Unfading Truth: Psalm 143:1-6 - Unattainable?

By Rev. Chad Werkhoven - Posted at Unfading Truth:

Learn to pray short prayers like King David.

Psalm 143:1-6 KJV

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

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

3 For 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.

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

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

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

Summary

Each day as we read the Bible, we practice praying the very passage we just read back to God using the Triple-A prayer pattern, where we begin by Acknowledging who God is, then Aligning our lives with Him, before we finally Ask God for what we need. We use this pattern because it's the pattern Jesus used in teaching us to pray the Lord's Prayer, and because so many biblical prayers follow it as well.

We've seen before in the Psalms how David also utilizes these same three elements in his prayer-based psalms, but, as is the case today, he likes to throw them into a poetic blender so that it becomes difficult to separate acknowledgement from alignment or asking.

Such is the case with the 2nd verse of David's prayer which grabs our attention today:

Ask: Do not bring your servant into judgment... This is the focus of so many of David's psalms: asking God to restore the shalom in their relationship.

Alignment: for no one living is righteous... This may not initially seem like a prayer of alignment, but it is. David's not making an excuse by saying God shouldn't judge him because nobody else is righteous either, rather, it's an admission of his sinful condition, which is the first step of repentance and living in alignment with God.

Acknowledgment: before you. David here acknowledges that God is just in His expectation for righteousness because He is the very definition of righteousness (this becomes very clear when reading this second verse in conjunction with the first).

Certainly this second verse is part of a larger prayer (the whole psalm), but you can see that it stands on its own as a prayer as well. Remember, as is often the case, short prayers are often the best prayers! Pray David's prayer in v2 often, that it would cause you to cling to Christ all the more.

Direct Link: Psalm 143:1-6 - Unattainable? (unfadingtruth.com)

Source: Daily Bible Reading | Unfading Truth