The Longing Soul
Psalms 143
November 13, 2022
Tonight we look at the 143rd Psalm.
It’s an interesting Psalm to read,
Especially if you find yourself in pain or hardship or even depression,
Because David writes with the same kind of urgency and raw desperation
That we certainly feel at times in our life.
This is not the kind of Psalm that lends itself to easy outlining.
We don’t just read a Psalm like this and walk down through 1), 2), 3).
David is not systematic here, he is desperate and he is thorough.
It is important that you read this Psalm as whole
And understand his general point and then you can pick it apart.
So let’s make a few general observations.
Clearly the issue at hand in this Psalm is David’s “soul”
• He is in trouble.
• You do see his deep despair.
David doesn’t allude so much to physical danger or physical persecution
As he does to the persecution of his soul.
The soul is the focal point of the Psalm.
• (3) “For the enemy has persecuted my soul;”
• (4) “Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me;”
• (6) “My soul longs for You, as a parched land.”
• (7) “Answer me quickly, O LORD, my spirit fails;”
• (8) “Teach me in the way in which I should walk; For to You I lift up my soul.”
• (11) “In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble.”
• (12) “And destroy all those who afflict my soul,”
David’s soul is in desperation.
David’s soul is under attack.
David’s spirit is persecuted.
And so you can talk about this being a Psalm of the soul.
• You can see A PERSECUTED SOUL
• You can see AN OVERWHELMED SOUL
• You can see A SUBMISSIVE SOUL
But more than any one of those
What David presents in Psalms 143 is A LONGING SOUL
That is what you read in verses 1-2
“Hear my prayer, O LORD, Give ear to my supplications! Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness! And do not enter into judgment with Your servant, For in Your sight no man living is righteous.”
That is what you read in verses 5-6
“I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your doings; I muse on the work of Your hands. I stretch out my hands to You; My soul longs for You, as a parched land. Selah.”
That is what you read in verses 7-8
“Answer me quickly, O LORD, my spirit fails; Do not hide Your face from me, Or I will become like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; For I trust in You;”
That is what you read in verse 9
“Deliver me, O LORD, from my enemies; I take refuge in You.”
That is what you read in verses 11-12
“For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble. And in Your lovingkindness, cut off my enemies And destroy all those who afflict my soul, For I am Your servant.”
David’s soul is unsatisfied.
• And in his desperation he is SEEKING.
• In his desperation his soul is LONGING.
AND CLEARLY WHAT DAVID IS LONGING FOR IS GOD,
And the effect of God’s presence in his life.
An interesting, and even somewhat confusing aspect of this Psalm
Is found in verse 2.
David says, (2) “And do not enter into judgment with Your servant, For in Your sight no man living is righteous.”
• It is interesting that David wants God, but not judgment.
• And even more interesting is that David wants mercy for himself, but in verse
12 he wants destruction for his enemies.
That seems a little hypocritical.
That seems a little shallow.
If someone approached you and said,
• “I want to hear from God, but I don’t want to hear about sin or judgment.”
• “I want God to be merciful to me, but not to the people who persecute me.”
YOU’D FEEL THE NEED TO CORRECT THEM.
SO WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?
Men who like to group and categorize the Psalms have listed 7 Psalms as PENITENTIAL PSALMS.
That is to say they list them as Psalms that cry out for mercy and forgiveness from God. (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143)
You’re probably most familiar with the 51st
Which is the famous Psalm of David’s repentance.
This Psalm is listed as the last of the penitential Psalms
And it is because of verse 2.
Certainly we pick up on the important gospel theology
Where David acknowledges that “in Your sight no man living is righteous.”
That is what we call TOTAL DEPRAVITY
David isn’t the only one who is fallen, all men are fallen.
But the specific request of David is that
God would not enter into judgment with him personally.
WHAT DO WE DO WITH THIS VERSE?
It seems to me that what you have here from David is a statement that might be better understood as,
• “do not enter into FINAL judgment with Your servant”
• Or “do not enter into ADDITIONAL judgment with Your servant”
For it is clear that David is aware that he is already being judged.
David is clear that he is already being disciplined.
(3) “For the enemy has persecuted my soul; He has crushed my life to the ground; He has made me dwell in dark places, like those who have long been dead.”
• David knows he is being disciplined.
• David even understands that God is sovereign over all of it.
• (For God could stop it any time He wants, indicating that God is also allowing it.)
And the prayer of David is not simply a prayer for deliverance,
But also a prayer of submission and seeking.
David is crying out to God with a declaration of submission
And he longs for God to accept his promise
And relieve the judgment he has been forced to walk through.
We have a word for this, we call it DISCIPLINE
The writer of Hebrews gives perhaps the best statement on discipline.
