I have just recently been paying more attention to the subtitles of the psalm, and this one caught my eye today regarding Psalm 142: “A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave.  A prayer.”  When he was in the cave.  I feel that way often–do any of you as well?  That you’re in some kind of cave?  So I took some time to read Derek Kidner’s commentary on this psalm.  I can’t go into all of what he had to say in this brief post, but there are a few things I’d like to pass on.  But, first, the psalm:

Psalm 142 [141]

A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer. 1 I cry with my voice to the LORD, with my voice I make supplication to the LORD, 2 I pour out my complaint before him, I tell my trouble before him. 3 When my spirit is faint, thou knowest my way! In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me. 4 I look to the right and watch, * but there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me, no man cares for me. 5 I cry to thee, O LORD; I say, Thou art my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. 6 Give heed to my cry; for I am brought very low! Deliver me from my persecutors; for they are too strong for me! 7 Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to thy name! The righteous will surround me; for thou wilt deal bountifully with me.

What I gleaned from Kidner’s comments:

• Ps 57 is also a psalm David wrote while in a cave.  That one is more “bold and animated, almost enjoying the situation for the certainty of its triumphant outcome.  In the present psalm the strain of being hated and hunted is almost too much, and faith is at full stretch.  But this faith is undefeated, and in the final words it is at last joined by hope.”
• v. 1: with my voice has the sense of “aloud”.  Made me consider the importance–and “okay-ness”–of calling out loud to the Lord in our distress.  “David, Like Bartimaeus in the gospels, knows the value of refusing to lapse into silence.  That way lies despair.”  That way, lies despair.  Even if all we can do is cry out loud to the Lord, that will save us from despair . . . 
• v. 2: my complaint can be translated “my troubled thoughts”   Kidner also points out about this verse David’s frankness, indicated by the words pour out and tell. 
• One last comment on v. 3: The TEV translates When my spirit is faint as “When I am ready to give up.”  But Kidner also points out, there is almost a double emphasis on the word Thou–and, here we find the first of three “modest summits” in the psalm: “Thou knowest my way.”  And doesn’t that–the fact that God knows your way–make all the difference?  Can you find the other two summits in the psalm?