Psalm 119:25

Psalm 119:25

I am laid low in the dust!

So we come to the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, it is “Daleth.” This is generally taken to mean “door” but also has a sense of weakness or need, and the Hebrew symbol of it seems to be like a needy person who is bent over. These two aspects therefore remind us of a tent door, pinned up at one side to allow entry.

This will not be the first verse in the psalm to highlight the sorrow, suffering and afflictions of the writer. You could argue that it was his devotion to the Word of God that was the cause of his depressed state of mind. This man had made God’s law and God’s covenant promises the great hope of his life whilst his contemporaries trusted in themselves, in their wealth and in their reputations. They despised him for his simple faith and clearly, it hurt! What we may forget is that the rise and fall of Israel depended upon the giving and withdrawal of God’s favour. If the Lord was deemed to have withdrawn from His people, they inevitably got the rat and complained about their fate. It followed that anyone who chose to hope in the Lord, who continued to worship Him and who loved His Word, was treated with disdain. 

To be laid low in the dust is, of course, to be brought close to death. Even in his darkest moments, the author continued to trust in His God, this trust was best expressed in his devotion to and dependence upon the Word of God. He had nothing else; his only hope was to keep hanging in there and to trust that the Lord would bring him through. There is so much for us to learn even from this simple verse. How easy it is to turn on the Lord and to appropriate blame to Him when things do not go according to our plans or are seemingly out of God’s control. It takes courage, faith and willing dependency to keep trusting the Word in such circumstances.

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