Psalms 143:1-8

1 Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my supplications for the sake of thy truth; answer me for the sake of thy righteousness.

2 And enter not into judgment with thy slave; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.

3 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 been long dead.

4 Therefore my spirit has become overwhelmed within me; my heart within me has become desolate.

5 I remembered the days of old; I meditated on all thy works; I mused on the work of thy hands.

6 I stretched forth my hands unto thee; my soul thirsted after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.

7 Hear me speedily, O LORD; my spirit fails; hide not thy face from me lest I be like those that go down into the grave.

8 Cause me to hear thy mercy in the morning, for in thee do I trust; cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee.

Psalms 143:1-8 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.