Psalms 143:4-6

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]

Psalms 143:4-6 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.

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 30:7; Psalms 142:3
• 2. Psalms 77:6
• 3. S Genesis 24:63
• 4. S Exodus 9:29; S Job 11:13; Psalms 63:1; Psalms 88:9

Footnotes

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