Twenty-two alphabetic stanzas delight in Torah: Daleth stanza

Daleth starts in the dust and asks to be made alive there

My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word. I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes. Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.

Cleaving to dust is depression, humiliation, or near-death—the poem does not medicalize it. Quicken means give life. Declared my ways is confession of the actual path, not a polished testimony. Understanding is requested so that speech about wonders will be true.

A lying way is put off, and a widened heart is what lets him run

My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word. Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously. I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me. I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame. I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.

Heaviness melts the soul; lying is a way, not only a sentence. The runner's speed waits on an enlarged heart, not on self-scolding. The stanza will not let dust-cleaving be preached as secret sin, and it will not let running be demanded of a heart still unenlarged.