John Gill Commentary Psalms 143

Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications
With these requests David begins the psalm; for it was to no purpose to pray and to be heard; and for which he always appears to be concerned, as every good man will, and not to be heard only, but to be answered, as follows;

in your faithfulness answer me, [and] in your righteousness ;
he does not plead his own faith, with which he believed in God, as rama interprets it; though the prayer of faith is very effectual; but the faithfulness of God to his promises; he had promised to hear, answer, and deliver such as called on him in a time of trouble; and he is faithful that has promised, nor will he suffer his faithfulness to fail; he cannot deny himself; and on this the psalmist relied for an answer, as well as desired and expected it;

not on account of his own righteousness, but either on account of the goodness and grace of God, sometimes designed by righteousness, or because of the righteousness of Christ, or for the sake of Christ, the Lord our righteousness; on whose account God is just and faithful to forgive sin, the blessing the psalmist wanted, as appears from (Psalms 143:2) .

And enter not into judgment with your servant
The house of judgment, as the Targum, or court of judicature; God is a Judge, and there is and will be a judgment, universal, righteous, and eternal; and there is a day fixed for it, and a judgment seat before which all must stand, and a law according to which all must be judged; but the psalmist knew he was but a man, and could not contend with God; and a sinful creature, and could not answer him for one of a thousand faults committed by him; and though his servant, yet an unprofitable one; his nature, his heart, his thoughts, words, and actions, would not bear examining, nor stand the test of the holy law of God; nor was he able to answer the demands of divine justice in his own person; and therefore pleads for pardon and acceptance through Christ and his righteousness, and entreats that God would not proceed against him in a judicial way, now nor hereafter;

for in your sight shall no man living be justified ;
in a legal sense, so as to be acquitted in open court, and not condemned; that is, by the deeds of the law, as the apostle explains it, (Romans 3:20) ; by obedience to it, by a man's own works of righteousness; because these are imperfect, are opposed to the grace of God, and would disannul the death of Christ, and encourage boasting; and much less in the sight of God; for, however men may be justified hereby in their own sight, and before men, in their esteem and account, yet not before God, the omniscient God; who sees not as man sees, and judges not according to the outward appearance, and is perfectly holy and strictly just; and none but the righteousness of Christ can make men righteous, or justify them before him; and this can and does, and presents men unblamable and irreprovable in his sight.

For the enemy has persecuted my soul
Which is to be connected with (Psalms 143:1); and is a reason why he desires his prayer might be answered, seeing his enemy, either Saul, or Absalom his own son, persecuted him, or pursued him in order to take away his soul, or life; or Satan, the enemy and avenger, who goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; or persecuting men, who are his emissaries and instruments, whom he instigates to persecute the Lord's people, and employs them therein;

he has smitten my life down to the ground:
brought him into a low, mean, and abject state, and near to death; had with a blow struck him to the ground, and left him wallowing in the mire and dirt, just ready to expire. The phrase is expressive of a very distressing state and condition.

Some render it "my company" ^F18 ; meaning the men that were with him, his soldiers, who were reduced to a low condition with him, and greatly enfeebled and dispirited;

he has made me to dwell in darkness:
in the sides of the cave, as Kimchi; see (2 Samuel 24:3); or in great affliction of body and mind, frequently signified by darkness, as prosperity is by light; he was not only obliged by his enemy to hide himself in woods and wildernesses, and in caves and dens, but was filled with gloomy apprehensions of things, (Psalms 88:6);

as those that have been long dead;
or "of old" ^F19 , an age or two ago, who are out of mind and forgotten, and of whom there is no hope of their coming to life again until the resurrection; or who are "dead for ever" ^F20 ; will remain so till that time comes; signifying hereby his hopeless, helpless, and forlorn state and condition; see (Psalms 31:12) (Psalms 88:4Psalms 88:5) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F18: (ytyx) "catervam meam", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
• F19: (Mlwe) "olim", Tigurine version, Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius.
• F20: So Syriac and Arabic versions.

Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me Covered over with grief, borne down with sorrow, ready to sink and fail; (See Gill on Psalms 142:3);

my heart within me is desolate ; destitute of the spirit and presence of God, and with respect to the exercise of grace, and filled with fears and misgivings; or "astonished" ^F21 , at the providence he was under, like one stunned and filled with sore amazement, not knowing what to make of things, or what the issue of them would be; so David's antitype was "sore amazed" in the garden, when his troubles and agonies came upon him, (Mark 14:33) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F21: (Mmwtsy) "attonitum est", Vatablus; "stupuit", Tigurine version; "stupet", Cocceius, Michaelis; "obstupuit", Gejerus.

I remember the days of old
Former times he had read and heard of, in which the Lord appeared for his people that trusted in him; or the former part of his own life, his younger days, when the Lord delivered him from the lion and bear, and from the uncircumcised Philistine, whom he slew; and made him victorious in battles, and preserved him from the rage and malice of Saul. If this was written on account of Absalom, those times of deliverance he called to mind, in order to encourage his faith and hope, and cheer his drooping spirits;

I meditate on all your works; I muse on the work of your hands ;
the works of creation and providence, in order to observe the instances of divine power, wisdom, and goodness in them; and from thence fetch arguments, to engage his trust and confidence in the Lord: he both thought of these things within himself, and he "talked" ^F23 of them to his friends that were with him, as the last of these words used may signify; and all this he did to cheer his own spirit, and the spirits of the men that were with him, in the time of distress and danger.

FOOTNOTES:

• F23: (xxwva) "loquor", Piscator; "sermocinatus sum", Cocceius; "aut colloquor", Gejerus, Michaelis.