Psalms 143

LORD, listen to my prayer. Pay attention when I beg for help. Answer me, because you keep your promises and because you do what is right.

1Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.

NoteIn the King James Version, "LORD" printed in capitals stands where the Hebrew has God's personal name, the four letters YHWH. Jewish readers avoided pronouncing it and said "my Lord" instead, and the translators followed that practice. "Righteousness" here is not God's moral purity in the abstract but his reliability in setting things right: it sits alongside "faithfulness" as a reason he can be expected to act.

2Do not put me, your servant, on trial, because no living person can be judged innocent when you look at them.

2And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.

Note"Enter not into judgment" is courtroom language: do not take me to court. "Justified" is the matching legal term, to be declared in the right by a judge, not to be made good. "Thy servant" is also formal language: in the ancient Near East a king's servant was a subject or official who owed loyalty and in return could claim his master's protection, and speakers used "your servant" of themselves when addressing a superior.

3My enemy has hunted me down. He has knocked my life to the ground. He has made me live in the dark, like people who died long ago.

3For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.

Note"Soul" translates Hebrew *nephesh*, which means the whole living person, their life and breath, rather than an immaterial part inside them. "The enemy has persecuted my soul" means he is hunting the speaker's life. The darkness where "those that have been long dead" live is Sheol, the Hebrew picture of the place of the dead: a dim, silent underworld where the dead linger without strength.

4So my spirit is worn out inside me. My heart inside me is empty and afraid.

4Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.

Note"Heart" in Hebrew usage is the seat of thinking, choosing and courage, not just feeling, closer to "mind" or "inner self" than to the modern romantic sense. The word behind "desolate" means stunned or appalled, the state of someone struck numb by disaster.

5I remember the days long ago. I think hard about everything you have done. I think about the work your hands have made.

5I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.

Note"The days of old" normally points to Israel's early history, the exodus and the founding events, rather than to the speaker's own past. "The work of thy hands" can mean either creation or those rescues; the Hebrew leaves both open.

6I reach out my hands to you. I am thirsty for you, the way dry ground is thirsty for rain. Selah.

6I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.

NoteSpreading the hands out and upward was the ordinary posture of prayer in ancient Israel, the way kneeling or folded hands is for later readers. "Selah" appears seventy-one times in the Psalms and is probably a musical or performance direction, a pause, an instrumental break, or a cue to lift the voice. Its exact meaning was already lost by the time the Psalms were translated into Greek, and the King James translators simply left the word untranslated.

7Answer me quickly, LORD. My spirit is giving out. Do not turn your face away from me, or I will be like those who go down into the grave.

7Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.

Note"Hide not thy face" is court idiom: a king who turned his face away from a petitioner was refusing him an audience and withdrawing favor, while a face turned toward someone signaled acceptance. "The pit" is another name for Sheol, the realm of the dead, pictured as a deep hole in the earth; "those that go down into the pit" simply means the dead.

8In the morning let me hear that you love me and stay faithful, because I trust you. Show me the way I should walk, because I lift up my whole self to you.

8Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

Note"Lovingkindness" is the King James rendering of Hebrew *chesed*, a word with no single English equivalent: loyal, committed love of the kind owed within a binding relationship, combining affection with dependability. Morning was when legal cases were heard and when a night of danger was survived, so it is the natural time to expect an answer. "I lift up my soul unto thee" is an idiom for directing one's whole desire and life toward someone.

9Rescue me from my enemies, LORD. I run to you to hide me.

9Deliver me, O LORD, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.

NoteThe Hebrew of the last clause is unusual and disputed. It may mean "I flee to you for cover" (as the King James takes it) or "to you I have hidden myself"; some ancient versions read it as "to you I have fled". The sense of taking refuge is clear either way, the exact wording is not.

10Teach me to do what you want, because you are my God. Your Spirit is good. Lead me onto level ground.

10Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.

NoteThe Hebrew word *ruach* means wind, breath and spirit at once, and the phrasing here is ambiguous: it can be read as "your Spirit is good; lead me" or as "may your good Spirit lead me". "The land of uprightness" translates a phrase that more literally means level or even ground (smooth walking, free of the stumbling and pitfalls of rough country), though the same root also carries the sense of moral straightness, and both readings have long been defended.

11LORD, give me life again, so your name is honored. Because you do what is right, bring me out of trouble.

11Quicken me, O LORD, for thy name’s sake: for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.

Note"Quicken" is 1611 English for "make alive" or "revive", not "hurry up"; the same verb is used of reviving someone faint or half-dead. "For thy name's sake" appeals to God's public reputation: a name in Hebrew thought stood for a person's known character and standing, so the speaker argues that rescuing him is a matter of God's own credit.

12Because you love me and stay faithful, cut off my enemies. Destroy everyone who is hurting me, because I am your servant.

12And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.

Note"Cut off" is standard idiom for putting an end to someone, removing them, as a branch is cut from a tree. "Thy mercy" here is the same word rendered "lovingkindness" in verse 8, God's loyal committed love; the speaker treats the destruction of his enemies as an expression of that loyalty toward himself, his master's servant.