Psalm 143:1-12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in your faithfulness answer me, and in your righteousness.… : — I. THE REASONS URGED. 1. A consciousness of moral unrighteousness (ver. 2). No man will ever pray rightly until he is made deeply conscious that he has no claims whatever upon the favour of God, and that his necessities, if relieved at all, must be relieved by sovereign mercy alone. 2. A terrible sense of danger (vers. 3, 4). 3. An encouraging reminiscence of God (ver. 5). 4. An intense craving of the heart (ver. 6). There are two figures here indicating the craving of the heart after God. The first is taken from human life. As the suffering child stretches forth its hand to its mother, as the dying patient to his physician, as the drowning man to the rope thrown out for his rescue, so the soul of the penitent stretches out Jim hands to God; he must have Him or die and be lost. God is the necessity of necessities, the Supreme need. Another figure indicating the craving of the heart after God is the longing of the parched earth for fertile showers. II. THE BLESSINGS INVOKED. 1. Soul deliverance (ver. 7). This has been provided in Christ. 2. Soul guidance (ver. 8). Let the morning dawn on me, and The night of darkness and sorrow depart, and show me the way in which I ought to walk, — the way of rectitude, of safety. 3. Soul loyalty (ver. 10). 4. Soul quickening (ver. 11). There must be life to struggle for deliverance, life to follow the Divine guidance, to reach the level land of rectitude, and to walk in it. (David Thomas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: {A Psalm of David.} Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.WEB: Hear my prayer, Yahweh. Listen to my petitions. In your faithfulness and righteousness, relieve me. |
    |