Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 119:28

"My soul melteth for heaviness: Strengthen thou me according unto thy word." — Psalms 119:28 (ASV)

My soul melteth - Margin, “droppeth.” The Hebrew word here employed—דלף dâlaph—means to drop, to drip, to distill, spoken of a house, as when the rain drops through the roof (Ecclesiastes 10:18); then, to shed tears, to weep (Job 16:20)—and this seems to be the meaning here. The idea of melting is not properly in the word, and the term weep would better express the meaning. His soul seemed to drop tears. It overflowed with tears. Yet there is an idea of abundant or constant weeping. It is not a gush of emotion, as when we say of one that he is “bathed in tears;” it is the idea of a steady flow or dropping of tears—slow, silent, but constant—as if the soul were dripping away or dissolving. Thus the idea is more striking and beautiful than that of melting.

It is quiet but continuous grief that slowly wears away the soul. There are two kinds of sorrow:

• the one represented by floods of tears, like fierce torrents that sweep all away, and are soon past;
• the other is the gentle dropping—the constant wearing—the slow attrition caused by inward grief, that secretly but certainly wears away the soul.

The latter is more common, and more difficult to bear than the other. The Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate render this, “My soul slumbers.”

For heaviness - This word means grief, sorrow, vexation (Proverbs 14:13; Proverbs 17:21). It is here silent grief; hidden sorrow. How many thus pine in secret, until life slowly wears away, and they sink to the grave.

Strengthen thou me - Give me strength to meet this constant wearing away—this slow work of sorrow. We need strength to bear great and sudden sorrow; we need it no less to bear that which constantly wears upon us, which makes our sleep uneasy, which preys upon our nerves, and slowly eats away our life.

According unto thy word - See (Psalms 119:9, Psalms 119:25).