Psalms 143:7

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 143:7 in Other Translations

KJV

7 Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.

ESV

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

NLT

7 Come quickly, LORD, and answer me, for my depression deepens. Don’t turn away from me, or I will die.

MSG

7 Hurry with your answer, God! I'm nearly at the end of my rope. Don't turn away; don't ignore me! That would be certain death.

CSB

7 Answer me quickly, Lord; my spirit fails. Don't hide Your face from me, or I will be like those going down to the Pit.

Psalms 143:7 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 143:7

Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth
Ready to sink, swoon, and faint away, through the weight of the affliction on him, by reason of the persecution of his enemy, and for want of the divine Presence; hence the Targum renders it,

``my spirit desireth thee;''

see ( Song of Solomon 5:6 ) ( Isaiah 57:16 ) ; and therefore entreats that God would hear and answer him quickly; or, "make haste to answer" him, and not delay, lest he should be quite gone. Wherefore it follows,

hide not thy face from me;
nothing is more desirable to a good man than the "face" or presence of God, the light of his countenance, and sensible communion with him; which may be said to be "hid" when he withdraws his gracious presence, and withholds the discoveries of his love, and the manifestations of his free grace and favour; which he sometimes does on account of sin, and is the case at times of the best of saints; and is consistent with the love of God, though very grieving to them, and therefore here deprecated: the Targum is,

``cause not thy Shechinah to remove from me;''

lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit;
either the house of the grave, as the Targum; look wan and pale, become lifeless and spiritless, or like a dead man; for as in the favour of God is life, his absence is as death: or the pit of hell, the pit of destruction; that is, be in such horror and despair, and under such apprehensions of divine wrath, as the damned feel.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible