Hear my prayer, Yahweh. Listen to my petitions. In your faithfulness and righteousness, relieve me.
Parallel Translations
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Hear my prayer, Yahweh. Listen to my petitions. In your faithfulness and righteousness, relieve me.
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Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.
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A Psalm of David. O LORD, hear my prayer, give ear to my supplications; in Thy faithfulness answer me, and in Thy righteousness.
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Psalms 143:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 71:2 Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me. Turn your ear to me, and save me.
- Psalms 31:1 In you, Yahweh, I take refuge. Let me never be disappointed. Deliver me in your righteousness.
- Psalms 140:6 I said to Yahweh, “You are my God.” Listen to the cry of my petitions, Yahweh.
- Daniel 9:16 Lord, according to all your righteousness, let your anger and please let your wrath be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a reproach to all who are around us.
- 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- Psalms 89:1-2 I will sing of the loving kindness of Yahweh forever. With my mouth, I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. I indeed declare, “Love stands firm forever. You established the heavens. Your faithfulness is in them.”
- 2 Samuel 7:25 Now, Yahweh God, the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, confirm it forever, and do as you have spoken.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 1. Hear my prayer, O Jehovah! It is evident…
1. Hear my prayer, O Jehovah! It is evident that the oppression of his enemies must have been extreme, when David laments his case in such earnest and pathetic terms. The introductory words show that the grief he felt was great. His reason for speaking of the justice and faithfulness of God in connection we have shown elsewhere. Under the term justice, or righteousness, we are not to suppose that he speaks of merit, or hire, as some ignorantly imagine, but of that goodness of God which leads him to defend his people. To the same effect does he speak of God’s truth or faithfulness; for the best proof he can give of his faithfulness is in not forsaking those whom he has promised to help. In helping his people he shows himself to be a just and true God, both in not frustrating their expectation, and in so far as he shows in this extension of mercy what his nature is, that David very properly encourages himself in prayer by making mention of both.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, according to thy free goodness, whereby thou…
That is, according to thy free goodness, whereby thou defendest thine.
That is, as thou hast promised to be faithful in thy promise to all that trust in thee.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 143:1 « A Psalm of David. » Hear…
Psa 143:1 « A Psalm of David. » Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, [and] in thy righteousness.
Ver. 1. Hear my prayer, O Lord] He prayeth once and again for audience; and would have God to hear him with both ears. Thus he prayed (saith the Greek title of this psalm) when his son Absalom was up in arms against him; and it may seem so, by the next words, De fuga ab Absolom (R. Obad. Gaon).
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Whereby thou art inclined and engaged to favour righteous…
Whereby thou art inclined and engaged to favour righteous persons and just causes.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here, I. David humbly begs to be heard (Psa…
Here, I. David humbly begs to be heard (Psa 143:1), not as if he questioned it, but he earnestly desired it, and was in care about it, for, having desired it, and was in care about it, for having directed his prayer, he looked up to see how it sped, Hab 2:1. He is a suppliant to his God, and he begs that his requests may be granted: Hear my prayer; give ear to my supplications. He is an appellant against his persecutors, and he begs that his case may be brought to hearing and that God will give judgment upon it, in his faithfulness and righteousness, as the Judge of right and wrong. Or, "Answer my petitions in thy faithfulness, according to the promises thou hast made, which thou wilt be just to." We have no righteousness of our own to plead, and therefore must plead God's righteousness, the word of promise which he has freely given us and caused us to hope in.
II. He humbly begs not to be proceeded against in strict justice, Psa 143:2. He seems here, if not to correct, yet to explain, his plea (Psa 143:1), Deliver me in thy righteousness; "I mean," says he, "the righteous promises of the gospel, not the righteous threatenings of the law; if I be answered according to the righteousness of this broken covenant of innocency, I am quite undone;" and therefore, 1. His petition is, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant; do not deal with me in strict justice, as I deserve to be dealt with." In this prayer we must own ourselves to be God's servants, bound to obey him, accountable to him, and solicitous to obtain his favour, and we must approve ourselves to him. We must acknowledge that in many instances we have offended him, and have come short of our duty to him, that he might justly enquire into our offences, and proceed against us for them according to law, and that, if he should do so, judgment would certainly go against us; we have nothing to move in arrest or mitigation of it, but execution would be taken out and awarded and then we should be ruined for ever. But we must encourage ourselves with a hope that there is mercy and forgiveness with God, and be earnest with him for the benefit of that mercy. "Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for thou hast already entered into judgment with thy Son, and laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for thy servant enters into judgment with himself;" and, if we will judge ourselves, we shall not be judged. 2. His plea is, "In thy sight shall no man living be justified upon those terms, for no man can plead innocency nor any righteousness of his own, either that he has not sinned or that he does not deserve to die for his sins; nor that he has any satisfaction of his own to offer;" nay, if God contend with us, we are not able to answer him for one of a thousand, Job 9:3; Job 15:20. David, before he prays for the removal of his trouble, prays for the pardon of his sin, and depends upon mere mercy for it.
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III. He complains of the prevalency of his enemies against him (Psa 143:3): "Saul, that great enemy, has persecuted my soul, sought my life, with a restless malice, and has carried the persecution so far that he has already smitten it down to the ground. Though I am not yet under ground, I am struck to the ground, and that is next door to it; he has forced me to dwell in darkness, not only in dark caves, but in dark thoughts and apprehensions, in the clouds of melancholy, as helpless and hopeless as those that have been long dead. Lord, let me find mercy with thee, for I find no mercy with men. They condemn me; but, Lord, do not thou condemn me. Am not I an object of thy compassion, fit to be appeared for; and is not my enemy an object of thy displeasure, fit to be appeared against?"
IV. He bemoans the oppression of his mind, occasioned by his outward troubles (Psa 143:4): Therefore is my spirit overpowered and overwhelmed within me, and I am almost plunged in despair; when without are fightings within are fears, and those fears greater tyrants and oppressors than Saul himself and not so easily out-run. It is sometimes the lot of the best men to have their spirits for a time almost overwhelmed and their hearts desolate, and doubtless it is their infirmity. David was not only a great saint, but a great soldier, and yet even he was sometimes ready to faint in a day of adversity. Howl, fir-trees, if the cedars be shaken.
V. He applies himself to the use of proper means for the relief of his troubled spirit. He had no force to muster up against the oppression of the enemy, but, if he can keep possession of nothing else, he will do what he can to keep possession of his own soul and to preserve his inward peace. In order to this, 1. He looks back, and remembers the days of old (Psa 143:5), God's former appearances for his afflicted people and for him in particular. It has been often a relief to the people of God in their straits to think of the wonders which their fathers told them of, Psa 77:5, Psa 77:11. 2. He looks round, and takes notice of the works of God in the visible creation, and the providential government of the world: I meditate on all thy works. Many see them, but do not see the footsteps of God's wisdom, power, and goodness in them, and do not receive the benefit they might by them because they do not meditate upon them; they do not dwell on that copious curious subject, but soon quit it, as if they had exhausted it, when they have scarcely touched upon it. I muse on, or (as some read it) I discourse of, the operation of thy hands, how great, how good, it is! The more we consider the power of God the less we shall fear the face or force of man, Isa 51:12, Isa 51:13. 3. He looks up with earnest desires towards God and his favour (Psa 143:6): "I stretch forth my hands unto thee, as one begging an alms, and big with expectation to receive something great, standing ready to lay hold on it and bid it welcome. My soul thirsteth after thee; it is to thee (so the word is), entire for thee, intent on thee; it is as a thirsty land, which, being parched with excessive heat, gapes for rain; so do I need, so do I crave, the support and refreshment of divine consolations under my afflictions, and nothing else will relieve me." This is the best course we can take when our spirits are overwhelmed; and justly do those sink under their load who will not take such a ready way as this to ease themselves.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my…
Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications,.... With these requests David begins the psalm; for it was to no purpose to pray and were heard; and for which he always appears to be concerned, as every good man will, and not to be heard only, but to be answered, as follows;
in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness; he does not plead his own faith, with which he believed in God, as rama interprets it; though the prayer of faith is very effectual; but the faithfulness of God to his promises; he had promised to hear, answer, and deliver such as called on him in a time of trouble; and he is faithful that has promised, nor will he suffer his faithfulness to fail; he cannot deny himself; and on this the psalmist relied for an answer, as well as desired and expected it; not on account of his own righteousness, but either on account of the goodness and grace of God, sometimes designed by righteousness, or because of the righteousness of Christ, or for the sake of Christ, the Lord our righteousness; on whose account God is just and faithful to forgive sin, the blessing the psalmist wanted, as appears from Psa 143:2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain David complains and prays for pardon and help, ver.…
David complains and prays for pardon and help, ver. 1-12. A psalm of David.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The psalmist prays for mercy, and deprecates judgment, 1,…
PSALM CXLIII
The psalmist prays for mercy, and deprecates judgment, 1, 2.
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His persecutions, 3.
His earnest prayer for deliverance, 4-9.
Prays for God's quickening Spirit, 10, 11.
And for the total discomfiture of his adversaries, 12.
NOTES ON PSALM CXLIII
The Hebrew and all the Versions attribute this Psalm to David; and the Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic and Arabic state that it was composed on the rebellion of his son Absalom: nor is there any thing in the Psalm that positively disagrees with this inscription. This is the last of the seven Psalms styled penitential.
Verse 1. In thy faithfulness answer me] Thou hast promised to support me in my difficulties, and, though my children should forsake me, never to withdraw thy loving-kindness from me. See the present unnatural rebellion of my son. Lord, undertake for me!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 143:1-2. In thy faithfulness — According to thy…
Psa 143:1-2. In thy faithfulness — According to thy true and faithful promises, made to the penitent who apply to thee for pardon and aid; answer me — Grant my earnest request; and in thy righteousness — Whereby thou art inclined and engaged by promise to favour righteous persons and just causes. Or, the word, here rendered righteousness, may signify mercy, as it often does; for “God’s promises are only conditional, and our sins and frailties are so many, that we have always need of God’s mercy to make us capable of being reputed of the number of those who have complied with the conditions annexed to the promises.” And enter not into judgment, &c. — As if he had said, When I appeal to thy righteousness, I do not do it under an idea that I can justify myself upon a strict trial at the tribunal of thy justice; for I know, if thou shouldst rigorously examine all the tempers and affections of my heart, and actions of my life, I should certainly be condemned by thee to wrath and punishment; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified — That is, according to thy holy and righteous law, and upon the terms of strict justice, without thy indulgence and infinite mercy. Observe well, reader, no man, in order to his justification before God, can plead innocence or his own righteousness; either that he has not sinned, or that he does not deserve to die for his sins; nor must he suppose that he has any satisfaction of his own to offer. Whoever expects to be justified, must look for that inestimable blessing, followed by peace with God, adoption into his family, and a title to life eternal, as an act of pure grace, a free and undeserved gift from the divine mercy, to be conferred upon the penitent and believing, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus: see Rom 3:9-28.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear ... -…
Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear ... - See Psa 4:1, note; Psa 5:1, note.
In thy faithfulness answer me - That is, Show thy faithfulness to thy promises. God had made gracious promises to David (compare Ps. 89:19-37), and he now pleads that he would remember those promises, and accomplish in his behalf what he had said he would. God has also made gracious promises to his people, and they may always plead those promises as a reason why they should be heard, and why their prayers should be answered.
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And in thy righteousness - Compare Psa 31:1. In thy disposition to do right; to vindicate a righteous cause; to interpose when wrong is done. We, though sinners before God, may feel that our cause is a just one as toward our fellowmen, and, when wronged, we may ask God to interpose, as a righteous God, in our behalf. We cannot, however, ask him to save us on the ground of our righteousness toward him, for we have no such righteousness. See Psa 143:2.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Psalms 143
Psalms 143
A Psalm of David
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Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications:
In thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.
2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant;
For in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
3 For the enemy hath persecuted my soul;
He hath smitten my life down to the ground;
He hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.
4 Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me;
My heart within me is desolate.
5 I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all thy works;
I muse on the work of thy hands.
6 I stretch forth my hands unto thee:
My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.
7 Hear me speedily, O Lord; my spirit faileth:
Hide not thy face from me,
Lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
8 Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning;
For in thee do I trust:
Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk;
For I lift up my soul unto thee.
9 Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies:
I flee unto thee to hide me.
10 Teach me to do thy will;
For thou art my God
Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
11 Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name’s sake:
For thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.
12 And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies,
And destroy all them that afflict my soul:
For I am thy servant.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—This, the last of the seven penitential Psalms, is in some manuscripts without a superscription. In others there is besides the one above given, the addition: When Absalom his son pursued him. The circumstances of the suppliant as here depicted, agree with this statement. For, surrounded by implacable enemies, who have brought him nigh to death, the servant of God has only Him remaining as his refuge. This Refuge is a sure one, and is ardently desired, and therefore besought in prayer with the fervor of a soul that longs for deliverance. For with all his trust in God’s faithfulness and helpful righteousness, so far as his relation to his enemies is concerned, he has yet a strong feeling of his human sinfulness before God, and therefore a strong need of His pardoning mercy and of guidance through His good Spirit.
