The Bible Commentaries and Others: Psalms 142 v 1

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Posted by Psalms on Saturday, 23 January 2016

Psalms 142:1

Maschil of David; A Prayer when he was in the cave. I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication.

142:1. I cried unto the LORD with my voice. It was a cry of such anguish that he remembers it long after. In the loneliness of the cave he could use his voice as much as he pleased; and therefore he made its gloomy vaults echo with his appeals to heaven.

With my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplications. He dwells upon the fact that he spoke aloud in prayer. It is well when our supplications are such that we find pleasure in looking back upon them. He that is cheered by the memory of his prayers will pray again. He did not go round about to men, but ran straight forward to Jehovah. He first poured out his natural longings—I cried; and then he gathered up all his wits and arranged his thoughts. An impromptu cry and a preconceived supplication must alike ascend towards the one prayer-hearing God, and he will accept each of them with equal readiness. No doubt the psalmist was glad of the prayers of others, but he was not content to remain silent himself. Everything is in the first person. It is good to pray in the plural—“Our Father”—but in times of trouble we shall feel forced to change our note into “Let his cup pass from me.”

Excerpt from:

The Treasury of David by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)