3 For the enemy pursues my soul. He has struck my life down to the ground. He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
I am counted among those who go down into the pit. I am like a man who has no help, Set apart among the dead, Like the slain who lie in the grave, Whom you remember no more. They are cut off from your hand. You have laid me in the lowest pit, In the darkest depths.
Abner said again to Asahel, Turn you aside from following me: why should I strike you to the ground? how then should I hold up my face to Joab your brother?
> Yahweh, my God, I take refuge in you. Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me, Lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, Ripping it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
Let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; Yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, And lay my glory in the dust. Selah.
From the wicked who oppress me, My deadly enemies, who surround me. They close up their callous hearts. With their mouth they speak proudly. They have now surrounded us in our steps. They set their eyes to cast us down to the earth. He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey, As it were a young lion lurking in secret places. Arise, Yahweh, Confront him, cast him down. Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword;
I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man. I am like broken pottery. For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side, While they conspire together against me, They plot to take away my life.
Let those who seek after my soul be disappointed and brought to dishonor. Let those who plot my ruin be turned back and confounded.
Listen to my cry, For I am in desperate need. Deliver me from my persecutors, For they are stronger than me.
He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 143
Commentary on Psalms 143 Matthew Henry 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,
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.
Psa 143:1-6
Here,
Psa 143:7-12
David here tells us what he said when he stretched forth his hands unto God; he begins not only as one in earnest, but as one in haste: "Hear me speedily, and defer no longer, for my spirit faileth. I am just ready to faint; reach the cordial-quickly, quickly, or I am gone.' It was not a haste of unbelief, but of vehement desire and holy love. Make haste, O God! to help me. Three things David here prays for:-