4 Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate.
I remember God, and I groan. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah.
When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, You knew my path. In the way in which I walk, They have hidden a snare for me.
Turn to me, and have mercy on me, For I am desolate and afflicted.
Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has overwhelmed me.
For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a firebrand. My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, For I forget to eat my bread.
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:-