Psalms 143:6

Psa 143:6 I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul [thirsteth] after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.

Ver. 6. I stretch forth my hands unto thee] As a poor beggar for an alms. Beggary here is not the easiest and poorest trade, but the hardest and richest of all other.

My soul thirsteth after thee] And is therefore a fit subject for thy Spirit of grace and comfort to be poured upon, Isa 44:3; Isa 55:1.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. (Psa 143:6) I spread my hands unto thee; my soul is like a weary land to thee, i.e. thirst or longs for thee, as a dry or thirsty land for rain. See above, on Psa 63:1. A weary land is an unusual expression, and one of the peculiar features of this psalm. With the first clause compare Psa 44:20. The close of the complaint or lamentation, and the strength of the feeling with which it is uttered, are both indicated by the Selah.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

143:6 The psalmist’s thirst is a deep longing for God’s redemption (see 42:1-2).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. I stretch forth my hands] This is a natural action. All in distress, or under the influence of eager desire, naturally extend their hands and arms, as if to catch at help and obtain succour.

As a thirsty land.] Parched and burned by the sun, longs for rain, so does my thirsty soul for the living God.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. I have stretched forth my hands to thee. Here appears the good effect of meditation, that it stirred David up to pray; for if we reflect seriously upon the acting’s of God towards his people, and towards ourselves in our own experience, this will necessarily lead out our minds to seek after him, under the alluring influence of his goodness. Prayer, indeed, springs from faith; but as practical proofs of the favor and mercy confirm this faith, they are means evidently fitted for dissipating languor. He makes use of a striking figure to set forth the ardor of his affection, comparing his soul to the parched earth. In great heats we see that the earth is cleft, and opens, as it were, its mouth to heaven for moisture. David therefore intimates, he drew near to God with vehement desire, as if the very sap of life failed him, as he shows more fully in the verse which follows. In this he gives another proof of his extraordinary faith. Feeling himself weak, and ready to sink into the very grave, he does not vacillate between this and the other hope of relief, but fixes his sole dependence upon God. And heavy as the struggle was that he underwent with his own felt weakness, the fainting of spirit he speaks of was a better stimulant to prayer than any stoical obstinacy he might have shown in suppressing fear, grief, or anxiety. We must not overlook the fact, how in order to induce himself to depend exclusively upon God, he dismisses all other hopes from his mind, and makes a chariot to himself of the extreme necessity of his case, in which he ascends upwards to God.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(6) With the first clause comp. Psa_44:20.

Thirsty land.—See Psa_63:1, which explains this elliptical sentence. As our Lord taught, God is even more ready to send the refreshing spiritual shower than man’s heart to receive it.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. I stretch forth]. R.V. I spread forth. Cp. Psa_44:20; Psa_88:9; Lam_1:17.

my soul thirsteth for thee, as a weary land] ‘Thirsteth’ or some similar verb must be supplied. Cp. Psa_60:1, from which the words are taken. As the parched land, wearied with long continued drought, longs for refreshing rain, so he longs for a renewal of the old manifestation of God’s goodness. Cp. Psa_68:9, note, for rain as an emblem of Divine blessing.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I stretch forth my hands unto thee,.... In prayer, as the Targum adds; for this is a prayer gesture, Kg1 8:38; both hands were stretched forth, earnestly imploring help, and ready to receive and embrace every blessing bestowed with thankfulness;

my soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land. As a dry land, which wants water, gapes, and as it were thirsts for rain, which is very refreshing to it; so his soul thirsted after God, after his word and ordinances, after communion with him in them, after his grace and fresh supplies of it; particularly after pardoning grace and mercy, after the coming of Christ, and the blessings of grace by him; as reconciliation, atonement, righteousness, and salvation; after more knowledge of God and Christ, and divine truths; and after the enjoyment of them in heaven to all eternity. Some copies read, "in a thirsty land" (x), and so some versions; see Psa 42:1.

Selah; on this word; see Gill on Psa 3:2.

(x) Cod. Heb. Bomberg. Venet. "in terra siticulosa", Musculus, Tarnovius.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I stretch forth my hands unto thee - In prayer. I have nowhere else to go. See Psa 88:9.

My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land - As land in a time of drought “seems” to thirst for rain. See the notes at Psa 63:1. Compare Psa 42:1. The word rendered “thirsty” here means properly “weary.” The idea is that of a land which seems to be weary; which has no vigor of growth; and where everything seems to be exhausted. The same word occurs in Isa 32:2 : “As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I stretch forth my hands unto thee; I pray to thee fervently. See Poole "Psa 141:2".

Thirsteth after thee; after thy favour and help.

As a thirsty land, to wit, thirsteth for rain.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 6. I stretch forth my hands unto thee. As a poor beggar for an alms. Beggary here is not the easiest and poorest trade, but the hardest and richest of all other. John Trapp.

Ver. 6. I stretch forth my hands unto thee, as if I were in hope thou wouldst take me by the hand and draw me to thee. Sir Richard Baker.

Ver. 6. My soul thirsteth after thee, etc. Alas! this thirst is rare to be found. Worldly thirsts there are in many: the drunkard's thirst, De 29:19; the worldling's thirst, Hab 2:5; the epicure's thirst, whose belly is his god, Php 3:19; the ambitious man's thirstDiotrephes, 3Jo 1:9; and the malicious man's thirst, the blood thirsty, Ps 5:6. Thirst after these things doth keep away that thirst after grace without which we shall never escape Dives' thirst in hell, Lu 16:24. If we have a godly thirst, it will appear by diligence in frequenting the place and means of grace, Pr 8:34; brute beasts for want of water will break through hedges, and grace thirsty souls will make their ways through all encumbrances to come where they may have satisfaction. Thomas Pierson, 1570-1633.

