Psalms 143:8
“Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you.”
Where this sits
One of the penitential psalms, written by David while pursued — he says the enemy has crushed his life to the ground and made him dwell in darkness.
Reflection
Both halves of this verse begin with the same construction: cause me. Not show me, not let me. Cause. It is the language of someone asking to be acted upon because he cannot generate the thing himself.
That is consistent with where the psalm has been. David has just written that his spirit is overwhelmed and his heart within him is desolate, and that he has been made to dwell in darkness like those long dead. From that position, cause me to hear is not a formality. He is saying: I cannot manufacture this. Do it to me.
In the morning is a detail worth keeping. He is asking for a specific delivery at a specific hour — the hour when the previous night's material is still lying around, and the day has to be started before anything has improved. Anyone who has woken up into a difficult season knows that the first ten minutes decide a great deal.
And the two requests are ordered deliberately. Loving kindness first, then the way. Reassurance before direction. He does not ask what to do until he has asked to be reminded that he is loved, which is the right order for a man who cannot currently tell the difference between guidance and judgment.
The reasons he gives are equally simple: I trust in you, I lift up my soul to you. Both are postures, not achievements.
- Theme:
- Guidance
- Book:
- Psalms