God’s Word for You

Psalm 142:5-6 Not too strong for Jesus

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, August 14, 2025

5 I cry out to you, LORD. I say,
  “You are my refuge,
  my portion in the land of the living.”
6 Listen to my cry, for I am so very weak.
  Rescue me from those who pursue me,
  for they are too strong for me.

Here again David says that he cries out to the Lord, with two different words. In verse 5, it is the loud cry that is often a loud cry for help, such as the Israelites gave in Egypt (Exodus 2:23), or when searching for someone (Daniel 6:21). In verse 6, the cry is the “ringing cry” that can express joy (Psalm 20:6) or be a cry for help (Psalm 119:169). So David has not paused to quiet himself down, but is still crying out and shouting loudly for the Lord’s help. The help he asks for is far more important than any hiding place or temporary shelter, especially since he has found out that the refuge he sometimes counted on was ruined (verse 4).

Now he turns to the Lord for refuge. He even describes the Lord as his portion. In the Old Testament, a “portion” was an allotment such as one might receive as an inheritance (Deuteronomy 32:9; Joshua 15:13). It was usually a piece of land, or a house in a city. If it was out in the countryside it might be marked off with boundary stones, which is why it was a crime to move such a stone (Deuteronomy 19:14, 27:17). But for David, the portion he had and the only portion he really cared about was the Lord. Even in “the land of the living,” which is a way of talking about this lifetime, this world; David doesn’t just think of the Lord as being his God in eternity, but his companion, his friend, his portion and inheritance, right now in life.

“I am so very weak,” he says—why? It is especially on account of the enemies who are too strong for him. Certainly there were physical enemies in David’s lifetime. But he defeated Goliath through faith and a stone. He did not defeat Saul, but served him and respected that enemy until he had died in battle elsewhere, and even then he treated Saul’s remaining family with respect and dignity. But when David faced enemies that drove him out of his castle, he knew that he had no one to trust. That’s because on those two occasions it wasn’t an enemy king that was after his life, it was two of his own sons, Absalom, and much later on, Adonijah. But whether this Psalm is about one of those rebellions, or some other dangerous event in David’s life, perhaps it’s better not to know all of the details, or to insist on details that might or might not be accurate. In this way, the Holy Spirit allows us to apply these verses to our own lives without thinking, “Oh, but David had it worse.” We shouldn’t let a thought like that get in the way of making this Psalm a prayer for our lives, for we all have troubles and difficulties of many kinds. If we have to wait until one of us is a king, and has a son conspiring against his throne and his life, then who could ever use a Psalm like this to his or her benefit? No, the Holy Spirit is wise, sometimes to tell us more, and sometimes to tell us less.

Who brings the greatest strength against us? Is it not the devil, who wants to accuse us of our sins, and cause us to despair and give up on our place in the land of the living, or on our place in the Paradise to come?

“Sinner! Traitor! Corrupt and foul wretch who has turned away from God and rebelled against him!” These are the kinds of things that Satan wants to use to terrify us. But true to his title of “liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44), he does what the guilty always do. He throws the details of his own guilt at someone else. Who is the greatest sinner of all? Is it not the devil, who fell before anyone else fell? Is it not the former angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14) who betrayed all of the other angels who fell with him by leading them down to their damnation? Is it not this Satan, whose name means “accuser” (Revelation 12:10), who is the corrupt and foul wretch who turned away from God and rebelled against him? “There was war in heaven,” John wrote (Revelation 12:7), and such a war could only be started with sin, the sin of the devil.

Whatever sins the devil throws at your feet and troubles your mind about, calmly and fearlessly pick them up, see that they are indeed yours, and then lay them all on Jesus, just the way that Aaron and the other high priests placed all of the sins of the Israelites on the head of the Scapegoat and then drove it away, out of the camp, to illustrate for the people the way that Christ would bear all of our sins and remove them from us forever. “For the goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place, and the man shall release it in the desert” (Leviticus 16:22). And as the prophet says: “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). The devil’s darts and stabs are not too strong for Jesus.

So do not be burdened by the weight of your sins. Do not let the devil overpower you with his accusations. Where there is a sin, there is Jesus. Where there is Jesus, there is forgiveness. And where there is forgiveness, there is life, peace, the resurrection, and a place with God forever in joy and happiness.

I lay my sins on Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God;
he bears them all and frees us from the accursed load.
I bring my guilt on Jesus to wash my crimson stains
white in his blood most precious till not a spot remains.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

Browse Devotion Archive