For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Psa 143:1-6

1 Lord, hear my prayer,
    listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
    come to my relief.
2 Do not bring your servant into judgment,
    for no one living is righteous before you.
3 The enemy pursues me,
    he crushes me to the ground;
he makes me dwell in the darkness
    like those long dead.
4 So my spirit grows faint within me;
    my heart within me is dismayed.
5 I remember the days of long ago;
    I meditate on all your works
    and consider what your hands have done.
6 I spread out my hands to you;
    I thirst for you like a parched land.

A. Find Out

1. What does David ask and on what basis? v.1
2. What does he ask the Lord not to do and on what basis? v.2
3. What problem is he facing? v.3
4. With what result? v.4
5. What has he been remembering? v.5
6. So what does he now do, and why? v.6

B. Think:

1. What was David’s problem?
2. What about the Lord has brought him confidence to pray?
3. On what basis does he plead?

C. Comment:

                To make sense of these first six verses of this psalm of David, we need to consider them in the order of the questions above. Note first of all David’s problem: his enemy is pursuing him and he feels crushed by this oppression and is living in a form of black dread (v.3). So great has been this pressure upon him that he is left feeling weak and hopeless (v.4) and it is in this state that he cries out to the Lord.

                That is what this psalm is, a cry to the Lord in prayer (v.1), a cry in which he trusts in God’s mercy, faithfulness and righteousness  (v.1) that he has learnt about as he has read and meditated upon all the history Israel had with the Lord and he had seen the things that the Lord had done (v.5).

                Again, as we’ve seen in earlier psalms, he is always aware of his own moral frailty and asks the Lord not to look for perfection in him, for which human being could claim that (v.2). No, he pleads on the grounds of pure mercy and he stretches out his hands in supplication with a yearning for the Lord that he can only equate with the thirst he has known when he has been in the desert (v.6)

                It is a psalm that is not only about trials in this life and praying for help, but it brings out the grounds of our relationship with the Lord – pure grace that relies on His mercy.            

D. Application:

1. I have no grounds to ask of god except His declared love for me.
2. In the face of trials, He alone is going to be my Saviour.

Passage: Psa 143:7-12

7 Answer me quickly, Lord;
    my spirit fails.
Do not hide your face from me
    or I will be like those who go down to the pit.
8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
    for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
    for to you I entrust my life.
9 Rescue me from my enemies, Lord,
    for I hide myself in you.
10 Teach me to do your will,
    for you are my God;
may your good Spirit
    lead me on level ground.

11 For your name’s sake, Lord, preserve my life;
    in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.
12 In your unfailing love, silence my enemies;
    destroy all my foes,
    for I am your servant.

A. Find Out

1. What does David now request, and why? v.7
2. How does he open up that request? v.8
3. What then does he ask the Lord to do? v.9
4. What does he ask for himself and why? v.10
5. On what grounds does he ask? v.11,12a
6. What outcome does he seek and why? v.12b

B. Think:

1. Note again the grounds on which David asks.
2. Note specifically how he wants his circumstances changed.
3. Note how he wants himself changed.

C. Comment:

                There are many echoes in this second half of the psalm as we saw in the first half, but they are important things to note.

                First note the ‘problem’ David is struggling with: he has enemies who are obviously coming against him and he is in trouble (v.9a,11b,12). Indeed the pressure of these enemies is leaving him feeling very weak (v.7a), almost despairing of life itself (v.7b,11a).

Second, we note the grounds on which he appeals to God. There are three things. First, he asks for the Lord’s sake (v.11a). He is the Lord’s servant (v.12c) and so what happens to him reflects on the Lord. Second, he asks on the basis of the Lord’s righteousness (v.11b), the Lord instinctive response that always does what is right. Third, he ask on the basis of the Lord’s love (v.12a). He know that that love always works good for him.

Third, we note the specific things that he asks of the Lord. First that the Lord will act quickly (v.7a) with a further request that by the morning he will have an answer (v.8a). He asks that the Lord will show him where he should go (v.8b) presumably as a way of escaping his enemies who were pursuing him (v.9). But he wants more than that; he wants to know God’s will to guide him in a stable daily walk with the Lord (implied v.10).

D. Application:

1. It is OK to ask for deliverance from difficulties.
2. It is also right to ask to be taught God’s will generally!