Psalms 142:5
I cry to you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”
Tag: God is my portion
Psalm 142 is a marvelous Psalm. I could read it every day and it would not get old. The Understanding the Old Testament Commentary writes the following about this Psalm:
This prayer psalm is for those who are alone: “no one is concerned for me” (v. 4; note also the superscription “When he was in the cave”). “The righteous will gather about me” (v. 7) is described as a future event, only after the psalm has been answered. This psalm, therefore, does not seem suited to public performance. Devoid of supportive social relationships, the speaker directs his “voice . . . before him,” that is, to Yahweh. He is the special protector of those who are alone, the alien, the fatherless, and the widow (Pss. 10:14, 18; 68:5; 146:9). The depictions of threat and distress are varied—trappers (v. 3), pursuers (v. 6), and prison (v. 7)—thus indicating they are not describing actual circumstances but are portraying images that denote feelings of attack and confinement. This allows the psalm to be used for a variety of needs.
The above verse is the apex of the prayer. In the midst of being alone, abandoned, and attacked, David, the writer, has decided that the antidote for his being alone and abused is to make God, “my refuge, my portion.” David has, before, claimed God has his only portion in the land of the living (his walk on earth):
Psalms 16:5
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
Psalms 119:57
The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words
The writer Asaph, did as well:
Psalms 73:26
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
To get the meaning of the Hebrew word for “position” we have to understand that the Levites (the priestly line of Israel) were given NO land when Joshua brought the 12 tribes into the Promise Land. What did the tribe of Levites (the priest) get?
Numbers 18:20
And the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.
God was to be the “portion” for the Levites. God is to be our sole portion. David’s answer to loneliness and how to survive the attacks and abuse of the world around him was to make God is only portion. Finding strength and solace in the arms of God is the only real source of peace when we are surrounded by the wickedness of this world and those who only wish to hurt us, use us, or ignore us. David, in the above verse, “cries” to the Lord. He is in extreme pain. But, the balm for that hurt is found not in the things he sees with his eyes, but what he sees in faith ... his refuge (the place to hide) and his portion (who holds him in the hiding) is The Lord!! There and only there, he finds safety. David wrote this Psalm while in a cave being hunted by his enemy (King Saul). We can find the same peace in the arms of God in the midst of our cave.
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