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Psalm 143:7
Hurry to answer me, LORD. My spirit fails. Don’t hide your face from me, so that I don’t become like those who go down into the pit.
5I remember the days of old. I meditate on all your doings. I contemplate the work of your hands.
6I spread out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Selah.
7Hurry to answer me, LORD. My spirit fails. Don’t hide your face from me, so that I don’t become like those who go down into the pit.
8Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you.
9Deliver me, LORD, from my enemies. I flee to you to hide me.
Notice
“Hurry” sets the pace of this prayer: the speaker’s strength is failing, and the fear of God’s hidden face is bound to the fear of death.
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Write on thisHow does the plea “Don’t hide your face from me” express what you most need from God?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 28:1By David. To you, LORD, I call. My rock, don’t be deaf to me, lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.Both prayers fear becoming like those who go down into the pit if God withholds his answer.
Proverbs 13:12Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when longing is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.Both texts speak of distress tied to an unmet longing, though the psalm addresses God and Proverbs describes deferred hope.
Psalm 69:17Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily!Both prayers ask God not to hide his face and plead for a swift answer amid distress.
Psalm 70:1For the Chief Musician. By David. A reminder. Hurry, God, to deliver me. Come quickly to help me, LORD.Both prayers ask the LORD to hurry, expressing an urgent need for his help.
Psalm 27:9Don’t hide your face from me. Don’t put your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Don’t abandon me, neither forsake me, God of my salvation.Both prayers plead with God not to hide his face, expressing fear of being left without his help.
Isaiah 38:14I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.”Both speakers describe their strength giving way while turning to the Lord for help.
Genesis 4:14Behold, you have driven me out today from the surface of the ground. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. …Both passages connect separation from God’s face with fear for life, though Cain speaks after judgment and the psalmist pleads for an answer.
Job 6:4For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.Both speakers describe distress reaching their spirit, though Job names God’s arrows while the psalmist fears God’s hidden face.
Isaiah 38:18For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth.Both passages speak of those who go down into the pit, treating death as a dreaded loss.
Jonah 2:6I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever; yet you have brought my life up from the pit, LORD my God.Both passages connect the pit with peril to life; the psalm pleads for help, while Jonah recounts God’s rescue.
Job 17:16Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”Both passages speak of descent toward death, using the pit or the gates of Sheol to express that prospect.
Isaiah 8:17I will wait for the LORD, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.Both texts speak of the LORD hiding his face, with one pleading for an answer and the other expressing resolve to wait.
Where this verse fits
Feeling distant from God. illness or diagnosis. waiting.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
You do not need calm words to bring distress before God. This prayer asks him to hurry, with failing strength and fear of death still unresolved.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).