1 Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.
2 For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, to your tents.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy. I will praise you on the harp, God, my God.
5 Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him: my Savior, my helper, and my God.
KJVKing James Version
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 dost 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: yea, 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 in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
1 Be Thou my judge, 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 under 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 mountain, and to Thy dwelling-places.
4 Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God, my exceeding joy; and praise Thee upon the harp, O God, my God.
5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why moanest thou within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the salvation of my countenance, and my God.
Psalms 36:9(v3)For with you is the spring of life. In your light we will see light.
Proverbs 3:5-6(v3)Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your…
Psalms 97:11(v3)Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.
John 1:4(v3)In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Psalms 42:5(v5)Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his…
Show all 69 cross-references
Psalms 143:10(v3)Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.
Isaiah 61:10(v4)I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh! My soul will be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me…
Habakkuk 3:17-18(v4)For though the fig tree doesn’t flourish, nor fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive fails, the fields yield no food; the flocks are…
Psalms 42:11(v5)Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my…
Psalms 119:105(v3)Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.
Psalms 35:1(v1)Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me.
Psalms 84:1(v3)How lovely are your dwellings, Yahweh of Armies!
Psalms 7:8(v1)Yahweh administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, Yahweh, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me.
Psalms 25:4-5(v3)Show me your ways, Yahweh. Teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth, and teach me, For you are the God of my salvation, I wait for you…
Psalms 26:1(v1)Judge me, Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted also in Yahweh without wavering.
Psalms 28:7(v2)Yahweh is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will…
Psalms 40:11(v3)Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, Yahweh. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.
Psalms 42:9(v2)I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
Psalms 66:13-15(v4)I will come into your temple with burnt offerings. I will pay my vows to you, which my lips promised, and my mouth spoke, when I was in…
Psalms 57:8(v4)Wake up, my glory! Wake up, lute and harp! I will wake up the dawn.
Psalms 132:13-14(v3)For Yahweh has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation. “This is my resting place forever. I will live here, for I have desired…
Micah 7:8(v3)Don’t rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be a light to me.
John 1:17(v3)For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
1 Samuel 24:15(v1)May Yahweh therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of your hand.”
Psalms 71:22-23(v4)I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God. I sing praises to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel. My lips shall…
Psalms 116:12-19(v4)What will I give to Yahweh for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call on Yahweh’s name. I will pay my vows…
Ephesians 6:10(v2)Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.
Psalms 33:2(v4)Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre. Sing praises to him with the harp of ten strings.
Psalms 35:24(v1)Vindicate me, Yahweh my God, according to your righteousness. Don’t let them gloat over me.
Psalms 94:14(v2)For Yahweh won’t reject his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.
Isaiah 40:31(v2)but those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They…
Micah 7:20(v3)You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
Psalms 3:4(v3)I cry to Yahweh with my voice, and he answers me out of his holy hill.
Psalms 5:6(v1)You will destroy those who speak lies. Yahweh abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
Psalms 42:6(v4)My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.
Psalms 44:9(v2)But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor, and don’t go out with our armies.
Psalms 57:3(v3)He will send from heaven, and save me, he rebukes the one who is pursuing me. God will send out his loving kindness and his truth.
Psalms 71:4(v1)Rescue me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
Psalms 81:2(v4)Raise a song, and bring here the tambourine, the pleasant lyre with the harp.
Exodus 15:2(v2)Yah is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
2 Samuel 6:5(v4)David and all the house of Israel played before Yahweh with all kinds of instruments made of cypress wood, with harps, with stringed…
1 Chronicles 28:9(v2)You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all…
Psalms 26:6(v4)I will wash my hands in innocence, so I will go about your altar, Yahweh,
Psalms 71:9(v2)Don’t reject me in my old age. Don’t forsake me when my strength fails.
Psalms 77:7(v2)“Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?
Psalms 140:7(v2)Yahweh, the Lord, the strength of my salvation, you have covered my head in the day of battle.
Isaiah 45:24(v2)They will say of me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in Yahweh.’ ” Even to him will men come. All those who raged against him…
Micah 7:9(v1)I will bear the indignation of Yahweh, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my case, and executes judgment for me. He will…
Zechariah 10:12(v2)I will strengthen them in Yahweh; and they will walk up and down in his name,” says Yahweh.
1 Peter 2:23(v1)When he was cursed, he didn’t curse back. When he suffered, he didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.
2 Samuel 16:20–17:4(v1)Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give your counsel what we shall do.” Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines that…
1 Chronicles 16:1(v3)They brought in God’s ark, and set it in the middle of the tent that David had pitched for it; and they offered burnt offerings and peace…
Psalms 2:6(v3)“Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.”
