Psalms 119:28 My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
The soul of the psalmist was melting for heaviness. Heaviness is the opposite of joy and gladness.
James 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Do you ever feel like you are being hit on all sides? Perhaps you are struggling with personal health issues, family troubles, vehicle problems, stress on the job, and tight finances all at the same time. Many and varied troubles will cause one to be in heaviness.
1 Peter 1:6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations….
The heaviness the psalmist encountered was causing his soul to melt. One could say he was having a meltdown. What does it mean to have a melting soul?
Melt – Of a person, his ‘soul’ or ‘heart’, feelings, etc. To be overwhelmed with dismay or grief.
The psalmist was dealing with hardship that was weighing him down so heavily that he felt overwhelmed. He felt like his very inmost being was dissolving away. Heaviness can definitely bear down on our heart and soul to the point that we collapse under the weight of it.
Proverbs 12:25 Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.
Charles Spurgeon eloquently described what heaviness can do to a person:
“Heaviness of heart is a killing thing, and when it abounds it threatens to turn life into a long death, in which a man seems to drop away in a perpetual drip of grief.”
Obviously when one is melting under pressure, one is weak. Therefore, the psalmist prays: Strengthen thou me according unto thy word. This request echoes the one that was made in verse 25: Quicken thou me according to thy word. As we noted then, God has promised in His word to give strength to those who humbly seek His help. If we ask God for strength and trust Him to give it, we shall be strengthened in our souls so that we can bear the heaviness that would otherwise cause us to melt away in weakness. We have the promises of God’s word for this. This is that good word that maketh our heart glad. The following verses speak powerfully to our need!
Isaiah 26:4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength….
Isaiah 40:29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
In that last verse the Lord defines strengthening us as helping us. When you are weak, nothing helps like a fresh supply of energy.
Now it is precisely at the point of our weakness, when we are melting for heaviness that we discover God’s strength, for that is when we most realize our need of it. God lets us come to the end of our resources that we might discover the sufficiency of His.
2 Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
God orders it this way so that He gets all the glory for our strength.
Psalms 89:16 In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.
17 For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.
But let us probe more deeply into this verse. Recall that when I introduced this series of meditations on Psalm 119, I wrote the following: “As I dive into these verses I fully expect to also cry, ‘Oh, the depths!’ And as I pore over them, I shall keep an eye out to behold the Lord Jesus Christ as He is certain to show Himself here as in all the other Scriptures. For He said:
John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”
Our Lord Himself knew what it was like to melt for heaviness, to have His strength exhausted. Consider the following two prophecies that paint the scene of our Lord’s sufferings for our salvation:
Psalms 69:20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
Psalms 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
When Jesus entered into Gethsemane, it was written of Him:
Matthew 26:36 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.
37 And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death…..
In that dark moment in that dark place His soul was melting for heaviness. He looked for comforters and found none. His disciples slept while He wrestled with God in prayer. He was overwhelmed with grief (see the definition of melt above). In that hour He cried to God for help.
Hebrews 5:7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared….
In answer to His prayer God sent Him the strength He needed for what was ahead of Him.
Luke 22:43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
Oh, how these words should dissolve our all too often calloused hearts into thankfulness. God strengthened our Saviour so that He could suffer for us.
I close with this testimony of David, which was also the testimony of our Lord, the son of David and the Son of God. It is my testimony as well since God has often strengthened my melting soul.
Psalms 138:3 In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.
