Psa 142:1-7 – “Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living”

[Study Aired January 16, 2020]

Psa 142:1  Maschil of David; A Prayer when he was in the cave. I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication. 
Psa 142:2  I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble. 
Psa 142:3  When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me. 
Psa 142:4  I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul. 
Psa 142:5  I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. 
Psa 142:6  Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I. 
Psa 142:7  Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me. 

The  “living” of the “land of the living” in verse 5, where we find our refuge in the Lord, are those who have God’s holy spirit within them, also likened to “living waters” by our Lord, waters that are given to very few in this life to water our lands that represent our souls and specifically our inward man who is renewed daily (2Co 4:16) and belongs to God (Rom 8:9, Joh 7:38, Mat 22:14, Eze 18:4). 

2Co 4:16  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 

Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 

Joh 7:37  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me [Joh 6:44], and drink. [each in his appointed time]
Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

Eze 18:4  Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. 

The Lord has another fold, the rest of the world (Joh 10:16) whom He is directing to fulfill His overall purpose for humanity, but it is judgment now that blesses us to be called the land of the living as opposed to the dead who are burying the dead and are not at this time being buried into Christ’s death (Joh 10:16, Mat 8:22, Rom 6:4). We cannot die to self in the manner Christ described in Matthew 10:28 and become a new creation except through Christ (Joh 8:36, 1Co 15:22). This is what God has ordained from the foundation of the world to His glory that all men would be saved, but each man in his order (1Co 15:20) starting with His kind of first fruits, who are called the weak of the world through whom He makes his strength perfect first (Jas 1:18, 1Co 1:26, 2Co 12:9).

Joh 10:16  And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. 

Mat 10:28  And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 

David’s experience was written for the sake of the elect (2Co 4:15, 1Pe 1:12) and this particular Psalm tonight shows us how God uses our isolation, among other divers trials and temptations (Jas 1:2-4), to bring us to learn that “Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living”.

Jas 1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 
Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 
Jas 1:4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 

Psa 142:1  Maschil of David; A Prayer^H8605 when he was in the cave. I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication. 
Psa 142:2  I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble. 

The imagery in this Psalm shows us that David was being sore-pressed and brought to his wits’ end in this cave according to the counsel of our Lord (Eph 1:11) so he would cry “unto the LORD with my voice” and “with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication“.

This was “A Prayer^H8605 “that David was making that is a type of the fervent and effectual prayers (Jas 5:16) that God’s elect offer up as His “David“^H1732=beloved whose lives are likened unto a song or poem, “Maschil^H4905“, that the world hears but cannot receive.

Eze 33:32  And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not. 

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach. 

Christ is being represented in the life of David who identifies with our struggles in the flesh and cries out to God, as Christ does for us today as He works in us both to will and to do. This pouring out of our “complaint before him” who brings us to our wits’ end is so that we learn to show “before him my trouble” just as David did in this “cave“. 

There is a difference between making a “complaint^H7879” before God, a crying out to him, versus “murmurings and disputings”, and the Lord has to prepare us through our trials so we overcome the spirit that caused much of the Israel of old to perish in the wilderness, being destroyed of the destroyer, always for our admonition. 

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 
Php 2:14  Do all things without murmurings and disputings: 

Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. 
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. 
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. 

1Co 10:10  Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.

If we are not brought to our wits’ end, we won’t cry out to God, but if God is working with us in this age, He will bring us to and through (1Co 10:13) these difficult places for our flesh (Joh 21:18) that will cause us to cry out because of the faith He grants us. This is the hunger and thirst we need in our time of need, just as Christ himself demonstrated in His own life, as we “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Jas 4:2-3, Luk 22:32, Heb 5:7, Heb 4:16). When God gets our flesh out of the way, our prayer takes on the mind of Christ that prevails and perseveres in prayer, which is a gift of God so “that thy faith fail not“.

Jas 4:2  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 
Jas 4:3  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. 

Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. 

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; 

Heb 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. 

The word “prayer”^H8605 is often used in the context of God’s elect or “remnant” in the old covenant, where we’re shown types and shadows of how God had always intended to build up the body of Christ, the spiritual temple that we are (1Co 3:16, Eph 2:21, 1Pe 2:5) through Christ who inspires us to offer up those fervent prayers to God in spirit and truth. These “prayers” that are typified in several verses in the old covenant witness to this truth of  (Joh 4:24). They are prayers that typify the acceptable prayers God gives his elect through Christ (Eph 1:6, Jas 4:3).

Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 

2Sa 7:27  For thou, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house: therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayerH8605  unto thee. 

1Ki 8:28  Yet have thou respect unto the prayer^H8605 of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth^H8605 before thee to day:
1Ki 8:29  That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer^H8605 which thy servant shall make toward this place.

1Ki 8:38  What prayer^H8605 and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house: 

2Ki 19:4  It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer^H8605 for the remnant that are left. 

2Ki 20:5  Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer^H8605, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. 

2Ch 6:20  That thine eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there; to hearken unto the prayer^H8605 which thy servant prayeth toward this place. 

Psa 142:3  When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me. 

It takes our spirit being “overwhelmed within me” to bring us to cry out to God because of how “they privily laid a snare for me…in the way wherein I walked“. It is the Lord who directs our steps (Pro 16:9), “the way wherein I walked”, to bring us to the point where we cry out, and it is the Lord who allows our enemies to privily lay “a snare for me” (Amo 3:6). Our hope and belief is that God is in all the details, the light and the darkness He forms and works in each of our lives (Isa 45:7), so that we never lose sight of His sovereignty with every jot and tittle He is working in each of our lives “till all be fulfilled” (Mat 5:18, Mat 6:10).