Psalms 42:4(v3)These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of…
Psalms 46:4(v3)There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad, the holy place of the tents of the Most High.
Psalms 68:15-16(v3)The mountains of Bashan are majestic mountains. The mountains of Bashan are rugged. Why do you look in envy, you rugged mountains, at the…
Psalms 75:7(v1)But God is the judge. He puts down one, and lifts up another.
Psalms 78:68(v3)But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.
Proverbs 22:23(v1)for Yahweh will plead their case, and plunder the life of those who plunder them.
Proverbs 23:11(v1)for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.
Romans 5:11(v4)Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
1 Corinthians 4:4(v1)For I know nothing against myself. Yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord.
Philippians 4:13(v2)I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
2 Samuel 15:20(v3)Whereas you came but yesterday, should I today make you go up and down with us, since I go where I may? Return, and take back your…
2 Samuel 15:31(v1)Someone told David, saying, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” David said, “Yahweh, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel…
1 Chronicles 16:39(v3)and Zadok the priest, and his brothers the priests, before Yahweh’s tabernacle in the high place that was at Gibeon,
Psalms 31:4(v2)Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for you are my stronghold.
1 Chronicles 21:29(v3)For Yahweh’s tabernacle, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.
Revelation 5:8(v4)Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (26 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv1, 2, 41 Judge me, O God! David, in the first…
1 Judge me, O God! David, in the first place, complains of the extreme cruelty of his enemies; but in the verses which immediately follow, he shows that there was nothing which he felt to be more grievous, than to be deprived of the opportunity of access to the sanctuary. We have an evidence of his enjoying the testimony of a good conscience in this, that he commends the defense of his cause to God. The term judge, which he first makes use of, is nothing else than to undertake the defense of one’s cause; and he expresses his meaning more clearly by adding, plead my cause The substance and object of his prayer, indeed, were, that he might be delivered from the wicked and malicious men by whom he was undeservedly persecuted. But as it is to the miserable and guiltless, who are wrongfully afflicted, that God promises his help, David, in the first place, submits himself to be examined by him, that, having discovered and thoroughly proved the rectitude of his cause, he may at length grant him aid. And as it is a most cheering source of consolation for us to find that God disdains not to take cognisance of our cause, so also, it is vain for us to expect that he will avenge the injuries and wrongs which are done to us, unless our own integrity be so manifest as to induce him to be favorable to us against our adversaries. By the unmerciful nation is to be understood the whole company of David’s enemies, who were cruel, and destitute of all the feelings of humanity. What follows, concerning the deceitful and wicked man, might indeed be applied to Saul; but it seems rather to be a form of speech in which, by enallage, the singular number is used for the plural.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3, 4, 5He desireth God to undertake his cause against the…
He desireth God to undertake his cause against the enemies but chiefly that he would restore him to the Tabernacle.
That is, the cruel company of mine enemies.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv1–5Psa 43:1 Judge me, O God, and plead my…
Psa 43:1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
Ver. 1. Judge me, O God] This psalm is, as it were, an epitome or an appendix to the former, and little differing in words or matter.
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Plead my cause] See Psa 35:1.
Against an ungodly nation] Heb. a nation not mild or merciful; so he calleth Absalom’s complices, who sought and would have sucked his blood. Such are a people of God’s wrath and of his curse.
O deliver me, &c.] From Absalom, or Ahithophel, or the whole faction.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3, 4Judge me; or, judge or give sentence for me,…
Judge me; or, judge or give sentence for me, as this phrase is used, Psa 26:1, and elsewhere.
Ungodly, or unmerciful, i.e. cruel or inhuman; for it is a meiosis. Nation; so he calls the company of his enemies for their great numbers, and because they were the far greatest part, and almost the whole body of the nation.
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Deceitful and unjust; who covereth his wicked designs with fair and false pretences; which sort of men are hateful to thee, and to all good men.
Man; either Saul; or rather, Ahithophel or Absalom. For he speaks of the holy hill of Zion, Psa 43:3, which was not so till after Saul’s time. Or man may be put collectively for the men of that time.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v1David here makes application to God, by faith and…
David here makes application to God, by faith and prayer, as his judge, his strength, his guide, his joy, his hope, with suitable affections and expressions.
