(An instruction of David; when he was in the cave a prayer.) I cry unto Jehovah with my voice with my voice unto Jehovah do I make supplication.
Psalm 142 carries a note in its heading: David prayed it while hiding in a cave, hunted and alone. His first line is not silent trust but a cry out loud, and commentators ask what the words with my voice add.
David wrote it in hiding, after he escaped to the cave of Adullam:
"And David departed from there, and escaped to the cave of Adullam" (v. 1). That is where he wrote the beautiful Psalm 142. It puts into words the feelings that filled his soul while he was alone... But it was exactly because every human refuge failed him that David found a sure refuge for his soul: "I cry to you, O LORD; I say, 'You are my refuge.'" ... Could David ever regret being brought so low and left by everyone? It was there that his soul came to know and value the sovereign refuge found in God.
The heading calls the psalm both a teaching and a prayer. One writer says what drives the righteous to pray this way:
"An instruction of David when he was in the cave: a prayer." Here is a teaching word, and a prayer too. Wickedness in power casts the righteous on Jehovah alone. How often precious, and proved by how many!
David does more than trust in silence: he cries out loud. One writer says what that adds:
Psalm 142 is the expression of extreme distress, refuge failing him — no man caring for his soul. He cried to Jehovah with his voice. This, as we have seen, is more than trusting Him... crying out with the voice confesses His name and openly admits that we depend on the Lord and trust Him. The heart can open itself out before the Lord, not be anxious, but make its requests known. It is a sure sign of confidence, making our trouble known — a great thing to leave such things with God.
The same writer notes elsewhere that the groaning heart is not the whole of it here:
There is a special character belonging to Psalm 142: "I cried to the LORD with my voice." Not only was his heart groaning, but he expresses himself openly to God.
The next verse shows where David pours out his complaint:
This psalm is all prayer, voiced by David when in the cave, hiding from enemies. There are many such prayers in the psalms. Spiritual enemies threaten believers on many occasions. And it is certainly wise to bring our plea to God (v. 1). If we have any reason to complain, let us pour that complaint out before the Lord, not before others who can do nothing about it anyway (v. 2).
By verse 4 no one is left on David's side, and that emptiness is what gives the cry of verse 1 its weight. One writer treats the loss of every human helper as the making of the soul, not its ruin:
Among men he found no helper, no one who would admit to knowing him. Refuge was cut off unless he found it in Jehovah: no one else cared at all. A terrible place to be in, if Jehovah were not his hiding place! But if He were not, then even if every arm reached out to help him, it would all be useless! God — how easily in our insane folly we think to do without Him, who is the one necessity for all His creatures. But such discoveries are the great moments for the soul, when it turns to God as now to be its all.
One writer reads the psalm forward, past the cave, to God's people in a coming day:
In Psalm 141 we see the righteous separated from the wicked, praying that God will keep them. Psalm 142 carries on that prayer for deliverance. The psalmist lifts up his voice to the Lord. Before Him he poured out his complaint and before Him he showed his trouble; not before man, but before the Lord... The godly remnant will go through all these same trials and troubles. All God's people have passed, and are still passing, through similar struggles of soul.
- Cave. Hunted and hidden, David wrote where every human refuge had failed. That failure is what let him find the refuge that never fails.
- Voice. Crying aloud is more than quiet trust. It confesses God's name out loud and admits that we depend on Him.
- Address. The complaint goes before the Lord, not before people who can do nothing about it.
- Refuge. When no one knows you and no one cares for your soul, the discovery that God is enough becomes the great moment of a life.
- Instruction. The psalm is a teaching as well as a prayer. Wickedness in power drove David to God alone, and it drives others there still.
I pour out my plaint before him; I shew before him my trouble.
David wrote this psalm while hiding in a cave. A king was hunting him, and the whole psalm is one unbroken prayer. The verse tells us what he did with the weight he was carrying — and where he refused to carry it.
David has a real grievance. Where he takes it is the point of the verse.
This psalm is all prayer, voiced by David when in the cave, hiding from enemies. The psalms hold many such prayers, because spiritual enemies threaten believers again and again. And it is certainly wise to bring our request to God (v. 1). If we have any reason to complain, let us pour that complaint out before the Lord, not before others who can do nothing about it anyway (v. 2).
