Most of the psalms around this point in the book of Psalms seem to reflect a time of trouble in Israel. Perhaps it was the time of Exile, causing people to long for God’s presence among them. Today’s psalmist is also reaching out to God for help. In this psalm there is a strong sense of confidence that God will hear and help. Overall the psalm is not specific about the nature of any of the problems. But that actually helps us as readers today since it means we can relate it to our own situations too.

Verse 1 describes the psalmist as ‘poor and needy’. This is also a non-specific phrase: does it mean spiritually needy, or is it referring to physical distress? The response focuses on the need for joy and forgiveness at first (vs 4,5), and then moves on to enemies who are ‘arrogant’ (v 14) later. So the needs seem to be both spiritual and practical. This is common in the Old Testament where the spiritual and the physical were seen as two sides of the same coin.

Notice that the psalmist does not spend time blaming others for any misfortune. Rather, the prayer is to learn God’s ways so that a life of truthfulness can be lived (v 11). 

‘Every day I will bless you, and I will praise your name forever and ever … Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.’¹

David’s prayer portrays a humble man in trouble, calling on his God, who he knows can help. David, here, is not seeking power or a name for himself. Affliction and need can make us humble and bring us to our knees, but it is better not to need a day of trouble before we praise God. Certainly, there is much to praise God for in this psalm. David explicitly praises him for being good, ready to forgive, abundant in lovingkindness, merciful, gracious, slow to anger and faithful. He declares that God is great, above all other gods, superior in workmanship, does wondrous deeds and provides deliverance. As well, he recognises that God listens to him, can save, preserve, help and comfort him, is able to teach him and to give him strength. Implicitly, he affirms that God is trustworthy and worthy of being worshipped and glorified. 

It takes less than two minutes to read the psalm out loud. Ask yourself when the last time was that, in two minutes of prayer, you praised God with such a list as David’s. This is, of course, one reason that we have the psalms. We can pray them, for they say things that we are unable to say, or simply neglect to say. We do not need to be stricken, as David was, to use the psalm to praise God. At the same time, the lament psalms are there to help us frame our prayers when we need to ask God for help, particularly when we are oppressed by enemies, whether the enemy be human(s), an organisation, sin, or something else.

David prays that God will teach him his ways of truth and help him fear God’s name (v 11). Let’s pray that prayer now.

‘Teach me your way, Lord … give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name … For great is your love towards me; you have delivered me’ (vs 11,13).

¹ Ps 145:2,3, NASB