CHOOSING TO TRUST
Play Audio
If you prefer listening to today’s Bible guide reading, play this audio file.
If the audio bar is not appearing, click here to play the audio.
Opening Prayer
Speak to me through your Word today, Father, enabling me to sense your presence, hear your voice, and apply what you teach me.
Read PSALM 142
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
A maskil[b] of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.
1 I cry aloud to the Lord;
I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy.
2 I pour out before him my complaint;
before him I tell my trouble.
3 When my spirit grows faint within me,
it is you who watch over my way.
In the path where I walk
people have hidden a snare for me.
4 Look and see, there is no one at my right hand;
no one is concerned for me.
I have no refuge;
no one cares for my life.
5 I cry to you, Lord;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”
6 Listen to my cry,
for I am in desperate need;
rescue me from those who pursue me,
for they are too strong for me.
7 Set me free from my prison,
that I may praise your name.
Then the righteous will gather about me
because of your goodness to me.
Footnotes
- Psalm 142:1 In Hebrew texts 142:1-7 is numbered 142:2-8.
- Psalm 142:1 Title: Probably a literary or musical term
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘You are my hiding place / you always fill my heart with songs of deliverance. / Whenever I am afraid I will trust in you.’*In the time of Isaiah, the Israelites were trusting in all sorts of things— wealth, alliances with other countries, their forms of religion—but they weren’t trusting in God. In this psalm, David is feeling trapped, tricked, deserted by friends and supporters, weak and unable to help himself—but he knows whom he can trust. As he states his desperation in this psalm, each alternate verse (vv. 1, 3, 5, 7) sees him turning back to reliance on God, deliberately choosing to look beyond the immediate difficulties and see things in relation to God’s strength and care.
This is not to minimize the difficulties David was facing— physically his life is in danger, his reputation is in tatters, his relationships broken, and absolutely everything a mess (see 1 Samuel 24:1–3). But he knows that God is aware of all that is happening to him (v. 3), that God is a refuge (v. 5), that God is David’s inheritance, not just after he dies, but now, ‘in the land of the living.’ David knows God is good, and he appeals to God to save him so that he can tell others of the goodness of God.
Apply
Use this psalm as a template for your own prayer. Begin with a direct appeal to God; tell him something you are concerned about and remind yourself what God is like. Finish with a pledge about your relationship with God.
Closing prayer
Father, thank you that there is nothing I cannot bring before you— you receive me even when I come to you in desperation with my fears and failures. Thank you for your loving and watchful care, that overflows with mercy and grace.
*‘Hiding Place’, Michael Ledner © 1981, Maranatha! Music
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2025 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.