These thoughts are characteristic of David, but here and there they appear in a form which might be regarded as “a later effort to copy after the Davidic Psalm-poetry” (Delitzsch). “He who knows David, finds here also that penitent confession to God, that humility, that longing after God, that sure confiding in Him as his refuge, and invocation of His help and deliverance from enemies for the sake of His goodness, that submission to Him, that desire for His holy guidance, that experience of the Lord, and praise inspired by such experience, that confidence in His holy righteousness, and that humble and elevating consciousness of being the servant of the Lord, which are so entirely characteristic of David” (Clauss.) This may be granted and yet it be doubted, whether such a poet as David would have so copied himself, as would be the case if the Davidic authorship were proved. One might pray in the same language, but would not repeat himself in different poems. The numerous, reminiscences of other passages of Scripture which are found confirm this supposition.
[The application of this canon to Hebrew poets, and especially to such a one as David, who wrote so much in this style, and who seemed to make his repeated experiences of similar distresses so many occasions of compositions of this nature, is hardly just. Besides, there are many instances of repetitions in Psalms in the earlier portion of the Psalter, which are acknowledged to be those of David, and they do not occasion any difficulty. Of course there is no instance there so striking as this, but they give an indication of what David might accomplish in the way of combining familiar thoughts and images, and setting them in the light of renewed revelations of God’s power and goodness in the midst of his own renewed distress and feeling of weakness. At all events, the poem, even with the familiarity of its ideas, forms a complete whole which is worthy of David, and which no critic need on that score hesitate to assign to him. Hengstenberg again stands alone among recent continental commentators in maintaining the Davidic authorship. Perowne again follows the majority on the other side, and inclines to the view of a late composition. Delitzsch finds in the addition to the title given in some copies of the Septuagint quoted above, confirmation of his favorite idea that most of the Psalms in this group were intended to describe the feelings of David during his flight before Absalom. This is probable enough; but is it probable that any writer at a late period would seek to illustrate by a series of Psalms, this or any other period of David’s life, when it had already been so abundantly illustrated by David himself? Alexander, Wordsworth, and most English commentators hold to the Davidic composition.—J. F. M]
Psa_143:1-2. In Thy faithfulness answer me, in Thy righteousness.—It does not remain undefined what God is to answer. For in the first place, “answering” is only another expression for hearing, and, in the next place, the two additions to the request furnish a more definite indication of its meaning. The faithfulness of God is His faithfulness to His promises, or the truthfulness of His nature, in conformity with which everything that He has spoken or ordained is reliable and unchangeable. His righteousness is the corresponding course of action by which His ordinances are firmly established and fulfilled in the world, so that there is rendered to every man according to his works. There is no occasion of thinking here of particular promises, or of 2 Samuel 7. (Hengstenberg); or for changing the notion of righteousness into that of goodness (Köster). God’s faithfulness and righteousness are thus assured, as in 1Jn_1:9, and the repenting receive the forgiveness of their sins, but the impenitent, judgment. From one point of view, therefore, the pious man is righteous, a servant of God; from another, he, as a man, is not perfect like God, but rather needing to be spared in judgment, to receive pardon and mercy. Psa_143:12 shows that in Psa_143:2 also the phrase: “Thy servant” is not a mere oriental circumlocution for the person speaking (Hupf ), and not merely a term of polite address. The prayer that God might not enter into judgment with him as his Accuser and Judge, (Job_9:32; Job_14:3; Job_22:4 f.; Isa_3:14), has a twofold ground: first, the absence, common to all the living, of perfect righteousness, acceptable before God, (Psa_130:3; Job_4:17; Job_9:2; Job_14:4; Job_15:14; Job_25:4; Rom_3:20); then his own personal and deadly peril, which the suppliant suffers through the persecutions of his enemies, and which he knows to be a Divine judgment upon him for his sins which are not expiated.
Psa_143:3 c. is in the exact words of Lam_3:6. But the expression does not mean: the dead of the world (Septuagint, Luther). [This translation arises from the false adoption of the later Hebrew and Rabbinical usage of ôlam. See on Psa_89:2.—J. F. M.] It refers either to those who died long before, and are placed among those of the olden time, Eze_26:20 (Jerome, Hitzig), or to those who are eternally, for ever dead (Syriac, Hupfeld, Delitzsch), who have an existence without hope, sleep an eternal sleep (Jer_51:39; Jer_51:57) in the gloomy abode of the dead, which remains ever as it is (Ecc_12:5), in contrast to the life which has no end (Dan_12:7). The latter explanation suits the present passage best, for the Psalmist evidently means to say that his enemies are intent upon his utter destruction, and that he would remain without deliverance, unless God in mercy were to take up his defence.
Psa_143:4-8. On this account his distress is so great that he is inwardly overwhelmed with darkness (Psa_77:4; Psa_142:4), and is like a languishing land (Psa_63:2). [Psa_143:6, E. V.: thirsty land, comp. Isa_32:2.] The contrast to former times, with the recollection of God’s dealings then, joined to thoughtful contemplation of the reality of His power as displayed in His works, makes his anguish the more intense, his longing the more consuming, his supplicating cry the more urgent (Psa_27:9; Psa_69:18; Psa_84:3; Psa_102:3). If the help of God should tarry (Psa_143:7) he would become like those that descend to the abyss (Psa_28:1; Psa_88:5). He prays that even the next morning should end the night of his sorrow, and expects an answer to his prayer upon the ground of his trust (Psa_25:1 f.; Psa_86:4). [The mode of expression in Psa_143:6 b. is peculiar. It is literally: my soul (is), like a languishing land for Thee, i.e., my soul languishes for Thee, as a thirsty land for rain. Calvin: “In great heat, we see the earth cracking and gaping, as though with open mouth she asked for the rain from heaven.”—J. F. M.]
Psa_143:9-12. [In Psa_143:9 b., E. V. combines the Septuagint rendering: I fled to Thee, with the notion of the Hebrew word which means here: to cover, hide one’s self. The latter was thus assumed to be a pregnant expression, and so translated. But the Septuagint had a false reading: נסתי, I fled, which gave rise to misconceptions among the older expositors. Calvin, however, perceived the true construction, for which Hengst., Delitzsch, Ewald, Maurer, Alexander, Perowne, Wordsworth and most recent expositors decide. Delitzsch expresses it thus: ad (apud) te abscondidi (me): To (with) Thee have I hidden (myself). Gen_38:14 affords the most perfect parallel in construction. See further by Dr. Moll.—J. F. M.] In Psa_143:9 b. we might be tempted to change כִּסִּיתִי, which has been variously explained, into חסיתי, the idea conveyed by which the ancient translations and expositions directly express. But it is not absolutely necessary, for the notions of covering and refuge are united in the intermediate one of hiding. The way of deliverance is to the servant of God no external one, but a way of salvation, which the commandments of God point out, in which the Spirit of God, who is good (so must we translate literally in ver 10c.), is the Guide. And those who submit to this guidance to fulfil the commandments of God, walk not merely upon a direct or right way (Psa_27:11), but in an even land, i.e., without stumbling or being obstructed in their successful and happy progress. It is therefore quite unnecessary to change אֶרֶץ into אֹרחַ (Hupfeld). [Delitzsch refers to Isa_26:7 as a parallel passage, and remarks that these words, which in Deu_4:43; Jer. 28:41, are a geographical designation, are here applied spiritually. The verbs in Psa_143:11-12 should be rendered by the future: Thou wilt quicken me, etc., not in the imper., as in E. V. With Psa_143:11 comp. Psa_138:7; Psa_25:15; Psa_34:18; with Psa_143:12, Psa_31:17; Psa_18:41; Deu_7:24.—J. F. M.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
It is not only the man who is persecuted in the world that is permitted to make God his refuge; the mourning sinner may come to Him also; but he must do so according to the appointed way of salvation—God not only teaches His servants by His word; He guides them also by His Spirit, and helps them to live by His strength.—If God goes with us into judgment, we are lost; but if we repent, He delivers us.—God’s faithfulness and righteousness are a terror to sinners, but a consolation to the penitent and an assurance of salvation to His pious servants.
Starke: It is no easy matter to pray rightly and so as to obtain an answer. Great and earnest striving are necessary to it.—The only ground upon which repenting sinners can with assurance approach God’s throne is His mercy and truth in Christ Jesus.—Learn to know the multitude of thy sins and the strict judgment of God, so that thou mayest know His great mercy and pray the more earnestly for forgiveness.—Because even pious men sometimes love the darkness rather than the light, God sends them affliction, that the world may become distasteful to them.—The examples of the saints of old are at this hour a comfort to afflicted souls and terrifying to their enemies.—Thirsting, longing, hoping, and yearning after God are sure indications of a believing soul and of true prayer.—When a soul thirsts after God’s favor, it is a sure proof that it is not utterly forsaken by Him.—Many pray for a speedy answer, and do not reflect that God must have waited long for their crying.—As distress is felt, so also is prayer; it breaks forth all the more strongly, the more distressed the suppliant is in his own eyes.—The divine consolation is the sweeter to the soul, the longer it had to wait for it, and the greater its sufferings had been.—The favor of God is the most necessary thing for man in this life, and should be the object of his highest concern.—There are many false guides who pretend to bear us happily over the journey of life; but he who does not keep close to God as his leader and guide and follow Him in everything, is led astray.—The divine deliverance of believers is commonly connected with the destruction of their ungodly enemies.
Franke: When a man resolves with heart and soul to be and remain a servant of God, God will not forsake him; but where He is, there will also His servant be.—Diedrich: In all earthly trials we must learn, after all our distress, to know our own hearts better, for only so will suffering draw us to the living God.—Taube: In the lasting heat of suffering, true faith will only burn more strongly and be lit up with a brighter glow.—The connection of justification and sanctification.
[Matt. Henry: As a thirsty land, which, being parched with excessive heat, gapes for rain, so do I need, so do I crave the support and refreshment of divine consolation under mine afflictions, and nothing else will relieve me.—This is the best course we can take when our spirits are overwhelmed; and justly do they sink under their load who do not take such a ready way as this to relieve themselves.—Those that have the truth of grace cannot but desire to have the evidence of it.—Preservations are pledges of salvation, and those shall find God their hiding-place that by faith make Him so.—Bp. Horne (Psa_143:5): While we muse on such instances of His goodness, the reflection is obvious: Is He not still the same gracious God? Will He not do as much for us upon our repentance as He formerly did for others upon theirs? Let us arise and go to our Father.—Scott: The believer has not only the faithfulness, but the righteousness of God engaged in his behalf: much more then may he be confident that he has justice on his side in those causes that are pending between him and his persecutors before the supreme Judge.—The trembling sinner, who has lately discovered that he cannot stand in judgment before God, need not be discouraged on that account; for the greatest of saints have confessed the same.—Barnes: Our hope is in the mercy, not in the justice of God.—J. F. M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. In thy faithfulness… righteousness—The “faithfulness” and “righteousness” are…
1. In thy faithfulness… righteousness—The “faithfulness” and “righteousness” are conformity to the system of revealed mercy. There is a “righteousness” in taking vengeance, but God is also “faithful and just to forgive” when forgiveness is sought in his appointed way.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. At first sight it seems inconsistent that the…
1. At first sight it seems inconsistent that the Psalmist should appeal to Jehovah’s righteousness, and yet (Psa_143:2) deprecate being put on his trial. But Jehovah’s righteousness here denotes His unvarying conformity to His own character, that absolute perfection of dealing which is the perpetual expression of His unchanging Will. Similarly His faithfulness is the attribute which makes it impossible that He should be false to the covenant which He has made with His servants. And as He has revealed Himself as a God of mercy and forgiveness (Exo_34:5-7), the Psalmist can boldly plead for a merciful answer on the ground of His righteousness and faithfulness. Cp. St John’s words “He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins” (1Jn_1:9); Psa_5:8; Psa_31:1.
1, 2. An appeal for mercy.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Faithfulness . . . righteousness.—The first word recalls…
(1) Faithfulness . . . righteousness.—The first word recalls the covenant promise, the second the faith, expressed so frequently, on which the covenant rested, that the Judge of all the world must do right. St. John founds the appeal for forgiveness on the same pair of Divine qualities (1Jn_1:9; comp. Psa_65:5.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain ALMOST entirely a psalm of supplication, partly general (vers.…
ALMOST entirely a psalm of supplication, partly general (vers. 1, 7), partly special (vers. 2, 8-12). Vers. 3-6, however, give the grounds upon which the supplications are made; vers. 3, 4 describing the psalmist"s wretched condition; and vers. 5, 6 his behavior under his afflictions. Again, there is no reason to doubt the superscription, which assigns the psalm to David. Almost all the phrases used are found in other Davidical psalms. The composition divides itself into two stanzas of equal length (vers. 1-6, and vers. 7-12).
Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications. (comp. Psa_28:2 Psa_39:12 Psa_54:2 Psa_55:1, etc.) In thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness. In thy faithfulness to thy promises, since thou hast promised to hear prayer, and in thy mere righteousness, since it is right and just that thou shouldest do so, hearken unto me.
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Vers. 1-12. The soul"s appeal to God.
The groundwork of the psalm is that of great affliction. The psalmist is in very sore trouble; the strongest expressions are used to convey the idea of complete outward disaster and inward dejection (vers. 3, 4). There is only one respect in which things could be worse than they are death itself, and the going down into the dark land of forgetfulness (ver. 7). But, as in the preceding psalm, his dire extremity is the very occasion for holy trust in the almighty power and unfailing righteousness of Jehovah. His refuge is in God. Here, indeed, is a strong Rock in which to hide in this dark night of trouble. We have
I HIS RELIANCE ON ALL THAT HE KNOWS OF God.
1. He remembers what God has been to him and has done/or him and for others in past days; what "doings," what "works," what deliverances he wrought in "the days of old" (ver. 5). "Thou hast been my help," etc. (Psa_27:9)
2. He relies on the known character of God; his loving-kindness (ver. 8); his faithfulness, his perfect trueness to his word of promise; his righteousness, his constant readiness to reward those who seek him and serve him, and his determination to punish the wicked. These recognized and steadfast attributes of God are to him a strong security. God cannot be inconsistent with himself.
II HIS CONSCIOUSNESS OF INTEGRITY. The writer would not dare to make his appeal to the Holy One if he himself were living in sin. He knows well that the man who purposes to continue in rebellion against God, or in rejection of his offered mercy, has no ground on which to stand. (see Psa_66:18 Psa_1:1-6) Not, indeed, that he claims absolute inerrancy or perfection; he knows that such purity is beyond him (ver. 2); but at the same time, he is conscious of moral and spiritual integrity; he is God"s servant (ver. 12). The purpose of his heart is toward God and the keeping of his commandments. He intends to walk uprightly and holily before God, to the full height of his strenuous endeavor. His God is the Lord, and no other lord shall have dominion over him.
III THE FULNESS OF HIS APPEAL
1. He prays God to "quicken" him, to reanimate him, to fill his soul with courage and with hope, that he may play a brave and manly part.
2. He prays for deliverance from his evil estate; for the confusion of his enemies; for restoration to peace and joy (vers. 9, 11, 12).
3. He prays to be led forward in his rectitude, that he may fulfill all God"s holy will concerning him (ver. 10). We cannot hope to rise higher than the spirit shown in this devout desire. It is right to wish and to ask, with all filial deference, for recovery from sickness, or for rescue from bondage, or for deliverance from anxiety or poverty; but it is a loftier and worthier aspiration to long to be led by the good Spirit of God into "the land of uprightness," into a state of lull acquiescence with the will of God, into a spiritual condition in which the doing or the bearing of the will of God is the supreme aim and endeavor of the soul.
IV HIS EARNESTNESS. (Vers. 6-8) There is every indication here of great earnestness of spirit. His soul thirsts for God"s interposition as a parched land for water; he cries for a speedy response to his appeal; he yearns to hear God"s loving-kindness "in the morning," and "lifts up his soul" unto God. Everything is to the earnest. Lukewarmness is offensive to God, as we learn from the risen Savior. A spasmodic piety, a fitful enthusiasm, will accomplish nothing for ourselves or for the world. It is steadfast purpose and sustained devotion that rises to the high tablelands of exalted worth and abounding fruitfulness.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Vers. 1-12. The cry of the overwhelmed spirit.
I ITS CHARACTERISTICS.
1. How earnest it is! The psalmist was not in any light, indifferent, or formal spirit when he uttered this prayer. Its intensity is evident all the way through.
2. And believing. "In thy faithfulness answer me" (ver. 1). He believed the promises of God, and claims their fulfillment, expects that what God has promised he will make good. Such expectation is all too rare; and its rarity accounts for the many unanswered prayers over which we mourn.
3. And sincere. "And in thy righteousness" (ver. 1). If he had regarded iniquity in his heart, he could not thus have prayed, for he would have known that the Lord would not hear him; but he could appeal to him who was the righteous Searcher of all hearts, that with true heart he prayed. Hence he could appeal to the righteousness of God, because "the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, and his countenance doth behold the upright.
4. Humble. (Ver. 2) For whilst he could appeal to God to attest his innocence and sincerity of heart, that did not prove him to be faultless in the sight of God. St. Paul said, "I know nothing against myself; yet am I not hereby justified." And similar to this is the psalmist"s confession here. He might be, and he was, innocent before men, and sincere in heart toward God; but yet there were many a trangression and fault and failure, the remembrance of which made him pray, "Enter not into judgment," etc. (ver. 2). Such were the characteristics of this prayer, and should be of all prayer indeed, must be, if our prayers are to avail.
II ITS COMPLAINT. The psalmist tells what his enemies had done against him (ver. 3).
1. They had persecuted his soul. He had, no doubt, some outward, present persecution in his thought; but in reading this psalm we may transfer his words to those spiritual persecutions which we often have to suffer at the hands of our great enemy; and, thus applied, the whole psalm answers to all too frequent experience of the people of God today. For the enemy doth by all manner of temptation persecute our soul he suggests doubt, he stirs up evil thoughts, he assails our faith, he darkens our mind, and in every way seeks to loosen our hold on God.
2. And some have to confess, "He hath smitten my life down to the ground." There have been periods in the history of God"s servants there were in David"s when the Divine life in them has been all but nonexistent, when they could not pray, nor witness for God, nor give him praise, nor render any service of a spiritual kind. They have been terrible seasons the enemy hath come in like a flood, and the overwhelmed ones were unable to pray that "the Spirit of the Lord would lift up a standard against him.
3. And then, in consequence, there has been the "dwelling in darkness, as those that have been long dead." Oh, the darkness of that time! it was as the gloom of the grave. The soul that the enemy hath so smitten is conscious of his awful loss; that the life of God in him is seemingly gone; and he seems abandoned to the utter corruption of sin! No wonder that his spirit is overwhelmed and his heart desolate (ver. 4). How could it be otherwise? He is simply and utterly miserable.
III THE COMING OF RELIEF.
1. God leads him to remember the days of old. To hunger after those blessed times when God came to his soul, and was his Helper and Deliverer. Full of help are memories like these.
2. Then to meditate on all thy works." To see the wisdom, power, and love displayed in them, and so to hope that for him, too, there should be wrought some gracious work of God. As he thus mused, the fire of love and desire and faith would begin to burn, and then his musing thought would take form and action; for:
3. He would stretch forth his hands unto God. His soul was athirst for God, and now forth go his hands in prayer. Yes, relief was coming; for there are its near harbingers, everywhere and always.
IV THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN TAKEN BY FORCE. (Vers. 7-12) What a crowd and rush of prayers, protestations, cries, and pleadings, these verses contain! One after another they come, in hot haste and eagerness that will take no denial. It is a very besiegement of the throne of grace. But the chief burden of all is, not for deliverance from enemies, but for a closer knowledge of God; the consciousness of his favor, the speedy hearing of his loving-kindness; the being made to know the way wherein God would have him walk. Then come prayers that God would teach, would lead, would quicken, and would bring his soul out of trouble. There is prayer for deliverance from calamities; but the great longing is after the doing of God"s will, and the quickening of his soul in righteousness. Prayer helps him in attaining that submissiveness of will which is essential to his gaining that unspeakable blessing on which his heart is set. And in proportion as a man is taught of God, this is the supreme desire of his soul. If he gains this, it matters not much whether the outward calamities go or stay. If God"s face shines upon him, man"s may frown as it will. He has heaven within him, even though hell be outside of and all around him. What can any enemy do unto him, since God is on his side? He has won the kingdom of heaven, and no man can take it from him. Blessed is any sorrow when such reaction as this psalm reveals follows from it! The light affliction which was for the moment is now working out the "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." The travail of his soul has issued in the glorious birth of the life of the love of God. And this is ever God"s intent in all our sorrows; for this he lets the enemy smite our soul down to the ground, and make us dwell in darkness. He desires that we should flee unto him to hide us. And, blessed be his Name! he ever will; and far more than that will he do. S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. Man"s hope in prayer lies in what God is.
Righteousness is, from one point of view, that side of Divine justice which is turned towards good men; hence it comes to mean "beneficence." There is some good reason for associating this psalm with the experiences of David in the time of Absalom"s rebellion. Delitzsch says, "The psalms of this time of persecution are distinguished from those of the persecution by Saul, by the deep melancholy into which the mourning of the dethroned king was turned by blending with the penitential sorrowfulness of one conscious of his own guilt." "It is to God"s own character that the appeal is made. It is there first, and not in his own misery, that the sinner finds the great argument why his prayer should be answered." "Faithful and just to forgive us our sins". (1Jn_1:9) The relation between the two terms "faithfulness" and "righteousness" may be thus indicated: Faithfulness is God"s strict keeping of all those covenant terms to which he has pledged himself. Righteousness is his vindication of the oppressed, as is witnessed both by history and by experience.
I MAN"S HOPE BASED ON WHAT GOD HAS DONE CANNOT SUFFICE. Because man must take into account all that God has done, and then he is sure to he bewildered. If a man takes out all the manifestly mighty and apparently kind things that God has done, and attempts to base his hope in prayer on them, he is always in danger of having his foundations destroyed by some one who will remind him of things God has done which seem strange and cannot be explained. It is not that God is ever other than himself. It is that man cannot safely read the meaning of all God does; and some of his doings excite in some men doubt and mistrust rather than confidence.
II MAN"S HOPE BASED ON WHAT GOD IS WILL ALWAYS SUFFICE. It is true that we can only know what God is by what he says and what he does. But everything depends on our willingness to let these things teach us God himself teach us what he is. The point may be illustrated by our relations with our fellow-men. In whom is our confidence fully placed? In those of whom we only know what they have done? Nay, it is reserved for those whom we know personally, whose characters have made a profound impression on us. We trust God fully only when we know him worthily. R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-12. A complaint and a prayer.
This the last of the penitential psalms. The authorship and occasion of it uncertain. Pervaded by a deep tone of sorrow and anguish and a deep sense of sin. Roughly divided, the first part (vers. 1-6) contains the complaint; and the second (vers. 7-12), the prayer founded on that complaint.
I THE COMPLAINT.
1. His enemies overwhelmed with a sense of desolation. (Vers. 3, 4) "His life was smitten down;" he dwelt as in the darkness of death; his heart was desolate. No friend was left; no protection from the cruel injustice of men. He was as if forsaken of God. All this was the means of revealing the sinfulness and misery of his own heart.
2. The contrast between his past and present experience. (Ver. 5) This embittered his anguish and added to the sense of his desolation.
3. He stands as one imploring help. (Ver. 6) But to whom, as yet, help has not come. As parched land thirsts for rain, so he pants for the help of God.
II THE PRAYER. The petitions in vers. 7-12 may be thus grouped:
1. Prayer for speedy loving-kindness and direction. (Vers. 7, 8)
2. For deliverance from enemies and fuller knowledge of Gods will. (Vers. 9, 10) And for power to obey that will when thus made known.
3. For new life and deliverance from the sufferings caused by his enemies. (Vers. 11, 12) A new internal and external life a complete change.
4. The ground of the several petitions is the personal relation of the psalmist to God. "Thou art my God;" "In thee have I trusted;" "I am thy servant;" etc. Man is God"s child. These the strongest appeals that could be made. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Title. A Psalm of David. It is so much…
Title. A Psalm of David. It is so much like other Davidic psalms that we accept the title without a moment's hesitation. David's history illustrates it, and his spirit breathes in it. Why it has been set down as one of the seven Penitential Psalms we can hardly tell; for it is rather a vindication of his own integrity, and an indignant prayer against his slanderers, than a confession of fault. It is true the second verse proves that he never dreamed of justifying himself before the Lord; but even in it there is scarcely the brokenness of penitence. It seems to us rather martial than penitential, rather a supplication for deliverance from trouble than a weeping acknowledgment of transgression. We suppose that seven penitentials were needed by ecclesiastical rabbis, and therefore this was impressed into the service. In truth, it is a mingled strain, a box of ointment composed of divers ingredients, sweet and bitter, pungent and precious. It is the outcry of an overwhelmed spirit, unable to abide in the highest state of spiritual prayer, again and again descending to bewail its deep temporal distress; yet evermore struggling to rise to the best things. The singer moans at intervals; the petitioner for mercy cannot withhold his cries for vindication. His hands are outstretched to heaven, but at his girdle hangs a sharp sword, which rattles in its scabbard as he closes his psalm.
Division. This psalm is divided by the Selah. We prefer to follow the natural cleavage, and therefore have made no other dissection of it. May the Holy Spirit lead us into its inner meaning.
