Grosey's Messages

Psalm 142:1-7 CSB

[1] I cry aloud to the LORD; I plead aloud to the LORD for mercy. [2] I pour out my complaint before him; I reveal my trouble to him. [3] Although my spirit is weak within me, you know my way. Along this path I travel they have hidden a trap for me. [4] Look to the right and see: no one stands up for me; there is no refuge for me; no one cares about me. [5] I cry to you, LORD; I say, "You are my shelter, my portion in the land of the living." [6] Listen to my cry, for I am very weak. Rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. [7] Free me from prison so that I can praise your name. The righteous will gather around me because you deal generously with me. …

Bill Sands grew up in a well-to-do home. His father was a respected judge. His mother was a popular socialite. At the age of twelve, however, Bill's life came crashing down when his parents divorced. His mother used him as a weapon against his father, cutting off contact. She physically abused him in terrible ways. By the time Bill was twenty, his name became a number – 66836 – as he served a life sentence in San Quentin penitentiary. When a new inmate threatened his father, Bill nearly killed him before guards intervened. Bill spent months in solitary confinement until the warden, Clinton T. Duffy, visited him. Duffy asked, "Why are you here?" Filling the room with profanity, Bill answered, "Because no one cares for me." In his book, My Shadow Ran Fast, Sands wrote, "My whole life was turned around with just three words as the ward said, 'Bill, I care.'" 

How many broken lives, desperate decisions, and terrible mistakes are the result of feeling that no one cares? No one is exempt from the awful sense of total abandonment – including those who know, trust, and serve the Lord. You may feel that way right now. I have good news for you: Someone cares! That's the message of Psalm 142. The ascription reads: "A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A prayer."David wrote this psalm. He was moved to write it when he was in a cave. Scripture details two occasions when David hid Saul in a cave. 

• In 1 Samuel 22, David hid in a cave in Adullam.
• In 1 Samuel 24, David hid in a cave in En Gedi. 

The content of this psalm suggests it is about David's experience in the cave of Adullam. On the run from Saul, David sought asylum in Gath, the hometown of Goliath. The people of Gath immediately recognized the giant-slayer. When the king of Gath arrived, David was so terrible that he pretended to be insane. 1 Samuel 22:1 says, "David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam." With nowhere to turn, David sang the blues. He did not sing to a human audience. There was no one to hear him. This lament was David's prayer to God. 

The title calls this prayer a "Maskil" – a song of instruction. David put this lament in the hymnal, not his diary, so the worshiping community could learn from his experience. Douglas Webster wrote, "This psalm deserves to be better understood and prayed more often because it honors the soul of the troubled believer. It gives real validity to our discouragement without easy, pious retorts that spiritualize our pain and leave us even more isolated." Who cares? Psalm 142 gives three characteristics of the one who cares.

Someone Cares Enough to Hear Your Cry. 

The psalm begins by telling us how David responded to his desperate situation. Verse 1 begins, "With my voice I cry out to the Lord." David had no one else to cry to in that cave. So he called on God. Who you cry to is who you trust. Thus, God sometimes places you in a cave alone to teach you to trust him alone. 

Verse 1 ends by telling us the content of David's cry: "With my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord." The needy inferior made his plea to the gracious superior. He solicited "mercy," acknowledging that what he requested was not what he deserved. Neither do we! Prayer is not declaring and decreeing things for God to accomplish. It is to humbly but confidently approach the throne of grace for mercy and grace in time of need. 

The repeated phrase "with my voice" is significant. Prayer is more than Godward thoughts or feelings. Prayer is talking to God. Sure, you can pray without words. God can hear what you can only say through tears. But our prayers become concrete when we pray with our voices. Your spoken words express faith that God is and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. You can feel a sense of relief from someone listening to you talk through what you think or feel. If there is relief in telling someone who cannot do anything to fix the situation, how much more is there relief in telling God about it! 

• Verse 1 repeats the phrase "to the Lord." 
• Verse 2 repeats the phrase "before the Lord." 

David says, "I pour out my complaint before him." "Complaint" means his tongue expressed what he was thinking and feeling. He did not grumble against God. He was not bitter or angry. He did not charge the Lord with wrongdoing. David talked to God with freedom of speech. But it was not irreverent speech. "Pour our" is temple terminology for a drink offering. God considered it an act of worship when you tell him like it is. David says, "I tell my trouble before him." David didn't know what to do about his great distress, desperate straits, and bitter circumstances. But he did the best thing he could do. He told the Lord about it. 

Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Someone Cares Enough to Feel Your Pain.

There are two types of God-talk in this psalm. 

• The psalmist talks about God in verses 1-2.
• The psalmist talks to God in verses 3-7. 

Specifically, verses 3-4 record David's lament. He sings the blues to the Lord. These verses teach a critical lesson about the nature of prayer. You don't have to work through what you think, feel, say, want, or need before you bring it to God in prayer. You can tell God like it is – the good, the bad, and the ugly. David makes two candid confessions about his feelings. 

I feel attacked. Verse 3 says, "My spirit faints within me…" David felt devastated, exhausted, and overwhelmed. He was at the end of his rope mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. David admits that he felt like giving up, caving in, and letting go. You can be honest with God when you can't take it anymore. What do you do when your spirit faints? David answers, "When my spirit faints within me, you know my way." David dealt with his failing feelings by talking about it with the one who knows. Psalm 139:1-2 says, "O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar." This is our assurance in prayer: God knows your way in, through, out, up, and over. 

