143:1 In our one-on-one conversations with God, we can pray for His attentiveness. We have God's full attention, and in that space, we can draw His attention to the details of the parts of our lives we need Him most. God will be faithful to answer, He waits only for us to ask of Him the things He has promised to supply.
143:2 The Psalmist was also careful to mention his own imperfection. We cannot compare with God's righteousness, which is absolute, without flaw and constant. But actually we should not fear God's judgement. God is our parent and His discipline is what most benefits our character. He always deals in love, sometimes tough love, but it is meant to retrain us into better, strong, wiser people.
143:3-4 But in the moments when we feel the enemy or the world is unfairly judging us, we can pray for God's presence and rule. It is God's opinion of us that truly matters. People and circumstance sometimes overwhelm us but we have God to turn to for peace and order. We have the hope and compassion of God to restore us from states of distress.
143:5 To remain connected with this faith which provides us so much, we remember God's faithful and powerful journey with humanity. We remember and soak in His instruction and philosophy for life because it leads and heals us. We consider the work of God's hands because it reminds us of the precision and beauty He is capable of working in the earth.
The things which are impossible for us are unattainable. But God's brushstrokes are the impossible; impossible is His tool and His creation. He enables us to attain the the previously impossible.
143:6 Therefore we spread our hands, our hearts, our minds, our souls, our bodies before the Lord. Our whole Spirit longs for Him for He is the sustenance we were never able to attain; the sustenance that completely fills us with what we truly need.
143:7 We pray for God's presence because He is our life source; we cannot exist without Him. We cannot persist without Him. Fear, temptation, and frustration lead us into a pit. We need faith and hope and love from God to keep us on safe, holy ground.
143:8 Notice that the Psalmist prays for God to be with him in the morning. Our first priority of every day should be to have and keep the will of God. Faith should be the first place our mind wanders to as it awakens. The more we delve into scripture and into trust of God, the more naturally that happens.
Begin everyday following God into the places, conversations, opportunities and relationships He wants us to be in.
143:9-10 Pray for God to be the shelter. Many people have many vices but none of them are able to protect or satisfy. Only faith can do that. Therefore we pray to be taught by God. We pray to know His will so that we will recognize it and thus be able to follow it. Our God is good, and we wish to be led into that righteousness.
143:11-12 Wearied by the world, we pray for God to revive us: to put continual hope in our hearts, new aspirations in our minds and new life in our spirits. God is able to keep us fresh and excited and productive. We pray for all work done is us by God to be for God. We wish to help uphold the kingdom with our own acts of righteousness.
We pray for God's mercy, protection and justice. In return, we offer to Him the only thing we can: our love and obedience.
