CHAPTER 142

THE AUTHOR IS DAVID: DAVIDS PRAYER IN THE CAVE OF ADULLAM

¹I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication. (Even though this Psalm portrays the heart of David, even more so it portrays the Messiah, when He was shut up in the prison-house of Sheol.)

²I poured out my complaint before Him; I showed before Him my trouble. (As David poured out his complaints to God and Davids Greater Son poured out His to the Father, likewise we are given an example which we are to follow.)

³When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me. (The sense of this Verse is that when the Messiahs Spirit was overwhelmed within Him, then He was supported by the remembrance that God knew His life of sorrow. This implies conscious sinlessness. He invited God to scrutinize His conduct from the cradle to the Cross. It was a life of constant and bitter trial, but it was a sinless life. He was tested daily by snares laid for Him, but He never sinned. Men hated Him, but He was unspeakably precious to God.)

⁴I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man who would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.

⁵I cried unto You, O LORD: I said, You are my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. (This speaks of the time when Christ went to the Cross. The phrase, No man cared for my soul, has reference to His dying on the Cross and, thereby, being made a curse by God. In reality, while He was made a curse by God, it was not because of His sin, for He had none, but because of our sin [Gal. 3:13].)

⁶Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I. (Shut up in the prison-house of Sheol, into which He descended from Golgotha, He trusts, prays, and believes. He cries for deliverance and predicts the triumph which His Resurrection will bring to the righteous.)

⁷Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Your Name: the righteous shall compass me about; for You shall deal bountifully with me. (Here the Messiah prays that He will be delivered out of the death world. He knows that His prayer will be answered and the subsequent joy that His Resurrection will bring to His People.)