Biblion Bible Commentary
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No One Cares for My Soul
Psalms 142:1-7
1 A contemplation by David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer. I cry with my voice to Yahweh. With my voice, I ask Yahweh for mercy. · WEB
Written in the cave again, and this time there is no singing — only a man looking to his right and finding nobody.
A contemplation by David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer Psalms 142:1.
The same setting as the fifty-seventh psalm and a completely different poem. That one woke the dawn; this one does not get out of the cave.
I pour out my complaint before him. I tell him my troubles Psalms 142:2.
The verb is the ordinary one for emptying a vessel. Nothing is arranged or made presentable first.
When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, you knew my route Psalms 142:3.
The one piece of comfort in the psalm, and it is a small one. He does not say God rescued him or explained anything. God knew the path he was on, which is more than he knew himself.
Look on my right, and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul Psalms 142:4.
The right hand is where a defender stands, and the psalm asks God to look at the empty space. Three statements of the same fact, each flatter than the last.
It is worth remembering, reading this, that David in the cave was not alone — four hundred men were with him 1 Samuel 22:2. What the psalm reports is not a headcount but an experience, and the collection prints the experience.
I cried to you, Yahweh. I said, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living" Psalms 142:5.
Refuge had fled in verse four and is named in verse five, which is the psalm's whole movement. And my portion is the language of the tribe that received no land Psalms 16:5 — a man in a hole in the ground saying that his inheritance is a person.
Bring my soul out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name Psalms 142:7.
The cave is called a prison. And the reason given for wanting out is thanksgiving, which cannot be done alone: the righteous will surround me — the man who found nobody on his right expects, by the last line, to be encircled.
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