Psalms 142:6

"Attend unto my cry, for I am brought very low:

Deliver me from my persecutors;

For they are stronger than I.

Bring my soul out of prison,

That I may give thanks unto thy name:

The righteous shall compass me about;

And thou wilt deal bountifully with me."

"Attend unto my cry" (Psalms 142:6). Again emphasizing the loud nature of this prayer, Briggs rendered this clause, "Attend unto my yell."[12]

"They are stronger than I" (Psalms 142:6). "In the cave of Adullam, David had only 400 outlaws to defend him against the tens of thousands of the armies of Saul, the king of Israel (1 Samuel 22:2)."[13]

"Bring my soul out of prison" (Psalms 142:7). To this writer, it appears as simply amazing that some interpreters discover in this psalm the prayer of some "Israelite dying in jail"! To begin with, David's "body" was not imprisoned here; his "soul," that is his "spirit" was imprisoned by his enforced hiding from the armies of Saul. As Addis affirmed, "The term `prison' in Psalms 142:7 need not be taken in a literal sense."[14] Also, as McCaw wrote, "Prison, not in the sense of `jail', but in the sense of being restricted in movement."[15]

"Thou wilt deal bountifully with me" (Psalms 142:7). Thus, the psalm closes on a note of firm confidence in God and in his solution of all the problems that press upon David's heart. God provides the refuge; he is the advocate on the right hand; his strength is the foil of every enemy; his love shall achieve its noble purpose in the person of "the man after God's own heart."