A prayer of the Righteous One, when feeling the heat of the weary land 

This may have been written at the same time as the two previous psalms. Again, David mentions that his spirit is overwhelmed, and his only recourse was to remember, meditate and consequently stretch forth his hands to God. There was a soul-thirst that only God could meet. 

His urgency is especially noted by his supplications in vv. 7-11, hear me; cause me; deliver me; hide me; teach me; lead me and quicken me. When trouble becomes personal, then one’s prayer gets very personal. The grounds of David’s prayer rested not in any qualification in himself, but even though he be king, he saw that he was but the Lord’s servant: a role of submission and service. So also our Lord was God’s servant, whom He upheld, and His elect in whom He delighted.

-Pastor Jeff O’ Neil

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Psalm 143 – First Version (Common metre)

¹LORD, hear my pray’r, attend my suits;
And in thy faithfulness
Give thou an answer unto me,
And in thy righteousness.

²Thy servant also bring thou not
In judgment to be tried:
Because no living man can be
In thy sight justified.

³For th’ en’my hath pursued my soul,
My life to ground down tread:
In darkness he hath made me dwell,
As who have long been dead.

⁴My sp’rit is therefore overwhelm’d
In me perplexedly;
Within me is my very heart
Amazed wondrously.

⁵I call to mind the days of old,
To meditate I use
On all thy works; upon the deeds
I of thy hands do muse.

⁶My hands to thee I stretch; my soul
Thirsts, as dry land, for thee.
⁷Haste, Lord, to hear, my spirit fails:
Hide not thy face from me;

Lest like to them I do become
That go down to the dust.
⁸At morn let me thy kindness hear;
For in thee do I trust.

Teach me the way that I should walk:
I lift my soul to thee.
⁹LORD, free me from my foes; I flee
To thee to cover me.

¹⁰Because thou art my God, to do
Thy will do me instruct:
Thy Sp’rit is good, me to the land
Of uprightness conduct.

¹¹Revive and quicken me, O LORD,
Ev’n for thine own name’s sake;
And do thou, for thy righteousness,
My soul from trouble take.

¹²And of thy mercy slay my foes;
Let all destroyed be
That do afflict my soul: for I
A servant am to thee.