"Complaint" here is not grumbling; one careful rendering gives it as his plaint, and "trouble" as his distress — both laid out openly in God's presence.
I pour out in His presence my plaint; my distress in His presence I show.
The repeated "before Him" is emphatic. David speaks as though no other listener existed at all.
At once the psalmist emphatically states that it is to Jehovah that he cries: before Him he declares his strait, as if there were no other. He can appeal with confidence to One who has known all about him, and in circumstances of deepest distress.
The psalm begins with a voice, not a silent ache.
Psalm 142 is the expression of extreme distress, refuge failing him — no man caring for his soul. He cried to Jehovah with his voice. This, as we have seen, is more than trusting Him... in crying with the voice there is confession of His name, and an open admission that he depends on the Lord and trusts Him. The heart can open itself out before the Lord. It need not be anxious; it can make its requests known. Making our trouble known is a sure sign of confidence — and a great thing to leave it with God.
Something changes in the one praying — not when the trouble lifts, but when he speaks it out.
But it is most instructive to notice that relief comes as soon as he lays the burden of his complaint down before the Lord. Souls who have been through trial will understand this. They know the heart finds ease and strength the moment they pour the sorrow out into the ear of God. (See Philippians 4:6-7.)
And the prayer need not be tidy first. Some of it will not even be worthy of the God who hears it.
"Pour out your heart before Him," says the Psalmist. "Do not be anxious about anything," adds the apostle, "but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." In these very requests, what a crowd of things unworthy of Him! But He already knew them in the heart, and He would have us pour them out in His presence — and what relief the heart gets that way! How many of these workings of unbelief the psalms give us! Yet they are poured out before God, and the soul grows quiet in that blessed presence as it can nowhere else.
Losing every other refuge was exactly what made this prayer possible.
But David found, precisely because all human refuge failed him, a sure refuge for his soul: "I cried to You, Jehovah, I said, You are my refuge" (Ps. 142:5). He could count on the God of Israel for deliverance from his persecutors, for they were stronger than he (v. 6). Could David ever regret being brought so low, abandoned by all? It was there that his soul came to know and value the sovereign refuge found in God.
The prayer did not stay unanswered. Help came in a form David had not asked for.
Psalm 57 was written by David when he fled to the cave. And when he was in the cave he prayed. This prayer is embodied in Psalm 142. It was answered too when the Lord sent to him the 400 men.
Commentators do not stop at David. Some read it as also voicing the loneliness of Christ, and of the faithful few in Israel who share His Spirit.
Here we find the loneliness of Christ, and so of His Spirit in the remnant. But Jehovah was the refuge in loneliness, and where all men failed, He did not... Look at Paul — "no one came to stand by me... But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me."
- Pour — David empties the complaint out instead of managing it, and he takes it to God, not to people who can do nothing.
- Before Him — David declares his distress as if no other listener existed. He appeals to One who already knew it all.
- Voice — speaking it aloud is more than quiet trust; it is open confession of dependence on the Lord.
- Relief — the heart finds ease the moment he tells the sorrow into God's ear, even when the prayer itself carries unbelief.
- Refuge — because every human refuge failed in the cave, David found the sure one, and God answered him.
When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then *thou* knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they hidden a snare for me.
David wrote Psalm 142 from a cave, hunted and cut off from every friend, and verse 3 turns from what he feels to what God knows. The writers quoted below use older translations: "my spirit was overwhelmed" for "my spirit faints," "path" for "way," and "snare" for "trap."
David wrote from a real hiding place, and the men who set the trap were slandering him too.
"And David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam" (v. 1). That is where he composed the beautiful 142nd Psalm, which expresses the feelings filling his soul in his solitude. "There is no man that knows me: refuge has failed me; no man cares for my soul" (v. 4). "In the way in which I walked they have hidden a snare for me" (v. 3). He wrote this when — what mockery — Saul had the audacity to accuse him, saying: "My son has stirred up my servant as a lier-in-wait against me" (1 Sam. 22:8).
Everything David asks for later rests on this one fact.
Though grief overwhelms his spirit, his confidence is that the Lord knows every detail of his path. Everything that follows in his prayer flows from this confidence that the Lord knows it all.
The snare is hidden — but only from David.
