“My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to Your word” (Ps 119:25).
The word translated “my soul” (naphshi) is metonymy for “my life.” And “revive me” could well be translated “enliven me.” It seems that “the dust” refers to our bodies, and the psalmist speaks of the way we “hang on for dear life” to our human existence. But what he wants is the kind of life that is energized by what the Word God imparts to us. As the Lord parried the devil, He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Lk 4:4, quoting Deut 8:3).
The first time He stooped to the dust, He made a man from it and breathed natural life into him. The second time, He came to make us anew, and we were “born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Pet 1:23). Think of it, saint: “As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man” (1 Cor 15:49). Lord, please revive me today!