Psalm 43

Psalms 43:1-4

This psalm carries no title of its own, the same refrain closing it that closed the poem at 42:5 and 42:11, and it opens with a legal plea, judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation, courtroom language asking God to act as advocate and judge together. Verse 2 repeats 42:9 almost exactly, why dost thou cast me off, tying the two psalms together a second time beyond the shared refrain. Send out thy light and thy truth asks for guides that will lead him to God's holy hill and tabernacles, the temple access denied him through the poem, and verse 4 answers in advance with the altar and the harp, worship pictured before it is reached.

Psalms 43:5

The refrain closes the poem a third time, at 42:5, 42:11 and here, the textual evidence that Psalms 42 and 43 form one composition rather than two, since no title separates them and the same self-address ends every movement. Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God repeats the earlier wording with only small variation, the psalmist still commanding his own soul rather than reporting trouble already resolved. Delitzsch and the older commentators read the whole poem's structure from this triple return, three movements bound by one refrain.