My soul melts away (drips, drops, weeps) for sorrow (grief, depression); strengthen me according to your word! Psalm 119:28
My soul - my living being, life, self, person, desires, passions, appetite, emotions, joy, love - melts away, drips, weeps. Isn't that a picture of depression? I don't want to do anything. I have no desires. My life seems to melt away into a puddle on the ground and dry up.
Bible commentaries add another facet to the definition of this word translated "melts away." The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon adds "leaks" - that of a leaky roof. A constant dripping. Barnes Notes on the Bible includes this commentary:
"My soul melteth - Margin, 'droppeth.' The Hebrew word here employed - דלף dâlaph - means to drop, to drip, to distil, spoken of a house, as when the rain drops through the roof … It is not a gush of emotion, as when we say of one that he is 'bathed in tears;' it is the idea of a steady flow or dropping of tears - slow, silent, but constant - as if the soul were dripping away or dissolving. Thus the idea is more striking and beautiful than that of melting. It is quiet but continuous grief that slowly wears away the soul."
Yes, so many of us have experienced decades of this dripping away, this dissolving of our souls. Slow, silent, but constant. The Psalmist, maybe David, appears to have endured much and is heavy with depression. But what does he do? He cries out for God to strengthen him. Where does the confidence to ask for strengthening come from? … according to your word! God's word, his promise.
"Submitting ourselves in depression to God, He will revive us by His promises, and lead us to declare His mercy to others." -- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
I know I need to ask God to strengthen me. But what exactly does that mean? I decided to take a closer look at the Hebrew word translated "strengthen me." The word is qum (קוּם). It seems to be simple and straight forward, but it is one of those Hebrew words that are wide and deep as the ocean. I was stunned by the depth of its meaning. Look at this! 1
Basically, it means "to arise, stand up, stand," or in this case, I am asking God to cause me to arise, stand up, stand. But look at the depth of meaning:
To lift me up
Cause me to arise, to stand up, to stand
Cause to me abide
Cause me to listen to God's word
Cause me to rise from kneeling
To rouse me, to stir me up
To arise for something
To arise to become
To arise out of inaction
To arise and start, make a move, to go somewhere
To arise for action
To be established
To make me sure
To uphold me
To cause me to stand
To set me in my standing-place
To station me as a sentinel
To station me as a soldier
To cause me to hold my ground
To establish me
To cause me to endure
To be fixed (as in stable, secure, not moving)
To persist
To be proven
To be fulfilled
To be confirmed
To be built up
To be strengthened
To succeed
Amazing! And this is what the psalmist cries out for God to do – according to your word! I certainly have not been able to do it myself. I need to have that confidence that comes from resting in the promises of God. Let those of us who leak, who are melting away in depression seek the Lord; let us search through his Word for his promises and lay hold on them, for The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made (Psalm 143:13).
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Isaiah 40:29 (ESV)
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. Psalm 40:2
The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace. Psalm 29:11
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:31-32 (ESV)
Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. Psalm 55:22 (ESV)
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 1 Peter 5:10 (ESV)
"The worst forms of depression are cured when Holy Scripture is believed." -- Charles Spurgeon2
1Definition from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance and Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon found on Bible Hub.
2Spurgeon, Charles (2015). "The Complete Works of C. H. Spurgeon, Volume 35: Sermons 2062-2120", p.332, Delmarva Publications, Inc.
Photo of sculpture eaten away by pollution, Skulptur aus Sandstein, Dresden 2012-09-06, in the Public Domain
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