And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.
It is the urgent cry of a servant in trouble asking God not to turn away and hide but to turn toward him and hear, help and answer without delay. The plea rests not on complaint but on the goodness of God's loving-kindness and the greatness of His tender mercy, waiting for His word and for the darkness to flee. God's people in trouble may make this prayer their own whenever their circumstances call for it, with assurance that He hears them. The psalm foreshadows the conditions and inner experience of Jesus the greater King, fulfilled when the sins of the world rested upon Him in His betrayal, condemnation and crucifixion. The triumph He won there is also for His children and gives them assurance of triumph, though not every line can be pressed as literal of Him and some language of distress is appropriated where later histories run parallel to David's rather than fulfilling a direct prediction.
Prayer in Trouble
The verse is the urgent plea of a servant in trouble for God not to hide His face but to turn toward him. It asks God not to turn away, but to hear, to help, and to answer speedily without delay. The urgency lies in the trouble itself, which makes a speedy hearing the very substance of the request.
The appeal does not rest on complaint about the trouble, but on God's goodness and tender mercy. It pleads His loving-kindness because it is good, and His mercies because they are many. At the same time it waits to hear God's word and asks Him to hasten and bid the darkness flee.
It is a prayer God's people can pray in times of trouble with assurance that God hears them. Christians may take its language of distress and plea for speedy hearing upon themselves as well as David did. They may pray it when their circumstances call for it, because their history may run parallel to David's at those points.
Prophecy of Christ
The petitions and expressions of the psalm prefigure conditions, experiences, and occasions in the life of Jesus, the greater King foreshadowed by David. It may be classed among the psalms that are prophetic of Christ. It relates primarily to David and finally and antitypically to Christ, with portions quoted in the New Testament as fulfilled in Christ, though not every verse can be applied to Christ. Its prophecies refer to Christ and were fulfilled in the events of his betrayal, condemnation, and crucifixion.
It is prophetic of Christ's experience when the sins of the world rested upon him. It is a prophetic portrayal of Christ's inner experience in the life-and-death struggles he faced with the enemy, showing how he felt during suffering and temptation. It is cited as evidence that Christ shared human suffering and was sick, and this verse belongs to that appeal to his distress. The triumph Christ won in this prophetic experience is also for His children and gives them assurance of triumph.
The psalm applies literally to Christ as the New Testament expressly states, yet the whole cannot be pressed as a literal description of him, for that would make him a sinner. A prophecy may apply partly to what is immediately before the reader and partly to what is remote, so use of one text in an accommodated sense does not make the whole accommodated, nor does one literal part make the whole literal. By contrast, the verse is not a prediction but a simple record of David's experience, applying no more to Jesus than to anyone else in the present day who is hated without a cause and whose history is tangent to David's in certain points. There is a difference between such appropriated quotations, where the individual histories of David and later believers run parallel so the language of distress and plea for speedy hearing can be appropriated by them, and fulfillment of predictions, though both may be called fulfillments of Scripture in different senses. The psalm belongs with Psalms 109 and 137 among the cursing psalms charged with vindictive revenge; it presents the sin-hating God who punishes sin, and its curses are not personal revenge but are typical of tribulation on the enemies of the church and are predictive, declaring the retributive providence and justice of God against sinners.
It is the urgent cry of a servant in trouble asking God not to turn away and hide but to turn toward him and hear, help and answer without delay. The plea rests not on complaint but on the goodness of God's loving-kindness and the greatness of His tender mercy, waiting for His word and for the darkness to flee. God's people in trouble may make this prayer their own whenever their circumstances call for it, with assurance that He hears them. The psalm foreshadows the conditions and inner experience of Jesus the greater King, fulfilled when the sins of the world rested upon Him in His betrayal, condemnation and crucifixion. The triumph He won there is also for His children and gives them assurance of triumph, though not every line can be pressed as literal of Him and some language of distress is appropriated where later histories run parallel to David's rather than fulfilling a direct prediction.
Prayer in Trouble
The verse is the urgent plea of a servant in trouble for God not to hide His face but to turn toward him. It asks God not to turn away, but to hear, to help, and to answer speedily without delay. The urgency lies in the trouble itself, which makes a speedy hearing the very substance of the request.
The appeal does not rest on complaint about the trouble, but on God's goodness and tender mercy. It pleads His loving-kindness because it is good, and His mercies because they are many. At the same time it waits to hear God's word and asks Him to hasten and bid the darkness flee.
It is a prayer God's people can pray in times of trouble with assurance that God hears them. Christians may take its language of distress and plea for speedy hearing upon themselves as well as David did. They may pray it when their circumstances call for it, because their history may run parallel to David's at those points.
Prophecy of Christ
The petitions and expressions of the psalm prefigure conditions, experiences, and occasions in the life of Jesus, the greater King foreshadowed by David. It may be classed among the psalms that are prophetic of Christ. It relates primarily to David and finally and antitypically to Christ, with portions quoted in the New Testament as fulfilled in Christ, though not every verse can be applied to Christ. Its prophecies refer to Christ and were fulfilled in the events of his betrayal, condemnation, and crucifixion.
It is prophetic of Christ's experience when the sins of the world rested upon him. It is a prophetic portrayal of Christ's inner experience in the life-and-death struggles he faced with the enemy, showing how he felt during suffering and temptation. It is cited as evidence that Christ shared human suffering and was sick, and this verse belongs to that appeal to his distress. The triumph Christ won in this prophetic experience is also for His children and gives them assurance of triumph.
The psalm applies literally to Christ as the New Testament expressly states, yet the whole cannot be pressed as a literal description of him, for that would make him a sinner. A prophecy may apply partly to what is immediately before the reader and partly to what is remote, so use of one text in an accommodated sense does not make the whole accommodated, nor does one literal part make the whole literal. By contrast, the verse is not a prediction but a simple record of David's experience, applying no more to Jesus than to anyone else in the present day who is hated without a cause and whose history is tangent to David's in certain points. There is a difference between such appropriated quotations, where the individual histories of David and later believers run parallel so the language of distress and plea for speedy hearing can be appropriated by them, and fulfillment of predictions, though both may be called fulfillments of Scripture in different senses. The psalm belongs with Psalms 109 and 137 among the cursing psalms charged with vindictive revenge; it presents the sin-hating God who punishes sin, and its curses are not personal revenge but are typical of tribulation on the enemies of the church and are predictive, declaring the retributive providence and justice of God against sinners.