David did not ask, "If God knows, why pray?" The fact that God knew his way motivated David to pray about it. Have you ever struggled to tell someone something important because you didn't know how they would take the news? Job 23:10 says, "But he knows the way that I take, when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold." 

What did God know about David's situation? Verse 3 says, "In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me." As David walked the path of righteousness, his enemies worked to distract, defeat, and destroy him. They did not ambush David with an all-out attack. They set traps for him along the way. David trusted God to safely navigate him through the traps. Psalm 14:9-10 says, "Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me and from the snares of evildoers! Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by safely." 

I feel alone. Verse 4 is the centerpiece of the psalm structurally and thematically. David says, "Look to my right and see." We can exaggerate the situation to make it seem worse than it is. Not wanting to misrepresent the facts, David tells the Lord to look and see for himself. He specifically asks the Lord to notice his right side – the place of power, favor, and honor. 

• There was no friend on his right to support him. 
• There was no lawyer on his right to defend him. 
• There was no soldier on his right to protect him. 

David laments, "There is none who takes notice of me." "Take notice" is used in Ruth 2:10 to describe how she found favor in the eyes of Boaz. No one looked favorably on David. He adds, "No refuge remains for me." David needed a place of escape. The cave felt more like a prison than a refuge. He was trapped with no place to turn for safety and security. Verse 4 ends, "No one cares for my soul." This is the low point of the psalm. It seemed that it didn't matter to anyone whether he lived or died. That was not the truth. Jonathan loved David. His brothers came to him. Supporters followed him. Yet David was right to tell the Lord that he felt like no one cared for his soul. 

John Philips claimed, "This must be one of the most powerful missionary texts in the Bible." We agree that the church should care about people. There is confusion about how we should do so. As a result, the church is prone to minor in the majors, and major in the minors. We care for people's physical needs, personal relationships, financial status, mental health, and civil rights. What if they stand before God and say, "No one cared for my soul"? Every person will spend eternity somewhere – heaven or hell. Your eternal destiny is determined by your relationship to Christ. If we care for souls, let's make disciples of all the nations! 

Someone Cares Enough to Meet Your Needs. 

In verses 3-4, David laments. In verses 5-7, David asks the Lord to intervene. Lamentation and petition must go together. Without lamentation, prayer can become a ritualistic formality. Without petition, lamentation can become sinful grumbling. Someone cares enough to feel your pain and meet your needs. Why trust God to meet your needs?

God is there. In verse 1, David tells an unidentified audience about his cry to the Lord. Verse 5 is addressed to God: "I cry to you, O Lord." What did David cry to the Lord? He said, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living." Verse 4 complains that people were not there for David. God was there. The Lord was David's "refuge." God was his shelter from the storm, oasis in the wilderness, and stronghold against the enemy. Psalm 46:1 says, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." 

The Lord was also David's "portion." When Israel made it to Canaan, the tribe of Levi did not receive a portion of the Promised Land. Numbers 18:20 explains, "I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel." The Lord is everything you need. Psalm 73:25-26 says, "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Matthew Henry asked, "What danger need we fear if God is our refuge, or what wants if he be our portion?" Turn that question inside out. 

• You have everything to fear if God is not your refuge. 
• You lack what is most important if God is not your portion. 

 God is able. Verse 6 records two requests for divine intervention that express David's confidence that God is able to meet his needs. 

Able to hear. Verse 6 pleads, "Attend to my cry." Dave begs, almost orders, the Lord to pay attention. He gives a reason for such bold language: "for I am brought very low." David had a lowly life as the shepherd of his father's flock. His slaying of Goliath, his promotion by Saul, and his anointing by the Lord had lifted him up. Circumstances weakened, humbled, and diminished him. Brought "very low," David cried to the Lord so boldly, firmly, and loudly. Psalm 116:6 says, "The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me." 

Able to help. Verse 6 also pleads, "Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me!"This is the primary request of the psalm. David asks God to save, rescue, or deliver him. Persecutors pursued him and put him on the run. Caught, cut off, and cornered, David asked God to deliver him. He gives a reason for his cry: "For they are too strong for me."

• Saul had the power of the government on his side. 
• Soldiers had the power of weapons on their side. 
• Spies had the power of information on their side. 

David's persecutors were too strong for David. They were not too strong for God!

A missionary led the children of her orphanage out of a war-ravaged city. As they found themselves cornered with no means of escape, the missionary lost hope that they would make it out alive. One of the children encouraged her with a Bible story she had taught them about Moses at the Red Sea. "But I'm not Moses," she said. "I know," said the child, "But God is still God!" 

God is good. Verse 7 says, "Bring me out of prison." The lonely cave felt like a prison cell. When you are arrested, you are allowed one phone call. David called on the Lord to bring him out of prison. He states the reason or result of this petition: "that I may give thanks to your name!" David wanted to be rescued from his pain, prison, and persecutors. He just wanted it all to be over. That was not his goal. His goal was to "give thanks to your name!" Charles Spurgeon says, "Escaped prisoners are sure to speak well to those who give them liberty."

Verse 7 points to the future: "The righteous will surround me." No one took notice of David. No refuge remained for him. No one cared for his soul. But his story would not end that way. The righteous would surround him. This statement may mean that help was on the way. It may mean that David will finally be vindicated. Or it may mean that David will make it back to the house of worship. We do not know how the righteous will surround him. But we do know why: "for you will deal bountifully with me." You can't get to this final statement without going through the previous verses. Hang in there! 

• Someone cares enough to hear your cry. 
• Someone cares enough to feel your pain. 
• Someone cares enough to meet your needs.