Chapter 142

David cries out to the LORD when he is in a cave, fleeing from Saul. He says there is no one who cares for him, but the LORD is his refuge and his portion in the land of the living.

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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary on the Bible (1710)

This psalm is a prayer, the substance of which David offered up to God when he was forced by Saul to take shelter in a cave, and which he afterwards penned in this form. Here is, I. The complaint he makes to God (Ps. 142:1, 2) of the subtlety, strength, and malice, of his enemies (Ps. 142:3, 6), and the coldness and indifference of his friends, Ps. 142:4. II. The comfort he takes in God that he kn…

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, David Brown’s Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary (1871)

(vv. 1)

Psa 142:1-7. Maschil--(See on Psa 32:1, title). When he was in the cave--either of Adullam (1Sa 22:1), or En-gedi (1Sa 24:3). This does not mean that the Psalm was composed in the cave, but that the precarious mode of life, of which his refuge in caves was a striking illustration, occasioned the complaint, which constitutes the first part of the Psalm and furnishes the reason for the prayer with w…