Here is, 1. David's representation of his own griefs: My soul melteth
for heaviness, which is to the same purport with v. 25, My soul
cleaveth to the dust. Heaviness in the heart of man makes it to melt,
to drop away like a candle that wastes. The penitent soul melts in
sorrow for sin, and even the patient soul may melt in the sense of
affliction, and it is then its interest to pour out its supplication
before God. 2. His request for God's grace. (1.) That God would enable
him to bear his affliction well and graciously support him under it:
"Strengthen thou me with strength in my soul, according to thy word,
which, as the bread of life, strengthens man's heart to undergo
whatever God is pleased to inflict. Strengthen me to do the duties,
resist the temptations, and bear up under the burdens, of an afflicted
state, that the spirit may not fail. Strengthen me according to that
word (Deut. xxxiii. 25), As thy days so shall thy strength be." (2.)
That God would keep him from using any unlawful indirect means for the
extricating of himself out of his troubles (v. 29): Remove from me the
way of lying. David was conscious to himself of a proneness to this
sin; he had, in a strait, cheated Ahimelech (1 Sam. xxi. 2), and
Achish, v. 13 and ch. xxvii. 10. Great difficulties are great
temptations to palliate a lie with the colour of a pious fraud and a
necessary self-defence; therefore David prays that God would prevent
him from falling into this sin any more, lest he should settle in the
way of it. A course of lying, of deceit and dissimulation, is that
which every good man dreads and which we are all concerned to beg of
God by his grace to keep us from. (3.) That he might always be under
the guidance and protection of God's government: Grant me thy law
graciously; grant me that to keep me from the way of lying. David had
the law written with his own hand, for the king was obliged to
transcribe a copy of it for his own use (Deut. xvii. 18); but he prays
that he might have it written in his heart; for then, and then only, we
have it indeed, and to good purpose. "Grant it me more and more." Those
that know and love the law of God cannot but desire to know it more and
love it better. "Grant it me graciously;" he begs it as a special token
of God's favour. Note, We ought to reckon God's law a grant, a gift, an
unspeakable gift, to value it, and pray for it, and to give thanks for
it accordingly. The divine code of institutes and precepts is indeed a
charter of privileges; and God is truly gracious to those whom he makes
gracious by giving them his law.