Pro 16:9  A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps. 

Amo 3:6  Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? 

Mat 5:18  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Mat 6:10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

The “then thou knewest my path” part of this Psalm does not mean that God did not always know our path, but rather that when we are at our wits’ end, He remains sovereign and completely in control of our every step according to His purpose that brings us to our wits’ end so we learn to trust God (Eph 1:11, 2Co 1:9, 1Pe 4:1-2). Many translations add the word “then”, but it is not in the Hebrew. Also, the verb “knewest” is in the Qal tense (a caused action). The Good News Bible translation says this verse in this way:

Psa 142:3  When I am ready to give up, he knows what I should do. In the path where I walk, my enemies have hidden a trap for me. (GNB)

Psa 142:3  When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou^H859 knewest^H3045 [H8804 = Qal] my path^H5410. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me. (KJV)

2Co 1:9  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: 

1Pe 4:1  Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; 
1Pe 4:2  That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

These prayers that avail much are being made “in the land of the living” and most assuredly do avail much and fill us with hope by which we are saved (Rom 8:24, Php 1:19).

Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 

Php 1:19  For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 

Psa 142:4  I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul. 
Psa 142:5  I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. 

The power man looks to for deliverance is in the flesh that will always ultimately fail, and knowing Christ after the flesh is as great an example of “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me” because we don’t know Christ after the flesh in each other but rather in the spirit (2Co 5:16-18, Rom 8:16). That is where our “refuge” lies, and why we can with our hope of glory within (Col 1:27) cry out “in the land of the living“. The body of Christ provides that refuge through each joint that supplies in love (Eph 4:16), a love that is being shown and will witness to all the world who it is God has determined from the foundation of the world to be those disciples who would show that love to one another; His love which is shed abroad in our hearts (Joh 13:35, Rom 5:5).

Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. 

2Co 5:16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. 
2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 
2Co 5:18  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 

One day the very workmanship of God He formed to His glory to demonstrate how true discipleship can only be formed in the land of the living, will be revealed in a moment and in a twinkling of an eye.

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Isa 66:8  Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. 

1Co 15:51  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 
1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Psa 142:6  Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I. 
Psa 142:7  Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.

When we have been truly humbled under God’s mighty hand by His bringing us “very low” (1Pe 5:6),  then He delivers us “from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I“. Those persecutors are within and are overcome by Christ who is stronger than all the powers and principalities against which we are wrestling (Eph 6:12, Eph 1:21). Those “persecutors” that are primarily within and are represented by the “strong man” in this verse in Luke 11:22, remind us of the heritage that the saints will receive as overcomers through Christ (Rev 21:7) spoken of as “his spoils“. 

Luk 11:22  But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. 

Rev 21:7  He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

The “strong man armed” of the verse right before this in Luke 11:21 typifies Satan and his influence in our heavens, who offered Christ the world because it was his to offer (Mat 4:9), but when Christ overtakes that strong man within us, the man of perdition who is being destroyed by the brightness of His coming, He prepares us through to be the bride of Christ who will inherit eternal life (Rom 6:23). 

Luk 11:21  When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: 

Rom 6:22  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 
Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Our whole life being given to God as a living sacrifice in the land of the living is also typified by the story of Abraham who meets the king Melchizedek who is a type of Christ that Abraham gives a “tithes of all” that represents all of our life, all of our heart, mind and strength that belong to him “his spoils” (Luk 11:22, Isa 53:12, Zec 14:1, Gen 14:18-20, Mat 22:37-39).

Isa 53:12  Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. 

[Christ is numbered with us the transgressors who are blessed to have this spoil of spiritual warfare given to us because His strength made us the weak of the world “the strong.“]

Zec 14:1  Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

Gen 14:18  And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. 
Gen 14:19  And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: 
Gen 14:20  And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. 

Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 
Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment. 
Mat 22:39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 

If God delivers us from those spirits which hold us back from worshipping Him fervently and effectively in spirit and in truth, it will happen because the son of God has set us free (Joh 8:36) because he is able to “bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name“. He did just this with Joseph who was miraculously delivered by being given the ability to interpret the dreams brought to him that symbolize for God’s elect today our being able to rightly divide the word of God and understand that the dream is one. It is through rightly dividing the word of God that we will be made free from the bondage of sin as God’s word heals us from all doubt, fear and desolation which are so commonly associated with prisons, or in this Psalm we could say the confined space being talked about “was in the cave” (Gen 41:14, Gen 41:26).  The lean and the fat calves, the blighted and healthy wheat in this story of deliverance from famine reveal the process of light and darkness within us and how we should move with fear just as Noah did to the saving of our house while we live and move and have our being in Christ, not forgetting to lay up store for the days are evil (1Ti 6:19, Mat 6:19).

Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 

1Ti 6:19  Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. 

Mat 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 
Mat 6:20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 
Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

The next question to answer is where exactly is this liberty taking place where we are being delivered from our “persecutors” and our souls that are being brought “out of prison“? The answer is in the land of the living where our refuge is and where “the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me“.

We are blessed to deal bountifully with each other as we bring the words of truth God gives us to bring healing to each other so that we can move forward in faith and overcome in this age (Psa 107:20-21, Joh 20:21, Eph 3:10, 1Co 14:26). It’s because of those words of eternal life (Joh 6:68) that we can say “Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living”.

Psa 107:20  He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. 
Psa 107:21  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 

1Co 14:26  How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. 

Heb 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. 

Joh 6:68  Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.