Teach me to do Your will,
For You are my God;
Your Spirit is good.
Lead me in the land of uprightness.

– Psalm 143:10

The 143rd Psalm is a psalm identified as being written by King David. The New King James Version gives this psalm the title, “An Earnest Appeal for Guidance and Deliverance.” In verses 3 and 4, David writes:

For the enemy has persecuted my soul;
He has crushed my life to the ground;
He has made me dwell in darkness,
Like those who have long been dead.
Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me;
My heart within me is distressed.

According to Augustine of Hippo this psalm was likely written during the period of the rebellion of David’s son Absalom. No one really knows when this psalm was written and what was going on in David’s life, but I think we can look at this psalm and know that David is in great distress. Whatever was happening in David’s life, it is a time of great stress, anxiety, and depression.

I think there are two ways we can look at the 143^rd Psalm and see it in our own lives. We are probably all familiar with the expression about missing the forest for the trees, and its wisdom about not being distracted by smaller details that undermine our appreciation of the “big picture.” In this case, I think we can look at this in a way to not only see the trees and the forest but also the small groves that appear here and there. The trees are our own lives, while the grove is our friends and family around us, and the forest being the wider world.

Let’s look at our tree first. If you have not experienced a period of depression and anxiety in your life, then you are very fortunate. Both conditions can be crippling in our lives. To me, I can see Psalm 143:3-4 is describing a period of stress, anxiety, and depression. We may feel persecuted, crushed to the ground, beaten down and our spirit broken. It is in these times that we “dwell in darkness.” I remember back in high school in a time that I look back at now and realize I was coming to terms with my sexuality and was going to a bout of depression. My spirit was “overwhelmed within me.” 

I was in a bookstore one evening when I came across the book Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness by William Styron. The book describes Styron’s descent into depression and his triumph of recovery from that depression. I probably did not realize that what I was feeling was depression until I read this book. No one had ever talked to me about mental illness, nor did anyone tell me that what I was feeling about my sexuality was normal. I know that I am prone to depression. I have had bouts of it throughout my life. Medicine helps, and I take comfort in my friends around me and God’s love for me. 

I pray that God will “lead me in the land of uprightness.” The first definition of uprightness in the dictionary describes it as, “the state of being in a vertical position.” The second definition defines it as, “the condition or quality of being honorable or honest.” In the instance of coming to terms with my sexuality, God helped me to accept who I am, to stand, and to lift up my spirit. By doing so, the helped me to be more honest with myself.

The second way we can look at Psalms 143 is that of our immediate surroundings. When we see friends and family in distress, we are there with the Lord to help lift them up to improve their situation. We may not be able to do more than be there for them, but that can go a long way when someone is troubled. There may be other ways we can help that are more physical that lead to a solution to the problem. If their trouble is financial, then maybe we can help. If they are sick, we can do what we can to make them feel better or simply by taking them to the doctor. I am far away from my family. This can be both a good and a bad thing, but I know I have friends up here who can help if I let them. I have had to go to the emergency room twice, and I knew I could count on a good friend of mine to take me. There are many things we can do to help those around us. We just have to try to be of help when we can.

Lastly, we can look at Psalm 143 in the context of the wider world. We live in a time of great strife. The wars in Israel and Ukraine are heartbreaking to see. This last week, there was another mass shooting at a school. Gun violence surrounds us in the United States, and I fear every day for the lives of my friends who are teachers, because you have to wonder: is this going to happen at their school? I had the fear of it happening when I was teaching, and even at my university, we have active shooter drills. Luckily, the museum has a basement that has several doors that can be locked and provide safety, but not everyone has that option. We live in a time when we are literally in a battle between good and evil. In elections around the world, we have seen good versus evil on the ballot. We come to the choice of whether or not we want to live in a society that votes for a group defined by their hate or a group that is defined by loving kindness. 

We have the choice: do we want to help people or persecute people? When we go to the ballot box this November, we need to think about what kind of country we want to live in. Do we want a quasi-fascist (or just plain fascist) government who governs based on their hatred and seeks retribution against those who they believe harmed them? Or do we want a government that will help individuals and the country to heal? We are still feeling the effects of the pandemic. Prices are increasing as corporations see this as an opportunity for profit. By harming the economy and putting stress on the consumer, they are creating resentment for the government currently in power. They do this because they know that the party wanting to be in power will do more to help them financially than the average citizen.

In the parable of the sower (Mark 4:3-20), Jesus warned that two out of the four types of soils would fall away because of trials. The seed sown on the rocky soil at first received the word with joy, but when affliction or persecution arose because of the word, they fell away. The seed sown among the thorns took longer to fail. But eventually the thorns, which represent “the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” (4:19). The only type of soil representing true believers is that which endures and brings forth fruit. False believers reveal their true colors by falling away or returning to the world under trials. So we need to know how to take our trials to the Lord in prayer so that we endure and grow, rather than fall away. That’s what Psalm 143 tells us how to face trials of the world.

If we follow God’s teachings, He will help us, put an end to our enemies’ quest for dominance and destroy the hate that they spread. Psalm 143 ends with the plea, “Revive me, O Lord, for Your name’s sake! For Your righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble. In Your mercy cut off my enemies and destroy all those who afflict my soul; for I am Your servant.” (Psalm 143:11-12) While David may have literally been praying that God would destroy his enemies, we can pray that God will defeat those who are motivated by hate. God will lift our spirits in times of distress and cut off the cause of our depression and anxiety. Moreover, God can work through us to help those around us in their times of need. There is one thing that God can always give us: Hope.