Tehillim 142 | "While He Was in the Cave"

The Poet cries out to God, from a place of severe distress and terrible loneliness. Not only are his enemies pursuing him, but all his loved ones have abandoned him, and there is no one who cares for his soul. His prayer to God is meant to address the problem of him being pursued, but more fundamentally, it also redeems him from the problem of loneliness – If God is his refuge, then he is no longer alone, and there is someone who cares for him. In contrast to the claim at the beginning of the Psalm: "I have nowhere to flee; no one cares for me" (v. 5), God does indeed care for his soul, and He will be the one who will "send me free from this confinement so that I may give thanks to Your name." (v.8) After the Poet finds comfort in God Himself, who becomes his support, he will also merit to find a complete community to which he can be part of: "The righteous will gather around me when You are good to me" (v. 8).