Chapter 1 David's Prayer in the Cave A prayer when he was in the cave. -- Psalm 142:1 I like the title given to Psalm 142: "A prayer when he was in the cave." David did pray when he was in the cave. If he had prayed half as much when he was in the palace as he did when he was in the cave, things would have been better for him. But, alas, when he was king, we find him rising from his bed in the evening, looking from the roof of his house, and falling into temptation. If he had been looking up to heaven, if his heart had been in communion with God, he might never have committed that great crime that has so deeply stained his whole character. "A prayer when he was in the cave." God will hear prayer on the land, on the sea, and even under the sea. I remember someone at a prayer meeting saying so. Somebody else at the prayer meeting was rather astonished and asked, "How would God hear prayer under the sea?" The man said that he was a diver, and he often went down to the bottom of the sea after shipwrecks. He said that he had held communion with God while he had been at work in the depths of the ocean. Our God is not only the God of the hills, but also of the valleys. He is the God of both land and sea. He heard Jonah when the disobedient prophet was at the roots of the mountains and when "the earth with her bars" (Jonah 2:6) seemed to be around him forever. Wherever you work, you can pray. Wherever you lie sick, you can pray. There is no place to which you can be banished that God is not near, and there is no time of day or night that His throne is inaccessible. "A prayer when he was in the cave." The eaves have heard the best prayers. Some birds sing best in cages. Likewise, some of God's people shine brightest in the dark. Many an heir of heaven never prays so well as when he is driven by necessity to pray. Some will sing aloud upon their beds of sickness who hardly ever sang when they were well. Some will sing God's high praises in the fire who did not praise Him as they should have before the trial came. In the furnace of affliction the saints are often seen at their best. If you are in a dark and gloomy situation, if your soul is bowed down, may this become a special time of powerful communion and intercession. May the prayer of the cave be the very best of your prayers! In this chapter, I will use David's prayer in the cave as a picture of a soul under a deep sense of sin. Secondly, I will use it to represent the condition of a persecuted believer. Thirdly, I will write about how it reveals the condition of a believer who is being prepared for greater honor and wider service. The Person Convicted of Sin First, let me try to use this psalm as a picture of the condition of a soul under a deep sense of sin. A little while ago, perhaps, you were out in the open field of the world, sinning nonchalantly, plucking the flowers that grow in those poisoned valleys and enjoying their deadly perfume. You were as happy as your sinful heart could be, for you were giddy and careless and thoughtless. However, it has pleased God to capture you. You have been arrested by Christ and have been put in prison. You are behind bars. You feel like one who has come out of the bright sunshine and balmy air into a dark, musty cavern, where you can see very little, where there is no comfort, and where there appears to be no hope of escape. Cry to God Well now, according to the psalm before us, which is meant for you as well as for David, your first business is to make an appeal to God. I know the doubts you may have. I know the fears you may have of God. I know how frightened you may be at the very mention of His name. But if you want to come out of your present gloom, I charge you to go to God at once. See, the psalm begins, "I cried unto the LORD with my voice, with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication" (Ps. 142:1). Cry to God with your voice. If you have no place where you can use your voice, cry to God in silence, but do cry to Him. Look Godward. If you look in any other direction, all is darkness. Look Godward. There, and only there, is hope. "I have sinned against God," you say. Be assured that God is ready to pardon. He has provided the great Atonement through which He can justly forgive the greatest offenses. Look Godward, and begin to pray. I have known people to do this who hardly believed in God. Having a faint desire to pray, they cried to God. Even though it was a poor prayer, God heard it. I have known some to cry to God in utter despair. When they hardly believed that there could be any use in praying, still it was that or nothing. They knew that it could not hurt them to pray, and so they got down on their knees and cried. It is wonderful to see what poor prayers God will hear and answer--prayers that have no legs to run with, no hands to grasp with, and very little heart. Still, God has heard them and has accepted them. Get on your knees, you who feel guilty. Get on your knees if your heart is sighing on account of sin. If the dark gloom of your iniquities is gathering around you, cry to God. He will hear you. Make a Full Confession The next thing to do is to pour out your heart. David said, "I poured out my complaint before him; I showed before him my trouble" (Ps. 142:2). The human heart longs to express itself. An unuttered grief will lie and smolder in the soul until its black smoke blinds the very eyes of the spirit. Sometimes it is not a bad thing to speak to a Christian friend about the anguish of your heart. I would not encourage you to make it a priority -- far from it -- but it may be helpful to some. But I do encourage you to make a full confession unto the Lord. Tell Him how you have sinned. Tell Him how you have tried to save yourself and have failed. Tell Him what a wretch you are, how fickle, how proud, how unruly. Tell Him how your ambition carries you away like an unbridled horse. Tell Him all your faults, as far as you can remember them. Do not attempt to hide anything from God. You cannot do so, for He knows all. Therefore, do not hesitate to tell Him everything--the darkest secret, the sin you would not even wish to whisper to the evening's breeze. Tell it all. Confession to God is good for the soul. "Who so confesseth and forsaketh [his sins] shall have mercy" (Prov. 28:13). I urge you who are now in a gloomy cave to seek a secret and quiet place and, alone with God, to pour out your heart before Him. David said, "I showed before him my trouble" (Ps. 142:2). Do not think that the use of pious words can be of any help. It is not merely words that you have to utter; you have to lay all your trouble before God. As a child tells his mother his griefs, tell the Lord all your griefs, your complaints, your miseries, your fears. Get them all out, and great relief will come to your spirit. Acknowledge That God Is Your Only Hope So, first, appeal to God. Secondly, make confession to Him. Thirdly, acknowledge to God that there is no hope for you but in His mercy. Put it as David did: "I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me" (v. 4). There is only one hope for you; acknowledge that.