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Lift up your voice to the LORD for mercy

(Psalm 142)

Andy Nagahara

Today’s text is Psalm 142. It is a psalm written by the psalmist imagining David’s prayer about the events that occurred before he became king of Israel. Let’s read the whole thing first.

0 A of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.
1 I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy.
2 I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble.
3 When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way. In the path where I walk men have hidden a snare for me.
4 Look to my right and see; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life.
5 I cry to you, O LORD; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”
6 Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.
7 Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.

There are 13 psalms with “maskil” in the title among the 150 psalms. And this is the last “maskil”. So far I have hardly explained what “maskil” is, so I would like to briefly touch on it here.

Biblical studies have revealed that “maskil” is a word that comes from a verb meaning to command, instruct, or understand. But nothing more has been revealed yet. From the original words, inferences have been drawn that the song is moral or technical. Luther translates it as “instructive songs” or “songs to teach.”

1. Pour out your complaint before the LORD (0-2)

0 A of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.
1 I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy. 　2 I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble.

Why did David have to be in the cave? The psalm 57 that we read earlier also describes the same situation. The details of this event are recorded in the book of 1 Samuel.　The focus is around chapter 22, but it’s difficult to understand the background unless you start reading from around chapter 8, so if you haven’t read the Book of Samuel yet, I recommend reading it from the beginning, little by little.
Samuel was a prophet and national leader in a time when Israel did not have a king. However, as Samuel grew old and the time approached when they would soon lose their leader, the people pleaded with him, saying that they needed a king like the surrounding great powers. God’s thinking was that if the people truly obeyed Him, there would be no need for a king, but He accepted their request and presented Samuel with a candidate. That was the first king, Saul.
However, Saul gradually stopped listening to and following God’s will, so God commanded Samuel to show him a young man who was not related to Saul by blood and to anoint him to be king. At that time David was also famous as a lyre player, so Saul initially hired him as a musician and became very fond of him. However, David’s talent was not limited to music. He also fought as a warrior, defeating the Philistine warrior Goliath, and the people’s popularity shifted from Saul to David. Saul’s jealousy made him hate David and he tried to kill him, which resulted in David fleeing to the cave.

At this time, David had no ambition; he had faithfully supported Saul, was best friends with Saul’s son Jonathan, and his wife was Saul’s daughter, so he lamented this unfair situation. The psalmist then imagines that David “lifted up his voice and cried to the Lord; he pleaded with him at the top of his lungs and poured out his complaint and his distress to God.”
This teaches us that even in situations that cause us to mourn and grieve, we can still be close to God and commune with him intimately. It is part of the worship we are expected to do. David never tried to rush things on his own. He was patient and moved forward believing in what was best at the time, and he did not hate Saul who was trying to killhim, nor did he retaliate; rather, he avoided confrontation and bided his time. He then ascended to the throne and is still remembered as the greatest king of all time.
However, David’s life is detailed in the Books of Samuel and Chronicles, and we can see that he did some terrible things as a human being. This is not a fun story to hear on a Sunday morning, so if you want to know more, please read 2 Samuel chapter 11 later. Although David did some bad things that most of us would never do, there is still something we can learn from him. This is the attitude of “lifting up his voice and crying aloud to the Lord, pleading with him at the top of his lungs for mercy, pouring out his complaints and revealing his sufferings.”
Our Lord will surely hear you and respond to you. By singing this song, the psalmist also compares his own situation with that of David recorded in the Book of Samuel, and pours out his lament and worships God.

And the fact that this verse is included in the Psalms indicates that it was not merely a personal experience, but was sung in a time of crisis for the entire people, and was delivered to God as the cry of the entire people. I think we too need to think about what we feel is a crisis and what we should cry out to the Lord for, not just our personal situations, but as a people of yourchurch as a whole.

2. Even when the spirit fades completely, there is a refuge (3-5)

3 When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way. In the path where I walk men have hidden a snare for me. 4 Look to my right and see; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. 

David was a young and skilled warrior, but it wasn’t just enemies like the Philistines who were trying to kill him. His life was also being threatened by his own countryman, Saul, his ruler and father-in-law.
The betrayal of a close relationship of trust can do far more damage to a person than the attack of an enemy. David must have felt his spirit “ fading away” at this time. During this time, David lived in constant fear of falling into a trap and being killed. And with no family or friends by his side to walk with him and encourage and comfort him, he felt cornered and was in such pain with nowhere to run to.

