Psalms 142:1 - Meaning and Application

Whether David prayed this prayer in the cave of Adullam or in the cave of Engedi does not really matter. What is clear is that he was in deep distress. It was a shame for such a great soldier and courtier to be forced into such hard measures for his own safety. It was also a terrible fear to be chased so fiercely and to live every moment expecting death. Even then, he kept his mind steady enough to pray, and wherever he was, his faith stayed with him.

His prayers and tears were his weapons. When he did not dare raise his hands against his king, he lifted them up to his God. No cave is so deep or dark that we cannot send up our prayers, and our hearts in prayer, to God from there. He calls this a Maschil, a psalm meant to teach, because of the good lessons he himself had learned in the cave, learned on his knees, which he wanted to teach others.

In these verses, notice how David complained to God (Psalm 142:1, Psalm 142:2). When the danger had passed, he was not ashamed to admit the fear he had felt and the help he had sought from God. Even great people should not think it lowers them, when they are in trouble, to cry out to God like children crying to their parents when something frightens them. David poured out his complaint, which means he spoke freely and fully. His heart was so full of trouble that he had to empty it before the Lord, and he did this with great earnestness. He cried to the Lord with his voice, some think, with the voice of his mind, because he was hidden in the cave and did not dare speak aloud, lest he give himself away. But mental prayer is still a voice to God, and he hears the groans that cannot, or dare not, be spoken (Romans 8:26).

David laid two things before God in this complaint. First, he laid open his distress. He presented a true report of his case and all its details. He did not tell God about it as if God did not already know, but as one who trusted God, wanted fellowship with him, and was willing to leave everything in his hands. He unburdened himself humbly and then gladly left the matter with God. We often show our troubles too much to ourselves, making them bigger in our minds and staring at them, which helps us nothing. But if we show them to God, we can cast our care on the one who cares for us, and so find relief. We should not complain to ourselves or to others in any way that we could not honestly and reverently bring before God.

Second, he laid open his desire. When he made his complaint, he also made his request (Psalm 142:1). He did not claim relief as something owed to him. He begged for it humbly as a favor. Those who complain must also pray, because God must be sought.

Then David told what his complaint was. In the path where he was walking, with no suspicion of danger, people had secretly set a trap for him to catch him. Saul, Israel’s first king, had even given his daughter Michal to David on purpose, hoping she would become a trap for him (1 Samuel 18:21). David brings this to God because everything was being done against him on purpose. If he had wandered off the right path and fallen into traps, he would have had to blame himself. But when he met traps in the way of duty, he could speak to God about them with humble boldness.

David also says what comforted him in the middle of these complaints (Psalm 142:3). When his spirit was overwhelmed inside him and ready to sink under grief and fear, when he was at a loss and nearly despairing, then he knew that God knew his path. That thought was a comfort to him. God knew his sincerity, the right path he had walked, and that he was not the kind of man his enemies claimed him to be. God knew his condition in every detail. When his spirit was too overwhelmed to explain it clearly, it comforted him that God already knew it (Job 23:10). God knew it, that is, God watched over it, preserved it, and kept it safe (Psalm 31:7; Deuteronomy 2:7).