Psalm 142

Prison

Read/pray the psalm. (Full text at bottom.)

• A prison is a cage. It is the opposite of freedom. And it is fractal:

  • Rebellious angels are held in prison. (Jude 1:6, 2 Peter 2:4)

  • In the Bible, people are sometimes held in prison, often referred to as a “pit.”

  • Animals are caged, trapped (often in pits), or snared (for three psalms in a row now!)

  • “The pit”/Sheol is the dwelling place of the dead.

  • Outer darkness and the lake of fire are the permanent dwellings of the unrepentant: “Locked out” having much the same meaning as “locked up.”

So…

• Do you feel trapped?

• Sins and addictions become snares, and traps, and cages, particularly if they go unaddressed.

• Or are your life experiences and circumstances oppressive?

• Pray:

Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks unto your Name. 
[Now, get specific about what you want the Lord to do. Write it down, date it, and pray for it until he answers, or shows you clearly not to ask any more: "Ask, seek, knock."]

Psalm 142
Voce mea ad Dominum

1	I cried unto the Lord with my voice; *
		even unto the Lord I made my supplication.
2	I poured out my complaints before him, * 
		and showed him my trouble.
3	When my spirit was in heaviness, you knew my path; * 
		in the way wherein I walked they had secretly laid a snare for me.
4	I looked also to my right hand *
		and saw there was no one who would know me.
5	I had no place to flee to, *
		and no one cared for my soul.
6	I cried out to you, O Lord, and said, *
		“You are my refuge, and my portion in the land of the living.”
7	Consider my complaint, * 
		for I am brought very low.
8	O deliver me from my persecutors, * 
		for they are too strong for me.
9	Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks unto your Name. *
		When you show me your loving-kindness, then shall the righteous gather around me.

New Coverdale Psalter