[Biblemat] S>Series on the Psalms #143

[Jeff S. Smith]

Psalm 143: Hear My Prayer, O Lord

Introduction
i. The one hundred forty-third psalm is yet another poem of David and  
another lamentation with an underlying theme of penitent grief. David  
compares himself to a thirsty land in his longing for the Lord to  
revive him.
ii. [Read Psalm 143:1-12.]
iii. The psalm begins with six verses of complaint and closes with  
another six verses of fervent petition toward God.

Discussion
I. The Text
	A. Complaint (1-6)
		1. David begins this psalm with a fear common to every soft-hearted  
person whose conception of grace is limited by personal guilt and  
astonishment that the Lord could be so forgiving
			a. David pleads with God not to judge him purely according to his  
works, for he recognizes how far short of perfection he constantly  
falls – and this from a man after God’s own heart
			b. it is that acknowledgment, however, that makes David so much a  
man after God’s heart, for all men sin, but far fewer truly repent
		2. as in the previous psalm, David’s complaint centers on the  
conduct of his enemies, persecutors who had overwhelmed his spirit,  
ruined his life and made him wish he were dead
			a. when people think of David, they think either of his victory  
over Goliath or his dalliance with Bathsheba
			b. few even know that David expressed this kind of spiritual  
sadness, even as stress, anxiety and depression rage around us in  
modern times
			c. there is nothing new under the sun and if you are enslaved to  
one of these emotions, King David might have gone before you, judging  
from the poems that he wrote
		3. the sliver of hope that David held onto was a recollection of  
God’s past grace and the supposition that it could be repeated now;  
therefore, his soul longed for refreshment from God like a dry,  
thirsty land begs for rain

	B. Petition (7-12)
		1. this is the last of 15 times the psalmist asks God to teach him  
his statutes and judgments
		2. David also knows that God’s grace is attached to man’s faith, and  
that although God sends rain on the just and the unjust, he reserves  
the deeper elements of grace for those who believe and submit to him
		3. David’s prayer is to depart the land of thirst for revival in the  
land of uprightness where he would be obedient and resist temptation  
to sin
		4. what would a Davidic psalm be without a parting shot of  
imprecation?; David asks God to make a distinction between his servant  
and his enemy

II. Some Applications
	A. Faithful to Answer
		1. David writes from a pit of despair, a place in which many  
believers would feel justified in entertaining a little doubt and even  
in some idle accusations against God
		2. for his part, David complains in the form of his petitions, but  
he couches them all in humility and promises of faith no matter what
			a. “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful  
God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those  
who love Him and keep His commandments” (Deut. 7:9)
			b. prayer is designed to be persistent, but in order for that to be  
so, one must be convinced that someone is listening on the other end  
and that it can make a difference (Luke 18:1-8)
		3. put simply, we must be thoroughly convinced that God is faithful  
or else we will be tempted toward unfaithfulness (1 Corinthians 1:4-9)
		4. if we start to doubt God’s reality, compassion or fellowship, our  
faith is at risk and our prayer, study and worship habits will provide  
the evidence (Hebrews 6:11-15)
			a. if Abraham had to endure patiently before obtaining the promise,  
why should our faith be shaken on the same grounds?
			b. if Abraham had to travel hundreds of miles, stare down  
murderers, and make difficult choices – some of them very wrong – why  
do we think that we should obtain the same promise but be exempt from  
the suffering?
			c. the Bible warns, “We must through many tribulations enter the  
kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22)
		5. but God is faithful (1 Corinthians 10:12-13)

