Psalms 142: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This psalm is the prayer of someone who is trapped and alone. He tells the LORD his whole trouble: enemies have set a hidden trap on his path, no one will stand up for him, and he has nowhere to run. He says the LORD is his only place of safety and asks to be rescued from pursuers who are stronger than he is, and brought out of prison so he can praise God among people who live right.

Claim by Claim

1. 142:1
   • The speaker cries out to the LORD with his voice.
   • The speaker makes supplication to the LORD with his voice.
2. 142:2
   • The speaker pours out his complaint before the LORD.
   • The speaker declares his trouble before the LORD.
3. 142:3
   • The speaker's spirit faints within him.
   • When the speaker's spirit faints, the LORD knows his path.
   • In the path where the speaker walks, they have hidden a snare for him.
4. 142:4
   • The verse is ambiguous between the speaker saying he looked to his right hand and the speaker calling on God to look to the right and see.
   • There is no one who recognizes the speaker.
   • Refuge has perished from the speaker.
   • No one seeks after the speaker's life.
5. 142:5
   • The speaker cried out to the LORD.
   • The speaker said that the LORD is his refuge.
   • The speaker said that the LORD is his portion in the land of the living.
6. 142:6
   • The speaker asks the LORD to attend to his cry.
   • The speaker says he has been brought very low.
   • The speaker asks to be delivered from those who pursue him.
   • The speaker says his pursuers are stronger than he is.
7. 142:7
   • The speaker asks the LORD to bring his life out of confinement.
   • The speaker says his purpose in being freed is to praise the LORD's name.
   • The righteous will surround the speaker.
   • The LORD will deal bountifully with the speaker.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

142:1

LORD printed in capitals stands in for the personal name of God in Hebrew, four consonants often written Yahweh. Jewish readers said "the Lord" aloud in its place, and English Bibles have followed that custom ever since.

142:2

The Hebrew word behind "complaint" means laying out a case or spilling out what is troubling you. It is not grumbling or fault-finding; it is closer to telling someone the whole of what has gone wrong.

142:3

A snare was a hidden trap, a noose or spring-net a hunter set in the grass to catch birds or small animals. Being trapped by concealed hunters is a stock image in the Psalms for an ambush by enemies.

142:4

Looking to the right had a specific sense: a man's defender, witness, or supporter stood at his right side, both in battle (the side unprotected by his own shield) and in a legal dispute. Finding no one there means finding no one willing to speak or fight for him.

142:5

"Portion" is the word for the share of family land each Israelite household was allotted, the property that gave a person standing and security. The priestly tribe received no land and was told instead that the LORD himself was their portion; the speaker here claims the same thing. "The land of the living" means the world of people still alive, as opposed to the realm of the dead.

142:6

"I am brought very low" means he feels weak and very sad. "Persecutors" are people who keep chasing him and being cruel to him.

142:7

"Prison" may be literal confinement or a figure for being hemmed in by trouble; the Hebrew leaves both open. "Compass me about" means to form a circle around someone, here either crowding round in celebration or ringing him as a crowd of witnesses; the poem does not settle which.