“Simpson, one of the old commentators on the Scripture, once said, “When we are in our prosperity, our prayers come from our lips, and therefore the Lord is forced to cast us down to the end that our prayers may come from our hearts.” And that’s exactly where the psalmist finds himself. He finds himself in despair, in the depths, crying to the Lord, begging the Lord for rescue, begging the Lord to hear him. He doesn’t feel like the Lord is hearing him and so he’s pleading with the Lord to hear his petition, to hear his supplication, to pay attention to his prayers. And the psalmist puts that in this psalm. He puts that lament in this psalm. He shares his experience of that in this psalm.”