In his path the enemy has hidden snares for his feet; but nothing is hidden from the Lord who knows his path. There is no man that "knows" him, but the Lord knows.
David is not just saying God watches his movements. He appeals to a road he chose on purpose.
There was also the testimony of his conscience as to his path. He had followed no human judgment. He had obeyed the Lord, and to Him he could appeal as to that path — "When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, You knew my path" (Ps. 142). So he could walk with God where there was nothing to trap him.
The enemy set the trap in a road David had already walked before God.
He can appeal with confidence to One who has known all about him, even in the deepest distress. His spirit is overwhelmed. The enemy has hidden a snare for him in the path — the very path in which, as is implied, he had walked before Him (compare Ps. 1:6).
Feeling crushed and being at rest are not opposites here; the peace does not wait for the pressure to lift.
There is another comfort here; he was in the path of God. From this grew a sense that matters greatly in times of trial: God knew the faithful man's path, acknowledged it, and had His eye on it, accepting it. This is a fountain of strength and comfort. It requires faith — knowing that your way pleases God is enough. Hostility and desertion may overwhelm the spirit, but the soul is at peace, resting in God's approval.
One writer presses further: our High Priest has walked that path Himself.
There is not a trial, so small that you might be ashamed to mention it to anyone, that you cannot pour out into His sympathetic ear. He was tried as we are — for that is what has given Him capacity to be a merciful High Priest! He has passed through our experiences. He is not merely One who has divine knowledge of our path — God has that: "When my spirit was overwhelmed within me," says the psalmist, "then You knew my path." God knows the path of His people. He knew the sorrows of Israel down in Egypt. But with our blessed Lord it is more than divine knowledge of His people's sorrows and needs; it is divine experience of those sorrows and needs.
Commentators also read the psalm forward, beyond David — to the loneliness of Christ, and of a faithful few in a later day.
Here we find the loneliness of Christ and so of His Spirit in the remnant; but Jehovah was the refuge in loneliness. The Spirit of the Righteous and Holy One was overwhelmed. But Jehovah knew His path, terrible, troubled, and trying as it was; and no man would know Him. Look at Paul — "no man stood by me; but the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me."
- Known. In the cave, David clings to one thing: the Lord knows every detail of his path. Everything else he asks for flows out of that confidence.
- Known when overwhelmed. Hostility and desertion can crush the spirit while the soul stays at peace, resting in God's approval of the road taken.
- Known in the right road. David can appeal to his path because he followed no human judgment. He obeyed the Lord and walked where there was nothing to trap him.
- Known where the trap is. The snare is hidden from him, not from God; the enemy laid it in the very path he had walked before the Lord.
- Known by One who has been there. God knows His people's sorrows. Christ has more than knowledge of them: He has passed through them. No trial is too small to tell Him.
Look on the right hand and see; there is no man that knoweth me refuge hath failed me; no man careth for my soul.
A man hides in a cave, hunted, and turns his head to look for one friendly face — and finds none. This is the moment when every human help runs out. Commentators read the verse on two levels: David's own experience, and words that reach forward to a greater Sufferer.
Writers place this psalm in the cave of Adullam, during David's flight from Saul. One notes the bitter irony: the man hunting David also accused him.
"And David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam" (v. 1). That is where he composed the beautiful 142nd Psalm. It expresses the feelings filling his soul in his solitude... He wrote it when — what mockery — Saul had the audacity to accuse him, saying: "My son has stirred up my servant as a lier-in-wait against me" (1 Sam. 22:8). But David found, precisely because all human refuge failed him, a sure refuge for his soul.
The complaint is not only that no one helped him. No one would even admit to knowing him.
Man has failed to help — not only in power, but in heart. Among men he found no helper, none who would own acquaintance with him. Refuge was cut off unless he found it in the LORD: no one else cared at all. A terrible place to be in — if the LORD were not His hiding-place! But if He were not, though every arm were stretched out to help him, how useless it would all be!
That last line turns the verse inside out. Every helping hand counts for nothing without God, and losing them all costs nothing with Him.
No one knows this man. The Lord knows his whole path. Losing the one drives him to find the other.
In his path there are snares for his feet hidden by the enemy; but nothing is hidden from the Lord who knows his path. There is no man that "knows" him, but the Lord knows. Every earthly refuge fails him, and no one cares for his soul. Man misunderstands him, casts him out and neglects him. So he turns to the Lord. In Him he finds a refuge from every trial, and the source of every blessing — his "portion in the land of the living."
