When Sinners Withstand the Wicked
Introduction: The Righteousness Puzzle
We come this morning to one of the penitential psalms, a psalm offered up to God in a time of great distress. We do not know the exact occasion, whether it was during Saul's persecution or Absalom's rebellion. But as is often the case with David, the specific historical context is less important than the universal spiritual principle being worked out. And the principle here is a profound one. David is in a desperate corner, pursued by his enemies, his life crushed, his spirit overwhelmed. He is crying out for deliverance. But the basis of his appeal should stop us in our tracks. He does not simply throw himself on the mercy of God, though mercy is certainly involved. Rather, he appeals to God's faithfulness and, most strikingly, to His righteousness.
This presents us with a puzzle, a glorious gospel puzzle. How can a sinner, who readily admits he cannot stand in judgment before God, possibly appeal to God's righteousness as the grounds for his deliverance? How can a man who says, "in Your sight no one living is righteous," turn around and say, "in Your righteousness, answer me"? This is not a contradiction. This is the very heart of the gospel. David, under the inspiration of the Spirit, is laying his hands on a truth that would only be fully revealed in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This psalm teaches us how to pray when we are caught between two realities. On the one hand, we have the unjust accusations and attacks of wicked men. On the other hand, we have our own very real sinfulness before a holy God. How do you fight a righteous battle against the wicked when you yourself are a sinner? The world's answer is hypocrisy, to pretend you have no sin. The despairing answer is to give up, assuming your sin disqualifies you from the fight. But the biblical answer, the gospel answer, is found here. It is to understand that there are two courts of judgment, and that God's righteousness, through Christ, is the very thing that saves us in both.
The Text
A Psalm of David.
O Yahweh, hear my prayer,
Give ear to my supplications!
Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness!
And do not enter into judgment with Your slave,
For no one living is righteous in Your sight.
For the enemy has pursued my soul;
He has crushed my life to the ground;
He has made me inhabit dark places, like those who have long been dead.
Therefore my spirit was faint within me;
My heart was appalled within me.
I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all You have done;
I muse on the work of Your hands.
I stretch out my hands to You;
My soul reaches for You like a weary land. Selah.
(Psalm 143:1-6 LSB)
A Righteous Appeal (v. 1)
We begin with the basis of David's plea.
"O Yahweh, hear my prayer, Give ear to my supplications! Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness!" (Psalm 143:1)
David is in earnest. He uses multiple words for his cry to God: prayer, supplications. He wants God to hear, to give ear, to answer. But the foundation of his request is what is so staggering. He asks God to act on the basis of His faithfulness and His righteousness. Faithfulness, we can understand. God has made covenant promises, and David is calling upon Him to be true to His own character and His own Word. God is not fickle. His promises are yes and amen.
But righteousness? This is the shock. David is not saying, "Answer me because of my righteousness." He knows better than that, as the very next verse will show. He is appealing to God's own righteousness. He is not asking for mercy in a way that would require God to set aside His justice. He is asking for a deliverance that flows directly from God's just character. How can this be? How can a sinner ask for anything from a righteous God except judgment? The only possible answer is that there must be a way for God to be both "just and the justifier" of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26). David is praying a gospel prayer. He is asking God to deliver him not by overlooking his sin, but on the basis of a righteousness that God Himself provides. This is a profound mystery, and the key to it is the cross of Christ, where God's righteousness was fully satisfied in the punishment of our sin.
A Necessary Confession (v. 2)
Having made his appeal to God's righteousness, David immediately clarifies the nature of his own standing before God.
"And do not enter into judgment with Your slave, For no one living is righteous in Your sight." (Psalm 143:2)
This is the crucial distinction. There is a righteousness before men, and there is a righteousness before God. In the court of human opinion and conflict, David can and does maintain his innocence against the slanders of his enemies. They are liars. Their charges are false. In that contest, David is in the right. An elder in the church is to be "blameless" in this sense, meaning no legitimate charge can be brought against him by the world.
But David knows there is a higher court. And in that ultimate court, if God were to take up the role of prosecutor, no one could stand. "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" (Psalm 130:3). David is God's slave, His servant, but he is a sinful servant. He knows that if God were to judge him according to the strict standards of His holy law, he would be undone. So he makes this remarkable prayer: he asks God to defend him from his enemies, but he begins by asking God not to attack him. "Lord, come and save me from them, but please, not from You."
