An instructive psalm of David, for we speak to one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, and they are a means of instruction, as well as a means of utterance of praise. «A prayer when he was in the cave»; and, therefore, likely to suit any of you who are in trouble a prayer when he hid away from Saul, and was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains «A prayer when he was in the cave.»
Psalms 142:1. I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication.
Of course, the essence of his prayer was in his heart, but it often helps the heart to use the voice. It is much better to pray in silence if you will be heard by others, for we are not to pray to be heard of men, but if you have opportunity to pray aloud, I am sure you will feel it very helpful to devotion to do so. «I cried unto the Lord with my voice: with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication.»
Psalms 142:2. I poured out my complaint before him:
As if it were in a vessel, and I turned the vessel upside down, and poured it all out. That is true prayer. It is the pouring out of what is really in; not an utterance of words which may, perhaps, go no farther than the mere lips, but the pouring out of whatever is within, whether it is praise or complaint. «I poured out my complaint before him» realized his presence, and then told him my complaint.
Psalms 142:2. I shewed before him my trouble.
We must believe that God is, and that he is the hearer of prayer. We must be conscious that we are not only using proper words, and feeling proper thoughts, but that we are doing it before him. «I showed before him my trouble.»
Psalms 142:3. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path.
I did not know it. I was so puzzled so in a maze, like a man at his wits' end. My spirit seemed turned bottom upward, like a thing that is overwhelmed.
Psalms 142:3 In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me.
I could not find out where the snare was, but «thou knewest my path.» I knew the trap was cunningly laid, but I could not see it. «Thou knewest my path.» We are not ignorant of Satan's devices, but sometimes we are completely ignorant as to what devices he is using just now, but «then thou knewest my path.»
Psalms 142:4. I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.
It is a bad time always when friendship seems to have died out, when those that we rely upon turn their backs upon us and refuse to sympathize with us in any degree. It is a sad case to be in. «No man cared for my soul.»
Psalms 142:5. I cried unto thee, O LORD:
Ah! that is the thing to do. When no man will know you, God will know you. When no man cares for you, God will care for you. Prayer is an unfailing resort. «I cried unto thee, O Lord.»
Psalms 142:5. I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.
See how he clings to his God now. We never do cling to God so well as when everything else fails us. To a greater or less extent, all those who yield us comfort do, in some little measure, take our heart off our God; but when it comes to be lonely, friendless, helpless, forgotten, despised, rejected, and outcast, oh! then it is a blessed thing, with a two-handed faith, to lay hold on God and say, «Thou art my refuge, and my portion in the land of the living.»
Psalms 142:6. Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low:
What a blessed argument! Nothing can move God's pity like it. «I am brought very low.» It is not your height that God will respect: it is your lowliness. O soul, it is not thy excellence that God regards: it is thy need not thy goodness, but thy want of his goodness that he looks at; not thy fullness, but thy emptiness; not thy strength, but thy weakness. Nothing that thou hast. It is thy lack of everything that moves his heart. «Attend unto my cry, for I am brought very low.»
Psalms 142:6-19. Deliver me from my persecutors: for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name:
He asks for deliverance, and it is that he may praise God in it. So ought we always to desire mercies with this in view that we may praise God the better for them.
Psalms 142:7. The righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.
Lord, if thou art kind to me, all thy people will hear of it. When I get out of prison, they will say one to another, «Such-and-such a brother has got cheered and comforted. His face has changed. He is no more sad»; and they will come round me. They will begin to ask me how it came about. Thus I shall tell out thy praises encourage others and get to thee a great and glorious name, if thou shalt deal bountifully with me. Now, the next psalm, much after the same fashion.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 142:1. and 143.