Writers see this as the value of the extremity itself, not merely the escape from it.
Could David ever regret being found at such an extremity, abandoned by all, since it was there that his soul knew and appreciated the sovereign refuge that is found in God?
Commentators also read these words of Christ. One sets them beside the mockery and blindfolding in Luke 22:
And in the middle of all this outrage, cruelty, anguish and suffering, was there no human heart to pity or sympathise? No... But what of Peter, who really in his heart loved Jesus; Peter, who sincerely thought and said he would die for Jesus? What was he doing when Jesus was blindfolded and cruelly struck?... he was denying Jesus, with cursing and swearing. Can we ask for a greater proof that we cannot trust in ourselves, or our love, or our promises?
Another sharpens it. People wept at the cross, but no one understood Him.
The daughters of Jerusalem might weep for Jesus when they saw Him lifted up on the cross of shameful death (Luke 23:27-28)... But His sorrow none might feel or know but God. No man knew Him whom all forsook, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. Only His destroyers sought His soul. Refuge failed the victim whom God had foreordained to die (verse 4).
Commentators differ here. Some read the psalm first of David in the cave. Others read it first of the Messiah, and of a faithful remnant who will walk the same road later.
Here we find the loneliness of Christ, and, as a result, of His Spirit in the remnant. But the LORD was the refuge in that loneliness. Where everything human failed, He did not... So are the saints always tried; look at Paul, "No man stood by me; but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me."
Christ passed through this Himself, so He can help those who are in it. His ministry for us today answers the complaint of this verse.
"Because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted." The tempted — so there is One on high who takes a special interest in them. He is ready to help them all. No one can say, No one cares for me. Anyone who cries out with the psalmist, "no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul," must say with the psalmist, as they think of the Lord, "You are my refuge" (Psalm 142:4-5).
- Cut off — the verse describes a man whose acquaintances will not own him; refuge is gone and no one cares for his soul.
- Known — no man knows him, but the Lord knows his path; what human eyes miss, God has already seen.
- Christ — commentators hear Jesus in these words. Only God could feel His sorrow, and the disciple who loved Him denied Him.
- Refuge — when every other shelter fails, the soul says, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living."
- Helped — Christ suffered this Himself, so He is able to help the tempted. No believer today can say that no one cares.
I cried unto thee, Jehovah; I said, Thou art my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.
David wrote these words from a cave, hunted by a king, with every ordinary source of help closed to him. The verse turns on two names he gives God — refuge and portion. He learned both when he had nothing left to lose.
Commentators tie this psalm to David's escape to the cave of Adullam, while Saul hunted him.
That is where he wrote the beautiful 142nd Psalm. It expresses the feelings that filled his soul while he was alone. "There is no man that knows me: refuge has failed me; no man cares for my soul" (v. 4)... But David found, precisely because all human refuge failed him, a sure refuge for his soul: "I cry to you, O LORD; I say, 'You are my refuge'" (Ps. 142:5). Could David ever regret being brought so low, left by everyone? It was there that his soul came to know and value the sovereign refuge found in God.
One writer marks the difference between inward pain and words spoken out to God.
There is a special character belonging to Psalm 142: "I cry to the LORD with my voice." Not only was his heart groaning, but he expresses himself openly to God.
The failure of human help is not the end of the story.
He had no refuge unless he found it in Jehovah: no one else cared at all. A terrible place to be in, if Jehovah were not his hiding-place! But if He were not, then even if every human hand reached out to help him, it would all be useless! God — how easily in our insane folly we think to do without Him, who is the one necessity for all His creatures. But such discoveries are the grand moments for the soul, when it turns to God as now to be its all.
The verse names two things. The same writer shows why one never comes without the other.
These two things go together, and nothing can part them: He cannot satisfy us in the one way unless He satisfies us in the other. They are only two sides of one need we have fallen into. We have fallen away from Him, so we are homeless and starving, away from the Father's house. To get back there is to find the one need met as surely as the other.
If God is the portion, the strength of the enemies loses its weight.
Not only does God protect him, but God Himself is the satisfying portion of his life. He really needs nothing else... As he says, "They are stronger than I," but what actual difference does this make when God is his portion?
