This post is part of my bible in a year series.

Passage and Comments

Like many Psalms we have already looked at the Psalmist is in distress. He has been pursued by his enemies and they want to kill him. He is still in trouble. The Psalmist asks the LORD to keep his life.

1 Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!

2 Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.

3 For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.

4 Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled. (Ps 143.1-4)

The Psalmist prays to the LORD and asks for mercy. His appeal is made on the basis of God’s covenant ‘faithfulness’ and ‘righteousness’. He exposes himself to the LORD’s judgment. Openly asking God not to judge him. Because ‘no one living is righteous before him’.

This conflicts with many other verses in Psalms and requires a little explanation.

The default understanding in the scriptures about ‘the righteous’ (Ps 5.12; 7.9; 11.3,5; 14.5; 31.18; 34.15,17,19,21; 37.12,16,17,21,25,29,30,32,39; 52.6; 55.22; 58.10,11; 64.10; 69.28; 140.13; 142.7) is they trust in the LORD, take refuge in him and make a regular practice of all his commands.

The Psalms in particular there is an expectation attached to this belief. The righteous will be saved when the LORD executes judgment on his and their enemies. Typically I assume the common belief of the authors of scripture and their audiences they were writing to is that some people, that is God’s people are righteous. But this involves making a comparison among people. Hence the righteous are commonly contrasted to the wicked and the sinners.

If one were to make a divine – human comparison, no one is righteous before him. This is what the Psalmist is doing here. We have all sinned. We deserve to be punished.

The Psalmist is a member of God’s covenant family and his pleas issue from within that covenant relationship. He has humbled himself before the LORD and asks for salvation from his enemies. Remember he is under threat from his enemies. He needs help. What does he do?

5 I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands.

6 I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah (Ps 143.5-6)

He looks back to what the LORD has done. The primary events no doubt again are the LORD’s saving actions in delivering Israel from Egypt, giving them the law and giving them the promised land.

If the LORD has done all this in faithfulness to his covenant promises. Its right to believe he will continue to do so for his people now. With this rationale, the Psalmist stretches out his hands to the LORD and begs for salvation like a dry land needs water.

7 Answer me quickly, O LORD! My spirit fails! Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit.

8 Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. (Ps 143.7-8)

The Psalmist persists in asking for deliverance and he bases his requests on God’s steadfast love. He does not want to die. He trusts in the LORD. He seeks guidance.

9 Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD! I have fled to you for refuge.

10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! (Ps 143.9-10)

At this point the Psalmist has conformed to my earlier criteria for one of the righteous. He trusts in the LORD, he takes refuge in him and now he seeks to do his will. The LORD is his God.

Conforming to the general pattern of salvation in the Psalms, we would normally expect the LORD to save him and judge his enemies. He asks for spiritual guidance and I suspect he means both in learning the LORD’s ways and also a means of escape.

11 For your name’s sake, O LORD, preserve my life! In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble!

12 And in your steadfast love you will cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your servant. (Ps 143.11-12)

He makes his appeal on the name of the LORD. In faithfulness to his covenant promises God will preserve his life, rather than allow him to be killed. If his life ended, how could it be said God keeps his promises to Israel? The righteousness the Psalmist refers to is connected to the concepts of salvation and judgement. Salvation for those in covenant with him, judgment and destruction on their enemies.

Story of Jesus

The closest parallels to this Psalm and in particular verse 2 (‘no one living is righteous before you’) is in Romans 3 and Galatians 2. In Romans Paul is in dialogue with IJ (a non-believing Jew) and is about to lay out a series of scriptures which condemn the Jews.

IJ:

What then? Are we Jews any better off?

Paul:

No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.

12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”

14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16 in their paths are ruin and misery,

17 and the way of peace they have not known.”

18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Rom 3:9–20)

The key difference however with Ps 143.2 is Paul says, ‘by works of law no human being with be justified in his sight’ (Rom 3.20). The ‘works of law’ are the Jewish works which they are obligated to perform and by which they were identified as God’s people. Paul’s statements against the works of law rule out Judaism as the way to salvation because the Jews are condemned by their own law. As he has just quoted.

Paul then introduces Jesus. His faithfulness unto death on the cross as the means by which God is faithful to his covenant promises (Rom 3.21-22). And also faith in him as the means by which we can now tell who is righteous before God (Rom 3.26). Believe in God. He does justify the ungodly (Rom 4.5) and he saves them from sin and death (Rom 8.2-4).

Copyright © Joshua Washington and thescripturesays, 2014. All Rights Reserved.

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