I. As his Judge, his righteous Judge, who he knew would judge him, and who (being conscious of his own integrity) he knew would judge for him (Psa 43:1): Judge me, O God! and plead my cause. There were those that impeached him; against them he is defendant, and from their courts, where he stood unjustly convicted and condemned, he appeals to the court of heaven, the supreme judicature, praying to have their judgment given against him reversed and his innocency cleared. There were those that had injured him; against them he is plaintiff, and exhibits his complaint to him who is the avenger of wrong, praying for justice for himself and upon them. Observe, 1. Who his enemies were with whom he had this struggle. Here was a sinful body of men, whom he calls an ungodly or unmerciful nation. Those that are unmerciful make it appear that they are ungodly; for, those that have any fear or love of their master will have compassion on their fellow-servants. And here was one bad man the head of them, a deceitful and unjust man, most probably Saul, who not only showed no kindness to David, but dealt most perfidiously and dishonestly with him. If Absalom was the man he meant, his character was no better. As long as there are such bad men out of hell, and nations of them, it is not strange that good men, who are yet out of heaven, meet with hard and base treatment. Some think that David, by the spirit of prophecy, calculated this psalm for the use of the Jews in their captivity in Babylon, and that the Chaldeans are the ungodly nation here meant; to them it was very applicable, but only as other similar scriptures, none of which are of private interpretation. God might design it for their use, whether David did or no. 2. What is his prayer with reference to them: Judge me. As to the quarrel God had with him for sin, he prays, "Enter not into judgment with me, for then I shall be condemned;" but, as to the quarrel his enemies had with him he prays, "Lord, judge me, for I know that I shall be justified; plead my cause against them, take my part, and in thy providence appear on my behalf." He that has an honest cause may expect that God will plead it. "Plead my cause so as to deliver me from them, that they may not have their will against me." We must reckon our cause sufficiently pleaded if we be delivered, though our enemies be not destroyed.
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II. As his strength, his all-sufficient strength; so he eyes God (Psa 43:2): "Thou art the God of my strength, my God, my strength, from whom all my strength is derived, in whom I strengthen myself, who hast often strengthened me, and without whom I am weak as water and utterly unable either to do or suffer any thing for thee." David now went mourning, destitute of spiritual joys, yet he found God to be the God of his strength. If we cannot comfort ourselves in God, we may stay ourselves upon him, and may have spiritual supports when we want spiritual delights. David here pleads this with God: "Thou art the God on whom I depend as my strength; why then dost thou cast me off?" This was a mistake; for God never cast off any that trusted in him, whatever melancholy apprehensions they may have had of their own state. "Thou art the God of my strength; why then is my enemy too strong for me, and why go I mourning because of his oppressive power?" It is hard to reconcile the mighty force of the church's enemies with the almighty power of the church's God; but the day will reconcile them when all his enemies shall become his footstool.
III. As his guide, his faithful guide (Psa 43:3): Lead me, bring me to thy holy hill. He prays, 1. That God by his providence would bring him back from his banishment, and open a way for him again to the free enjoyment of the privileges of God's sanctuary. His heart is upon the holy hill and the tabernacles, not upon his family-comforts, his court-preferments, or his diversions; he could bear the want of these, but he is impatient to see God's tabernacles again; nothing so amiable in his eyes as those; thither he would gladly be brought back. In order to this he prays, "Send out thy light and thy truth; let me have this as a fruit of thy favour, which is light, and the performance of thy promise, which is truth." We need desire no more to make us happy than the good that flows from God's favour and is included in his promise. That mercy, that truth, is enough, is all; and, when we see these in God's providences, we see ourselves under a very safe conduct. Note, Those whom God leads he leads to his holy hill, and to his tabernacles; those therefore who pretend to be led by the Spirit, and yet turn their backs upon instituted ordinances, certainly deceive themselves. 2. That God by his grace would bring him into communion with himself, and prepare him for the vision and fruition of himself in the other world. Some of the Jewish writers by the light and truth here understand Messiah the Prince and Elias his forerunner: these have come, in answer to the prayers of the Old Testament; but we are still to pray for God's light and truth, the Spirit of light and truth, who supplies the want of Christ's bodily presence, to lead us into the mystery of godliness and to guide us in the way to heaven. When God sends his light and truth into our hearts, these will guide us to the upper world in all our devotions as well as in all our aims and expectations; and, if we conscientiously follow that light and that truth, they will certainly bring us to the holy hill above.
