Psalm 119:28 – Raise Me Up

My soul weeps from grief,
Strengthen me according to your word.

There are, as always, a number of directions I could go, and that I’d like to go, starting from this verse. I just want to mention one I’m not going to pursue. Recently I had occasion to discuss grief and suffering as discussed in the book of Job. This verse sums up what I see there. It’s not about finding the best way to handle the situation, or even having the situation explained, but about God noticing and responding, and the sufferer being able to realize that. I thought about translating thus: “I’m crying deep inside / restore me with your creative power.” That’s a bit paraphrased, but it’s more what I heard as I read.

But I want to take a bit of a tour of what I look at and think about during the day regarding each verse. Meditating on a verse is very different from performing exegesis, or trying to prepare an exposition. I’m not trying to prove points of theology with couplets from this Psalm as prooftexts. It’s a spiritual activity where I intend to let the Spirit lead me through the day. That mental walk can take me very different places. In the end, I like to tie things to exegesis of some text(s), but the process is not formal.

So let me start by looking at a couple of translations and some notes they provide.

First, the well-known NIV, reading (and finding notes) from the NIV Study Bible. Here’s the translation:

My soul is weary with sorrow;^h
Strengthen meⁱ according to your word.^j

Psalm 119:28 (NIV)

I’m providing a picture of the cross-reference notes, which are part of the edition, not the translation itself, and will leave you to follow those trails if you wish. But could I strongly comment Isaiah 51:11 as a path to follow? Click on the image to enlarge it for reading.

The translation itself is not that different, though it’s taking a different. In fact, my own translation, done before I checked the NIV, uses the same translation for the second line of the couplet. A more usual gloss for the Hebrew word used here is “raise me up,” but “raising” can mean different things depending on context.

The CEV translates this as:

I am overcome with sorrow,
Encourage me, as you have promised to do.

Psalm 119:28 (CEV)

The REB, one of my favorites, reads.

Because of misery I cannot rest;
renew my strength in accordance with your promise.

Psalm 119:28 (REB)

I don’t want to follow all the trails, but another thing I do is look for the same word in other passages. I’ll just do one passage for one word, the word for “grief” or “misery.”

Stupid offspring bring sorrow to parents,
and no father has joy in a boorish son.

Proverbs 17:21 (REB)

The word translated “sorrow” in this case is the same Hebrew word as used for “misery” by the same translation in Psalm 119:28. Something to think about, perhaps!

In the end I notice that however much the psalmist talks about a variety of things he is making an effort to do, we frequently come back to simply calling upon God according to God’s word.

What is your most frequent strategy in times of trouble? Do you call on God first, or is God your last resort?