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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 (John 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.

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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!