2 I put all my sorrows before him; and made clear to him all my trouble.
<A Prayer of the man who is in trouble, when he is overcome, and puts his grief before the Lord.> Give ear to my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to you. Let not your face be veiled from me in the day of my trouble; give ear to me, and let my cry be answered quickly. My days are wasted like smoke, and my bones are burned up as in a fire. My heart is broken; it has become dry and dead like grass, so that I give no thought to food. Because of the voice of my sorrow, my flesh is wasted to the bone. I am like a bird living by itself in the waste places; like the night-bird in a waste of sand. I keep watch like a bird by itself on the house-top. My haters say evil of me all day; those who are violent against me make use of my name as a curse. I have had dust for bread and my drink has been mixed with weeping: Because of your passion and your wrath, for I have been lifted up and then made low by you. My days are like a shade which is stretched out; I am dry like the grass. But you, O Lord, are eternal; and your name will never come to an end. You will again get up and have mercy on Zion: for the time has come for her to be comforted. For your servants take pleasure in her stones, looking with love on her dust. So the nations will give honour to the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth will be in fear of his glory: When the Lord has put up the walls of Zion, and has been been in his glory; When he has given ear to the prayer of the poor, and has not put his request on one side. This will be put in writing for the coming generation, and the people of the future will give praise to the Lord. For from his holy place the Lord has seen, looking down on the earth from heaven; Hearing the cry of the prisoner, making free those for whom death is ordered; So that they may give out the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; When the peoples are come together, and the kingdoms, to give worship to the Lord. He has taken my strength from me in the way; he has made short my days. I will say, O my God, take me not away before my time; your years go on through all generations: In the past you put the earth on its base, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will come to an end, but you will still go on; they all will become old like a coat, and like a robe they will be changed: But you are the unchanging One, and your years will have no end. The children of your servants will have a safe resting-place, and their seed will be ever before you.
Lord, in trouble our eyes have been turned to you, we sent up a prayer when your punishment was on us.
Who in the days of his flesh, having sent up prayers and requests with strong crying and weeping to him who was able to give him salvation from death, had his prayer answered because of his fear of God.
Have faith in him at all times, you people; let your hearts go flowing out before him: God is our safe place. (Selah.)
And Hannah, answering him, said, No, my lord, I am a woman whose spirit is broken with sorrow: I have not taken wine or strong drink, but I have been opening my heart before the Lord. Do not take your servant to be a good-for-nothing woman: for my words have come from my stored-up sorrow and pain.
The cords of death were round me, and the seas of evil put me in fear. The cords of hell were round me: the nets of death came on me. In my trouble my voice went up to the Lord, and my cry to my God: my voice came to his hearing in his holy Temple, and my prayer came before him, even into his ears.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 142
Commentary on Psalms 142 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 142
Ps 142:1-7. Maschil—(See on Ps 32:1, title). When he was in the cave—either of Adullam (1Sa 22:1), or En-gedi (1Sa 24:3). This does not mean that the Psalm was composed in the cave, but that the precarious mode of life, of which his refuge in caves was a striking illustration, occasioned the complaint, which constitutes the first part of the Psalm and furnishes the reason for the prayer with which it concludes, and which, as the prominent characteristic, gives its name.
1. with my voice—audibly, because earnestly.
2. (Compare Ps 62:8).
I poured out my complaint—or, "a sad musing."
3. thou knewest … path—The appeal is indicative of conscious innocence; knowest it to be right, and that my affliction is owing to the snares of enemies, and is not deserved (compare Ps 42:4; 61:2).
4. Utter desolation is meant.
right hand—the place of a protector (Ps 110:5).
cared for—literally, "sought after," to do good.
5. (Compare Ps 31:14; 62:7).
6. (Compare Ps 17:1).
7. (Compare Ps 25:17).
that I may praise—literally, "for praising," or, "that Thy name may be praised," that is, by the righteous, who shall surround me with sympathizing joy (Ps 35:27).