When my spirit faints within me, you know my way. In the path where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me.
– Psalm 142:3
Oh, I love these two sentences here. Just think about them both, we’ll take the second one first. In the path where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me.
Psalm 142:3 portrays God as our refuge and our portion.
This is David writing this when he’s in the cave. King Saul is coming after him and he knows he’s surrounded by people who want him to fall. They actually want him to die. They do not want his good. And they’re hiding traps for him. They’re just waiting for him to make a misstep because they want to pounce on him. There are many different applications of this. Specifically, these are people who are attacking David here. But the reality is there is an adversary who is always laying traps for us all day today is laying traps for you and me. He wants us to fall, wants to destroy us.
We need to be on guard. This is where verse three, the first part is so encouraging,”When my spirit faints within me, you know my way.” David is saying, “I’m tired and I’m seeing traps all around me, but you know my way, and when my spirit faints within me…” You keep going on in this psalm. He looks to the Lord as his refuge and his portion and the land of the living trust that God will deal bountifully with him.
I just want to encourage you. Especially if you are weary in any way, weary from attacks of the adversary in your life. Weary from, as David describes here, people coming at you. Or just weary in this fallen sinful world, when your spirit is fainting within you, know this. God knows your way. God says right now to you and your heart, I am your refuge, I am your portion, and I will deal bountifully with you, I will ultimately deliver you so trust in me.
Psalm 142:3 encourages us to be faithful amidst temptation and despair.
That’s what the verse right before this, verse two says, I’ll tell my trouble to God, plead for mercy to him and he will answer. Oh God, we praise you that you know our way, and for likely many of us who are praying this right now, our spirits are fainting within us, we’re tired, we’re weary in different ways, and you know all our ways. We praise you as our refuge and our portion and our strength and the one who provides new mercy to us every single morning and who promises ultimately to deliver us and deal bountifully with us. Psalm 142:6, attend to our cries, oh God, as we trust in you, and keep us from falling, we pray.
With the traps of the adversaries set around us, we pray that you would help us today to follow you faithfully, to not give in to temptation, to despair, to not give into temptation to sin. God, help us to walk humbly, holy, faithfully with you today as you lead and guide our way.
Prayer for the Mongallese Arab People
Oh God, even as I read later in Psalm 142:6, deliver me from my persecutors. And we pray specifically for the spread of the gospel in Sudan. God, we know there are so many brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted in Sudan, who it is really hard to faithfully follow you and proclaim you. We pray that you would strengthen them and help them. Uphold them with your righteous right hand.
We pray that the gospel would spread through them even in the middle of persecution. God, we pray for the Mongolese Arabs of Sudan and Southern Sudan. Lord, we pray that they would be reached with the good news of your love through people who are trusting in you as their refuge. God, we pray all this according to your word in Psalm 142, with spirits fainting within us, we look to you who knows our way, who guides our way, and who promises to help us in every way we need. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
