Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 3-014 Sunday 19 Jan 2003

Reading: Psalm 143 – UNDER PRESSURE

How do you steady yourself (your heart, your mind) when you are in deep trouble, at your wits’ end?

The word ‘Selah’ (v 6) suggests that the psalm be divided into two parts; description predominates in the first; requests in the second. The psalm is not located at any specific time of David’s life, but verses 3, 9 and 12 indicate extreme pressure. David reacts in his troubles in three ways:

Framing. He reminds himself at the beginning and end of the psalm of God’s character, using some of the most memorable words of the Old Testament: righteousness, faithfulness, judgement, justice, steadfast love, God’s name (v 11, meaning all that God has revealed about himself). Because of the emphasis on mercy and judgment in verses 1 and 2, this psalm is classified as one of the famous penitential psalms.(Also Pss 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130)

Remembering. Verse 5 speaks of David remembering, pondering as far back as he can and as widely as he can. He does this not in the spirit of scientific analysis, but as a desert longs for rain, or as a lover longs for the beloved.

Asking. Trace the build-up of requests in verses 7-11. How eagerly David plunders all he knows of God’s generosity.

Some readers have been offended by verse 12, thinking it unnecessarily vindictive. Brueggemann has reminded us that ‘life is savagely marked by disequilibrium, incoherence and unrelieved asymmetry’*. The church that is steeped in the Old Testament does not sweep these venomous realities under the carpet, but brings these evils and the violent reactions they evoke into the light, and places them securely in God’s hands. We know, with David, that this is the only safe and just place into which we can consign our foes.If we have never had such violent feelings, could it be that we are complacent about things that should enrage us?(Mark 3:5)

Do you face some deep trouble or trial? Quietly collect your thoughts, feelings, desires, lift up your hands (v 6) and practise a similar process of framing, remembering, asking.

* ‘The Message of the Psalms’

– Howard Peskett

Copyright Scripture Union, 2003

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