Yet the psalmist knows that David continues to trust in God. So he sings, “You know my paths, even when my spirit grows faint.” He believes that there is a reality as seen by God, not the hopeless situation as seen by himself. Even if he can’t see it while he’s walking down the street, God can see it all the way, like a drone camera looking down on him. So if he trusts, he has deep faith that He will guide him to avoid the traps that are set for him.
And even though there is no one on his right side, he has the hope that God Himself must be there. In both English and Japanese, right and left indicate not just differences in position but also differences in superiority and inferiority. With a few exceptions, “right” is used to mean superior and “left” to mean inferior. You may have noticed that the expression “right side” appears frequently in the Bible. Its use in the Bible is no exception, with the right being the side of holiness and righteousness and the left being the side of corruption and injustice.

Ecclesiastes says, “The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.” (10:2) and Jesus says, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.(Matthew 25:3-34)
“Look closely at the fact that there is no one to my right,” is an appeal that says, “There is no one who cares about me, no one I can rely on.” But what is more pressing to the psalmist is that he does not feel as if God is there, at his right hand. The most secure state for us is when we realize that “The Lord watches over us –the Lord is our shade at our right hand;” (Ps. 121:5). Do you have the feeling that the Lord is on your right hand?

But David did not give up in despair and become silent. Instead, what he did was to cry out to the Lord, as he did at the beginning of the verse. Here we see specifically what he cried out and said to God. He cried out,”You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” This is the faith of David, the psalmist, and us. It is not unbelief to allow our souls to be worn down by anxiety and fear in the face of difficulties. Unbelief is when we fail to be honest with our feelings and not to cry out to the Lord in the face of difficulties.
Lest we fall into unbelief, let us cry out to God and say, “You are my refuge; you are my portion in the land of the living.” Worship is not just a time of praise and thanksgiving. This is also the time to cry out like this. Let us remember this as we sing to the Lord this morning.

3. Faith is the key to entering the refuge (6, 7)

6 Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.
7 Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.

The psalmist’s feelings are mixed. Even though he confesses, “You are my refuge”, the painful feelings continue to well up within him. He feels like his soul has no freedom and is chained in a prison. If we follow the story of David in the Book of Samuel, we find that he too suffered for a long time. The same applies to our own journey.

August 15 marked the 79th “End of War Day.” For this country it’s the anniversary of the end of the darkest days. We are not, like David, fleeing from war, although that is what is happening right now in Gaza and Ukraine. Also, 80 years ago, when American troops landed on Saipan and Okinawa, people actually fled into the mountains, like David, and took refuge in caves there.
In fact, like David, it wasn’t just actual enemies that threatened their lives. Because they were civilians, they could have left the cave and sought protection from the US military. In fact, Japanese-American soldiers had urged people not to commit suicide, telling them they would be kept safe. But despite this, many people chose to commit suicide. That’s what they’ve been educated to do.
So it was, precisely, a state-forced suicide for many people, especially children. Their lives were taken not by the US military but by their own country’s military dictatorship. This is a memory that Japanese people should never forget. For those who believe in Jesus as Lord, it is impossible to forget that until this day in Japan, to confess Jesus as Lord was considered to be an unpatriotic person. This is because the emperor was considered not only the head of state but also a god.

The situation around us can change suddenly at any time. Yet there is a refuge available to us to which we can run. In the previous section, I stated that “unbelief is when we do not cry out honestly to God, even in the face of difficulties.” In other words, “faith is being honest with our feelings and continuing to cry out even in the face of difficulties.” The psalmist is trying to overcome this time with this “faith.”
It is precisely in the worst times, such as when we feel in danger and have to hide in a cave, that we have the opportunity to exercise our “faith.” Faith never dies unless we give up raising our voices. Let’s continue to raise our voices. Keep worshipping. There is a place to escape.

(Prayer) God,God, search our hearts. Fill us, heal us, and strengthen us.
You know all the difficulties we are facing right now.
Help us to walk with you and get through this.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ.

Summary

It is not unbelief to allow our souls to be worn down by anxiety and fear in the face of difficulties. Unbelief is when we fail to be honest with our feelings and not to cry out to the Lord in the face of difficulties. It is precisely in the worst times, such as when we feel in danger and have to hide in a cave, that we have the opportunity to exercise our “faith.”
Faith never dies unless we give up raising our voices. Let’s continue to raise our voices. Keep worshipping. There is a place to escape.

For Discussion

1. What do you think is the state of a spirit that is fading away?
2. If someone asked you what faith is, how would you answer?