An understanding of repentance as affecting all of life needs to be recovered by evangelical churches today, and a better understanding of Psalm 143 may be one way to begin to go about it. In April 1996, the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals held a conference of key evangelical leaders in Cambridge, Massachusetts, out of which came "The Cambridge Declaration.” One of the papers presented at this conference was by Sinclair B. Ferguson on the matter we are considering, the nature of repentance. 

These last verses have brought the psalm to a satisfying climax. David is in danger of being killed by King Saul; but he has found a refuge in God. He has been driven away from home, possessing nothing; but God is his portion. He is in danger of being overcome by people who are stronger than he is; but God is his Savior. He feels that he is shut up in the prison of his cave; but God is his liberator who will set him free. David knows that he is to be king of Israel. Therefore, finally, he anticipates a day when “... the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me” (v. 7).

In verses 3 and 4, David's "complaint” (v. 2) comes to full expression. It has two parts. First, the path before me is a dangerous one, full of the snares of my enemies; I need help. Second, I have no friends here, I am alone; if you don't support me, I am lost. As it turned out, God did protect David from Saul's snares, and it was while he was at the cave of Adullam that his brothers and others came to join him to the number of about four hundred faithful fighting men. 

In Psalm 142 David is alone and in trouble. We know this not only because the psalm speaks of his being alone and in trouble, but because it begins with a title line saying that it was written "when [or about the time when] he was in the cave.” This is the only psalm in this final collection of Davidic psalms (Psalms 138-145) that provides the reader with a setting: “A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A Prayer.” But it is helpful for our understanding of the psalm since we know something about David's situation at this time from the account of these days in 1 Samuel 22:1, 2. Even more, it makes Psalm 142 a companion to Psalm 57, which likewise begins: “Of David. A miktam. When he had fled from Saul into the cave.” 

David's prayer is not only that he might be kept from evil, however. It is also that he might be kept from the company of evildoers, so he will not be tempted to sit down with them and “eat of their delicacies” (v. 4). This is like the two preceding psalms in which David asked God to keep him from the company and corruptions of the wicked. It is one reason why we should think of these psalms as being written by the same man. I repeat here what I said in the two earlier studies. It is not that David is too good for evil people; the problem is that he is too much like them and is therefore likely to be swept away by their wickedness if he is in their company.