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Psalm 143

Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies

A Psalm of David.

1

Hear my prayer, O L ord;

give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness;

answer me in your righteousness.

2

Do not enter into judgment with your servant,

for no one living is righteous before you.

 

3

For the enemy has pursued me,

crushing my life to the ground,

making me sit in darkness like those long dead.

4

Therefore my spirit faints within me;

my heart within me is appalled.

 

5

I remember the days of old,

I think about all your deeds,

I meditate on the works of your hands.

6

I stretch out my hands to you;

my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah

 

7

Answer me quickly, O L ord;

my spirit fails.

Do not hide your face from me,

or I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.

8

Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning,

for in you I put my trust.

Teach me the way I should go,

for to you I lift up my soul.

 

9

Save me, O L ord, from my enemies;

I have fled to you for refuge.

10

Teach me to do your will,

for you are my God.

Let your good spirit lead me

on a level path.

 

11

For your name’s sake, O L ord, preserve my life.

In your righteousness bring me out of trouble.

12

In your steadfast love cut off my enemies,

and destroy all my adversaries,

for I am your servant.


12. And in thy mercy, etc. In this verse he repeats for the fifth or sixth time that he looked for life only of God’s free mercy. Whatever severity may appear on the part of God when he destroys the wicked, David affirms that the vengeance taken upon them would be a proof of fatherly mercy to him. Indeed these two things often meet together — the severity and the goodness of God; for in stretching out his hand to deliver his own people, he directs the thunder of his indignation against their enemies. In short, he comes forth armed for the deliverance of his people, as he says in Isaiah,

“The day of vengeance is in mine heart,
and this is the year of my redemption.” (Isaiah 63:4.)

In calling himself The servant of God, he by no means boasts of his services, but rather commends the grace of God, to whom he owed this privilege. This is not an honor to be got by our own struggles or exertions — to be reckoned among God’s servants; it depends upon his free choice, by which he condescends before we are born to take us into the number and rank of his followers, as David elsewhere declares still more explicitly —

“I am thy servant, truly I am thy servant,
and the son of thine handmaid.” (Psalm 116:16.)

This is equivalent to making himself God’s client, and committing his life to his protection.


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