedom, we are told, is to throw off all constraints and to be and to do whatever you want. You do you. Live your truth. But the psalmist discovers that the commandments of God are in fact what James, in James chapter 2, calls “the royal law of liberty.” Whatever the constraints of soul sorrow – “My soul clings to the dust” – obedience to the law of God, enabled by the grace of God, is the real path to spiritual freedom. “I will run in the way of Your commandments when You enlarge my heart!” When God enlarges his heart, pours His grace into his heart, he runs free in obedience to the Lord.
So, here’s something to think about as we close. I wonder if you have ever found, when your soul clings to the dust and you melt away for sorrow, have you ever found that actually your intractable sadness has become a subtle excuse that you have used to justify sinful indulgence? Sin entices us, after all, doesn’t it, with offers of temporary relief, alleged shortcuts to happiness. It tells us we deserve some pleasure amidst all this misery. But the psalmist is clear here. That is the way of falsehood. It is an enslaving lie and it will leave you just as stuck in the mud as ever. Choose the way of faithfulness. Look to Jesus Christ. Cry to Him to enlarge your heart by His grace. And learn, God helping you, to walk and to run in the way of His commandments. That is the only route to liberty. May God help us all to take it.
Let’s pray.
Our God and Father, we praise You for Your holy Word. Would You write it by the finger of Your Spirit on our hearts and consciences that when sorrow comes, we may look back and remember past grace, look up and cling to Your promise, and look forward with new hope, resolving for new obedience. For Jesus’ sake, amen.