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Psalm 142:7

Psalm 142:7 Negative and Positive Neg: This verse contains a dark image of the oppression that troubles bring and two potential outcomes of God’s deliverance. We will call them the negative and the positives. Firstly, the negatives, David is in prison from which he cannot free himself! The Cave of Adullum seems like a prison cell and the eyes of Saul’s men lurking outside are the jailors who are watching his every move. The walls of the cave are closing in and every day he feels oppressed and claustrophobic. How can David and his friends escape, when every exit is being watched and the forces beyond are overwhelming? Sometimes life feels like this, we are oppressed on every side, and our liberty and way of life seem to be under attack. It is particularly humiliating when there are other people hell-bent on restricting our freedom and intending to trap us whenever we lift our heads up. The enemy can set snares like this, the Satan is a master of such unjust trickery and weaves webs of d...
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Psalm 142:6

Psalm 142:6 I am in desperate need.  Oh dear, David really means it doesn’t he? This is not the heart cry of one who is a bit fearful and can’t quite wangle his way out of trouble. This is a man whose whole existence is under threat, who feels completely overwhelmed by the odds against him, who sees nothing but trouble and impending disaster around him. I think that David is not just addressing his circumstances though, the problems go much deeper, it seems that his whole life and being are in danger of being overwhelmed, he has a genuine fear of death and of being destroyed completely. His life is threatened, his future is threatened, his purpose is threatened, his trust in the Lord is growing weak, where can he find help? David does not us the phrase, “ Desperate need”  lightly, he is indeed desperate!  “Lord, listen to my cry!”  As we have seen before, he has no one else to turn to, his family and close supporters are not enough, they cannot help, only the Lord ca...
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Psalm 142:5

Psalm 142:5 You are my refuge There is a way of thinking, for many believers, that supports the view that our walk with the Lord should be a trouble-free existence, with all problems solved, all difficulties overcome, and all worries and anxieties common to man turned aside by faith. Some go further and dare to suggest that if we are overwhelmed by illness, financial woes, mental trials and the like, it is because we lack faith and are not trusting in the Lord as we should! In truth, the opposite is the case. The deeper we are prepared to go in our relationship with the Lord, the weaker we will be and the more we will need to learn dependence and faith in His power and strength, rather than our own. We sometimes sing, “Refiner’s fire, my heart’s one desire is to be holy.” The words come out easily, but dare we really challenge the Lord to take us through the fire of refinement? Are our hearts really desiring to be holy? If they are, then we must go through trials and troubles, sometime...
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Psalm 142:4

Psalm142:4 No one cares about me! We’ve discussed, in earlier Psalms, the relevance of the right hand and what it means to have support and protection from a “right-hand man or woman.” Indeed Psalm 16:8, which was also written by David, tells us that it is even possible to have the Lord Himself at our right hand.  “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken .” The image here overlaps with the idea of a shield bearer who would stand to the right of a soldier and parry the sword thrusts or arrows that might come their way. To imagine that the Lord Himself will stand at our right hand and deflect the enemy’s attacks is mind-boggling. But He does! He defends His people. He sees the danger long before we do. He puts up defences in advance and very often the fiery darts of the evil one are deflected long before they arrive at their destination. We would never survive if we had to defend ourselves, we simply don’t see the attacks coming – but He doe...
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Psalm 142:3

Psalm 142:3 Faint hearts and faint spirits This verse reminds us of Psalm 22 and the heart cry of Yeshua as He faced the agony and separation of the cross.  “ I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted   within me. My mouth   is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust   of death.”  David does not refer to his physical suffering, or his health, he was still a young man when these events unfolded. Yeshua too, was a young man when He suffered and died for us. It was their mental state that troubled them, our spirits grow faint when we lose the will to keep going, when the obstacles are so great and the odds are stacked in the opposition’s favour. Both David and Jesus knew that the way ahead was full of pain and suffering, both anticipated that it would end in death! Faint hearts are frightened hearts and so are faint spirits, we are at the point when...
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Psalm 142:2

Psalm 142:2 Pouring out our complaints. Many of those who believe in the living God can find prayer difficult. I am one of them. It is not always easy to approach a Being that cannot be seen, and to hold a conversation with One who does not speak! That would be the excuse of the majority of Christians, which is why so many use a Prayer Book or find comfort in allowing others to do the praying for them. We all know full well that God hears and that He answers but comparing conversations with Him to the ones we enjoy with each other, can be very difficult. The trouble is, there is no one more able, more authoritative and more merciful than our God and thus we have to bring our worries, anxieties and pleadings to Him at some point, simply as a way of relieving the burdens that life throws at us. Even when we do approach the Lord with a willing heart, it’s difficult to know how to voice our requests because we simply don’t know what He is thinking or even if we’ve grasped the full picture ...
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Psalm 142:1

Psalm142:1 A cry for mercy In many Bibles the introduction to this Psalm mentions that it was written when David was  “in the cave.”  We’ve referred before to the Cave of Adullam, a place of refuge for David and a small band of followers that he had gathered around him. David was still a relatively young man and had not yet taken hold of the reigns of leadership in Israel, at that time a country ruled over by King Saul.  We first encounter the Cave of Adullam in 1 Samuel 22. As David was fleeing from Saul, who was trying to kill him, he sought refuge among the Philistines in Gath (1 Samuel 21:10-14). Realizing, however, that this was not a safe place for him,  “David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him ” (1 Sameul 22:1-2)....
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