Psalm 43
5 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Psalms 42×3Psalms 35×1Psalms 7×1Psalms 26×1Psalms 28×1Ephesians 6×1
Summary
Chapter summary
The companion of Psalm 42, completing its triple refrain. 'Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation.' The prayer that became the church's introit: 'Oh send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me: let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.' And once more: 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?… hope thou in God.'
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 43The history
This psalm has no heading of its own and repeats Psalm 42's refrain word for word. A number of Hebrew manuscripts join the two as one psalm, which is the simplest explanation of the shared chorus. The numbering we use follows the manuscripts that separate them.
"Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation" is legal language again — the word means take up my case, act as my advocate at law. The complaint is against a whole people, not one man, which fits a singer living among foreigners.
"O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me." Those two words are the names of the priestly lots — the Urim and Thummim, kept in the high priest's breastpiece, which the older translations render as Lights and Perfections and which Israel used to seek God's decision on a course of action. The singer asks for the guidance itself to come out and walk him home.
The destination is described in stages, the way a pilgrim would actually experience it: to thy holy hill, to thy tabernacles, unto the altar of God. The harp in his hand at the end assumes he is a temple musician who has been out of work.
What it meant to them
For a displaced Israelite the whole prayer aims at one place. He does not ask to be comforted where he is; he asks to be brought to the altar.
And the refrain lands a third time, unchanged: why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope in God. Israel's songbook let a man repeat himself until he believed it.
Sources cited
- Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 43
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 43. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.