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Gustave Doré’s engraving of David standing crowned and bowed as he mourns Absalom

Psalm 143

What St Athanasius said to pray when there’s something you can’t work out alone, in a letter from the 300s.

  • 12Verses
  • 2Situations

St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus

When to pray it

In the 300s, St Athanasius of Alexandria wrote a letter to his friend Marcellinus about praying the Psalms. In it he matched psalms to what people go through. He named this one more than once.

There's something you can't work out on your own, and you want to lay it before God.

When you want to plead with God and pray, you have Psalms 5 and 143.

Letter to Marcellinus

For the same situation he also named Psalm 5.

You need to plead with God, and you want words to pray with.

When you want to plead with God and pray, sing Psalms 5 and 143.

Letter to Marcellinus

For this, the quiz gives Psalm 5, and this psalm beside it.

Psalm 143:10

Where it turns

Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

12 verses, Berean Standard Bible

The whole psalm

Psalm 143

Its own heading A Psalm of David.

  1. 1O LORD, hear my prayer. In Your faithfulness, give ear to my plea; in Your righteousness, answer me.
  2. 2Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.
  3. 3For the enemy has pursued my soul, crushing my life to the ground, making me dwell in darkness like those long since dead.
  4. 4My spirit grows faint within me; my heart is dismayed inside me.
  5. 5I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your works; I consider the work of Your hands.
  6. 6I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah
  7. 7Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide Your face from me, or I will be like those who descend to the Pit.
  8. 8Let me hear Your loving devotion in the morning, for I have put my trust in You. Teach me the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul.
  9. 9Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD; I flee to You for refuge.
  10. 10Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
  11. 11For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble.
  12. 12And in Your loving devotion, cut off my enemies. Destroy all who afflict me, for I am Your servant.

Psalm 143 is 142 in the Greek numbering Athanasius used, which Orthodox Bibles and some older Catholic ones still follow.

When you need words to pray, for yourself or someone else

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All 53 situations, in one guide.

Your turn

Which Psalm are you living right now?

A few honest taps about your life right now, and the psalm an early Church Father gave for exactly that.

  • 3 min
  • 7 questions
Start

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Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Athanasius’s advice is paraphrased from his Greek.