Psalms 142:4

4 Look around me and see. No one cares about me. I have no place of safety; no one cares if I live.

Psalms 142:4 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 142:4

I looked on [my] right hand, and beheld
On the left, so Kimchi supplies it, and after him Piscator; he looked about him every way to the right and left, to see if he could get any help, or find out any way of deliverance. To this sense the Targum, Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions render the words; and so Kimchi and Aben Ezra understand them: but some render them in the imperative, "look on the right hand, and behold" F14; and consider them; either as spoken to his own soul, to stir up himself to look around him for help and relief; or as an address to God, to look and behold, as in ( Psalms 80:14 ) ; and R. Obadiah reads them, "look, O right hand"; O right hand of God, that does valiantly: but looking cannot properly be ascribed to the right hand; and besides it is not the Lord the psalmist is speaking to, or looking after, but men, as follows; but [there was] no man that would know me;
take notice of him, and acknowledge and own him, or show him any favour, or even own that they had any knowledge of him; which is often the case when men are in affliction and distress, their former friends, acquaintance, yea, relations, keep at a distance from them; so it was with Job, the Messiah, and others; see ( Job 19:13 ) ( Psalms 69:8 ) ; refuge failed me;
as he could get no help from men, so there was no way open for his escape, or by which he could flee and get out of the hands and reach of his enemies; in these circumstances he was when in the cave; no man cared for my soul;
or "life" F15; to save it, protect and defend it, that is, very few; otherwise there were some that were concerned for him, as the men that were with him, and Jonathan, Saul's son; but none of Saul's courtiers, they were not solicitous for his welfare, but on the contrary sought his life, to take it away. This is an emblem of a soul under first awakenings and convictions, inquiring the way of salvation, and where to find help, but at a lois for it in the creature.


FOOTNOTES:

F14 (harw Nymy jybh) "respice dexteram et vide", Montanus; "vel ad dexteram", Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis.
F15 (yvpn) "vitam meam", Junius & Tremellius.

Psalms 142:4 In-Context

2 I pour out my problems to him; I tell him my troubles.
3 When I am afraid, you, Lord, know the way out. In the path where I walk, a trap is hidden for me.
4 Look around me and see. No one cares about me. I have no place of safety; no one cares if I live.
5 Lord, I cry out to you. I say, "You are my protection. You are all I want in this life."
6 Listen to my cry, because I am helpless. Save me from those who are chasing me, because they are too strong for me.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.