RPG Adults
A DIDACTIC (TEACHING) PSALM
FRIDAY, JUNE 21
Psalm 142:1-7
James 5:13
“Blessed are the merciful:
for they shall obtain mercy.”
A DIDACTIC (TEACHING) PSALM
This Maschil of David is written for our instruction. It teaches us by example how to order our prayers in times of distress. He who has learned how to pray has been taught the most useful arts and sciences. David gives us a valuable lesson here by recording his own experience in prayer.
It was a prayer when he was in a cave. He was either at Engedi, or Adullam, or some other lone cavern wherein he could conceal himself from Saul. Caves make good closets for prayer. Their gloom and solitude are helpful to the exercise of devotion.
There can be little doubt that this song dates from the days when Saul was sorely persecuting David. David himself was in soul-trouble, probably produced by that lapse of faith which led him to ally with heathen princes. His fortunes were evidently at their lowest ebb. What was worse was that his repute had fearfully fallen. Yet he displayed a true faith in God, to whom he made known his pressing sorrows.
The gloom of the cave is over this Psalm. Yet, as if standing at the mouth of the cave, David sees a bright light shining a little beyond. True prayers may differ in their diction, but not in their direction: an impromptu cry and a preconceived supplication must alike ascend towards the one prayer-hearing God, and He will accept each of them with equal readiness. The intense personality of the prayer is noteworthy: no doubt the Psalmist was glad of the prayers of others, but he was not content to be silent himself. See how everything is in the first person: “I cried with my voice; with my voice did I make my supplication.” It is good to pray in the plural: “Our Father,” but in times of trouble we shall feel forced to change our note into “Let this cup pass from me.”
(Spurgeon)
THOUGHT: (Read Psalm 142:7.)
PRAYER: (Use Psalm 142:3.)