Commentators read this phrase in more than one way. Some take it as the land where God will set up His kingdom.
The land he looks for he calls by two beautiful titles — "the land of the living" and "the land of uprightness" (Ps. 142:5; Ps. 143:6, 10). These are happy, honourable titles of God's place and kingdom in Judea, as it will be by and by. In God's reckoning, righteousness (uprightness) and life always go together, and so do sin and death.
Others press the phrase further, to a home death cannot enter.
And "in the land of the living"! For death itself does not enter the Father's house: "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Even the way with Him is a "way everlasting." The life we already live is "everlasting life." The psalmist could not know these things as we do. So the truth he spoke was only fuller than he knew.
Some writers hear the verse as the trust of Christ, with death close ahead of Him.
Verse 5 expresses the unshaken trust of Jesus when within the immediate reach of the power of darkness. Jehovah was His refuge: "You are my portion in the land of the living." Death might come in between. But it was a death by which He would make both life and death for evermore His own.
Because Christ suffered when tempted, no one who feels forgotten is left without help.
"For in that He Himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted." The tempted — so there is One on high who takes a special interest in them, and is ready to help every one of them. No one can say, "No one cares for me." The psalmist cried, "Refuge failed me, no man cared for my soul." Anyone who says that must do what he did: think of the Lord and say, "You are my refuge" (Psalm 142:4-5).
- Failed — Human refuge ran out first; that emptiness was the doorway, not the disaster.
- Cried — Grief became speech. The heart did not only groan; it addressed God directly.
- Refuge — God is the hiding-place; without Him, every outstretched human arm is useless.
- Portion — Shelter and satisfaction come together. With God as his portion, stronger enemies change nothing.
- Cared for — Christ Himself suffered when tempted, so no believer can say, "No one cares for me."
Attend unto my cry, for I am brought very low; deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I.
David prays this from a cave. Enemies are hunting him, and he admits they are the stronger side. So the verse raises the question every cornered believer asks: what use is prayer when the odds are against you?
The psalm's own title ties this prayer to a cave. One writer points to David's escape to the cave of Adullam, and to what he found there.
That is where he composed the beautiful 142nd Psalm. It expresses the feelings filling his soul in his loneliness. ... But David found a sure refuge for his soul, and he found it precisely because all human refuge had failed him. He could count on the God of Israel to deliver him from his persecutors, for they were stronger than he. Could David ever regret being brought to such an extreme, abandoned by all? It was there that his soul knew and valued the sovereign refuge that is found in God.
The verse does not hide the weakness — it announces it. That admission is exactly what qualifies him for help.
He has spread his trouble before the Lord. Now he looks for an answer to his cry, and for deliverance from his persecutors. He takes the place where God can meet a needy soul. He owns that he is "brought very low," and that his enemies are "too strong" for him.
The comparison is real, but it is no longer the deciding factor. The previous verse has already named God as his portion, and that changes the arithmetic.
Not only does God protect him, but God Himself is the satisfying portion of his life. He really needs nothing else. Since this is so, he can only expect God to attend to his cry when strong persecutors bring him low. As he says, "they are too strong for me," but what actual difference does this make when God is his portion?
The enemy is stronger, so the help must come from God alone. Another writer traces how this prayer moves from the depths to certainty.
So he cries to God, the one Helper, out of the depth, brought low by enemies too strong for him, left to them unless God steps in. God must be the Overcomer for him. So he is shut up, yet he is a prisoner of hope. He looks to Him with an expectation that brightens into perfect assurance. He sees himself among a company of righteous ones, gathered with him by the same grace that gathered him. Together they give thanks to the glorious Name of his generous Redeemer.
Commentators also read this psalm beyond David's own day. One notes what it teaches wherever evil holds the power, and how it will apply to Israel later.
"An instruction of David when he was in the cave: a prayer." Here is a teaching word, and a prayer too. Wickedness in power casts the righteous on the Lord alone. How often this has been precious, and proved by how many! Yet, while it was originally David's faith, it will apply fully in the future crisis of Israel.
Another hears in this loneliness the voice of Christ. He finds the same experience in Paul.