TURN TO: HEBREWS 12:3-11
The writer of Hebrews there reminds us that our discipline
Is a tool from God to train us in righteousness.
It is a tool to move forward the process of sanctification in our lives.
And in the case of the Hebrews
Their discipline came in the form of persecutors.
• They were being ostracized.
• They had their property seized.
• They had been imprisoned.
• They were threatened.
But the perspective the writer of Hebrews gives is that
“This persecution by the enemy is actually a tool in the hands of God to sanctify you and make you more righteous.”
See it as discipline from a father who cares how you turn out.
WELL THIS IS WHERE DAVID IS COMING FROM.
And through his discipline he has learned to seek the LORD.
So we call this the Psalm of: THE LONGING SOUL
David, because of his affliction,
Is now seeking God in humility, in faith, in desperation, etc.
HIS SOUL NOW LONGS FOR GOD.
AND MIGHT WE JUST SAY here even as we introduce this Psalm,
That this is a position God routinely puts us into.
You do realize that your primary purpose in this life
Is that you are to be one who seeks God.
Acts 17:26-28 “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’”
• Paul speaks to pagans there steeped in idolatry
• And he reminds them that as the created children of God
• Their one obligation is to seek God, even to grope for Him.
Jesus certainly taught this.
Matthew 6:31-33 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
• You were not placed on this earth to seek food or shelter or any other sparkly thing.
• You were placed here to seek God.
• Namely you were placed here to seek His kingdom and His righteousness.
Jesus would go on to promise that if you seek, you will find.
Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
Seeking God has always been the purpose.
And we are promised to be blessed when we do this.
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Now, the problem for us is that WE GET DISTRACTED
And at times we begin to seek the wrong things.
We have a tendency to seek comfort or riches or glory or other things.
David certainly did from time to time.
• We remember him seeking Bathsheba
• We remember him numbering Israel (seeking glory)
And in response to such waywardness God would use circumstances
To discipline David until he returned and sought the Lord only.
And God uses this same process in our lives.
• We get distracted.
• We seek worldly things.
• We seek worldly riches and comforts and glory.
• We quit seeking His kingdom and His righteousness
• We start seeking our kingdom and our glory.
And in such times God uses discipline to remind us that
What we really need is Him, not more of the world.
What did Jeremiah say, even as Israel was heading into Babylon?
Jeremiah 29:10-14 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. ‘I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’”
ISRAEL, YOU’VE GOTTEN DISTRACTED.
You are no longer seeking Me, you’re only seeking idols.
70 years in Babylon should do the trick.
You don’t seek Me now, but you will.
And God still does that in our lives.
He is doing that here in David’s life.
David has now recognized that the torment of his soul,
Even though it is by the hands of his enemies,
Has been sent by God to readjust David’s focus.
And so David, in humility and desperation is seeking the LORD.
He has a longing soul
And in Psalms 143 his soul is once again longing for the right thing.
So there is YOUR BASIC UNDERSTANDING of this Psalm as a whole.
That is what it is about.
AND THAT MEANS THAT
• If you have found yourself seeking the wrong things
• And God has brought discipline into your life
• And you would like experience revival
• And “have your seeker straightened out”,
THIS IS YOUR PSALM.
That being the gist of the Psalm, now let’s look at it a little closer.
#1 WHY IS DAVID LONGING?
Psalms 143:1-4
Of course we see the opening statements where David in desperation cries out to God.
• “Hear my prayer”
• “Give ear to my supplications”
• “Answer me”
I DON’T KNOW where David has recently been in his desire to seek God,
But I KNOW where he is now.
He is coming to God.
He is seeking God.
He earnestly longs for God to pay attention to him.
WHY?
(3) “For the enemy has persecuted my soul; He has crushed my life to the ground; He has made me dwell in dark places, like those who have long been dead.”
That’s pretty depressing.
David doesn’t speak of physical persecution,
He speaks of soul persecution.
Whatever this enemy has done to David, it has sucked the life out of him.
One might face physical pain and the soul be resilient and strong,
But David has faced soul persecution and he is done.
In fact (4) “Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me; My heart is appalled within me.”
You saw that same phrase last week.
Psalms 142:3 “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, You knew my path. In the way where I walk They have hidden a trap for me.”
It meant he was at his whit’s end. He was done. He wanted to quit.
And here David adds, “My heart is appalled within me.”
“appalled” is SHAW-MAME
It actually means “desolate”
It is used also to mean “stunned” or “stupefied”
In other words David says, “I’ve got nothing!”
I don’t comprehend or understand this.
I am persecuted and attacked and when I look inwardly for a solution I come up empty. I am no help to myself. I am no comfort to myself.
My inner counselor has failed me.
• I’m done.
• I’m finished.
• I’m overwhelmed.
