A Psalm of David.

1Hear my prayer, O LORD,
         Give ear to my supplications!
         Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness!

2And do not enter into judgment with Your servant,
         For in Your sight no man living is righteous.

3For the enemy has persecuted my soul;
         He has crushed my life to the ground;
         He has made me dwell in dark places, like those who have long been dead.

4Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me;
         My heart is appalled within me.

5I remember the days of old;
         I meditate on all Your doings;
         I muse on the work of Your hands.

6I stretch out my hands to You;
         My soul longs for You, as a parched land.

7Answer me quickly, O LORD, my spirit fails;
         Do not hide Your face from me,
         Or I will become like those who go down to the pit.

8Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning;
         For I trust in You;
         Teach me the way in which I should walk;
         For to You I lift up my soul.

9Deliver me, O LORD, from my enemies;
         I take refuge in You.

10Teach me to do Your will,
         For You are my God;
         Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

11For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me.
         In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble.

12And in Your lovingkindness, cut off my enemies
         And destroy all those who afflict my soul,
         For I am Your servant.

Parallel Verses

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
A Psalm of David. Hear my prayer, O LORD, Give ear to my supplications! Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness!

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
A psalm by David. O LORD, listen to my prayer. Open your ears to hear my urgent requests. Answer me because you are faithful and righteous.

King James Bible
<> Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Hear, O Lord, my prayer: give ear to my supplication in thy truth: hear me in thy justice.

Darby Bible Translation
{A Psalm of David.} Jehovah, hear my prayer; give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, in thy righteousness.

English Revised Version
A Psalm of David. Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.

Webster's Bible Translation
A Psalm of David. Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.

World English Bible
Hear my prayer, Yahweh. Listen to my petitions. In your faithfulness and righteousness, relieve me.

Young's Literal Translation
A Psalm of David. O Jehovah, hear my prayer, Give ear unto my supplications, In Thy faithfulness answer me -- in Thy righteousness.

Cross References

Psalm 31:1 For the choir director. A Psalm of David. In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; In Your righteousness deliver me.

Psalm 39:12 "Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner like all my fathers.

Psalm 71:2 In Your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; Incline Your ear to me and save me.

Psalm 89:1 A Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite. I will sing of the lovingkindness of the LORD forever; To all generations I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth.

Psalm 89:2 For I have said, "Lovingkindness will be built up forever; In the heavens You will establish Your faithfulness."

Psalm 119:170 Let my supplication come before You; Deliver me according to Your word.

Psalm 140:6 I said to the LORD, "You are my God; Give ear, O LORD, to the voice of my supplications.

Psalm 141:1 A Psalm of David. O LORD, I call upon You; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to You!

Commentary

Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary

PSALM 143

This psalm, as those before, is a prayer of David, and full of complaints of the great distress and danger he was in, probably when Saul persecuted him. He did not only pray in that affliction, but he prayed very much and very often, not the same over again, but new thoughts. In this psalm, I. He complains of his troubles, through the oppression of his enemies (v. 3) and the weakness of his spirit under it, which was ready to sink notwithstanding the likely course he took to support himself (v. 4, 5). II. He prays, and prays earnestly (v. 6), 1. That God would hear him (v. 1-7). 2. That he would not deal with him according to his sins (v. 2). 3. That he would not hide his face from him (v. 7), but manifest his favour to him (v. 8). 4. That he would guide and direct him in the way of his duty (v. 8, 10) and quicken him in it (v. 11). 5. That he would deliver him out of his troubles (v. 9, 11). 6. That he would in due time reckon with his persecutors (v. 12). We may more easily accommodate this psalm to ourselves, in the singing of it, because most of the petitions in it are for spiritual blessings (which we all need at all times), mercy and grace.

A psalm of David.

Verses 1-6

Here, I. David humbly begs to be heard (v. 1), not as if he questioned it, but he earnestly desired it, and was in care about it, for, having desired it, and was in care about it, for having directed his prayer, he looked up to see how it sped, Hab. 2:1. He is a suppliant to his God, and he begs that his requests may be granted: Hear my prayer; give ear to my supplications. He is an appellant against his persecutors, and he begs that his case may be brought to hearing and that God will give judgment upon it, in his faithfulness and righteousness, as the Judge of right and wrong. Or, "Answer my petitions in thy faithfulness, according to the promises thou hast made, which thou wilt be just to." We have no righteousness of our own to plead, and therefore must plead God's righteousness, the word of promise which he has freely given us and caused us to hope in.

