There is no cave so deep or dark but that out of it we may send up our souls in prayer to God, with expectation of being brought out of all our perplexities.
Psalm 142
1 I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication.
2 I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.
3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me.
4 I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.
5 I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.
6 Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.
7 Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.
Psalm 142 – J. Vernon McGee
Psalm 142 – “No Man Cared for My Soul”
The cave was dark and shared by rough and lawless men with whom David had little sympathy. His gentle and devout spirit must often have craved for more congenial society. But he never ceased to cry and make supplication whenever his spirit was overwhelmed. Are you in that plight? Be comforted by the reflection that God knows your path. It is the predestined way, Ephesians 2:10. Before the heavens or earth were made it was prepared. God foreknew all its perplexities and difficulties—how dark the shadows, how fearsome the black current—but He chose it as your best way home. Are all faces averted? Does no one seem to care? Is your soul in prison, and are your persecutors strong? Be of good cheer! Reinforcements of divine grace are on their way; the righteous shall crown themselves because of you; and you will say with your dying breath, “He has dealt bountifully with me.” —Through the Bible Day by Day
Psalm 142:3—When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then Thou knewest my path.
Of course, God knows our path. We were created unto good works which God before prepared that we should walk in them. There is no step in your path which has not been anticipated and ordained by your Heavenly Father. See that path lying across the plain of life, now traversing deserts of sand, or climbing steeps of difficulty, or reaching across lonely steppes. Your heart faints: you say, I cannot take this track; I cannot go through that experience; I cannot bear that strain. Heart and flesh fail. Then it is an infinite solace to look up into the face of the Father, and say, Before I was born, or took the first steps on this path, or essayed to meet its manifold vicissitudes, Thou knewest it; and Thou must have known that it was not too hard, and that there were resources of strength in Thyself sufficient for my day, which the emergency would bring out in a clearer manifestation.
We all have our times of being overwhelmed when the fall realization of our grief, and pain, and loneliness rushes over us. The love we can never retrieve; the opportunity we can never recall. Then there is heart-break. But in such dark hours Jesus knows—knows the difficulties which you cannot explain to the dearest; the grave perplexities which you cannot share with your wisest confidant. He can allow for a hesitance, a trepidation, a shrinking back, which to others are unaccountable. He can give credit for the resolution that is sorely tested, and the faith which nearly gives out. He can take into account matters which evade the scrutiny of those who have the best opportunity of judging. What a relief to turn from them to Him, and say, I cannot tell them, but Thou knowest. —Our Daily Homily