Week 50: Psalms 142-144

Published December 4, 2025

Questions: Psalms 142-144

  • In Psalm 142, David cries out to God, begging for mercy from his enemies. When was the last time you cried out, seeking God desperately? If not recently, cry out today and express your dependence on the only One who can save.
  • David cries out again to God in Psalm 143, saying that God is his refuge. He is bold enough to say, “Answer me quickly!” Saint, know that God hears you the second you cry out to Him. And He answers in His time. Today, feel free to ask whatever is on your heart, keeping in mind God’s steadfast love and kindness! 
  • David says, in Psalm 144, “May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace.” Using that kind of symbolism or whatever words you want, pray today for your “sons and daughters”, whether you have your own or not!

    • Devotion

    As in much of the Psalter, Psalm 142 is both an example for us in how to pray as well as a covenant record of a particular prayer heard by God. It is a prayer to imitate in our own prayers; it is a prayer to trust in, as it has already gotten through to our heavenly Father.

    Some thoughts on how we should pray in the likeness of this psalm:

    • Pray audibly (verse 1). Silent prayer is real prayer. But vocalizing your prayer commits yourself to it, yields your very body to the Lord in your appeal, and anticipates a concrete response as substantive as the words spoken. When you pray privately, still pray vocally.
    • God’s omniscience (that he is all-knowing) drives the urgency of prayer (verses 3-4). It’s a distortion of the truth for prayer to be silenced or non-existent merely because God already knows everything. In any human relationship, it’s the knowledge that someone is aware of a problem that produces the most urgent appeal that they should do something about it. How can you know yet refuse to act?! The same is true in prayer. We confront God with his own knowledge, not to make him aware of our need, but to seek a response from him. We are asking God to act.
    • Being helpless brings confidence to our prayers (verse 4). No one else is helping, nor could they. Therefore, God is unable to delegate the response to others. He himself must answer. There is no other option available.
    • At the heart of our prayer is an expression of faith and worship (verse 5). We declare to God what he is in our estimation. He IS our protection against harm; he IS the good that we cherish. Every request of something from God has its proper foundation in what God is for us. Worshipful faith undergirds all prayer.
    • Bold prayer is still dependent prayer (verse 6). Some of the above might seem too presumptuous if God had not first given us the right to speak to him this way. Even still, we are dependent upon God to answer and to act. We do not make ourselves heard; God makes himself hear (6a). The strength of prayer is not in the power we draw from it but in the power God displays when he saves (6b).
    • Pray expectantly (verse 7). The psalmist closes with the confidence that God will bring greater blessing than he has even asked for. He prays for safety from harm, and God will show bountiful blessing. He appeals to God to act when there is no one else who cares, and God will surround him with those who seek God in righteousness. The psalmist asks according to the depth of his need; God will act according to the fullness of his provision.

    This psalm is a pattern to imitate in our own prayers. It is also a Holy Spirit-preserved witness of a prayer heard by God. Through its use, “the righteous will surround” the psalmist in joining in this same appeal to God, though primarily from the vantage point of God already having heard and answered the original prayer. This sort of urgent prayer is most fully uttered by Christ himself in his appeal to his Father during the time of his suffering (see Hebrews 4:7). His cry to the Father was answered in his resurrection-exaltation. His expectation of provision is realized not only in his resurrection but also in his redeemed people, made righteous by his work, surrounding him in praise and wonder at God’s merciful and mighty salvation. We pray this kind of prayer not so much because it still needs to be answered but because it has been fully answered in Christ. In our praying, we are participating in the very answer that Christ has received to his prayer. How much more boldness, more urgency, more fervency, faith, confidence, and worship fills our prayer as we pour out our complaint before God? Our voice joins the voice of Christ’s, indeed the voice of his Spirit crying out in us (Galatians 4:6). God’s omniscience is paired with Christ’s incarnate knowledge of our weakness (Hebrews 4:15). Our helplessness lays hold of the only one in whom is salvation (Acts 4:12). Christ is our refuge (Colossians 3:3) and our cherished good (Philippians 3:7-8). Christ alone is our strength in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). In our every prayer, God answers above and beyond our prayer, according to the power already at work within us (Ephesians 3:20-21).

    Using this Spirit-inspired psalm as a guide, voice your prayer to the Father, through Christ, and in so doing, draw richly from his abundant provision in and through Christ Jesus for you. 

    - David O'Leary