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Ver. 1. Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications. In the preceding psalm he began by declaring that he had cried unto the Lord; here he begs to be favourably regarded by Jehovah the living God, whose memorial is that he heareth prayer. He knew that Jehovah did hear prayer, and therefore he entreated him to hear his supplication, however feeble and broken it might be. In two forms he implores the one blessing of gracious audience: "hear" and "give ear." Gracious men are so eager to be heard in prayer that they double their entreaties for that boon. The Psalmist desires to be heard and to be considered; hence he cries, "hear", and then "give ear." Our case is difficult, and we plead for special attention. Here it is probable that David wished his suit against his adversaries to be heard by the righteous Judge; confident that if he had a hearing in the matter whereof he was slanderously accused, he would be triumphantly acquitted. Yet while somewhat inclined thus to lay his case before the Court of King's Bench, he prefers rather to turn it all into a petition, and present it before the Court of Requests, hence he cries rather "hear my prayer" than "hear my suit." Indeed David is specially earnest that he himself, and the whole of his life, may not become the subject of trial, for in that event he could not hope for acquittal. Observe that he offered so much pleading that his life became one continual prayer;but that petitioning was so varied in form that it broke out in many supplications.
In thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness. Saints desire to be answered as well as heard: they long to find the Lord faithful to his promise and righteous in defending the cause of justice. It is a happy thing when we dare appeal even to righteousness for our deliverance; and this we can do upon gospel principles, for "if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." Even the sterner attributes of God are upon the side of the man who humbly trusts, and turns his trust into prayer. It is a sign of our safety when our interests and those of righteousness are blended. With God's faithfulness and righteousness upon our side we are guarded on the right hand and on the left. These are active attributes, and fully equal to the answering of any prayer which it would be light to answer. Requests which do not appeal to either of these attributes it would not be for the glory of God to hear, for they must contain desires for things not promised, and unrighteous.
Whole Psalm. This psalm of David most aptly answereth to that psalm which precedes it; for in Ps 142:1-7 he showeth that he prayed, repeating it twice (Ps 143:1); and here he twice saith, "Hear my prayer, give ear to my supplication." In Ps 142:3 he saith, "When my spirit was overwhelmed within me"; here (Ps 143:4), "My spirit is overwhelmed within me." John Mayer.
Whole Psalm. The promise referred to throughout this octave of Psalms 138-145. is that recorded in 2Sa 7:12, etc., "When thy days be fulfilled...I will set up thy seed after thee...and I will establish his kingdom...If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him ...But my mercy shall not depart away from him; and thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever." What fixes the connection of the psalm with the history is the frequent application of the term "Thy (Jehovah's) servant", by David to himself in the latter, as in Ps 143:2 144:12 of the former. Jehovah had first used it of David, "Tell to my servant, to David"; David therefore fastens on it as his plea again and again (2Sa 7:5, 9-21, 25-29). David's plea, "For I am thy servant", is no boast of his service, but a magnifying of God's electing grace: "Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?" 2Sa 7:18.
The cry (Ps 143:6) "My soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land", answers to David's own words in Ps 63:1, when he was fleeing from Absalom, and still in the wilderness of Judah (title, Ps. 63.) on the near side of Jordan: "My soul thirsteth for thee." The history here again is an undesigned agreement with the psalm (2Sa 16:2, 14): "The King, and all the people with him, came weary, and refreshed themselves" with Ziba's fruits; also 2Sa 17:2. The Hebrew for "thirsty" in Psalm 143 is the same as for "weary" in Ps 63:1, and in 2Sa 16:14, and means "panting", "weary", "thirsting." Andrew Robert Fausset, in "Studies in the 150. Psalms", 1876.
Whole Psalm. At the making of this psalm (as it plainly appeareth) David was cast into some desperate danger; whether by Saul when he was forced to flee into the cave, as in the former psalm, or by Absalom his son, or by any other, it is uncertain. Howsoever, in this he complains grievously to God of the malice of his enemies, and desireth God to hear his prayers, he acknowledgeth that he suffereth those things by God's just judgment, most humbly craving mercy for his sins; desiring not only to be restored, but also to be governed by God's Spirit, that he may dedicate and consecrate the rest of his life to God's service. This worthy psalm, then, containeth these three things. First, a confession of his sins. Secondly, a lamentation over his injuries. Thirdly, a supplication for temporal deliverance and spiritual graces. Archibald Symson.
Whole Psalm. It is not without some use to observe in this psalm how the, heart of its devout composer turned alternately from spiritual to temporal, and again from temporal to spiritual subjects. He first complains of his sins, and begs for mercy;then of his enemies, and prays for deliverance. Then he laments his darkness, and pleads for the light of God's countenance, and for wisdom, and understanding. After this, the thought of his enemies rushes in again upon his soul, and he flees to God for protection. Lastly, he again puts up his prayer for wisdom and holiness: "Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness." This is a peculiarly important petition: before he had prayed to know the way in which he should walk, he now prays that he may walk in it. John Fawcett, 1769-1851.
Whole Psalm. This is appointed by the Church for Ash Wednesday, and is the seventh and last of the Penitential Psalms. These seven Penitential Psalms also sometimes called "the Special Psalms", and have long been used in Church as the completest and most spiritual acts of repentance which she possesses. They have sometimes been considered as directed against the seven deadly sins; as, for instance, Ps 6:1-10, against Wrath; Ps 32:1-11, against Pride Ps 38:1-22, against Gluttony; Ps 51:1-19, against Impurity; Ps 102:1-28, against Covetousness; Ps 130:1-8, against Envy; and the present Psalm against Indifference, Carelessness. J. W. Burgon.
Ver. 1. Hear my prayer, O LORD, etc. Alas, O Lord, if thou hear not prayer, I were as good not pray at all; and if thou hear it, and give not car it, it were as good thou didst not hear it at all. O, therefore, "hear my O God, and give ear to my supplications"; that neither my praying may be lost, want of thy hearing it, nor thy hearing it be lost for want of thy attending it. When I only make a prayer to God, it seems enough that he hear it; but make a supplication, it requires that he give ear unto it: for seeing a supplication hath a greater intention in the setting out, it cannot without a greater, attention be entertained.
But what niceness of words is this? as though it were not all one "to hear" and "to give ear"? or as though there were any difference between a prayer a supplication? Is it not perhaps so indeed? for hearing sometimes may be passive, where giving ear is always active; and seeing Christ, we doubt not, heard the woman of Canaan's first cry, while it was a prayer; but gave no ear till her second cry, when it was grown to a supplication. However it be, as hearing, O God, without giving ear would be to no purpose, so thy giving without giving answer would do me no good; O, therefore, "answer me, " God: for if thou answer not my prayer, how canst thou answer my expectations. My prayer is but the seed; it is thy answer that makes the harvest. If thou shouldest not answer me at all, I could not hope for any harvest at all; thou shouldest answer me, and not "in thy righteousness", that would be a indeed, but nothing but of blasted corn. Therefore, answer me, O God, but" thy righteousness"; for thy righteousness never made an unpleasing answer was an answer in thy righteousness which thou madest to Noah: "My shall not always strive with man; for the imagination of man's heart is evil his infancy." It was an answer in thy righteousness which thou madest to Abraham: "Fear not; I will be thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." It was an answer in thy righteousness which thou madest to the thief upon the cross: "This day thou shalt be with me in paradise." Oh, then, answer me in thy righteousness, O God, and then the harvest of my hope will be as the seven years of plenty foretold by Joseph. Sir Richard Baker.
Ver. 1. Hear my prayer. ...give ear to my supplications... answer me. He doth here three times repeat his camest desire to be heard, as in fifth psalm four times he doubles and ingeminateth this same suit to be heard. ... When he doubles his request of hearing, he would have God hear with both his ears, that is, most attentively and readily: so instant is a mind that he desireth the prayer he putteth up to be remembered, as was said the angel to the centurion: "Thy prayer and almsdeeds are come up God": Ac 10:4. Archibald Symson.
Ver. 1. In thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness. It was thy righteousness that thou didst make the promise, but it is thy faithfulness that thou wilt keep thy promise: and seeing I am certain of thy making it, how can I be doubtful of thy keeping it? If thou shouldest not answer me in thy righteousness, yet thou shouldest be righteous still; but if thou shouldest not answer me in thy faithfulness, thou shouldest not be faithful still. Sir Richard Baker.
Ver. 1. Answer me in thy righteousness. Forgiveness is not inconsistent with truth or righteousness, and the pardon which in mercy God bestows upon the sinner is bestowed in justice to the well beloved Son who accepted and discharged the sinner's obligations. This is an infinitely precious truth, and the hearts of thousands in every age have been sustained and gladdened by it. A good old Christian woman in humble life so fully realized this, that when a revered servant of God asked her, as she lay on her dying pillow, the ground of her hope for eternity, she replied, with great composure, "I rely on the justice of God"; adding, however, when the reply excited surprise, "justice, not to me, but to my Substitute, in whom I trust." Robert Macdonald, in "From Day to Day; or, Helpful Words for Christian Life", 1879.
Ver. 1. Three threes.
1. As to his devotions, prayers, supplications, requests.
2. As to his success, hear, give ear, answer me.
3. As to his argument, because thou art Jehovah, faithful, righteous.
Ver. 1-2. A suitable prayer for a believer who has reason to suppose that he is suffering chastening for sin.
1. Here is earnest importunity, as of one depending entirely upon divine favour for a hearing.
2. Here is believing fervency laying hold of divine faithfulness and justice; see 1Jo 1:9.
3. Here is a deep consciousness of the vanity of self justification pleading for pure mercy, Ps 143:2. J. F.
Psalms 143:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my…
Psa_143:1-12
Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications.
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A penitential soul in prayer
I. The reasons urged.
1. A consciousness of moral unrighteousness (verse 2). No man will ever pray rightly until he is made deeply conscious that he has no claims whatever upon the favour of God, and that his necessities, if relieved at all, must be relieved by sovereign mercy alone.
2. A terrible sense of danger (verses 3, 4).
3. An encouraging reminiscence of God (verse 5).
4. An intense craving of the heart (verse 6). There are two figures here indicating the craving of the heart after God. The first is taken from human life. As the suffering child stretches forth its hand to its mother, as the dying patient to his physician, as the drowning man to the rope thrown out for his rescue, so the soul of the penitent stretches out Jim hands to God; he must have Him or die and be lost. God is the necessity of necessities, the Supreme need. Another figure indicating the craving of the heart after God is the longing of the parched earth for fertile showers.
II. The blessings invoked.
1. Soul deliverance (verse 7). This has been provided in Christ.
2. Soul guidance (verse 8). Let the morning dawn on me, and The night of darkness and sorrow depart, and show me the way in which I ought to walk,--the way of rectitude, of safety.
3. Soul loyalty (verse 10).
4. Soul quickening (verse 11). There must be life to struggle for deliverance, life to follow the Divine guidance, to reach the level land of rectitude, and to walk in it. (David Thomas, D. D.)
Prayer illustrated
As an example and illustration of prayer this psalm teaches us--
1. That we should approach God in the full belief that He is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
2. We should appeal to Him not only as merciful, but also as faithful and righteous.
3. We should come as sinners imploring pardon.
4. Thus coming to God, we should seek comfort by uttering our grief in His presence and casting all our care on Him.
5. We should direct our thoughts from our sorrows to Him before whom we bow, and contemplate His character and former mercies.
6. Encouraged by such contemplation we should with renewed confidence present our petitions.
7. Expecting consolation in the path of obedience alone, we should pray to be enabled to do the will of God.
8. In our prayers we should renew the consecration of ourselves to God, and seek protection, deliverance and salvation as His servants. I am Thine, save me. (Newman Hall, LL. B.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Psalms 143
Psalms 143
THIS psalms depth of sadness and contrition, blended with yearning trust, recalls the earlier psalms attributed to David. Probably this general resemblance in inwardness and mood is all that is meant by the superscription in calling it "a psalm of David." Its copious use of quotations and allusions indicate a late date. But there is no warrant for taking the speaker to be the personified Israel. It is clearly divided into two equal halves, as indicated by the Selah, which is not found in Books 4 and 5, except here, and in Psalms 140. The former half (Psa_143:1-6) is complaint; the latter (Psa_143:7-12), petition. Each part may again be regarded as falling into two equal portions, so that the complaint branches out into a plaintive description of the psalmists peril (Psa_143:1-3), and a melancholy disclosure of his feelings (Psa_143:4-6); while the prayer is similarly parted into cries for deliverance (Psa_143:7-9), and for inward enlightenment and help (Psa_143:10-12). But we are not reading a logical treatise, but listening to the cry of a tried spirit, and so need not wonder if the discernible sequence of thought is here and there broken.