In fact you look down to verse 7
David says, “Answer me quickly, O LORD, my spirit fails…”
I’m fading away.
He goes on to say in verse 7,
If You don’t come help me, “I will become like those who go down to the pit.”
I’ll be like a dead man.
My strength is of no use.
THIS IS WHAT WE CALL COMING TO THE END OF YOURSELF.
2 Corinthians 1:8-9 “For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;”
That is where David is.
He has searched inwardly as deep as he can go to find encouragement and a solution to his dilemma and his own heart has failed him.
FROM DAVID’S VANTAGE POINT IT IS OVER.
And this is why He is now longing for God.
Perhaps it should not always take such drastic circumstances
To cause us to long for God, but it often does.
Often times we are forced to face persecution or discipline
To get us to finally take our eyes off the world and off ourselves
And to once again long for God.
AND IN OUR SUFFERING, WE FINALLY LONG FOR GOD AGAIN.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “I have learned to kiss the wave that slams me against the Rock of Ages.”
I don’t know if David is saying the same thing here.
I don’t know if he loves the wave,
But he has definitely been slammed against the Rock of Ages.
That is WHY he is longing.
#2 WHAT IS DAVID LONGING FOR?
Psalms 143:5-6
In short, David is longing for God.
And more specifically FOR REVIVAL
That he might once again enjoy the presence of God in his life.
• Notice how David is now awakened back to that time when he sought God.
• Notice how David is now awakened back to that time of fellowship with God.
(5) “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your doings; I muse on the work of Your hands.”
This is the equivalent of that great awakening
Experienced by THE PRODIGAL.
Luke 15:17-19 “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! ‘I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”
• There was a time when the prodigal thought nothing of his father.
• There was a time when he only lusted for the things of the world.
• There was a time when all he longed for was worldly pleasure.
But a little time in the pig pen of discipline
And all of a sudden the prodigal began to remember that there had never been a truer joy in his life than the times he walked with his father.
David is now there.
And he says, (6) “I stretch out my hands to You; My soul longs for You, as a parched land.”
We remember how David had prayed such things before.
Psalms 63:1 “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
• David once felt that way.
• Perhaps sin had distracted him
But now David has returned there again.
• He doesn’t just want relief, he wants God.
• He isn’t seeking a respite, he is seeking God.
And in seeking God certainly he longs for
The benefits that come with the presence of God.
For example:
(8) “Let me hear of Your lovingkindness in the morning; For I trust in You;”
Jeremiah would steal this thought in Lamentations when he would remind himself and the surviving Jewish remnant that the mercies of God are indeed new every morning.
David is now missing that.
He has in some way stopped seeking God
And is beginning to feel the spiritual famine in his life.
• He has run as long as he can run on his own sufficiency.
• He has traveled as far as he can go on his own strength.
• He is missing that refreshing mercy of God that is new every morning.
How I just want to arise and spend time with You Oh God!
I may have forgotten that for a season,
But I again remember what a blessing it is.
David once said:
Psalms 84:10-12 “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, How blessed is the man who trusts in You!”
And now David is returning to that mentality.
(9) “Delver me, O LORD, from my enemies; I take refuge in you.”
Perhaps he had forgotten the satisfaction of resting in God.
• There were times when chaos abounded around him,
• But he was so secure because he rested in God.
Now having tasted the bitter pill of standing in his own strength, David longs to return to that old hiding place of God’s presence.
(11-12) “For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble. And in Your lovingkindness cut of my enemies And destroy all those who afflict my soul…”
You see now that David is once again preoccupied with things like
• “Your name”
• “Your righteousness”
• “Your lovingkindness”.
These things may have recently taken a back seat on David’s priority list
But my HOW IMPORTANT THEY ARE NOW.
• David needs the God who is passionate about His name.
• David needs the God who operates in righteousness.
• David needs the God who is faithful to His covenant and walks in lovingkindness.
David had grown distracted and perhaps wandered away from this God,
BUT IN HIS AFFLICTION HE WANTS TO RETURN.
(7) “Answer me quickly, O LORD, for my spirit fails; Do not hide Your face from me, Or I will become like those who go town to the pit.”
• I need You!
• I need to see Your face!
• I need fellowship with You!
This is really good stuff here from David.
I don’t suppose any of us here can say,
“I have no idea what he’s talking about.”
I think we have all at one point or another played the role of the prodigal.
• We have all been guilty at one point of another of getting distracted by our idols or our ambitions or our lusts for worldly things and pleasures.
• We all know what it is to backslide.
• Some may even currently be in a state of backsliddenness.
And we know what it is to face the discipline of the Lord.
We know what it is for God to use the wicked of this world
To chasten us and to get our attention.
And we know how important the presence of God becomes
In times of such sorrow and pain.
DAVID CERTAINLY DOES.
