I’m very thankful Psalm 142 is in the Bible, because it lets me know, whenever I feel depressed, I can cry out to God for help. The setting for this psalm was likely when David was running for his life from King Saul and eventually sought refuge in a cave at Adullam (1 Samuel 22). At first his plight was solitary loneliness that he keenly felt and wanted God to look and see that there was none aware of his perilous situation (4a). The saddest words in the Bible are here, “no one cares for my soul” (4b). David’s spirit fainted within him (3a), and he was “brought very low!” (6a). This depressed state – even more than the cave – felt like a “prison” (7a). David responded the best and only way he knew how. He cried out aloud to Yahweh and plead for mercy (1). He poured out his lament and told God his trouble (2). But David knew (as well as I should know) that God knew where David was and what he felt (3a).
David’s faith, though tested and stretched as it was, had not evaporated completely, because he affirmed what he knew to be true about Yahweh: “YOU are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living” (5). One translation reads, “You are all I want.” (I might add “and my greatest need when I feel depressed or discouraged.”) David may have found refuge in a cave, but his real and best refuge was Yahweh himself. Though the men who hunted David down like an animal were “too strong” for David, he knew God was stronger and would result in his deliverance, for which he would give thanks (6b). At the end, David’s faith joined with hope as he anticipated righteous people surrounding him and God dealing bountifully with him (7). God answered David’s prayer by sending his family to him (1 Samuel 22:1). I can trust God to answer my prayers for help whenever I’m feeling depressed, because he already has often done so in the past.
My greatest example of faith and hope triumphing over despair is the Lord Jesus Christ , who though he himself went through Gethsemane and the cross, came out the other side of a tomb-cave in great victory. Jesus Christ is now MY refuge and all I want the rest of my life.
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