Psalms 143:1-7

A psalm of David.

1 LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.

2 Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you.

3 The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead.

4 So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed.

5 I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done.

6 I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land.^[a]

7 Answer me quickly, LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit.

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Psalms 143:1-7 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. S Psalms 141:1
2. S Psalms 28:2; Psalms 130:2; Psalms 140:6
3. S Exodus 34:6; Psalms 89:1-2
4. Psalms 71:2
5. S Psalms 14:3; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:20; Romans 3:10
6. S Psalms 107:10
7. Lamentations 3:6
8. Psalms 30:7; Psalms 142:3
9. Psalms 77:6
10. S Genesis 24:63
11. S Exodus 9:29; S Job 11:13; Psalms 63:1; Psalms 88:9
12. S Psalms 69:17
13. S Psalms 142:3
14. S Psalms 22:24; Psalms 27:9; Psalms 30:7; Psalms 28:1

Footnotes 1

[a]. The Hebrew has "Selah" (a word of uncertain meaning) here.