This guide gives you ready-to-use questions and leader’s notes for Psalm 143, a short prayer of David written under pressure from an enemy and a sense of spiritual exhaustion. It works for a small group, a Sunday class, or personal study. Each section asks questions about what the chapter says, what it means, and how to live it, with answers you can adapt to your own group.
Psalm 143 at a Glance
David opens by asking the LORD to hear him and to act in faithfulness and righteousness. He does not ask to be declared innocent before God, since he admits that no one living is righteous in God’s sight. He then describes his situation: an enemy has pursued him, his life has been crushed, and his spirit is faint. Rather than dwelling only on the trouble, he remembers God’s past works and spreads out his hands toward God like dry ground longing for rain.
The second half is a series of urgent requests: hurry to answer, let me hear your loving kindness in the morning, show me the way to walk, teach me your will, revive me, and deliver me from my enemies. The psalm closes on a note of loyalty, grounding every request in the simple claim, “I am your servant.”
Observation Questions
Use these first to make sure everyone has read the text closely before anyone offers an interpretation. Let the group answer from the words on the page, and resist adding ideas from outside the chapter until the basic details are clear.
Psalm 143:1-2
1 Hear my prayer, the LORD. Listen to my petitions. In your faithfulness and righteousness, relieve me. 2 Don’t enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no man living is righteous.
(WEB)
These opening verses set the tone for the whole prayer. Reading them aloud establishes both the appeal to God’s faithfulness and the honest admission that no one stands righteous before him.
Psalm 143:5-6
5 I remember the days of old. I meditate on all your doings. I contemplate the work of your hands. 6 I spread out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Selah.
(WEB)
Reading this passage shows the group the practice of remembering God’s works and reaching out in longing. It is a natural place to pause and invite people to share a memory of God’s faithfulness.
Psalm 143:8
Cause 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.
(WEB)
This verse holds David’s hope for morning renewal and his simple declaration of trust. Reading it aloud gives the group a concrete image to carry into their own prayers for the day.
Psalm 143:10
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.
(WEB)
This verse brings out the desire to be taught and led by God’s Spirit. Reading it aloud helps the group connect the psalm’s cry for rescue with a longing to walk rightly.
Psalm 143:11-12
11 Revive me, the LORD, for your name’s sake. In your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble. 12 In your loving kindness, cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who afflict my soul, For I am your servant.
(WEB)
These closing verses return to revival, deliverance, and the claim of being God’s servant. Reading them last gives the session a steady end point rooted in identity and trust.
Memory Verse for Psalm 143
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we come before you as David did, not because we are righteous, but because you are faithful and merciful. Some of us feel crushed by pressures we cannot name, and some of us feel our spirits growing faint. Hear our prayers, and show us your loving kindness in the mornings ahead. Teach us to walk in your will and lead us in the way of uprightness. Revive what has grown weary among us, and remind us that we belong to you. Strengthen each person here to trust you with honesty and to remember your past faithfulness. Amen.
