Psalms 143:12
A plain-spoken deep dive on this verse. Read the chapter →
And in Your loving devotion, cut off my enemies. Destroy all who afflict me, for I am Your servant.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
This psalm, as those before, is a prayer of David, and full of complaints of the great distress and danger he was in, probably when Saul persecuted him. He did not only pray in that affliction, but he prayed very much and very often, not the same over again, but new thoughts. In this psalm, I. He complains of his troubles, through the oppression of his enemies (Psa 143:3) and the weakness of his spirit under it, which was ready to sink notwithstanding the likely course he took to support himself (Psa 143:4, Psa 143:5). II. He prays, and prays earnestly (Psa 143:6), 1. That God would hear him (Psa 143:1-7). 2. That he would not deal with him according to his sins (Psa 143:2). 3. That he would not hide his face from him (Psa 143:7), but manifest his favour to him (Psa 143:8). 4. That he would guide and direct him in the way of his duty (Psa 143:8, Psa 143:10) and quicken him in it (Psa 143:11). 5. That he would deliver him out of his troubles (Psa 143:9, Psa 143:11). 6. That he would in due time reckon with his persecutors (Psa 143:12). We may more easily accommodate this psalm to ourselves, in the singing of it, because most of the petitions in it are for spiritual blessings (which we all need at all times), mercy and grace. A psalm of David.
Open source ↗143:12 A prayer for vindication and renewal of life concludes the psalm.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
He will reward my enemies with evil. In Your faithfulness, destroy them.
Truly, O LORD, I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have broken my bonds.
I am Yours; save me, for I have sought Your precepts.
Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin; He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent; He will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
David added, “As surely as the LORD lives, the LORD Himself will strike him down; either his day will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish.
But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.
And should someone pursue you and seek your life, then the life of my lord will be bound securely by the LORD your God in the bundle of the living. But He shall fling away the lives of your enemies like stones from a sling.