Here we find the loneliness of Christ, and, as a result, of His Spirit in the remnant. But the Lord was the refuge in loneliness, and where everything human failed, He did not... So the saints are always tried; look at Paul: "No man stood by me; but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me." ... So this is desertion, while His persecutors, stronger than He, pressed on Him.
The cave was not the end of the story. What David asked for, he received — and more.
In the cave of Adullam he had reached his lowest condition, and verses 4-7 of the psalm express that. But he came out of the stronghold with God's prophet and God's priest on his side. From that time his fortunes began to rise, until they reached their height when he sat on the throne.
- Low — Being very low does not shut you out of prayer. It is the place where God can meet a needy soul.
- Honest — David names his enemies as stronger than himself. Faith does not exaggerate its own strength; it admits the true odds.
- Portion — Once God is your portion, the enemy's greater strength no longer decides your case.
- Helper — Because the foe is too strong, God must be the Overcomer for him. The prisoner of hope looks up, and expectation brightens into assurance.
- Answered — David went into the cave alone. He came out with God's prophet and priest beside him, on a road that ended at the throne.
Bring my soul out of prison, that I may celebrate thy name. The righteous shall surround me, because thou dealest bountifully with me.
David prays this last line from a cave, hunted by Saul, with no one at his side. He asks God to bring him out of prison. Before any answer comes, he speaks of praise, of company, and of God's generosity as if they were already his.
The "prison" of this verse is not a building. It is the low, closed-in place David was in. One writer traces how God answered this prayer in David's own lifetime.
In the cave of Adullam he had reached his lowest condition (1 Samuel 22), and verses 4-7 of the Psalm express that. But he came out of the stronghold with God's prophet and God's priest on his side. From that time his fortunes began to rise, until they reached their height when he sat on the throne. This was his prayer and his expectation. We know he was not disappointed, though his trials were not yet over.
He does not ask for freedom for its own sake. His request comes with a reason attached.
Being brought out of trouble, he will be free to praise the Name of the Lord in company with the righteous. He has poured out his grief before the Lord in this way. Now he comes to know that the Lord will deal bountifully with him.
Notice the order. The confidence comes only after he pours out his grief.
David is surrounded before his rescue and after it. What changes is who surrounds him.
The distress he suffered is a picture of the deep trial of the godly remnant of Israel in the time of the great tribulation. They feel that trial as the bondage of imprisonment. We know that the God of all grace will fully answer their prayer to be brought out (v. 7). Before the deliverance, enemies surrounded him. What a change to have the righteous around him!
Another writer notes that David saw this company while he was still shut in.
So he is shut in, yet he is a prisoner of hope. He looks to God with an expectation that brightens into perfect assurance. He sees himself among a company of righteous ones. The same grace that reached him has gathered them with him, to give thanks to the glorious Name of his bountiful Redeemer.
One writer looks back at David's loneliness and finds a gain in it.
But David found, precisely because all human refuge failed him, a sure refuge for his soul... Could David ever regret being brought so low, abandoned by all? It was there that his soul knew and valued the sovereign refuge found in God. So the psalm ends with the assurance that filled his soul. His time of loneliness and of being forsaken would come to an end.
Commentators read the verse as reaching further than the cave. One sees in it the loneliness of Christ, and then of those who follow Him in a later day of trouble.
Here we find the loneliness of Christ, and so of His Spirit in the remnant. But Jehovah was the refuge in that loneliness. Where everything human failed, He did not... Look at Paul — "no one stood by me; but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me." ... But when His faithfulness was proved, the righteous would surround Him.
Writers differ on how far the "prison" stretches. One takes it as death itself:
Psalm 142 is a resurrection-psalm. It is to be understood first of the Messiah, but also of those for whom He went down to death. The writer says he is confident of this. No one "sought after his soul," yet the Lord would be his portion in the land of the living, and would bring his soul out of prison.
- Prison — the cave was David's lowest point. He came out of it with God's prophet and priest beside him, and rose to the throne.
- Praise — he asks for release with a purpose: to thank God's name, in company with the righteous.
- Company — enemies once ringed him in. Now he expects the righteous around him, gathered by the same grace that reached him.
- Certainty — he pours out his grief first. Then comes the assurance that God will deal bountifully with him, and hope becomes settled expectation.
- Reach — writers trace the same loneliness and the same rescue in Christ, and in those who stand alone with Him.