II. He humbly begs not to be proceeded against in strict justice, v. 2. He seems here, if not to correct, yet to explain, his plea (v. 1), Deliver me in thy righteousness; "I mean," says he, "the righteous promises of the gospel, not the righteous threatenings of the law; if I be answered according to the righteousness of this broken covenant of innocency, I am quite undone;" and therefore, 1. His petition is, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant; do not deal with me in strict justice, as I deserve to be dealt with." In this prayer we must own ourselves to be God's servants, bound to obey him, accountable to him, and solicitous to obtain his favour, and we must approve ourselves to him. We must acknowledge that in many instances we have offended him, and have come short of our duty to him, that he might justly enquire into our offences, and proceed against us for them according to law, and that, if he should do so, judgment would certainly go against us; we have nothing to move in arrest or mitigation of it, but execution would be taken out and awarded and then we should be ruined for ever. But we must encourage ourselves with a hope that there is mercy and forgiveness with God, and be earnest with him for the benefit of that mercy. "Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for thou hast already entered into judgment with thy Son, and laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for thy servant enters into judgment with himself;" and, if we will judge ourselves, we shall not be judged. 2. His plea is, "In thy sight shall no man living be justified upon those terms, for no man can plead innocency nor any righteousness of his own, either that he has not sinned or that he does not deserve to die for his sins; nor that he has any satisfaction of his own to offer;" nay, if God contend with us, we are not able to answer him for one of a thousand, Job 9:3; 15:20. David, before he prays for the removal of his trouble, prays for the pardon of his sin, and depends upon mere mercy for it.

III. He complains of the prevalency of his enemies against him (v. 3): "Saul, that great enemy, has persecuted my soul, sought my life, with a restless malice, and has carried the persecution so far that he has already smitten it down to the ground. Though I am not yet under ground, I am struck to the ground, and that is next door to it; he has forced me to dwell in darkness, not only in dark caves, but in dark thoughts and apprehensions, in the clouds of melancholy, as helpless and hopeless as those that have been long dead. Lord, let me find mercy with thee, for I find no mercy with men. They condemn me; but, Lord, do not thou condemn me. Am not I an object of thy compassion, fit to be appeared for; and is not my enemy an object of thy displeasure, fit to be appeared against?"

IV. He bemoans the oppression of his mind, occasioned by his outward troubles (v. 4): Therefore is my spirit overpowered and overwhelmed within me, and I am almost plunged in despair; when without are fightings within are fears, and those fears greater tyrants and oppressors than Saul himself and not so easily out-run. It is sometimes the lot of the best men to have their spirits for a time almost overwhelmed and their hearts desolate, and doubtless it is their infirmity. David was not only a great saint, but a great soldier, and yet even he was sometimes ready to faint in a day of adversity. Howl, fir-trees, if the cedars be shaken.

V. He applies himself to the use of proper means for the relief of his troubled spirit. He had no force to muster up against the oppression of the enemy, but, if he can keep possession of nothing else, he will do what he can to keep possession of his own soul and to preserve his inward peace. In order to this, 1. He looks back, and remembers the days of old (v. 5), God's former appearances for his afflicted people and for him in particular. It has been often a relief to the people of God in their straits to think of the wonders which their fathers told them of, Ps. 77:5, 11. 2. He looks round, and takes notice of the works of God in the visible creation, and the providential government of the world: I meditate on all thy works. Many see them, but do not see the footsteps of God's wisdom, power, and goodness in them, and do not receive the benefit they might by them because they do not meditate upon them; they do not dwell on that copious curious subject, but soon quit it, as if they had exhausted it, when they have scarcely touched upon it. I muse on, or (as some read it) I discourse of, the operation of thy hands, how great, how good, it is! The more we consider the power of God the less we shall fear the face or force of man, Isa. 51:12, 13. 3. He looks up with earnest desires towards God and his favour (v. 6): "I stretch forth my hands unto thee, as one begging an alms, and big with expectation to receive something great, standing ready to lay hold on it and bid it welcome. My soul thirsteth after thee; it is to thee (so the word is), entire for thee, intent on thee; it is as a thirsty land, which, being parched with excessive heat, gapes for rain; so do I need, so do I crave, the support and refreshment of divine consolations under my afflictions, and nothing else will relieve me." This is the best course we can take when our spirits are overwhelmed; and justly do those sink under their load who will not take such a ready way as this to ease themselves.

Calvin's Commentary

1. Hear my prayer, O Jehovah! give ear to my supplication, in thy truth answer me, in thy righteousness. 2. And enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. 3. For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath prostrated my life on the ground: he hath set me in dark places, as the dead of an age.

1. Hear my prayer, O Jehovah! It is evident that the oppression of his enemies must have been extreme, when David laments his case in such earnest and pathetic terms. The introductory words show that the grief he felt was great. His reason for speaking of the justice and faithfulness of God in connection we have shown elsewhere. Under the term justice, or righteousness, we are not to suppose that he speaks of merit, or hire, as some ignorantly imagine, but of that goodness of God which leads him to defend his people. To the same effect does he speak of God's truth or faithfulness; for the best proof he can give of his faithfulness is in not forsaking those whom he has promised to help. In helping his people he shows himself to be a just and true God, both in not frustrating their expectation, and in so far as he shows in this extension of mercy what his nature is, that David very properly encourages himself in prayer by making mention of both.

