Psalms 143:1-6

1 A Psalm of David. O Jehovah, hear my prayer, Give ear unto my supplications, In Thy faithfulness answer me -- in Thy righteousness.

2 And enter not into judgment with Thy servant, For no one living is justified before Thee.

3 For an enemy hath pursued my soul, He hath bruised to the earth my life, He hath caused me to dwell in dark places, As the dead of old.

4 And my spirit in me is become feeble, Within me is my heart become desolate.

5 I have remembered days of old, I have meditated on all Thine acts, On the work of Thy hand I muse.

6 I have spread forth my hands unto Thee, My soul [is] as a weary land for Thee. Selah.

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.