Psalms 143:1-6

Prayer for Deliverance and Guidance.

1 Hear my prayer, O LORD, ¹Give ear to my supplications! Answer me in Your ²faithfulness, in Your ³righteousness!

2 And ⁴do not enter into judgment with Your servant, For in Your sight ⁵no man living is righteous.

3 For the enemy has persecuted my soul; He has crushed my life ⁶to the ground; He ⁷has made me dwell in dark places, like those who have long been dead.

4 Therefore ⁸my spirit is overwhelmed within me; My heart is ⁹appalled within me.

5 I ¹⁰remember the days of old; I ¹¹meditate on all Your doings; I ¹²muse on the work of Your hands.

6 I ¹³stretch out my hands to You; My ¹⁴soul longs for You, as a parched land. Selah.

Read Chapter Compare

Images for Psalms 143:1-6

Psalms 143:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 143

\\<>\\. This psalm was composed by David when he fled from Absalom his son, according to the title of it in Apollinarius, the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions; so R. Obadiah Gaon: and of the same opinion is Theodoret and others. The sense he had of his sins, and his deprecating God's entering into judgment with him for them, seems to confirm it; affliction from his own family for them being threatened him, 2Sa 12:9-11; though Kimchi thinks it was written on the same account as the former, and at the same time, namely, when he was persecuted by Saul; and what is said in Ps 142:2,4, seems to agree with it. The Syriac inscription is, ``when the Edomites came against him;'' which is very foreign, since these were subdued by him.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 14

1. Psalms 140:6
2. Psalms 89:1, 2
3. Psalms 71:2
4. Job 14:3; Job 22:4
5. 1 Kings 8:46; Job 4:17; Job 9:2; Job 25:4; Psalms 130:3; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:10, 20; Galatians 2:16
6. Psalms 44:25
7. Psalms 88:6; Lamentations 3:6
8. Psalms 77:3; Psalms 142:3
9. Lamentations 3:11
10. Ps 77:5, 10, 11
11. Psalms 77:12
12. Psalms 105:2
13. Job 11:13; Psalms 88:9
14. Psalms 42:2; Psalms 63:1

Footnotes 4

[a]. Lit "faints"
[b]. Or "desolate"
[c]. Lit "weary"
[d]. "Selah" may mean: "Pause, Crescendo" or "Musical interlude"