Psalms 143:1 - 8
ESV - 1 Hear my prayer, O Lord ; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness! 2 Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.
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Psalm 143 by King David is an example of how much we need God. No one could ever be forgiven based on his own actions. The only way to be justified is God's way. We are to be thankful that God sees our sorry estate. We are helpless. As the old hymn says "I need thee every hour." We daily stand between mountains and seas. We need to pray daily and remember God's grace and love. He enjoys our company. We were created for His fellowship. Prayer is our lifeline... There is an old poem..."God's Phone Number" Hello God, I called tonight to talk a little while I need a friend who'll listen to my anxiety and trial. You see I can't quite make it Through a day just on my own... I need Your Love to guide me So I'll never feel alone. I want to ask you please to keep My family safe and sound. (David when he wrote this psalm was having trouble with Absalom - see 2 Samuel 15:13) Come and fill their lives with confidence For whatever fate they're bound. Give me Faith, dear God, to face Each hour throughout the day, And not to worry over things I can't change in any way. I thank you God for being home And listening to my call, For giving me such good advice When I stumble and fall. Your number, God is the only one That answers every time! I never get a busy signal Never had to pay a dime! So thank you God for listening To my troubles and my sorrow. Good night God, I love you too! And I'll call again tomorrow! P.S. please bless all my friends and family too?
Reading Psalm 143 verse-by-verse, I see multiple elements with respect to our relationship with or to God that should either underlie or be reflected in petitions that we present to Him in prayer. These include: recognizing our need (as sinners) for God's mercy; recognizing God's faithfulness and righteousness; presenting our petitions for His help to Him, with the implicit recognition that He alone is the ultimate source or granter of that help; acknowledging and thanking Him for His past assistance; willingly placing ourselves and our situation entirely in His hands; being open to whatever instruction God provides us with respect to our requests; and characterizing (and intending to use) God's help as something that will work to His honor and glory.
Chronicles 7:14 If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
How can we learn to pray from Psalm 143? When Facing Disappointment Psalm 143:1-3 The enemy is crushing David (Ps 143:3) His enemy chases him and knocks him to the ground. We need God's mercy! (Ps 143:1-2, 4) This hopeless situation (--"his own fallenness,-- “For no one living is righteous before you” (Ps 143:2) --paralyzes David with fear (Ps 143:4). Doesn’t this happen to all of us, at some time in our lives? When Facing Depression Psalm 143:4-6 In Ps 143:2 David does not plead his own righteousness as the basis for the salvation he seeks, but he pleads for it on the basis of God’s righteousness (Ps 143:6)— He thirsts for God as parched land thirsts for rain. J. Vernon McGee has seen it rain “in Israel, in a parched place, and it can rain, and rain, and rain.” The land drinks up ALL the water. It’s parched. So are we. We need God’s rain (God’s blessing) in our lives! We need to tell Him this. “Salvation is of the Lord.” As Tim said, we must acknowledge and thank Him for His past assistance; (Ps 143:5), i.e. we must remember His works (Ps 143:5)! When Facing Defeat Psalm 118:21 Psalm 143:7-8 David’s depression deepens (Ps 143:7): He feels he will die. SMF Sometimes we, too, feel caught in deepening depression, and we’re incapable of extricating ourselves. Then we can pray. Yes, we all must agree that God alone is the ultimate source or granter of that help we need; (Ps 143:1-2, - actually Ps 143:1b & Ps 143:2)-- "Salvation is of the Lord."—Jonah 2:9 Jonah learned this sentence of good theology in a strange college. He learned it in the whale's belly, at the bottom of the mountains, with the weeds wrapped about his head, when he supposed that the earth with her bars was about him forever. CHS (Charles Haddon Spurgeon) Hopefully, life won't get as bad as that for us as it did for Jonah, but even if it does, we should pray in this way.
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