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The psalmist knows that his affliction is deserved. His enemy could not have hunted and crushed him (Psa_143:3) unless God had been thereby punishing him. His peril has forced home the penitent conviction of his sin, and therefore he must first have matters set right between him and God by Divine forgiveness. His cry for help is not based upon any claims of his own, nor even on his extremity of need, but solely on Gods character, and especially on the twin attributes of Faithfulness and Righteousness. By the latter is not meant the retributive righteousness which gives according to desert, but that by which He maintains the order of salvation established by His holy love. The prayer anticipates St. Johns declaration that God is "faithful and just to forgive us our sins." That answer in righteousness is as eagerly desired as Gods dealing on the footing of retributive justice is shrunk from. "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant" is not a prayer referring to a future appearance before the Judge of all, but the judgment deprecated is plainly the enmity of men, which, as the next verse complains, is crushing the psalmists life out of him. His cry is for deliverance from it, but he feels that a more precious gift must precede outward deliverance and Gods forgiveness must first be sealed on his soul. The conviction that, when the light of Gods face is turned on the purest life, it reveals dark stains which retributive justice cannot but condemn, is not. in the psalmists mouth, a palliation of his guilt. Rather, it drives him to take his place among the multitude of offenders, and from that lowly position to cry for pardon to the very Judge whose judgment he cannot meet. The blessedness of contrite trust is that it nestles the closer to God, the more it feels its unworthiness. The child hides its face on the mothers bosom when it has done wrong. God is our refuge from God. A little beam of light steals into the penitents darkness, while he calls himself Gods servant, and ventures to plead that relation, though he has done what was unworthy of it, as a reason for pardon. The significant "For" beginning Psa_143:3 shows that the enemys acts were, to the contrite psalmist, those of Gods stern justice. Psa_143:3 a, b, are moulded on Psa_7:5, and c is verbally identical with Lam_3:6. "The dead of long ago" is by some rendered dead forever; but the translation adopted above adds force to the psalmists sad description of himself, by likening him to those forgotten ones away back in the mists of bygone ages.
In Psa_143:4-6 the record of the emotions caused by his peril follows. They begin with the natural gloom. As in Psa_142:3 (with which this has many points of resemblance, possibly indicating identity of author), he describes his "spirit" as swathed in dark robes of melancholy. His heart, too, the centre of personality, was stunned or benumbed, so that it almost ceased to beat. What should a "servant" of Jehovahs, brought to such a pass, do? If he is truly Gods, he will do precisely what this man did. He will compel his thoughts to take another direction, and call Memory in to fight Despair and feed Hope. His own past and Gods past are arguments enough to cheer the most gloom-wrapped sufferer. "A sorrows crown of sorrow" may be "remembering happier things," but the remembrance will be better used to discrown a sorrow which threatens to lord it over a life. Psa_77:5-6; Psa_77:11-12, has shaped the expressions here. Both the contrast of present misery with past mercy, and the assurances of present help given by that past mercy, move the psalmist to appeal to God, stretching out his hands in entreaty. Psa_63:1 echoes in Psa_143:6 b, the pathos and beauty of which need no elucidation. The very cracks in parched ground are like mouths opened for the delaying rains; so the singers soul was gaping wide in trouble for Gods coming, which would refresh and fertilise. Blessed is that weariness which is directed to Him; it ever brings the showers of grace for which it longs. The construction of Psa_143:6 b is doubtful, and the supplement "thirsteth" (A.V. and R.V.) is possibly better than the "is" given above.
The second half of the psalm is purely petition. Psa_143:7-9 ask especially for outward deliverance. They abound with reminiscences of earlier psalms. "Make haste, answer me" recalls Psa_69:17; "my spirit faints" is like Psa_84:2; "Hide not Thy face from me" is a standing petition, as in Psa_27:9; Psa_102:2, etc., "Lest I become like those who descend into the pit" is exactly reproduced from Psa_28:1. The prayer for the manifestation of Gods lovingkindness in the morning is paralleled in Psa_90:14, and that for illumination as to the way to walk in is like Exo_33:13 Psa_25:4. The plea "To Thee do I lift my soul" is found in Psa_25:1; Psa_86:4.
The plea appended to the petition in Psa_143:9 b is difficult. Literally, the words run, "To Thee have I covered [myself]," which can best be explained as a pregnant construction, equivalent to "I have fled to Thee and hid myself in Thee." Much divergence exists in the renderings of the clause. But a slight emendation, adopted by Hupfeld and Cheyne from an ancient Jewish commentator, reads the familiar expression, "I have fled for refuge." Baethgen prefers to read "have waited," which also requires but a trivial alteration; while Graetz reaches substantially the same result by another way, and would render "I have hope."
A glance at these three verses of petition as a whole brings out the sequence of the prayers and of their pleas. The deepest longing of the devout soul is for the shining of Gods face, the consciousness of His loving regard, and that not only because it scatters fears and foes, but because it is good to bathe in that sunshine. The next longing is for the dawning of a glad morning, which will bring to a waiting heart sweet whispers of Gods lovingkindness, as shown by outward deliverances. The night of fear has been dark and tearful, but joy comes with the morning. The next need is for guidance in the way in which a man should go, which here must be taken in the lower sense of practical direction, rather than in any higher meaning. That higher meaning follows in Psa_143:10-12; but in Psa_143:8 the suppliant asks to be shown the path by which he can secure deliverance from his foes. That deliverance is the last of his petitions. His pleas are beautiful as examples of the logic of supplication. He begins with his great need. His spirit faints, and he is on the edge of the black pit into which so much brightness and strength have gone down. The margin is slippery and crumbling; his feet are feeble. One Helper alone can hold him up. But his own exceeding need is not all that he pleads. He urges his trust, his fixing of his desires, hopes, and whole self, by a dead lift of faith, on God. That is a reason for Divine help. Anything is possible rather than that such hope should be disappointed. It cannot be that any man, who has fled for sanctuary to the asylum of Gods heart, should be dragged thence and slain before the God whose altar he has vainly clasped.
The last part (Psa_143:10-12) puts foremost the prayer for conformity of will with Gods and, though it closes with recurring prayer for outward deliverance, yet breathes desires for more inward blessings. As in the preceding verses, there are, in these closing ones, many echoes of other psalms. The sequence of petitions and pleas is instructive. To do, not merely to know, Gods will is the condition of all blessedness, and will be the deepest desire of every man who is truly Gods servant. But that obedience of heart and hand must be taught by God, and He regards our taking Him for our God as establishing a claim on Him to give all illumination of heart and all bending of will and all skill of hand which are necessary to make us doers of His will. His teaching is no mere outward communication of knowledge, but an in-breathing of power to discern, and of disposition and ability to perform, what is His will. Psa_143:10 b is best taken as a continuous sentence, embodying a prayer for guidance. The plea on which it rests remains the same, though the statement of it as a separate clause is not adopted in our translation. For the fact that Gods spirit is "good"-i.e., beneficently self-communicative-heartens us to ask, and binds Him to give, all such direction as is needed. This is not a mere repetition of the prayer in Psa_143:8, but transcends it. "A level land" (or, according to a possible suggested emendation, path) is one in which the psalmist can freely walk, unhindered in doing Gods will. His next petition goes deepest of the three, inasmuch as it asks for that new Divine life to be imparted, without which no teaching to do Gods will can be assimilated, and no circumstances, however favourable, will conduce to doing it. He may not have known all the depth which his prayer sounded; but no man who has real desires to conform heart and life to the supreme will of God but must have felt his need of a purer life to be poured into his spirit. As this prayer is deep, so its plea is high. "For Thy names sake" nothing can be pleaded of such force as that. God supremely desires the glory of His name; and, for the sake of men whose blessedness depends on their knowing and loving it, will do nothing that can dim its lustre. His name is the record of His past acts, the disclosure of that in Him which is knowable. That name contains the principles of all His future acts. He will be what He has been. He will magnify His name and the humblest, most tormented soul that can say, "Thou art my God," may be sure that Divinely given life will throb in it, and that even its lowliness may contribute to the honour of the name.
The hunted psalmist cannot but come back, in the close of his psalm, to his actual circumstances, for earthly needs do clog the souls wings. He unites righteousness and lovingkindness as cooperating powers, as in Psa_143:1 he had united faithfulness and righteousness. And as in the first verses he had blended pleas drawn from Gods character with those drawn from his relation to God, so he ends his petitions with pleading that he is Gods servant, and, as such, a fit object of Gods protection.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain This is the last of what are called the…
INTRODUCTION
This is the last of what are called the Seven Penitential Psalms. In the Hebrew it has the superscription, “A Psalm of David.” And in the Septuagint and the Vulgate there is added, “When Absalom, his son, pursued him.” Yet many expositors regard the Psalm as written in subsequent times, after the manner of David. Thus Delitzsch views it as “a later effort to copy after the Davidic Psalm-poetry.” And Moll doubts “whether such a poet as David would have so copied himself, as would be the case if the Davidic authorship were proved. One might pray in the same language, but would not repeat himself in different poems.” Perowne regards the Psalm as having been written after the exile. “The spirit and the language,” he says, “it is true, are not unworthy of David; yet the many passages borrowed from earlier Psalms make it more probable that this Psalm is the work of some later poet.” This objection loses sight of the fact that “there are many instances of repetitions in Psalms in the earlier portion of the Psalter, which are acknowledged to be those of David, and they do not occasion any difficulty.… At all events, the poem, even with the familiarity of its ideas, forms a complete whole, which is worthy of David, and which no critic need on that score hesitate to assign to him.” Alexander, Barnes, Hengstenberg, Henry, Wordsworth, and most English commentators, accept the Davidic authorship.
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“The Psalm,” says Perowne, “consists of two parts, each of which is of six verses, the conclusion of the first being marked by the Selah. The first portion contains the complaint (Psa_143:1-6); the second, the prayer founded on that complaint (Psa_143:7-12).”
Homiletically we regard the Psalm as presenting to us The cry of a distressed servant of God (Psa_143:1-6), and The prayer of a distressed servant of God (Psa_143:7-12).
THE CRY OF A DISTRESSED SERVANT OF GOD
(Psa_143:1-6)
In this cry of the troubled poet to the Lord, we have—
I. A picture of great distress.
“For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life,” &c. (Psa_143:3-4). He was distressed by—
1. Malignant outward persecution. “The enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have long been dead.” “The Psalmist,” says Moll, “evidently means to say that his enemies are intent upon his utter destruction, and that he would remain without deliverance, unless God in mercy were to take up his defence.” With what terrible malignity and untiring persistence did Saul persecute David! And how bitterly David suffered from the rebellion of his son Absalom! (2Sa_15:30.) And the servants of God still suffer from without,—from the persecutions of the world (2Ti_3:12); from the treachery of those whom they had trusted, as David did from Ahithophel; from temporal losses, &c. “In the world ye have tribulation.”
2. Insupportable inward suffering. “Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.” Thus the poet expresses
(1.) His sore sorrow. “My spirit is overwhelmed within me.” (See a sketch on Psa_142:3 a.)
(2.) His painful perplexity. “My heart within me is desolate,” “or rather, ‘is full of amazement,’ lit., ‘astonies itself;’ seeks to comprehend the mystery of its sufferings, and is ever beaten back upon itself in its perplexity: such is the full force of the reflexive conjugation here employed.”—Perowne.
The mystery of suffering is to many minds, and those not the least noble, its most painful element. The experience of the poet was not a solitary or exceptional one. Good men are still liable to outward persecution and inward anguish; they still suffer both in their circumstances and in their souls. “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you,” &c. “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord,” &c. (Heb_12:5-11).
II. An exercise indicating great wisdom.
“I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Thy works; I muse on the work of Thy hands.”
1. The distinguished mental powers exercised.
(1.) Recollection. “I remember the days of old.” The poet recalled the past; made it live again before his “mind’s eye.”
(2.) Meditation. He reflected upon the scenes which recollection reproduced; and thus endeavoured to ascertain their significance, learn their lessons, &c.
2. The great subjects on which these mental powers were exercised.
(1.) “The days of old.” What a wondrous volume is the past! How marvellous are its revelations! how instructive its contents! how wise its lessons! To this volume the poet turned his attention.
(2.) The doings of God. “All Thy works, … the work of Thy hands.” How vast a theme for meditation is this! and how sublime? how fitted to inspire the soul with confidence and hope! (For a fuller treatment of the hints given under this head, see on Psa_77:3-6; Psa_77:11-12; vol. i., pp. 431–437.) Now, in all this the Psalmist seems to act with great wisdom. In turning his mind from the restless present to the calm past, and from the cruel doings of his enemies and the sore troubles of his heart to the glorious deeds of ancient date which God had done, he adopted a course calculated to calm his fears, strengthen his faith in God, arouse his courage, and inspire his hope.
III. An appeal of great power.
“Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my supplications,” &c. This appeal is—
1. Directed to the best Being. “O Jehovah, hear my prayer,” &c. He never turns away His ear from the cry of the troubled heart; He is merciful and gracious; He is able to succour all suffering and needy souls; and “His love is as great as His power.”
2. For real blessings. He solicits from Jehovah—
(1.) Acceptance of his prayer. “Hear my prayer, O Jehovah; give ear to my supplications: in Thy faithfulness answer me, and in Thy righteousness.” No utterance of man escapes the Divine ear. The Psalmist prays not for a mere hearing, but for a gracious audience, and a favourable answer to his appeal.
(2.) Forgiveness of his sins. “And enter not into judgment with. Thy servant; for in Thy sight no man living is righteous.” The poet here manifests—(α) His consciousness of sin. “He traces his suffering to his sin: the malice of his enemies is the rod of God’s chastisement, calling him to repentance.” (β) His conviction of the Divine holiness. He who appears quite righteous before man, appears sinful before the infinite purity of God. “What is man, that he should be clean?” &c. (Job_15:14-16). “How can man be justified with God?” &c. (Job_25:4-6). (γ) His belief in the Divine judgment of man. “Enter not into judgment,” &c. “God shall bring every work into judgment,” &c. (δ) His earnest desire for Divine forgiveness. The petition that God would not enter into judgment with him implies his longing for mercy and pardon of his sins. Here is a need which is common to all men in this world. Our hope must ever be in the forbearing and forgiving mercy of God.
(3.) Deliverance from his enemies and distresses. This, though not directly expressed in this section of the Psalm, is the great object of the Psalmist’s appeal to God. Such were the blessings which the distressed poet sought, &c.
3. Enforced by the strongest pleas.
(1.) The sore need of the suppliant (Psa_143:3-4).
(2.) The relation sustained by the suppliant to God. “Thy servant.” The phrase, “Thy servant,” in Psa_143:2, “is not a mere oriental circumlocution for the person speaking, and not merely a term of polite address,” as appears from the way in which it is used in Psa_143:12. “The expression, ‘with Thy servant,’ contains,” says Hengstenberg, “the grounding of the prayer; with His servants God cannot go into judgment; He chastens them indeed, but He does not give them over to death.”
(3.) The revealed character of God. “In Thy faithfulness answer me, and in Thy righteousness.” “The faithfulness of God,” says Moll, “is His faithfulness to His promises, or the truthfulness of His nature, in conformity with which everything that He has spoken or ordained is reliable and unchangeable. His righteousness is the corresponding course of action by which His ordinances are firmly established and fulfilled in the world, so that there is rendered to every man according to his works. God’s faithfulness and righteousness are thus assured, as in 1Jn_1:9, and the repenting receive the forgiveness of their sins, but the impenitent, judgment.” This is the most powerful plea that we can use with God. He cannot be untrue to His promise or to His character. “He cannot deny Himself.”
IV. A desire of great fervour.
“I stretch forth my hands unto Thee; my soul thirsteth after Thee as a thirsty land.” Notice:—
1. The Object of his desire. “Unto Thee; … after Thee.” “Observe how he binds himself to God alone, cuts off every other hope from his soul, and, in short, makes his very need a chariot wherewith to mount up to God.” (On this and on the next point see on Psa_42:1-2; Psa_63:1; vol. i. pp. 206, 207, 314.)
2. The fervour of his desire. “I stretch forth my hands unto Thee,” “as the weary child stretches forth its hands to its mother, that on her bosom it may be hushed to rest.”—Perowne. “My soul thirsteth after Thee as a thirsty land.” “As a parched land,” says Hengstenberg, “stands related to the rain, so my soul to Thee, and to Thy salvation.” And Calvin: “In great heat we see the earth cracking and gaping, as though with open mouth she asked for the rain from heaven.” So fervently the soul of the poet craved the help and joy of the presence of God.
CONCLUSION.—Exhibit the Psalmist in this cry to God in his distress as an example to the servants of God in times of
(1) severe spiritual suffering, and
(2) tribulation from without.
DIVINE JUDGMENT DEPRECATED
(Psa_143:2)
Let us consider—
I. The truths which are here implied.
1. That the Psalmist was conscious of sin. So far as his enemies were concerned he felt that they were persecuting him without cause; he was innocent in relation to them; but in relation to God he felt that he was not innocent. The persecutions of his enemies he regarded as the chastisement of God because of his sins.
2. That the Lord is the Judge of man. The poet regards Him as having authority to enter into judgment with His creatures. This truth is frequently expressed in the Psalms. “God is Judge Himself.” “God is the Judge; He putteth down one,” &c. “Lift up Thyself, Thou Judge of the earth,” &c. “The Lord will judge His people,” &c.
3. That the Lord is a righteous Judge. He cannot pass by unrepented sin. If sin be not forgiven and forsaken, He will visit with His judgments because of it, and His judgments are true and righteous. “He shall judge the world in righteousness; He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.” “He shall judge the people righteously.” “He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth.”
II. The petition which is here offered.
“Enter not into judgment with Thy servant.” This is a petition for—
1. Forbearing mercy. It is a request that God will not call him to render a strict account for his offences against Him. “If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” We need the forbearance of God, because of our imperfections, omissions, and transgressions.
2. Forgiving mercy. Though not directly expressed, this is sought by implication in this petition. Even a faithful servant of the Lord needs the forgiveness of sins arising from remaining depravity and moral weakness. And it is an encouragement to know that “there is forgiveness with Him; … with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption.” “He will abundantly pardon.” Freely, graciously, and completely He forgives all those who in sincere penitence seek Him.
III. The reasons which are her urged.
“With Thy servant; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.” Perowne more correctly translates: “For before Thee no man living is righteous.” Here are two pleas by which the Psalmist strengthens his petition—
1. The universal sinfulness of man. “Before Thee no man living is righteous.” “No one of the race, no matter what his rank, his outward conduct, his gentleness, his amiableness, his kindness—no matter how just and upright he may be towards his fellow-men,” he is not righteous before the holy God. Before man we may appear righteous; but not before a Being of infinite holiness. Most clear is the testimony of the Bible on this point. “There is no man than sinneth not.” “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” “Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” “There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not.” “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Hence if God were swift to judge and strict to punish, all men must perish.
2. The relation of the Psalmist to God. “Thy servant.” David was a distinguished servant of God, yet he felt that he was a sinner before Him. Even a sincere and faithful servant of God cannot stand before Him in judgment; cannot plead any merits of his own, or appeal to God on the ground of His justice. “When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants;” &c. But when a man can sincerely speak of himself to the Lord as His servant, he has good ground upon which to base his hope of protection and salvation from Him in His mercy. “When a man resolves with heart and soul to be and remain a servant of God, God will not forsake him; but where He is, there will also His servant be.”
CONCLUSION:—
1. If a true servant of God cannot stand before Him in judgment, how shall the wicked appear at His bar? “The ungodly are like the chaff which the wind driveth away,” &c. (Psa_1:4-6).
2. Let every man seek an interest in the infinite mercy of God. “Let the wicked forsake his way,” &c. (Isa_55:7). “Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord,” &c. (Jer_3:12). “God is rich in mercy.” “The Lord is merciful and gracious,” &c. (Psa_103:8-12). “Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity,” &c. (Mic_7:18-19).
THE PRAYER OF A DISTRESSED SERVANT OF GOD
(Psa_143:7-12)
Notice:—
I. The blessings which are here sought.
The Psalmist first solicits the Divine favour in general, and a speedy answer to his prayer: “Hear me speedily, O Lord; my spirit faileth: hide not Thy face from me,” &c. (Psa_143:7). He then proceeds to specify certain blessings in particular, and to entreat the Lord to bestow them. He asks for—
1. The lovingkindness of God. “Cause me to hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning.” It is a petition for an early assurance of the mercy of God. Divine lovingkindness is the root of which all other blessings are branches—the fountain from which all other blessings flow. It is also the crown of all other blessings. “Thy lovingkindness is better than life.”
2. Deliverance from his distresses.
(1.) From outward enemies. “Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies.… And of Thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul.” Perowne translates: “And of Thy lovingkindness cut off mine enemies, and destroy all the adversaries of my soul.” On this verse Barnes says, “The destruction of the wicked is a favour to the universe; just as the arrest and punishment of a robber or a pirate is a mercy to society, to mankind; just as every prison is a display of mercy as well as of justice.—mercy to society at large; justice to the offenders.” There is truth in this; but the prayer for the destruction of our enemies is not becoming in the lips of a Christian. “I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you,” &c. (Mat_5:44-45). “Bless them which persecute you,” &c. “If thine enemy hunger, feed him,” &c. Such is the Christian rule. But we may petition God for deliverance from our adversaries.
(2.) From inward sufferings. “For Thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.” The poet was in sore distress of soul; he looks to the faithfulness and mercy of God for deliverance from the same. Let the godly in all times of spiritual trial and sorrow direct their prayer to the same gracious Being. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee,” &c.
3. Inward and spiritual blessings. In the view of the Psalmist his salvation requires both external deliverances and internal communications of Divine grace. “The way of deliverance,” says Moll, “is to the servant of God no external one, but a way of salvation, which the commandments of God point out, in which the Spirit of God, who is good, is the Guide.” So the Psalmist petitions for—
(1.) Divine teaching;—(α.) That he might know the way which God would have him to pursue. “Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk.” Even the most experienced and holy of men need the direction of God in life. (β.) That he might do the will of God. “Teach me to do Thy will.” Correct knowledge alone cannot save man from sin or suffering; correct conduct must be added thereto. Mere theories, however true and good, never raised a life into sanctity and strength. To do this, theories must be reduced to practice—embodied in life. Most needful and important is the petition, “Teach me to do Thy will.”
(2.) Divine help. “Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.” Perowne: “ ‘Let Thy good Spirit lead me in a plain country,’ lit., ‘in a level land,’ or ‘on level ground,’ where there is no fear of stumbling and falling.” Conant translates: “Let Thy good Spirit guide me on even ground.” The poet desires to be led into a way of safety. It is a request not simply for enlightenment; but for the Holy Spirit’s help, His guiding, guarding, and strengthening influence. Hengstenberg’s note is to the point: “David’s proper regard is directed to the obtaining of deliverance, which is the object of all his prayers in the preceding and following verses. But he shows himself throughout deeply penetrated with the conviction, that the foundation of the deliverance is righteousness—that it never can come, where this foundation is wanting, but that it of necessity must come where this foundation exists. He knew, also, that nothing could be done here by one’s own power (Comp., for example, Psalms 19; Psalms 51) Hence he prays here, expanding his views farther, that the Lord would (internally) teach him to do His will, convinced that this first gift must necessarily draw the second in its train, that of salvation; so he prays that the good Spirit of God would make him good, and consequently would guide him upon the path of salvation.… The good Spirit works good in those who partake of the gift.”
(3.) Divine life. “Quicken me, O Lord, for Thy name’s sake.” Here the poet prays for an increase of spiritual life and strength. In the way of the Divine commands there is salvation; and the teaching, the guidance, the life, and the strength which are necessary to tread that way, God alone can bestow. Like the Psalmist, let us seek them from Him.
II. The grounds upon which these blessings are sought.
1. The sore need of the Psalmist. “Hear me speedily, O Lord; my spirit faileth; hide not Thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.” “The pit” is the grave. Apart from the help of God, the Psalmist despairs even of life itself. The greatness of his misery is a touching and forcible appeal to the tender and infinite mercy of God.
2. The personal relations of the Psalmist to God.
(1.) Confidence in God. In various ways does the Psalmist give expression to this: “For in Thee do I trust.… I flee unto Thee to hide me.” Margin: “Heb.,‘Hide me with Thee.’ ” Perowne: “ ‘Unto Thee have I fled to hide me;” lit., ‘Unto Thee have I hidden (myself).’ But the phrase is very peculiar, and its meaning doubtful.” Conant: “With Thee I hide myself.” “The notions of covering and refuge,” says Moll, “are united in the intermediate one of hiding.” The expression undoubtedly indicates strong confidence. (Comp. Psa_27:5; Psa_31:20.) Hengstenberg says admirably, “The allusion points in this direction, that God must conceal those who conceal themselves with Him.” Could He fail to deliver one who so utterly confided in Him?
(2.) Prayer to God. “For I lift up my soul unto Thee.” This language denotes earnest desire and confident expectation. “Prayer is the ascent of the soul to God.” “Where the soul is really directed towards God, it is full of seeking for help, and longing for salvation.” “To lift up the soul to God is to begin the lifting of the entire man out of all need.” Could God disregard such a desire, or disappoint such an expectation as this?
(3.) Consecration to God. “For Thou art my God; … for I am Thy servant.” If we have sincerely taken the Lord for our God, and consecrated ourselves to Him as His servants, we may be sure that He will guide and defend us, sustain and save us. (See on Psa_143:2.)
3. The revealed character of God. The Psalmist pleads
(1.) His righteousness. “For Thy righteousness’ sake, bring my soul out of trouble.” (See notes on Psa_143:1.)
(2.) His grace. “And of Thy mercy cut off mine enemies.” He pleads that, in the lovingkindness which He had declared to His people, He would interpose for his deliverance.
(3.) His honour. “Quicken me, O Lord, for Thy name’s sake.” This is a bold and powerful plea. Moses used it with remarkable results (Exo_32:11-14; Num_14:13-20). So also did Joshua: “What wilt Thou do unto Thy great name?” (Jos_7:6 seq.) And frequently David urged it with God. Assuredly God will not fail to maintain the honour of His holy name. Thus cogent are the arguments with which the Psalmist entreats God for salvation.
