Psalm 142 Commentary
Deliver Me From My Enemy
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KEY THOUGHT: Bring my soul out of prison [Psalm 142:7a NKJV]
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Psalm 142 NKJV
A Plea for Relief from Persecutors
A Contemplation[a] of David. A Prayer when he was in the cave.
142 I cry out to the Lord with my voice;
With my voice to the Lord I make my supplication.
2 I pour out my complaint before Him;
I declare before Him my trouble.
3 When my spirit [b]was overwhelmed within me,
Then You knew my path.
In the way in which I walk
They have secretly set a snare for me.
4 Look on my right hand and see,
For there is no one who acknowledges me;
Refuge has failed me;
No one cares for my soul.
5 I cried out to You, O Lord:
I said, “You are my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living.
6 [c]Attend to my cry,
For I am brought very low;
Deliver me from my persecutors,
For they are stronger than I.
7 Bring my soul out of prison,
That I may praise Your name;
The righteous shall surround me,
For You shall deal bountifully with me.”
Footnotes
a. Psalm 142:1 Heb. Maschil
b. Psalm 142:3 Lit. fainted
c. Psalm 142:6 Give heed
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Psalm 142 Commentary
Verse 2 specifically calls this prayer a complaint. Isn’t complaining forbidden for the New Testament saint?
Yes, complaining in the presence of our loving Father is terrible, but strangely, we feel this psalm is fine.
How different is this complaining here from the famous complaining in the wilderness?
In the wilderness, the complaining was about God’s ‘bad’ food in comparison with the delicacies of Egypt. It was a rejection of God’s menu. But here in this psalm, the complaining is about a lack of God’s menu, regardless of what it is.
But is God’s menu really absent?
The psalmist has been brought to the point of total dependence on God. It is a blessing to be at this point, a point of zero options. Then you understand that the LORD is your portion in the land of the living.
He is still alive because of God. There are zero support systems around him; no friends, no money, no food, and no human justice system to look up to. Remember, this psalm is by David during one of his many great escapes. There was a handsome price on his head. He was a hunted man. No one was concerned for him. No one cared for his life.
But God did, hence David’s statement that God was his portion in the land of the living.
David is praying from a position of extreme weakness. He is desperate. His enemies are too strong for him.
His complaint is basically a lament about his current position. He casts his fears at the feet of the LORD. Men and women can always have faith when put in a position with zero options. Faith can be very expensive; only the LORD can mine it. Look at the cost!
The story of David is interesting. Psalm 142 and Psalm 51 are both prayers.
Psalm 142 is set against the background of zero options and extremely low strength. But faith comes out! His enemies are physical and external, and they are defeated!
Psalm 51 is set against the background of palace authority and absolute human power. David is on the throne. It is from this point of extreme human power, absolute human authority, and riches that David commits adultery and murder. His prayer is one of repentance.
For Psalm 51, David’s enemies are himself. The enemy is internal, his own heart. The desires of the flesh are too strong for him. How we wish he saw this threat to his life and prayed like he did in Psalm 142!
In this psalm, David is a fugitive and in trouble. In Psalm 51, the freed, prosperous, and elevated David is still in trouble. The human problem can only be solved by the LORD Himself. The LORD Jesus Christ sits on the throne of perfection and is the real portion for the saint.
Consider the LORD Jesus Christ when you are completely out of options or when you have analyzed your life and have found it wanting, regardless of your achievements, low or high.
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