Weak and Helpless
TRANSLATION
(21) But you, Yahweh, my Lord, deal (graciously) with me for your name’s sake. Because your steadfast love (is) good, deliver me, (22) for (I am) poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me. (23) I fade away like a lengthening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust. (24) My knees are weak from fasting, and my body becomes gaunt without fat. (25) I have become a reproach to others. When they see me, they shake their heads.
OBSERVATIONS
While there are no repetitions in this segment, we encounter several words which David used previously in the psalm such as “steadfast love…deliver…poor and needy” (vss. 21 & 22). Two striking similes conveyed his sense of frailty. First, he described himself as fading away like the shadow cast by the setting sun, elongating more and more until it disappears when darkness falls. Then he portrayed himself as a dying locust, clinging desperately to the garment of a person determined to shake it off (vs. 23). Like Job, his life had become a public example of suffering.
OUTLINE
I. The psalmist sought deliverance from Yahweh who is gracious and loving. (21)
II. The psalmist sensed his desperate need for Yahweh in his weakness. (22-25)
IDEA STATEMENT
When feeling weak and helpless, we cry out to Yahweh for deliverance.
APPLICATION
The descriptions of the psalmist’s sense of frailty might be expressed in colloquial English by phrases such as “a shadow of his former self…clinging to life by a thread…looking like death warmed over” (vss. 22-25). There are many ways to describe those who are struggling with an incapacitating illness or who have been tortured in a prison camp, deprived of adequate food and water. They have reached the point of utter physical and emotional exhaustion. While recovery is possible, their bodies may never quite be the same after having been through something this debilitating.
Paul’s portrayal of his physical sufferings for the sake of Christ in 2 Corinthians 11 helps us realize that he, like David, had endured a great deal at the hands of his enemies. His trials included beatings, stoning, shipwreck, and all kinds of hardship including hunger, thirst, and imprisonment (2 Cor. 11:24-29). While most of us will never have to undergo what he experienced, we sometimes feel as though we have nothing left in us physically or emotionally. In such moments when we feel utterly incapable of going on, we can turn to Yahweh for strength and count on him to sustain us. The conclusion of Isaiah 40 can provide great encouragement in such circumstances: “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Is. 40:29-31).