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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. 25.) 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 - "the 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 God's 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.

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Parallel Verses

KJV: DALETH. My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.

WEB: My soul is laid low in the dust. Revive me according to your word!