Psalm 142 Who do you call?

Psalm 142

This is another Psalm of David - written when he was living in hiding in the cave.

Probably not the best of circumstances - so unsurprisingly this is not among the more cheerful in the book of Psalms!

In this Psalm David does not suffer in silence - 
I cry aloud to the LORD. 
I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy
I pour out before him my complaint, 
before him I tell my trouble when my spirit grows faint within me.

If there is one thing that is important here, with God I don't have to bottle my feelings - There is permission here to unload your feelings and cares onto God 

The Psalm continues with recognising that God is not aloof from the situation, but is fully aware of what is going on

It is you who watch over my way in the path where I walk
People have hidden a snare for me, look and see, there is not one at my right hand.
No one is concerned for me.
I have no refuge, no one cares for my life.

I say (to God) You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.

When David has no where else to turn, he turns to God.

People say that faith is a crutch - yet if you have a broken leg, a crutch is extremely useful to aid mobility (as Bear Grylls puts it) 

David's foes while he was out hiding were very strong and powerful, and had cornered David.

As we know from the story of David, God did liberate him and raise him as king of Israel.
David wrote a lot of praise psalms after this episode in his life.
God did answer his prayers at the end of the Psalm

Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name.
Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.

Psalm 141 People not to avoid

Psalm 141

In the last Psalm there was a list of people who David wanted to avoid too much contact.
This Psalm, also attributed to David, is a bit of the opposite - where a rebuke from a righteous person is actually a blessing.

If memory serves, verse 2 of this prayer forms part of a daily office said by those in holy orders.
"My my prayer be set before you like incense, may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice"

Personally I don't go in for "bells and smells" at church, but there is a really nice image of how God finds prayers in the picture of rising incense here in this Psalm.

The next bit of the Psalm is interesting to me - If I am honest with myself, I probably need to pray this more often.
Set a guard over my mouth, LORD, keep watch over the door of my lips.
Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil so that I take part in wicked deeds along with those who are evildoers; do not let me eat their delicacies

What would you do if, for example, the Archbishop of Canterbury were to hit you? Or the Pope? or Mother Theresa of Calcutta? Would you regard it as a kindness? - David did.
Let a righteous person strike me = that is a kindness, let them rebuke me - that is oil on my head.

In my daily bible reading I'm currently reading the letter of St Paul - his letters contain their fair amount of "knocking heads together  in a metaphorical sense. How would I have felt if I received a letter like that? Hopefully as a blessing and a challenge to live better

The end of the Psalm talks about the wicked leaders being thrown over cliffs and their broken bones scattered as if by a plough

David's prayer is that he keeps his eyes fixed on God , and asks God to be his refuge and to keep him safe from traps set by wicked people and more that the wicked would be caught in their own traps, while he passes by in safety.

Psalm 140 Protect me from bad people

Psalm 140

This is another Psalm of David.
It starts with a request to God listing a number of groups of people from whom he would like to be separated from,

I am writing this blog in the aftermath of the UK referendum on EU membership and the lead up to the USA presidential election (which seems to have been going on for EVER - how do the Americans keep up that level of enthusiasm?) but I digress.
The point I want to make is that in the EU referendum in the UK and the USA elections people have (sometimes rather long) lists of people who do the country harm.
In this Psalm, David lists the people who really cause harm - I don't think the lists from the referendum and election campaign are quite the same!

Evildoers
The violent
Those who devise evil plans
warmongers
Serpent tongued with poison on their lips
Wicked
The arrogant
Those who would trap the innocent

Like David, I don't think I can avoid all these people and call out to God
"I Say to the LORD, you are my God, 
Hear my cry for mercy, Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer, my shield in times of battle"

David goes on to ask
"Do not grant the wicked their desires, or let their plans succeed."

"Those who surround me proudly rear their heads, may the mischief of their lips engulf them.
May burning coals fall on them, may they be thrown into the fire, into the pit, never to rise"

"May slanderers not be established in the land, may disaster hunt down the wicked"

On my more cynical days I can fully understand David's point here. However on my better days I hope to aspire to higher levels of tolerance and kindness, believing that it is never too late to change and become a nice person.

Jesus tells us to love our enemies and do good to those who would not do good to you. 
The burning coals reference in the Psalm puts me in mind of a proverb - "If your enemy is hungry or thirsty give him some food and water - in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head and God will bless you" - not as I once heard a misquote "if you enemy is hungry give him some food THEN pour burning coals on his head" I don't think that God would really approve of that version!

Funny, the list of people David sought rescue from did not include immigrants, benefit claimants, foreigners, or corporate tax evaders! - I wonder when and why our national priorities changed?