Psalm 142:3

"When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path."

The heading of this particular psalm says, "Maschil of David; a prayer when he was in the cave." This event in David's life is recorded in 1 Samuel 24:1-8. Saul, who was king of Israel at the time, was chasing David. Saul knew that David was going to be the one that would be king after him. God told him that this would be the case. So he sought to kill David. On one occasion prior to this he had attempted to spear David to death right at the dinner table. Saul meant business. But by God's enabling David escaped Saul's attempts. While returning from a war against the Philistines, Saul heard that David and his army of 600 men was in the wilderness of Engedi. Saul took his army of 3,000 and went to find him. David and his men hid in a cave, and as they hid, Saul entered the very same cave for some personal relief. David's men encouraged him to take advantage of the situation and kill Saul. David did cut a piece off of Saul's robe, but then was stricken with conscience, and went no further. As Saul left the cave, David came out of it and showed him that he had spared his life, displaying the piece of robe.

David had done nothing to King Saul. Nonetheless, the most mighty man in his country was chasing after him with his army with one goal in mind; to kill him. David knew he was in trouble. Earlier in this same psalm he said, "I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before him; I showed before him my trouble." Notice the progression. What started as a supplication turned to a complaint, and was finally called his trouble.

David was making no mistake to bring this matter to the LORD. Certainly it was a difficult, if not frightening, time for him. He knew that the LORD had promised him that he would be king after Saul. He was told this by the prophet Samuel. But for a number of years David fled from Saul, always looking over his back, constantly on the move. These were trying times. But God is bigger than all of this. And David knew that as well.

The verse at the start shows this. He admitted that he was overwhelmed. Later in the psalm he speaks of the strength of his enemies and compares it with his own weakness. But in the end of this verse he expresses a kernel of faith that turns into praise by the end of the psalm. While he admitted to being overwhelmed, he knew that God knew his path. At the very time that he was overwhelmed, God was aware of the whole situation. The very next verse in the psalm speaks of the enemy setting traps for David. In the very path that he was walking! But God knew the path.

The awareness of the path that God had suggests a couple of things. First, He was fully aware of the traps, and the right steps to take to avoid them. While David could see nothing of what was ahead, God knew the end of it all as well as those things that lay directly in front of him. And the implication in this is that God also knew how to direct David so that he fell into none of the traps. David didn’t know where he was going, but God did. And He was directing and guiding. For us this is useful to see because there are times in our lives when we honestly have no idea what is coming next. We, too, might be overwhelmed. But God is not.

The other aspect of God’s knowing is that it was part of what God had planned. Thinking of David, we know that he was in the court of Saul through God’s intervention. By defeating Goliath, and by being able to play music that soothed Saul, David found himself ministering to him. This was not happenstance. It didn’t just happen to work out this way. This was God’s doing. Now, David found himself running from Saul. He had done nothing to the king to warrant being treated thus, but that is not relevant. In the cave is where he was. Running from Saul was why. Did this take God by surprise? Did He look down and mutter, "Why did Saul do that?" Certainly not! In that cave David was exactly where God wanted him. If we think about it, had David not arrived in this cave, there would be no Psalm 142 (or Psalm 57 either)! We cannot discern God’s purposes in bringing this event to pass in David’s life. The only thing we can rightly say is what was expressed by Philips Brooks, the writer of the hymn, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" when he observed, "Faith says not, ’I see it is good for me, so God must have sent it’ but, ‘God sent it, and so it must be good for me.’"

As it was with David, so it is with the true believer. God said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." When we are overwhelmed, God knows our path. He knows our path such that we need not fear the traps that are in it. He will guide us safely through. And He knows our path in that it is His path for us. Scripture tells us that He is working in us to conform us to the image of His Son. His path for us has that ultimate end. Each and every step, whether bright and obvious or dark and overwhelming, is directed toward this end.

And when we get there we will say, to God’s glory, "Jesus led me all the way."

HJK