Take a moment to think about a time in your past when you felt far from God as a result of your own sin.
David lived before the time of Jesus Christ. Let that fact sink in for a sec. David lived in a time where the only hope of reconciliation to God after a sin was committed was an animal sacrifice. However, the blood of these animals was not enough to take away the sins of the people (Hebrews 10:4). Instead, they only served as a reminder of the people’s own sin (Hebrews 10:3).
In a similar way, it seems that David pens these words of Psalm 143 with a clear view of his sin and its effects on his relationship with God and his personal life:
Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. 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. Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled. (v2-4)
David recognizes the destructiveness of his own past sin and the place to which his sin has led him. He is crushed, appalled, and faint. He looks to God for deliverance, remembering all that He has done in the past:
I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. (v5-6)
It is here that the tone of the Psalm shifts. From past to future. From sorrow to hope. From what David has done to what God will do:
Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD! I have fled to you for refuge. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! For your name’s sake, O LORD, preserve my life! In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble! And in your steadfast love you will cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your servant. (v8-10)
As our last Lenten Psalm, Psalm 143 reminds us of the destructiveness of our own sin and our inability to save ourselves from ourselves. But, it also offers hope for deliverance from sin in this age and in the age to come. Unlike David, we have a knowledge of our living hope in Jesus Christ, who takes away our sin. Our (and David’s) thirst for deliverance has been parched!
Take a moment to think back to that time in your life that you thought about in the first part of this reading. But instead of dwelling there, thank God for His forgiveness of that past sin and all future sin through the finished work of Christ on the cross.
- Michael R.