This is the posture of every Christian engaged in spiritual warfare. We are called to withstand the wicked, to fight the good fight. But we must do so with a profound awareness of our own sinfulness. If our enemies knew a fraction of what God knows about us, we would be finished. But God, in His mercy, is not telling them. And the reason He is not telling them is the same reason David can appeal to His righteousness: the blood of Jesus Christ covers our sin. God can therefore defend our righteous cause against men without having to compromise His own righteous judgment against our sin.
The Depths of Despair (vv. 3-4)
David now describes the severity of his situation, the reason for his desperate prayer.
"For the enemy has pursued my soul; He has crushed my life to the ground; He has made me inhabit dark places, like those who have long been dead. Therefore my spirit was faint within me; My heart was appalled within me." (Psalm 143:3-4)
The attack is comprehensive. It is against his "soul," his very life. The enemy's action is violent; he has "crushed" his life to the ground. The result is a state of utter desolation. He is made to live in "dark places," which is a metaphor for deep affliction, confusion, and sorrow. And the comparison he uses is stark: he is like those who have been dead for a long time. This is not just being left for dead; this is the feeling of being a forgotten corpse, abandoned in the grave. The vitality is gone, the hope is extinguished, the light is blotted out.
This external pressure produces an internal collapse. His spirit is "faint," or overwhelmed. His heart is "appalled," or desolate and numb with shock. He is, to put it plainly, a mess. This is not the stoic, stiff-upper-lip courage of the world. This is the honest cry of a man who has been brought to the absolute end of his own resources. And this is often where God brings His people. He allows us to be crushed, to be driven into darkness, so that we learn to rely not on our own strength, but on His. The faintness of our spirit is the prerequisite for the demonstration of His power.
The Pivot of Remembrance (v. 5)
At the very bottom of this pit of despair, David makes a crucial turn. He does not stay there, staring at the darkness. He looks back.
"I remember the days of old; I meditate on all You have done; I muse on the work of Your hands." (Psalm 143:5)
This is the biblical antidote to despair. When your present is dark and your future seems darker, you must deliberately, intentionally, remember the past. But not just any past. You must remember God's past. David forces his mind away from his overwhelming circumstances and directs it toward God's historical faithfulness. He "remembers," he "meditates," he "muses." These are active, disciplined words. He is preaching to his own soul.
What does he meditate on? "All You have done... the work of Your hands." He calls to mind the great acts of God in creation and redemption. He remembers the parting of the Red Sea, the provision in the wilderness, the conquest of Canaan. He remembers God's personal deliverances in his own life, from the lion, the bear, and from Goliath. He is reasoning from God's established character. The logic is simple and powerful: If God did all that then, for His people and for me, why would He abandon me now? This practice is not wishful thinking. It is grounding your faith in the solid bedrock of historical fact. God has a track record, and meditating on it is the fuel for faith in the darkest night.
The Posture of Thirst (v. 6)
This remembrance of God's works produces a renewed and desperate desire for God Himself.
"I stretch out my hands to You; My soul reaches for You like a weary land. Selah." (Psalm 143:6)
The internal act of meditation leads to an external posture of prayer. "I stretch out my hands to You." This is the gesture of a beggar, of a child reaching for his father, of a drowning man grasping for a rope. It is an admission of complete helplessness and total dependence. He has nothing to offer, nothing to bring. He can only receive.
And then he gives us one of the most beautiful similes in all the Psalms. His soul, his inner being, is like a "weary land." The image is of parched, cracked earth, baked under a relentless sun, desperate for rain. It is an image of intense, consuming thirst. This is not a polite, religious sentiment. This is a gut-level, life-or-death craving. After remembering who God is and what God has done, David realizes that what he needs more than deliverance, more than victory, more than relief, is God Himself. The solution to the dark place is the presence of God. The solution to the crushed life is the life of God. The solution for a thirsty land is the living water that only God can provide. And with that intense longing, he pauses. Selah. Let that sink in. The deepest point of our need is the point where our desire for God ought to be the most acute.