The psalmist, in great distress and difficulty, calls upon God, Psalm 142:1-7 .
The title says, "An Instruction of David," or a Psalm of David giving instruction; "A Prayer when he was in the cave."
David was twice in great peril in caves.
- At the cave of Adullam, when he fled from Achish, king of Gath, 1 Samuel 22.
When he was in the cave of En-gedi, where he had taken refuge from the pursuit of Saul; and the latter, without knowing that David was in it, had gone into it on some necessary occasion, 1 Samuel 24. If the inscription can be depended on, the cave of En-gedi is the most likely of the two, for the scene laid here. But were there doubts concerning the legitimacy of the title, I should refer the Psalm to the state of the captives in Babylon, to which a great part of the Psalms refer. Bishop Horsley calls it "A Prayer of the Messiah taken and deserted." It may be so: but where is the evidence, except in the conjectural system of Origen.
