Psalm 143 "Sitting in Darkness"

Psalm for Today = 143:1-4

¹ Hear my prayer, O Lord;
    give ear to my pleas for mercy!
    In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!
² Enter not into judgment with your servant,
    for no one living is righteous before you.

³ For the enemy has pursued my soul;
    he has crushed my life to the ground;
    he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead. ⁴ Therefore my spirit faints within me;
    my heart within me is appalled.

Comments:

This psalm of David, is classified as an Individual Lament; individual because it is written in the 1^st person singular (me, my, I) and a lament not because it is sad our mourning, but because it is asking God for something. There is a situation in the life of the psalmist that needs the intervention of the Lord.

What impressed me this morning as I was reading was not David’s request for help but his confession that “no one living is righteous before you”(v.2) As Christians we are quick to quote Romans 3:23’s “for all have sinned” and move on. Yet I wonder if we really believe that we are sinners that stand no chance of talking, explaining, or bluffing our way into eternity. Surely if God was to judge between us and our enemies we would be justified—right? No, we are all unable to stand should God enter into judgment with us…no matter our nation, race, culture, or socio-economic class. We are no better than any other in this respect.

1 John 1:8-9 says, ^“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

David understood confession. He also understood how his enemies had impacted his life. In poetic language he describes the darkness in which he was forced to live. How Jesus changes this! While our physical circumstances may not be changed immediately Jesus came to minister to those in darkness. As we see in the Gospels,

Matthew 4:15-17 [Isaiah 9:1-2]

¹⁵ “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
    the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
¹⁶ the people dwelling in darkness
    have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
    on them a light has dawned.”

¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

John 1:9-13 

“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. ¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 

Are we a zombie nation, or does our heart's condition appall us? Will we confess our need to the Lord? Will we admit our guilt and unworthiness? Will we receive the true light Jesus Christ’s gift of salvation or will we sullenly choose to continue sitting “in darkness like those long dead”?

 

We all need to hear and heed the words of Jesus,
       “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”