My soul melts away for sorrow. Strengthen me according to your word.
– Psalm 119:28
Wow. What a verse. Describing the depth of sorrow that we sometimes experience in this world. “My soul melts away for sorrow.” Have you ever felt like that? Like your soul is melting away? It’s just so overwhelmed by sorrow.
Psalm 119:28 teaches us we can be strengthened by the Word of God.
I’m guessing some people listening right now are there at this moment, just in despair or depression of some kind or just overwhelmed with sadness over something. Or weary and hurting in any way. So hear the psalmist say as his soul is melting away, he says, “Strengthen me, oh God, according to your Word.” So see the picture. When we are overwhelmed with sorrow, God’s Word is our source of strength. When you are weak and weary from the sorrows and cares and burdens of this world, you need God’s Word.
I need God’s Word. And think about all the things that God’s Word does in the middle of sorrow. It comforts us. It delivers us from lies that we are prone to believe. When we’re walking through sorrow, lies that God is not with us, lies that God is not for us. It defends us against attacks from the adversary. As we’re walking through sorrow, it serves us. It supports us, it helps us. It guides us through sorrow. We need God’s Word at every moment in our lives and especially in the middle of sorrow.
Psalm 119:28 reminds us God’s Word is a source of supernatural strength.
So I just want to pray for this kind of supernatural strength flowing from God’s Word for anyone who’s walking through sorrow right now, at any level. And for all of us, as we will all walk through sorrow in this fallen world, that we would find our strength in the middle of souls melting away in God’s Word to us.
Oh God, we praise you for not leaving us alone when our souls are melting away for sorrow. Think about a conversation I just had with a brother whose soul was melting away. He was ready to end life and your Word met him right where he was, in the depths of his despair and gave him strength and helped him to stand in a way that he’s standing strong now only because of your Word. Do you hear the way he talks about how much he loves your Word? How much your Word means to him? How he is totally abandoned to believing and obeying your Word because he’s found strength for life in it?
God, I pray this over anyone listening to this right now who’s walking through sorrow, strengthen them according to your Word. Even right now as we pray your Word. And through your promises, we pray that you would comfort and uphold and lead and guide and direct and protect and defend your people as they listen to and hide your Word in their hearts and walk according to it, that there would be strength in a world of sorrow.
Prayer for the Bisaya People
And oh God, we pray for people who don’t have your Word and are walking through the sorrows of this world. So we pray for unreached people who don’t have the knowledge of your love for them, who don’t have a rock to stand on, who are standing on sifting sand underneath them because they don’t have your Word to strengthen them in sorrow, to save them from sin, and give them hope of eternity without sorrow, who are on a road that leads to never ending sorrow.
Oh God, we pray for the spread of the gospel specifically today to the Bisaya people of Malaysia. God, please no known followers of Jesus among them. Please, oh God. Cause the good news of your love to reach the Bisaya people of Malaysia and all the peoples of the world. Help us as your church with your Word to make it known to all of them. We pray that they might experience salvation from sin and strength and sorrow in this world with hope of a world where sorrow will be no more.
We pray all this according to your Word in Psalm 119:28, which we love. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
