This shouldn't be too hard.
$str = '<div id="post_message_957119941">';
if ( preg_match ( '/post_message_([0-9]+)/', $str, $matches ) )
{
print_r($matches);
}
Output:
Array ( [0] => post_message_957119941 [1] => 957119941 )
So the desired result will always be in: $matches[1]
Is that what you need?