Ver. 6. My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. He declareth his vehement affection to God by a very pretty similitude, taken from the ground which is thirsty by the long drought of summer, wherein the earth, rent in pieces, as it were, and with open mouth through long thirst, seeketh drink from heaven. By which he showeth that he came to God as destitute of natural substance, and therefore seeketh from above that which he lacked. So in all his extremities he looked ever upward; from above he seeketh help and comfort. Albeit we be in extremity, and as it were rent asunder, yet here is comfort, there are waters in heaven which will refresh us, if we gape after them. Here is a blessingthose that thirst shall be satisfied. If we thirst for mercy, for deliverance, for spiritual or temporal comfort, we shall be satisfied therewith; for if God heard the prayers of Hagar and Ishmael being athirst in the wilderness, and opened unto them a fountain (Ge 21:17, 19), will he forsake Isaac, the child of promise? If he heard Samson in the bitterness of his heart, when he said, "I die from thirst", and opened a spring out of the jawbone of an ass (Jud 15:19), will he forsake us in time of our distress, if we thirst aright? Archibald Symson.

Ver. 6. My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Sir John Chardin, in his MSS. says: "The lands of the East, which the great dryness there causes to crack, are the ground of this figure, which is certainly extremely beautiful; for these dry lands have chinks too deep for a person to see the bottom of: this may be observed in the Indies more than anywhere, a little before the rains fall, and wherever the lands are rich and hard." Harmer's Observations.

Ver. 6. I stretch forth my hands unto thee, etc. It is not a strange thing, then, for the soul to find its life in God. This is its native air: God as the Environment of the soul has been from the remotest age the doctrine of all the deepest thinkers in religion. How profoundly Hebrew poetry is saturated with this high thought will appear when we try to conceive of it with this left out. True poetry is only science in another form. And long before it was possible for religion to give scientific expression to its greatest truths, men of insight uttered themselves in psalms which could not have been truer to Nature had the most modern light controlled the inspiration. "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." What fine sense of the natural analogy of the natural and spiritual does not underlie these words. As the hart after its environment, so man after his; as the water brooks are fitly designed to meet the natural wants, so fitly does God implement the spiritual need of man. It will be noticed that in the Hebrew poets the longing for God never strikes one as morbid, or unnatural to the men who uttered it. It is as natural for them to long for God as for the swallow to seek her nest. Throughout all their images no suspicion rises within us that they are exaggerating. We feel how truly they are reading themselves, their deepest selves. No false note occurs in all their aspiration. There is no weariness even in their ceaseless sighing, except the lover's weariness for the absentif they would fly away, it is only to be at rest. Men who have no soul can only wonder at this. Men who have a soul, but with little faith, can only envy it. How joyous a thing it was to the Hebrews to seek their God! How artlessly they call upon him to entertain them in his pavilion, to cover them with his feathers, to hide them in his secret place, to hold them in the hollow of his hand, or stretch around them the everlasting arms! These men were true children of nature. As the humming bird among its own palm trees, as the ephemera in the sunshine of a summer evening, so they lived their joyous lives. And even the full share of the sadder experiences of life which came to all of them but drove them the further into the secret place, and led them with more consecration to make, as they expressed it, "the Lord their portion." All that has been said since from Marcus Aurelius to Swedenborg, from Augustine to Schleiermacher, of a besetting God as the full complement of humanity is but a repetition of the Hebrew poets' faith. And even the New Testament has nothing higher to offer man than this. The Psalmist's" God is our refuge and strength" is only the earlier form, less defined, less practicable, but not less noble, of Christ's "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." Henry Drummond, in "Natural Law in the Spiritual World", 1884.

Ver. 6-7. I stretch forth my hands...Hear me, etc. So will the weary bands be raised yet again, through faith in him who stretched forth his hands upon the cross. So will the fainting soul wait and long for the outpouring of his grace, who upon the cross said, "I thirst." We shall thirst for our salvation, even as the parched up fields and dying herbs seem to gasp and pant like living things for the sweet and cheering showers in the fierce heat of summer. So will the soul cry to the heard, and that soon, lest its faith grow faint with delay; and the hiding of God's face, the denying of his smile of pardon, will press on the spirit like sickness, and weigh it down like the heaviness of death. J. W. Burgon.

Ver. 6. God alone the desire of his people.

Ver. 6. Deep calling to deep.

1. The insatiable craving of the heart.

2. The vast riches in glory.

3. The rushing together of the seas: "My soul is to thee." W. B. H.

Psalms 143:7*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. As a thirsty land—A parched land opens in seams and cracks— “poor, poor dumb mouths”—to plead for rain. So David waits in silent, anxious attitude of prayer.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I stretch forth my hands unto thee. These recollections draw me to thee, O God, and make me stretch forth my hands in prayer to thee, (Psa_141:2) and entreat thee for succor. My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. As a parched and withered land. seems to look up to heaven and long for rain, so does my soul long for thee, O Lord, "and thy refreshing grace". (comp. Psa_42:1) The "pause-mark," "selah," at the end of the verse, at once gives time for secret prayer, and makes a division of the psalm into two parts.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As land - Thirsteth for rain.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

like a weary land in exile.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.