2. And enter not into judgment, [249] etc. I have hinted already why he proceeds to pray for pardon. When overtaken by adversity, we are ever to conclude that it is a rod of correction sent by God to stir us up to pray. Although he is far from taking pleasure in our trials, it is certain that our sins are the cause of his dealing towards us with this severity. While those to whom David was opposed were wicked men, and he was perfectly conscious of the rectitude of his cause as regarded them, he freely acknowledged his sin before God as a condemned suppliant. We are to hold this as a general rule in seeking to conciliate God, that we must pray for the pardon of our sins. If David found refuge nowhere else than in prayer for pardon, who is there amongst us who would presume to come before God trusting in his own righteousness and integrity? Nor does David here merely set an example before God's people how they ought to pray, but declares that there is none amongst men who could be just before God were he called to plead his cause. The passage is one fraught with much instruction, teaching us, as I have just hinted, that God can only show favor to us in our approaches by throwing aside the character of a judge, and reconciling us to himself in a gratuitous remission of our sins. All human righteousnesses, accordingly, go for nothing, when we come to his tribunal. This is a truth which is universally acknowledged in words, but which very few are seriously impressed with. As there is an indulgence which is mutually extended to one another amongst men, they all come confidently before God for judgment, as if it were as easy to satisfy him as to gain man's approval. In order to obtain a proper view of the whole matter, we are first to note what is meant by being justified. The passage before us clearly proves that the man who is justified, is he who is judged and reckoned just before God, or whom the heavenly Judge himself acquits as innocent. Now, in denying that any amongst men can claim this innocence, David intimates that any righteousness which the saints have is not perfect enough to abide God's scrutiny, and thus he declares that all are guilty before God, and can only be absolved in the way of acknowledging they might justly be condemned. Had perfection been a thing to be found in the world, he certainly of all others was the man who might justly have boasted of it; and the righteousness of Abraham and the holy fathers was not unknown to him; but he spares neither them nor himself, but lays it down as the one universal rule of conciliating God, that we must cast ourselves upon his mercy. This may give us some idea of the satanic infatuation which has taken hold of those who speak so much of perfection in holiness, with a view to supersede remission of sins. Such a degree of pride could never be evinced by them, were they not secretly influenced by a brutish contempt of God. They speak in high and magnificent terms of regeneration, as if the whole kingdom of Christ consisted in purity of life. But in doing away with the principal blessing of the everlasting covenant -- gratuitous reconciliation -- which God's people are commanded to seek daily, and in puffing up both themselves and others with a vain pride, they show what spirit they are of. Let us hold them in detestation, since they scruple not to put open contempt upon God. This of itself, however, which we have stated, is not enough; for the Papists themselves acknowledge that were God to enter upon an examination of men's lives as a judge, all would lie obnoxious to just condemnation. And in this respect they are sounder, more moderate and sober, than those Cyclopses and monsters in heresy of whom we have just spoken. But though not arrogating to themselves righteousness in the whole extent of it, they show, by obtruding their merits and satisfactions, that they are very far from following the example of David. They are always ready to acknowledge some defect in their works, and so, in seeking God's favor, they plead for the assistance of his mercy. But there is nothing intermediate between these two things, which are represented in Scripture as opposites -- being justified by faith and justified by works. It is absurd for the Papists to invent a third species of righteousness, which is partly wrought out by works of their own, and partly imputed to them by God in his mercy. Without all doubt, when he affirmed that no man could stand before God were his works brought to judgment, David had no idea of this complex or twofold righteousness, but would shut us up at once to the conclusion that God is only favorable upon the ground of his mercy, since any reputed righteousness of man has no significance before him.

3. For the enemy hath persecuted my soul. Having acknowledged that he only suffered the just punishment of his sins, David comes now to speak of his enemies; for to have begun by speaking of them would have been a preposterous order. Their cruelty was shown in their not resting satisfied but with the destruction of one who was a saint of God; he declares that he must even now perish unless God should help him speedily. The comparison is not merely to a dead man, but a putrid corpse; for by the dead of an age [250] are meant those who have been long removed from the world. Such language intimates that he not only trusted in God as he who could heal him of a deadly disease, but considered that though his life should be buried, as it were, and long out of mind, God could raise it again, and restore his very ashes.

Footnotes:

[249] Walford thinks there is probably here a reference to the great transgression, the consequences of which followed David all his days. "As he would not fail to be reminded of it," says that writer, "by the sorrows which had now come upon him, from Absalom's misconduct, and as his purpose was, notwithstanding, to implore divine support and deliverance, he deprecates God's righteous judgment, since if no man could be just with God, certainly he, who had so greatly transgressed, could have no claim to such a state. The consciousness of his guilt, though he had reason to believe it was forgiven, induced him thus to abase himself before God, when he was about to offer earnest entreaties for deliverance from dangers which threatened his dignity and life; while he still maintained his hope, that God looked upon him as his servant, whom he had pledged himself to protect."

[250] kmty vlm. These words are differently rendered in the ancient versions. The Septuagint has hos nekrous aionos, as the dead of the age; the Syriac, forever; the Chaldee, as they that lie down of that age. The real sense of the expression is, as they who have been dead a long time. The Psalmist employs hyperbolical language in this verse; he says, the enemy hath beaten his life to the ground, hath made him dwell in dark places, and for such a length of time, that there remained no remembrance of him, and that he had become like those persons who had long since been in their graves. The design of all this is to express emphatically great sorrow and oppression." -- Phillips.

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