Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 142
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Psalms 142
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Psalms 142
"I cry with my voice unto Jehovah; With my voice unto Jehovah do I make supplication." — Psalms 142:1 (ASV)
I cried ... —See Psalms 3:4 and following.
"I pour out my complaint before him; I show before him my trouble." — Psalms 142:2 (ASV)
I poured out. —See the same verb used in a similar sense in Psalm 42:4 and Psalm 62:8; and with the second clause, compare to Psalm 107:6.
"When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, Thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walk Have they hidden a snare for me." — Psalms 142:3 (ASV)
When my spirit.— Literally, in the muffling of my spirit within me. When my spirit was so wrapped in trouble and gloom, so “muffled round with woe” that I could not see the path before me, and was distracted and unable to choose a line of conduct, You (emphatic) knew my path. (Compare, for the same verb, Psalms 61:2; Psalms 77:3.)
"Look on [my] right hand, and see; For there is no man that knoweth me: Refuge hath failed me; No man careth for my soul." — Psalms 142:4 (ASV)
I looked. —The Authorised Version follows the ancient versions in turning the Hebrew imperatives into historical tenses. But they are easily intelligible if taken rhetorically, and indeed the psalm loses in liveliness by missing them:
“On the path by which I must walk they have laid a trap for me;
Look to the right and see,
Not a friend is in sight.
Failed has refuge from me,
There is none who cares for my soul.”
To the “right,” because according to the regular Hebrew metaphor it was on the “right hand” that the protector would stand. (See Note Psalm 16:8 and others, and compare Psalm 109:6; Psalms 109:31; Psalms 110:5; Psalms 121:5.)
"I cried unto thee, O Jehovah; I said, Thou art my refuge, My portion in the land of the living." — Psalms 142:5 (ASV)
With this verse, compare Psalm 31:3; Psalms 22:8; Psalms 16:5, etc.
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