Daily Bible Nugget #279, Psalm 119:28

The Nugget:

Psalm 119:28 My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.

My Comment:

Saints plead the promises of the Scriptures in prayer (The New Topical Textbook, subtopic under the main topic “The Scriptures,” page 240).

Once again, the KJV’s “My soul melteth for heaviness” is a bit obscure to readers of modern English. This clause is translated to read “My soul melts away for sorrow” (ESV); “My soul drops with grief” (Literal translation of the Bible); “My soul hath dropped from affliction” (Young’s Literal Translation); “My soul weepeth itself away for grief” (Rotherham); “My soul is wasted with sorrow” (Basic English); “I collapse from grief” (NET Bible); “I am overcome with sorrow” (CEV, Contemporary English Version).

It should be clearer that the Psalmist is saying that he has been overcome with grief, sorrow, or affliction. He turns to God in prayer, claiming God’s promise to strengthen, sustain, establish, confirm, and encourage him according to God’s Word. Thus, the Psalmist is indeed pleading or claiming the promises of God in Scripture in his prayer. The repeated example of the Psalmist encourages us to do the same.

For those who desire to DIG DEEPER into this subject:

(1) Consult the cross references given in Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible on page 628 for Psalm 119:28.

(2) Consult the cross references given in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge on page 673 or in Logos 5 Bible software for Psalm 119:28.

(3) Lacking access to those two resources, consult the cross references for this passage as I have developed them as given below:

Psalm 119:28. soul. Heb. nephesh, +Ge 34:3. melteth. Heb. droppeth. T#1404. ver. Ps 119:25. *Ps 22:14. 107:26-28. %+Ex 15:15. Jsh 2:11, 24. Jb 16:20h. Pr 12:25. Ec 10:18h. for heaviness. or, from sorrow. “Weariness,” “despondency” (Kay). or, affliction (Young). ver. Ps 119:25, 50, +*Ps 119:67, 71, 75, 92, 107, 143, 153. Ps 6:7. 116:3. +**Ru 1:13. Pr 10:1. 14:13. 17:21. Is 51:11. Je 45:3. 1 P 1:6. strengthen. Ps 18:1. *Ps 27:14. 29:11. *Ps 68:28. Dt 33:25. 2 S 22:40. Is 28:5, 6. *Is 40:29, 31. *Is 41:10. Da 11:32. Zc 10:12. *Ep 3:16. **Phil 4:13. +**Col 1:10, 11. 1 J 2:14. according. ver. Ps 119:9, 25, 41, 76, 169. +**1 Th 2:13. +*2 P 3:18. thy word. ver. +Ps 119:9.