Psalm 143

The last of the church's seven traditional "penitential psalms." "No one alive is righteous before You" (Paul echoes this in Romans 3:20 and Galatians 2:16), so David appeals to God's faithfulness, not his own record. Crushed and in darkness, he remembers, stretches out his hands like parched ground, and asks to hear of God's love "in the morning."

"Let me hear Your loving devotion in the morning, for I have put my trust in You. Teach me the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul." (Psalm 143:8)