Psalms 143:7-12

7 ¹Answer me quickly, O LORD! ²My spirit fails! ³Hide not your face from me, ⁴lest I be like those who go down to the pit.

8 ⁵Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I ⁶trust. ⁷Make me know the way I should go, ⁸for to you I lift up my soul.

9 ⁹Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD! I have fled to you for refuge!^[a]

10 ¹⁰Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! ¹¹Let your good Spirit ¹²lead me on ¹³level ground!

11 ¹⁴For your name's sake, O LORD, ¹⁵preserve my life! In your righteousness ¹⁶bring my soul out of trouble!

12 And in your steadfast love you will ¹⁷cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your ¹⁸servant.

Psalms 143:7-12 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.

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 69:17; Psalms 102:2
• 2. [Psalms 84:2]
• 3. Psalms 27:9
• 4. Psalms 28:1; Psalms 88:4
• 5. [Psalms 90:14]
• 6. Psalms 11:1; Psalms 25:2
• 7. Psalms 25:4
• 8. Psalms 25:1
• 9. Psalms 59:1; Psalms 142:6
• 10. [Psalms 119:12]
• 11. Nehemiah 9:20
• 12. See Psalms 23:3
• 13. Isaiah 26:10; [Psalms 27:11]
• 14. Psalms 23:3; Psalms 25:11
• 15. See Psalms 71:20
• 16. Psalms 142:7
• 17. Psalms 54:5
• 18. See Psalms 116:16

Footnotes

• [a]. One Hebrew manuscript, Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts To you I have covered