Psalm 142 — 143
"Hear Me"—Tell God Your Situation (vv. 1–6) The basis for David's prayer was the character of God, His faithfulness and righteousness, attributes that are mentioned again in verse 11. God is righteous in all that He does because He is holy, and He is faithful to His covenant and His promises. We plead these same attributes when we confess our sins to the Lord and claim His forgiveness (1 John 1:9). By calling himself God's servant (vv. 2, 12), David affirmed that he was a son of the covenant and could plead on the basis of God's Word. He also affirmed his own sinfulness (130:3–4; Job 9:32; 22:4; and see Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16). After focusing on God's character and his own needs, David told the Lord what he was enduring because of his enemies. The reference is probably to King Saul's relentless persecution during David's exile years. His vivid description almost helps us to feel the pain that David and his men were experiencing. They were crushed to the ground, lying in a dark grave like a corpse (v. 7; 7:5; 74:20; 88:5–6; Lam. 3:6), discouraged by a fainting ("stunned") heart that wants to give up, and wrapped up in a depressed spirit that is appalled and devastated. Those who believe that God's people never have their dark days and difficult weeks need to ponder this passage carefully.
us, and David was a man with faith in his heart. He trusted God to show him the way to go and to protect him on the path. One day he would look back and realize that God's "goodness and mercy" had attended his way throughout his life (23:6). Were there hidden traps before him? Then the Lord would guide and protect him (140:5; 141:9). He had no bodyguard at his right hand, and nobody seemed to care whether he lived or died, but the Lord cared and stood at his right hand (16:8; 109:31; 110:5; 121:5). No matter the circumstances around us or the feelings within us, God cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). We can be confident that He is working all things together for His glory and our good (Rom. 8:28).
The Lord Meets Our Needs (vv. 5–7) He is our "refuge and strength" (46:1), so we have all the protection we need. The cave may have been his temporary home, but David knew that the Lord was his Rock and his fortress (90:1; 91:1–2). But the Lord was also his portion (16:5; 73:26), so his desperate situation really deprived him of nothing. In the Lord, we always have all that we need. The Lord was his deliverer, and time after time, often in the nick of time, David would behold the hand of God rescuing him from the hands of the enemy. As David prayed, he realized that it was the name and purposes of the Lord that were really important and not his personal safety, comfort, or promised kingship. He prayed to be delivered so that he might praise God and glorify Him. He looked forward to the day when prayer would give way to praise, and the people would gather around him and welcome him as their king. It would be a long and difficult journey, but the Lord would perfect what He had planned for him (138:8). Eventually, David was delivered, and the nation surrounded him and received him as God's chosen ruler. The Lord gives bountifully to His children (13:6; 116:7; 119:17; Eph. 1:3). When He gave us Jesus Christ, He gave us all that we will ever need.
What made this even more difficult was David's memory of "the good old days" (v. 5; see 77:5, 11–12). Was he remembering the peaceful days he spent as a shepherd, caring for his father's flock? But a lion and a bear attacked the flock (1 Sam. 17:34–36), so perhaps the "good old days" were not that good! Did he recall the days he served in Saul's court, playing the harp for the paranoid king and leading his soldiers out to victory? But Saul tried to kill David and even commanded his men to kill him. No, David remembered the great works of God recorded in the Scriptures—the creation ("the works of his hands"), the call of Abraham, the pilgrimage of Jacob, the life of Joseph (from suffering to glory), the exodus from Egypt, and the conquest of Canaan. David had his own "Hebrews 11" to encourage his faith. He stood in the cave and made it into a Holy of Holies as he lifted his hands expectantly to the Lord in praise and prayer. (See 28:2; 44:20; 63:4; 77:2; 88:9; 141:2.) The Hebrew text of verse 6 reads "My soul—for thee," for there is no verb. The image of the parched land suggests the verb "thirsts," used by the King James Version and the New International Version, and the New American Standard Bible reads "longs for Thee." The idea is the same: David's hands were raised to God because he longed for Him and thirsted for fellowship with Him (42:2; 63:1; 84:2; 107:9; John 7:37–39; Rev. 21:6; 22:17). When we reach out to the Lord, it is because He has first reached out for us.