Psalm 43 — Light in the Darkness — Reading the Psalms

1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation:
O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
2 For thou art the God of my strength; why hast thou cast me off?
Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me:
Let them bring me unto thy holy hill,
And to thy tabernacles.
4 Then will I go unto the altar of God,
Unto God my exceeding joy:
And upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God.
5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him,
Who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

This psalm seems to be a continuation from the previous. When we get to vs. 5 we find our refrain, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” My guess is that a later author added another verse, as it were, to a previous and helpful psalm. It’s hard not to read them together.

As the author opens he asks for God to judge him and plead his cause. This is much like seeking out justice in court today. The more money one has the better lawyer we can snag, but this author appeals directly to the judge for vindication. Jeremiah has similar words in Lamentations 3.59, “O LORD thou has seen my wrong, judge thou my cause.” I love this idea: acknowledgment for personal failure, yet hoping in God’s help. Isn’t this the sate of us all?

God’s light and truth come to our rescue! Light and truth, sweetness and light, break through the fog of sin and the haze of hypocrisy. Light and truth did indeed come, and when men saw the light they fled for the darkness. How do you respond to the incarnation, teaching, death and resurrection of the Son of God? Hope thou in God, for we shall yet praise him!