Why is David seeking? Because he is in afflicted.
What is David seeking? He is seeking nothing less than God.
#3 HOW IS DAVID SEEKING?
Psalms 143:10
It is a simple statement of humility and submission.
“Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”
THERE IS THE PRAYER!
It’s not the first time he stated it.
(8c) “Teach me the way in which I should walk; For to You I lift up my soul.”
It’s not the last time he’ll state it.
(12c) “For I am Your servant.”
But it is stated so beautifully and so directly in verse 10.
1) “Teach me to do Your will”
• That is not the prayer of a self-righteous man.
• That is the prayer of a recent failure.
• That is the prayer of a man who realizes he has gone A.W.A.L.
I’ve shared with you before about my dad’s
UNIQUE HORSE-TRAINING TECHNIQUES.
He was no horse whisperer.
His sole training strategy with horses was to take a horse and teach that horse submission.
• And in his mind there was really no technique that was off-limits when it came
to teaching the art of submission.
• This might include a kick to the stomach, a rasp to the nose, a pipe gate to the
forehead, you name it.
Often times he would put me on a horse with the soul purpose of finding something that horse didn’t want to do and making him do it.
And if the horse didn’t come around to his way of thinking in a timely manner it was not uncommon for my dad to say,
“That horse needs to have his attention got.”
That is what David is saying to God.
“I need to have my attention got”
“Teach me to do Your will”
In verse 8 it was, “Team me the way in which I should walk”
• For too long I’ve lived as though I was the master of my own destiny.
• For too long I’ve done what I wanted to do.
• For too long I’ve charted my own course.
THAT ENDS TODAY.
Produce in me a submissive heart
That understands its purpose is to obey you.
That is a great prayer.
If you find yourself on a prodigal journey, START THERE.
“Teach me to do Your will.”
And that’s not all from David.
2) (11b) “For You are my God.”
It seems like such a simple confession but it is so easily forgotten.
I love the last 25 chapters of Isaiah.
It chronicles Israel’s return from her rejection of God and her salvation which will occur in the end.
I especially love chapter 64 which is the chapter when they have realized their waywardness and guilt and finally cry out to God for salvation.
Isaiah 64:6-8 “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities. But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.”
Don’t you love the awareness!
“We are the clay, and You our potter;”
• We have gotten too big for our britches.
• We have forgotten our place.
• We got things backward for too long.
• And now we realize our place.
• You are boss, we are servant.
• You are Lord, we are slave.
• You are potter, we are clay.
• You are God, we are not.
David is there.
“For You are my God.”
Later in (12c) “For I am Your servant.”
How easily we forget the simple order of things.
• How easily we forget that is not here for us, but we are here for Him.
• How easily we forget that He is not here to grant our will, but we are here to honor His.
WE FORGET IT.
Well now, through his trial, David remembers.
And it is a simple confession.
“You are my God”
If you find yourself on a prodigal journey,
That is the NEXT PLACE you should go.
After you recognize your wayward heart,
It’s time put yourself back in your place.
Remember that prodigal?
Luke 15:18-19 “‘I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”
That is how we return.
And finally David says:
3) “Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”
It sounds as though David has finally had enough
Of the rocky terrain of his own choices.
My what trouble we can get ourselves into
When we let our own heart call the shots.
WE CAN EVEN fall into such sin that
We actually despise the counsel of God.
• “I don’t want to know what God wants”
And we reach a point where we act as though
God is not good and that His way is not best.
And we rebel against Him and insist upon doing things our own way.
Well David has repented.
David calls the Holy Spirit God’s “good Spirit”
You know what is best!
“Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”
I don’t know where to go, but You do.
• I was foolish and pigheaded to chart my own course.
• I was arrogant and sinful to choose my own path.
• I was so stupid to follow my own dreams and my own will.
• I abandoned You and it led me into nothing but misery and contempt.
Now I am spent!
I’ve got nothing left.
So God, now I seek You!
• I want to return to You and I want You to return to me.
• Teach me submission.
• You are God, and I know my place.
• Now You get in the driver’s seat, I’m getting in the trunk.
Church that is the prayer!
That is revival.
That is where we are intended to be.
We are to have longing souls.
• This prayer is NOT JUST A MEANS to revival, this prayer is the destination.
• This is where WE ARE TO CAMP continually.
We DON’T look at Psalms 143 and say, “Ok, if I’ll use this prayer for a few days then I can get back to a place of peace and get on with my life.”
NO!!!
Psalms 143 is where we are traveling to
And this is where we are to stay for the rest of our lives.
WE ARE TO ALWAYS BE A LONGING SOUL!
We are to always long after God.
This is a great reminder to us
Of what the Christian life should always look like.
And on the day that the church returns to this point, we will have revival.
