4 Looking to my right side, I saw no man who was my friend: I had no safe place; no one had any care for my soul.
Because of all those who are against me, I have become a word of shame to my neighbours; a cause of shaking the head and a fear to my friends: those who saw me in the street went in flight from me.
My heart is broken by bitter words, I am full of grief; I made a search for some to have pity on me, but there was no one; I had no comforter.
You have sent my friends and lovers far from me; I am gone from the memory of those who are dear to me.
And now, is it true, as they have said to me, that Saul is coming? O Lord, the God of Israel, give ear to your servant, and say if these things are so. And the Lord said, He is coming down. Then David said, Will the men of Keilah give me and my men up to Saul? and the Lord said, They will give you up. Then David and his men, about six hundred of them, went out of Keilah, and got away wherever they were able to go. And Saul, hearing that David had got away from Keilah, did not go there.
Then the Ziphites came up to Gibeah to see Saul, and said, Is not David living secretly among us in the strong places in Horesh, in the hill of Hachilah to the south of the waste land? So now, O king, have your soul's desire and come down, and we, for our part, will give him up into the king's hands.
And David said to himself, Some day death will come to me by the hand of Saul: the only thing for me to do is to get away into the land of the Philistines; then Saul will give up hope of taking me in any part of the land of Israel: and so I may be able to get away from him.
But the eyes of the evil-doers will be wasting away; their way of flight is gone, and their only hope is the taking of their last breath.
He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me. My relations and my near friends have given me up, and those living in my house have put me out of their minds. I am strange to my women-servants, and seem to them as one from another country. At my cry my servant gives me no answer, and I have to make a prayer to him. My breath is strange to my wife, and I am disgusting to the offspring of my mother's body. Even young children have no respect for me; when I get up their backs are turned on me. All the men of my circle keep away from me; and those dear to me are turned against me.
There will be no way of flight for the keepers of sheep, no road for the chiefs of the flock to get away safely.
For I will make you healthy again and I will make you well from your wounds, says the Lord; because they have given you the name of an outlaw, saying, It is Zion cared for by no man.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 142
Commentary on Psalms 142 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 142
Ps 142:1-7. Maschil—(See on Ps 32:1, title). When he was in the cave—either of Adullam (1Sa 22:1), or En-gedi (1Sa 24:3). This does not mean that the Psalm was composed in the cave, but that the precarious mode of life, of which his refuge in caves was a striking illustration, occasioned the complaint, which constitutes the first part of the Psalm and furnishes the reason for the prayer with which it concludes, and which, as the prominent characteristic, gives its name.
1. with my voice—audibly, because earnestly.
2. (Compare Ps 62:8).
I poured out my complaint—or, "a sad musing."
3. thou knewest … path—The appeal is indicative of conscious innocence; knowest it to be right, and that my affliction is owing to the snares of enemies, and is not deserved (compare Ps 42:4; 61:2).
4. Utter desolation is meant.
right hand—the place of a protector (Ps 110:5).
cared for—literally, "sought after," to do good.
5. (Compare Ps 31:14; 62:7).
6. (Compare Ps 17:1).
7. (Compare Ps 25:17).
that I may praise—literally, "for praising," or, "that Thy name may be praised," that is, by the righteous, who shall surround me with sympathizing joy (Ps 35:27).