Psalm 143:1-12
A melody of David.*
143 O Jehovah, hear my prayer;+Do give ear to my entreaty.+In your faithfulness answer me in your righteousness.+
2 And do not enter into judgment with your servant;+For before you no one alive can be righteous.+
3 For the enemy has pursued my soul;+He has crushed my life to the very earth.+He has caused me to dwell in dark places like those dead for time indefinite.+
4 And my spirit+ faints away within me;In the midst of me my heart shows itself numbed.+
5 I have remembered days of long ago;+I have meditated on all your activity;+I willingly kept myself concerned with the work of your own hands.+
6 I have spread out my hands to you;+My soul is like an exhausted land to you.+ Seʹlah.*
7 O hurry, answer me, O Jehovah.+My spirit has come to an end.+Do not conceal your face from me,+Or else I must become comparable with those going down into the pit.+
8 In the morning cause me to hear your loving-kindness,*+For in you I have put my trust.+Make known to me the way in which I should walk,+For to you I have lifted up my soul.+
9 Deliver me from my enemies, O Jehovah.+I have taken cover* even with you.+
10 Teach me to do your will,*+For you are my God.+Your spirit is good;+May it lead me in the land of uprightness.+
11 For the sake of your name,+ O Jehovah, may you preserve me alive.+In your righteousness+ may you bring forth my soul out of distress.+
12 And in your loving-kindness may you silence my enemies;+And you must destroy all those showing hostility to my soul,+For I am your servant.+
Footnotes
^ LXXVg add: “when the son [Vgc, “when his son Absalom”] was pursuing him.”
^ This is the last Selah of the 71 in Psalms. See 3:2 and ftn, “Selah.”
^ Or, “loyal love.”
^ Lit., “I have covered.”
^ Or, “pleasure.”