	B. God’s Judgment
		1. so God is faithful, but is man, who sins and falls short of God’s  
glory (cf. Romans 3:23)?
			a. Paul’s estimation of the Jews and Greeks was that “There is none  
righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none  
who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together  
become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one” (Romans  
3:10-12).
			b. since the wages of sin is death, who will deliver the sinner  
from this body of death (cf. Romans 6:23, 7:24)?
		2. the hopeful answer lies in the fact that God takes no pleasure in  
the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11), “but is longsuffering toward  
us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to  
repentance” (2 Peter 3:9)
			a. David worried that God would judge him purely according to his  
works, which on balance were mainly noble, but also clearly imperfect
			b. his conscience bothered him because sin clung to him in spite of  
his repentance, being ever before him in spirit and in practice  
(Hebrews 10:1-4)
		3. long after David died, God executed his plan by which the kind of  
graceful judgment David desired was made possible (Hebrews 10:11-18)
			a. remission is a beloved word today, but mainly because it is used  
to declare freedom from cancer
			b. that is well and good, but the word “remission” has more lasting  
reference to God’s forgiveness of man’s sins (Acts 2:36-41)
		4. judgment is yet according to works (see Jude 15, Revelation  
22:12, 2 Corinthians 5:10), but God has applied the atoning blood of  
his sinless son to the analysis, allowing for believers to find  
salvation by grace through faith – obedient, imperfect, penitent faith

	C. My Distressed Soul Longs For You
		1. David is writing because he feels lost and he wishes he were  
dead, considering the way people are treating him; probably every one  
of us has felt like that at one time or another – some more seriously  
than others
			a. statistics reveal that there are 730,000 suicide attempts each  
year in the United States, with 32,000 of them being successful

			b. suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death in the United  
States (homicide is fourteenth, meaning that more people kill  
themselves each year than someone else)

			c. an estimated five million living Americans have attempted  
suicide at one time or another
, obviously unsuccessfully and usually regretfully because their lives  
do improve and they are happy to be alive
		2. David was lonely, threatened and overwhelmed by the affairs of  
his life, but he looked in the one direction that saved him – like a  
dry, thirsty land he pleaded with God for refreshment and he received it
		3. the apostle Paul longed for God in this way, because in spite of  
spending his life in perils of waters, robbers, countrymen, Gentiles,  
the city, wilderness, the sea and false brethren (cf. 2 Corinthians  
11:26), he was afflicted with some mysterious thorn in his flesh,  
which might literally have been a thorn in his flesh, or something  
entirely different (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
			a. Paul learned what David meant when he wrote these psalms and  
prayed these prayers and things did not instantly improve
			b. no miracles were extended to make David’s persecutors vanish  
into thin air or Paul’s detractors dry up and wither away
			c. it may just be that the objects of your prayers have staying  
power and defiance as well
		4. so what will you do when your distressed soul longs for God like  
a thirsty land?
			a. learn that divine strength is made complete in human weakness  
and that the negative evaluation of humanity in Romans 3 is not  
designed for resignation and acceptance, but as a challenge for  
believers to understand God and rise above the world: “And He has made  
from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the  
earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries  
of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope  
that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from  
each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts  
17:26-28).
			b. understand the will of the Lord and abide in him (1 John 2:20-27)

	D. Teach Me To Do Your Will
		1. Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples  
indeed” (John 8:31) and that is the kind of objective abode that David  
sought when he pleaded with the Lord to “Teach me to do your will.”
		2. there is far too much subjectivism in Christianity today, that  
permits men to craft God and the faith according to their own fancy  
and modern moral devolution
		3. what succeeds before God is the humility to ask to be taught  
(Luke 6:43-49)
		4. and the wisdom to obey

Conclusion
Psalm 143 is David’s plea for wisdom and instruction and it is one  
that we can understand and apply today when we ourselves feel  
downtrodden and desperate for direction.



Jeff S. Smith
Jeff Smith is the preacher for the Woodmont church of Christ and  
publisher of ElectronicGospel and its biweekly podcast. Jeff is also  
the Program Director and Head Coach of Burleson Youth Association  
Buddy Ball. The contents of this email are personal and private.  
Please do not forward this communication, in whole or in part, to  
anyone without my express consent.

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