III. The urgency with which these blessings are sought. “Hear me speedily, O Lord; my spirit faileth,” &c. Perowne translates: “Make haste to answer me, O Jehovah; my spirit faileth,” &c. “Matters had now come with the Psalmist to an extremity. Where this is the case with the servants of God, there the Divine help cannot be longer withheld.” The poet manifests similar urgency in the petition, “Cause me to hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning,” i.e., soon, speedily. “The idea is not that He would wait for another day, but that He would interpose as the very first act,—as when one enters on a day.”
A prayer like unto this, with such powerful pleas and such urgency of entreaty, is itself a sign of the nearness of the interposition and salvation of the Lord.
A GOOD MAN’S PRAYER FOR GRACE AND GUIDANCE
(Psa_143:8)
Value of the Book of Psalms as presenting a test of religious character and experience. Shows what religion is—what religion can do: what it once was, it always is—what it has once done, it can always do.
I. David prays for God’s distinguishing favour as a God of grace. “Cause me to hear Thy lovingkindness,” &c.
1. The blessing itself is very emphatic. “Thy lovingkindness.” Not God’s general benevolence as it shines in nature; not His general protection as it is seen in Providence; but His special manifestation of mercy as it shines in the covenant of grace. “Remember me, O Lord, with the favour of Thy people.” “Look Thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as Thou usest to do unto those that love Thy name.”
This he desires beyond created good—beyond his crown as a monarch—beyond his eminent distinction as a man of genius—beyond his highest estimation as a gifted prophet, he values God’s favour; just as Moses did “the goodwill of Him that dwelt in the bush” beyond “the chief things of the ancient mountains and the precious things of the lasting hills.” These desires are common to all the saints. In New Testament phrase—the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Spirit. Judge of your character by your habitual desires.
2. The period in which it is desired. “In the morning.” It is sought first in point of time—first in point of importance. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God,” &c. “In the morning” of the day, that we may begin it with God. “In the morning” of the week—the Sabbath. “In the morning” of life—youth. “In the morning” of the resurrection. “Cause me:” Divine influence needful.
II. For God’s daily guidance as a God of Providence. “Cause me to know the way,” &c.
1. Prompted by a sense of our weakness and ignorance. How much we need a guide! We have as much need of daily guidance as of daily bread. We cannot get safely through a world of sin and danger without the Presence and Grace of Christ. It is not a matter of indifference to the Christian how he passes through life. Not enough to say, “What shall I eat?” &c.; but, “Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us.” The soul has wants as well as the body. The Christian has moral interests to secure; he has a race to run—a battle to fight—a prize to gain—a God to glorify—a soul to be lost or saved. He is in a world where the great destroyer has his seat. He knows that the interests of others are linked in with his own: cannot stand or fall alone. Hence he prays, “Cause me to know,” &c.
2. Prompted by knowledge of the character of Christ as a Guide. Wise, powerful, gracious. “The Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.” Having had large experience of the conduct of sinners.
III. For the constant acceptance of his devotions as a prayer-hearing God.
“In Thee do I trust; … I lift up my soul unto Thee.” This is partly a profession of his daily faith and experience, and partly a plea for the exercise of God’s mercy. “In Thee do I trust:” Thou wilt not disappoint.
God is a perfect circle of wonders and miracles; a good perfectly adapted to our moral nature. They who know anything of Him are anxious to know more.—Samuel Thodey.
DIVINE GUIDANCE
(Psa_143:8)
“Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto Thee.”
Life is like a heath with paths stretching in various directions. Many appear pleasant and safe that lead astray. Man is often bewildered. He often chooses wrongly. How important this prayer.
I. This was the prayer of one who felt his need of Divine guidance.
Many will be their own guides. They are self-reliant; like wayward children, or foolish Alpine travellers, forgetting their own ignorance and liability to error. Some are wise; they will not take a step without God. They feel their need of His guiding hand. This sense of need may arise—
1. From seeing the errors of others. Men, however, are seldom wise enough to learn from the sorrows that attend the wanderings of others. Second-hand experiences do not teach much.
2. From bitter experiences gained in self-chosen paths. God does not always save us from erroneous ways, but often through them. Our freedom is part of our discipline.
3. From Divine enlightenment. Seldom will a man be humble enough to seek God until he sees what he is by the light of God’s Spirit. Bitter experiences fail to teach us without grace.
II. This was the prayer of one who believed that God had a way marked out for him.
Life is not a pathless wilderness. God has a way laid down for every man. He regards the individual life. Laws are general, but the progress of each life is a speciality. There is a way in which every man should walk.
1. This it true morally. Right is straight, wrong is zigzag. Right is distinct from wrong,—a Divine way, clear to those who will see it.
2. This is true intellectually. Truth is the Divine path for the intellect. Truth, as a narrow way, lies often in the midst of the devious windings of error; but they who are guided by God shall not fail to discover it.
3. This is true circumstantially. From the cradle to the grave God has a way for every man. The prayerless miss it; the prayerful find it.
III. This was the prayer of one who believed that God could reveal His way to him.
The days of Divine revelations are not over. “There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding.” He causes us to know His way—
1. By His Holy Spirit. God is nigh to every man. He can act directly upon each man’s spirit. He often leads men when they know it not. His saints are often conspicuously guided.
2. By His Word. Its instruct, its revelations enlighten, us examples encourage and warn us.
3. By the incarnate life of His Son. He is the way. Those who follow Him do not walk in darkness.
4. By the force of events. Way after way is hedged up, and only God’s way is left to us. By this God causes us to know the way wherein we should walk.
IV. This was the prayer of one who had placed himself in the right attitude to receive Divine guidance.
Attitude is important. Some are listless, others fanatical, others unbelieving. This was—
1. An attitude of expectancy. Faith was stretching out the soul-hands to receive (Psa_143:6). Every faculty was awake and eager. God would find a receptive nature, a waiting heart.
2. The attitude of ardent desire. Desire had raised the soul out of its ordinay life. It was rising to meet God. It was lifted up to take hold of Him.
3. The attitude of importunate prayer.
He would not be denied the light he sought. He would continue before Him until the mists rolled away, and the Divine path shone out as light in the midst of obscurity. Such an attitude is sure to obtain a knowledge of God’s way.
Learn:—
1. To distrust self.
2. To take no step until God makes known His way.
3. For in His way there will be found safely, peace, and ultimately heaven.—W. O. LILLEY. From “The Homiletic Quarterly.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain The text may be said to comprise every other…
Psa 143:8
The text may be said to comprise every other prayer. If God gives His servant to "know the way wherein he should walk," and strength to walk in it, peace, and order, and liberty, and joy will soon come. Life is a daily difficulty. Think of the number of things that are to be believed, that are to be renounced, that are to be examined, that are to be distinguished in themselves and from other things, that are to be tentatively dealt with, that are to be done, that are to be left undone, that are to be waited for, that are to be suffered. All these are included in the "way wherein we should walk."
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I. Opinions and beliefs. There can be no living way for a man that does not involve these. We are bound to form them, and the point is that there is very great difficulty in forming some of them or in keeping them when we have them. Any one of us, if we will, may be of them that believe to the saving of the soul. How? By bringing the whole case fully and earnestly before God. If we come really to Him, we have solved the difficulty, we have come into the new and living way, and God will make that way more and more plain before our face; whereas if we abide among the exterior things—examining, considering, comparing, putting this opinion against that, and working the whole matter simply as a high intellectual problem, without ever making the last and highest appeal—we have no certainty of a good and true issue.
II. Conduct. In respect of conduct also we find life to be a scene of constant difficulty. Even those who know the way they should go, so far as it consists of beliefs, convictions, principles, find it still in their practice to be a way of continual difficulty. What can we do? We can pray. We can use this text and get the benefits it carries. The solution of all difficulty, be it what it may, is "to lift up the soul to God." God is the God of peace; and to lift up the soul to Him is to rise out of storm into calm, is to leave the self-made troubles of life beneath us while we mount up on eagles’ wings into His eternal and illimitable tranquillity.
A. Raleigh, From Dawn to the Perfect Day, p. 190.
References: Psa 143:8.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 564. Psa 143:9.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 169.
Psa 143:10
There are two kinds of active obedience: one which is called negative, which consists in refraining from something because God has commanded us to refrain, but which can still be called active, because it ranges from action, and the other because it lies in the direct doing of what we are ordered.
I. All our obedience has to do with the activities of love. (1) Towards God Himself they are either acts of trustful affection, such as the casting of the soul upon God; or acts of worship and adoration, such as prayer and praise, whether public or private, and the holy sacraments; or work done for the extension of God’s kingdom upon the earth; or any action which is performed simply for the glory of God. All those are instances of active obedience done direct to God. (2) Towards man they are acts of forgiveness; acts of sympathy, either in joy or sorrow; acts of kindness or charity; acts of submission to constituted authority.
II. But to make any of these "active obedience" two things are absolutely necessary. (1) They must have a far end in God Himself; (2) they must not be mere feelings.
III. Notice a few rules for active obedience. (1) Clear away the dust which is always gathering round a command to mystify and confound it. (2) Be sure of your motive. (3) Obey trustingly. (4) There must be alacrity; it is no obedience that does not feel, "I will run in the way of Thy commandments." (5) Remember that all obedience to God must be like what the Jews were required to give to God: a whole burnt-offering. (6) Your obedience must be your liberty and your joy.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 10th scries, p. 240.
Psa 143:10
Three things David had evidently learned which it would be well for us if we had never forgotten: (1) the kindness of the Spirit; (2) a certain "leading;" (3) that leading into a better, and truer, and more beautiful state of things, which he calls the "land of uprightness." It was a true principle when David laid the base of everything in the kindness of the Spirit. It was as when we say, "God is love," and feel that we have got down to the very rock of the foundation of everything. Just so it stands here in its own grand sufficiency, "Thy Spirit is good." And there was a deep acquaintance with the philosophy of all moral truth when David brought together a Spirit of kindness and a "land of uprightness." For what other than the Spirit of kindness ever does lead any one into those open fields of truth and honesty?
I. Perhaps we have not sufficiently considered the lovingness of the character of the Third Person in the Holy Trinity. To the minds of many, who still recognise His complete personality, He is as One almost passionless. To some He is associated with the thoughts of reproof and sternness. The chief and highest name of the Holy Spirit is "Comforter," and not a comforter, as though He were one among many, but exclusively so that whatever comfort there is in all the world dates itself in Him: "the Comforter.’’ His very title, twice repeated, is "Spirit of love," and His first-fruit and all His fruits—for each fruit in order is only the expression of the first; it is only the same grace placed in a different combination—"love."
II. The Holy Ghost is a great Leader. He guides into all truth: truth of thought first, truth of feeling next, truth of action afterwards. His leadings tend to the land of uprightness. And where is that? Truth’s land must be Christ’s land, because Christ is truth; and therefore the Gospel must be "the land of uprightness."
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 2nd series, p. 343.
Psa 143:10
The foundations of the religious character which was to be perfected in the mind of Christ were laid in faith in God and in the recognition of the supremacy of the moral law. Through ages and generations the Bible sets before us the slow growth, the unfolding and ripening, of this character, till, after long preparation and many steps, and still with many shortcomings, it became such that when Jesus Christ came it was able and qualified to welcome Him; to recognise, however dimly, His Divine glory; to follow Him; and from strength to strength and grace to grace, to rise to something of His likeness. We have the full birth of religious affection in the Psalms and of religious thought and reason in the Prophets.
I. The Psalms bring before us, in all its fulness and richness, the devotional element of the religious character. They are the first great teachers and patterns of prayer. And they show this side of the religious character not, as hitherto, in outline, but in varied and finished detail, in all its compass and living and spontaneous force.
II. This immense variety of mood, and subject, and occasion, with which reverence and hope are always combined, is the further point in the work of the Book of. Psalms. It is a vast step in the revealing of man to man. It shows what indeed God is to the soul in all its many moods. The soul cannot be alone without Him; He is the centre of attraction to all His creatures, the fountain and the loadstone of all love, high above the highest, yet humbling Himself "to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth." (1) A profound and immovable belief in God’s righteousness is the faith which dominates the whole Psalter. (2) With this faith in the soul has come the stirring and enlightening conscience. We see in the Psalms how it has learned to look into itself, how it has learned the need of the inward watch, the inward struggle, the inward self-disclosure. (3) But if the Psalms have taught us the language of penitence, what ever equalled before the Day of Pentecost the freedom, the joy, of their worship? In the Book of Psalms we see the growing up in the religious character of these high gifts of the Spirit of God: devotion, worship, self-knowledge.
