25 My soul clings to the dust;
Revive me according to Your word.
31 I cling to Your testimonies;
O LORD, do not put me to shame!
Psalm 119 has always been a favorite place of mine to dig into for often overlooked gems of beauty and truth. The psalmist’s emphasis on the primacy of God’s Word in every area of his life, beginning with his heart, provides a pretty compact summary of much of the Bible.
On my last reading, I decided to do something different. I looked for verses that paralleled one another and seemed to underscore a particular truth, and I came across v.25 & v.31.
What caught my eye was the word “cling,” which was being used for two very different objects. In v. 25, the psalmist’s soul clings to “the dust”, so he calls upon the Lord to revive him with His Word; in v. 31, the psalmist clings to God’s “testimonies”, and he pleads to not be put to shame.
Okay.
So what’s he significance of this?
Well, the psalmist uses the Hebrew word דּבק, which is also used in Genesis 2:24, where Moses writes:
24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
The psalmist, therefore, points us to two relationships he holds: (1.) to the dust (figuratively speaking, to his ills/suffering/pain/etc), and (2.) the testimonies of God.
This immediately had me asking myself:
What is my relationship to the Word of God? Do I cling to it, as Adam would cling to Eve, as Ruth would cling to Naomi (Ruth 1:14), or, most importantly,
as the Lord Jesus would be joined to His church (Eph. 5:31-32)?
Or am I clinging to the dust?
To whom/what am I most intimately, practically inseparably, related?
Am I, like the psalmist, aware of the truth that only God’s Word can revive my soul which “clings to the dust”?
That by “clinging” to His Word (Christ) I will not be put to shame (just as Adam and Eve stood before the Lord free of any shame whatsoever)?
Hiram,
Good stuff.
I like the depth of thought and practical application of what you are digging out.
Hugh