III. The great and characteristic ideas of the Psalms reappear in the Prophets, but in the Psalms they come in devotion addressed to God; the Prophets turn them back upon men, and expand and develop them in instruction, and encouragement, and rebuke. (1) Ezekiel is emphatically the prophet of the moral significance of the Law and of personal responsibility. (2) In the awful volume of Isaiah, in which thought and imagination are allowed to master the vision of the world, wherein is embodied all that most concerns man in the present and the future, and in which the tremendous severity of judgment mingles so strangely with a gracious and inexpressible sweetness which even still takes us by surprise—through all these Divinely inspired utterances we may trace, with a fulness, and richness, and depth unequalled in the Old Testament, the personal lineaments of one who not only by faith and self-discipline, but also by thought, and reason, and knowledge, had become fitted to be one of the company of that Redeemer whose person, whose coming, whose life of suffering and glory, he was going to foretell, and in whose perfection man was to be made perfect.
R. W. Church, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 129 (see also Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 201).
References: Psa 143:10.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1519; G. Bainton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 198; S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 163; G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 219; Preacher’s Lantern, vol. i., p. 504.
Psa 143:12
I. What goes to make that Christlike title a "servant"—a servant of God and a servant of man for His sake? It was promised in your first and great covenant in life that you would be always a servant of God; but before you really take your place in God’s household, there must be a special voluntary act on your part, which is your engagement. The first question then is, Have you, by a definite act of your own will, given yourself to God, to be His servant?
II. This done, the next question is, What marks a servant? The proper word would be "slave." It is the part of a true servant to do anything which his master wishes him to do. He is ready for everything. The reason is that he works from love; and therefore all he does he does with a will, pleasantly, lovingly, faithfully.
III. Does God give His servants wages for what they do? Yes, always. Salvation is not wages; heaven is not wages. Where then are the wages of good works? (1) Very often providences, sometimes happy ones, sometimes bitter ones, but both wages; (2) conscience—a good conscience; (3) growth: more grace, more light, more peace, more faith, and more of the presence of Christ; (4) and in heaven the degrees, higher measures and capacities of glory awarded according to the service done.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 12th series, p. 61.
Psa 143:12
I. We have nothing to do with the historical sense of these and other like passages; it is not, and cannot be, in their historical and human meaning that the Psalms are the perpetual storehouse of prayer and thanksgiving for the people of God in every age. But the spiritual meaning of these words expresses an eternal truth which we should do ill not to remember. We have enemies; we have those that vex our soul; the Psalmist spoke a language which every one of God’s servants may echo; and these enemies are bringing our soul every day nigh unto hell.
II. These words are of importance, because we see that if we are indolent or slumbering, we have an enemy who is wakeful; that as we hope for the help of God’s Spirit, so we have against us the power of the spirit of evil; that, with a working mysterious indeed and incomprehensible, as is the working of God’s Spirit, no less, yet with a fruit clearly manifest, there is an influence busy in undoing every work of grace in our souls, in driving away every thought of penitence or of love, in instigating every evil desire, in deepening every fit of spiritual slumber. The need which we have of this prayer makes it no less needful that our labour and our watchfulness should be in proportion to it.
T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. v., p. 331.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain The plea of righteousness where Jehovah alone is righteous.
The plea of righteousness where Jehovah alone is righteous.
A psalm of David.
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This then is the principle of the first psalm here. It is the plea of righteousness in the mouth of faith, which owns that none is righteous except God alone, and which dares to say, in the consciousness of such ill desert, "in Thy faithfulness answer me; in Thy righteousness." This the Cross makes simple for us now. The Old Testament saint could not of course see this, save dimly through the sacrificial shadows: Israel will see it when they look upon the face of Him whom they have pierced.
1. It is still prayer that we have here, until the closing verses. "Jehovah, hear my prayer; give ear unto my supplications: in Thy faithfulness answer me -in Thy righteousness!" And then follows the confession: "And enter not into judgment with Thy servant: for before Thee shall no living man be justified."
2. We have then the plow that God has used with them to bring them into the exercises which in the end will be so fruitful. As in the hundred and forty-first psalm we heard them crying as from the mouth of Sheol, so here the psalmist speaks as one among the dwellers in darkness -even those long dead. But he is not indifferent, but his spirit overwhelmed, and his heart desolate; though he carries with him the remembrance of days of old, when God had manifestly wrought, and for Him his soul cried out as a thirsty land for rain.
3. Here then he takes refuge. There is for him no other hope. Did Jehovah hide His face, he would be like one of those going down to the pit. But as one who trusted in Him; he prayed to see early His loving-kindness, and to learn the way also in which to walk. In Jehovah he hid himself, and sought to be taught the will of Him who was his God. The spirit of faith and of obedience always go together.
4. In the last two verses we have the experience anticipated of Jehovah’s intervention. He will act in righteousness -in consistency with His nature and His Name: thus revival and deliverance are confidently looked for. All Israel’s enemies will be destroyed, the nation being owned as Jehovah’s servant in a sense which never could have been before.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain A late Ps., though ascribed to David, consisting mainly…
A late Ps., though ascribed to David, consisting mainly of appropriate reminiscences from earlier Pss.
2. Shall no man living, etc.] perhaps, 'is no man living righteous.'
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3. That have been long dead] better, 'that are for ever dead': cp. Lam_3:6.
4. Is.. overwhelmed] better, 'faints.'
Is desolate] better, 'is bewildered.'
6. Selah] see on Psa_3:4; Psalms 7. Hear] better, 'answer': cp. Psa_28:1.
10. 'Let thy good spirit lead me in an even' (i.e. safe, peaceful) 'country': cp. Psa_27:11.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain Psalm 143-145
Psalm 143-145
In Psa 143:1-12 the enemy is mentioned again, the enemy who pursued David. “For the enemy has persecuted my soul; he has smitten my life down to the ground; he has made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have long been dead.” How this again reminds us of the death experience of the pious remnant when the man of sin, the Antichrist will rule in Israel’s land. Prayer for deliverance follows. Hear me speedily--Hide not Thy face from me--Cause me to hear Thy lovingkindness--Deliver me, O LORD, from mine enemies, I flee unto Thee to hide me!
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The next Psalm riseth higher. Faith lays hold on God. Israel, as David did, will look in faith to Him who has the power to deliver His trusting ones. “My Goodness, and my Fortress; my high tower and my deliverer; my shield and He in whom I trust; who subdueth the peoples under me” (literal translation). They acknowledge before Him their nothingness, days like shadows passing away. We see how this prayer too brings the final days of the age and the coming deliverance by the intervention from above before us. “Bow Thy heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains and they shall smoke. Cast forth lightning, and scatter them. Shoot out Thine arrows, and destroy them. Send Thine hand from above; rid me and deliver me out of the great waters (the great tribulation) from the hands of the strangers (the Gentiles). Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood” (Psa 144:5-8). Then bursts forth the new song which anticipates the answer for this great prayer, the answer which the coming Lord brings to His suffering people, by His manifestation in power and in glory. Psa 144:12-15 anticipate the days of earthly blessings when the King has returned and rules in righteousness.
Psa 145:1-21 is a magnificent outburst of praise. While it is David’s praise, it is also the praise of Him who is the leader of all the praises of His people, the Son of David, our Lord. He is singing praises in the great congregation (Psa 22:25) composed of His redeemed people Israel and the nations of the earth. It is an alphabetical Psalm, all letters of the Hebrew alphabet are given except one, the letter “nun.” The Numerical Bible gives the following helpful suggestion: “I cannot but conclude that the gap is meant to remind us that in fact the fullness of praise is not complete without other voices which are not found here; and that those missing voices are those of the Church and the heavenly saints.” In the book of Revelation we have the record of this full praise. See Chapter 5 and the fourfold Hallelujah in the beginning of Chapter 19. In this Psalm we find the celebration of the power of God displayed in judgments and in the deliverance of His people. Here we read likewise of His great lovingkindness in “The LORD is gracious and full of compassion; slow to anger and of great mercy.” See Exo 34:6-7. He has come to dwell in the midst of His people. The kingdom has come and His saints speak now of the glory of that kingdom. They will talk of His Power. “Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.” The mercies of the Lord displayed in that coming kingdom are the subject of the praise in Psa 145:14-21. We learn now why this great praise Psalm was preceded by Psalms of distress and prayer. It is in remembrance of the sufferings of His trusting people in the last days, and to magnify the Lord, who alone will save them and that unto the praise of His Name.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain A Prayer of Repentance and a Sigh for Mercy.
A Prayer of Repentance and a Sigh for Mercy.
A psalm of David, which sets forth the fundamental facts concerning sin and grace, for which reason it was reckoned by Luther with the Pauline psalms.
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v. 1. Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my supplications, in which he implores the Lord’s help and mercy; in Thy faithfulness, by which God keeps His promises, answer me, and in Thy righteousness, which He shows in relieving those who walk before Him in obedience to His holy will.
v. 2. And enter not into judgment with Thy servant, dealing with him according to His strict and absolute justice; for in Thy sight, before the all seeing eye of the omniscient God, shall no man living be justified, not one human being can stand before God in his own righteousness, allege the perfection of his life and conduct. It is only by realizing and acknowledging his sinfulness without reserve and throwing himself entirely upon the mercy of the Lord that any person can expect justification, namely, by means of the righteousness of Christ imputed to him.
v. 3. For the enemy hath persecuted my soul, seeking to obtain the highest good which he possessed; he hath smitten my life down to the ground, almost succeeding in his evil intention; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead, that is, David’s enemies intended his utter destruction, they wanted him to sleep the sleep of eternal death, and he realized that he would remain without deliverance, unless God Himself in mercy would take up his defense.
v. 4. Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me, being faint by reason of the long duration of his trials; my heart within me is desolate, not only forsaken, but almost rigid and motionless with fear and terror.
v. 5. I remember the days of old, when Jehovah was so evidently on his side; I meditate on all Thy works, thinking over the many manifestations of God’s mercy and salvation in his life; I muse on the work of Thy hands, God’s guidance being so evident in the history of Israel.
v. 6. I stretch forth my hands unto Thee, in a gesture denoting both helplessness and absolute reliance upon the mercy of the Lord; my soul thirsteth after Thee as a thirsty land, languishing with desire for His help, as a thirsty land for rain. Selah.
v. 7. Hear me speedily, O Lord, for haste was essential in this great emergency; my spirit faileth, almost consumed with languishing. Hide not Thy face from me, in anger, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit; repudiated by God, there is only one alternative, eternal destruction. With this fate following an angry demonstration on the part of God, the psalmist once more turns to Him in a fervent appeal,
v. 8. Cause me to hear Thy loving-kindness in the morning, so that with the dawn of the new day the night of tribulation might be definitely ended; for in Thee do I trust, Psa 90:14. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, that which finds the full approval of the Lord; for I lift up my soul unto Thee, in longing for salvation and in firm confidence of faith.
v. 9. Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies; I flee unto Thee to hide me, that is, he flees to the Lord as his true Refuge, seeking safety with Him alone. In possession of salvation, however, the Lord’s servant desires to be in possession of sanctification also.
v. 10. Teach me to do Thy will, to conduct himself in all his dealings in accordance with God’s good pleasure; for Thou art my God, and the heart of the believer, joined with that of his heavenly Father, his highest good, in the most intimate fellowship, seeks only to conform in his whole life to the standard of God’s holy will. Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness, or, "Thy good Spirit," whose work is done in the hearts of the believers through the means of grace, "lead me in a level land," where the roads have been prepared by the Lord Himself, Isa 26:7; Psa 23:3.
v. 11. Quicken me, O Lord, for Thy name’s sake, in order that the name of God, especially His mercy and love, might be magnified in consequence of His act of deliverance; for Thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble, out of all distress and tribulation with which David was then contending.
v. 12. And of Thy mercy, both by reason of His mercy and in order to make it known, cut off mine enemies and destroy all them that afflict my soul, by oppressions as described in this psalm; for I am Thy servant, and in helping him the Lord would magnify His own glory. Thus the hope of all believers and their constant prayer is in the mercy of God.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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A psalm of David
Possible meanings are 1) David wrote the psalm or 2) the psalm is about David or 3) the psalm is in the style of David's psalms.
Hear my prayer
The words "my prayer" are a metonym for the person who is praying. See how these words are translated in Psalms 39:12. AT: "Listen to me as I pray to you" or "Be willing to do what I ask you to do" (See: Metonymy)
Do not enter into judgment
To "enter into judgment" is an idiom that means to pronounce judgment. AT: "Please do not judge" or "I beg you not to judge" (See: Idiom)
your servant
The psalmist speaks of himself as if he were speaking of another person. AT: "me" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
in your sight no one is righteous
Here sight represents judgment or evaluation. AT: "in your judgment no one is righteous" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
psalm
David
pray
Yahweh
plea
faithful
righteous
judge
servant
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Ps 143 In this lament, the psalmist feels overwhelmed…
Ps 143 In this lament, the psalmist feels overwhelmed by constant harassment from his foes, so he turns to the Lord’s love, righteousness, and faithfulness. He remembers God’s acts in the past and yearns for the renewal of the Lord’s love. He opens himself to God’s wisdom because he knows that instruction will lead to life.
143:1-2 The psalmist prays for God’s love and mercy.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.