IV. As his joy, his exceeding joy. If God guide him to his tabernacles, if he restore him to his former liberties, he knows very well what he has to do: Then will I go unto the altar of God, Psa 43:4. He will get as near as he can unto God, his exceeding joy. Note, 1. Those that come to the tabernacles should come to the altar; those that come to ordinances should qualify themselves to come, and then come to special ordinances, to those that are most affecting and most binding. The nearer we come, the closer we cleave, to God, the better. 2. Those that come to the altar of God must see to it that therein they come unto God, and draw near to him with the heart, with a true heart: we come in vain to holy ordinances if we do not in them come to the holy God. 3. Those that come unto God must come to him as their exceeding joy, not only as their future bliss, but as their present joy, and that not a common, but an exceeding joy, far exceeding all the joys of sense and time. The phrase, in the original, is very emphatic - unto God the gladness of my joy, or of my triumph. Whatever we rejoice or triumph in God must be the joy of it; all our joy in it must terminate in him, and must pass through the gift to the giver. 4. When we come to God as our exceeding joy our comforts in him must be the matter of our praises to him as God, and our God: Upon the harp will I praise thee, O God! my God. David excelled at the harp (Sa1 16:16, Sa1 16:18), and with that in which he excelled he would praise God; for God is to be praised with the best we have; it is fit he should be, for he is the best.
V. As his hope, his never-failing hope, Psa 43:5. Here, as before, David quarrels with himself for his dejections and despondencies, and owns he did ill to yield to them, and that he had no reason to do so: Why art thou cast down, O my soul? He then quiets himself in the believing expectation he had of giving glory to God (Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him) and of enjoying glory with God: He is the health of my countenance and my God. That is what we cannot too much insist upon, for it is what we must live and die by.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv1–5Judge me, O God,.... The Targum adds, with the…
Judge me, O God,.... The Targum adds, with the judgment of truth; see Rom 2:2;
and plead my cause; which was a righteous one; and therefore he could commit it to God to be tried and judged by him, and could put it into his hands to plead it for him; See Gill on Psa 35:1;
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against an ungodly nation; meaning either the Philistines, among whom he was; or his own nation, when they joined his son Absalom in rebellion against him: some understand it of the great numbers that were with Saul, when he was persecuted by him;
O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man; either Absalom, who, under pretence of a vow he had vowed in Hebron, got leave of David to go thither, and then engaged in a conspiracy against him; or Ahithophel, who had been his friend and acquaintance, but now joined with Absalom. It is true of Saul, who, under pretence of friendship, sought his ruin, and to whom he expressed himself almost in the same words here used; see Sa1 18:17.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3The psalmist appeals to God, ver. 1, 2. Prays…
The psalmist appeals to God, ver. 1, 2. Prays to be restored to the public ordinances, and trusts in God, ver. 3-5.
Nation - So he calls the company of his enemies for their great numbers. Man - Probably Achitophel or Absalom.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv1–5The psalmist begs God to take his part against…
PSALM XLIII
The psalmist begs God to take his part against his enemies,
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1, 2;
to send his light and truth to guide him to the tabernacle, 3;
promises, if brought thither, to be faithful in the Divine
service, 4;
chides himself for despondency, and takes courage, 5.
NOTES ON PSALM XLIII
There is no title to this Psalm in the Hebrew, nor in the Chaldee. The Syriac says it was composed "by David when Jonathan told him that Saul intended to slay him." The Arabic says of this, as of the preceding, that it is a prayer for the backsliding Jews. It is most evidently on the same subject with the forty-second Psalm, had the same author or authors, and contains the remaining part of the complaint of the captive Jews in Babylon. It is written as a part of the forty-second Psalm in forty-six of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.
Verse 1. Judge me, O God, and plead my cause] ריבה ריבי ribah ribi, a forensic term, properly enough translated, plead my cause, be my counsellor and advocate.
Ungodly nation] The Babylonians; the impious, perfidious, wicked, and deceitful Babylonians.
The deceitful and unjust man.] Nebuchadnezzar.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3Psa 43:1-2. Judge me, O God, &c. — “O…
Psa 43:1-2. Judge me, O God, &c. — “O God, the supreme Judge of the whole world, I appeal to thee, in this contest between me and a seditious people, who, void of piety and humanity,” (so the phrase לא חסיד, lo chasid, here rendered ungodly, means,) “are risen up in rebellion against me, beseeching thee to vindicate my innocence, and defend me from their violence.” — Bishop Patrick. He calls the company of his enemies a nation, because of their great numbers: for they were the far greater part, and almost the whole body of the nation. Deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man — Who hath covered his wicked designs with fair and false pretexts, pretending devotion when he went to make an insurrection, 2Sa 15:7; 2Sa 15:10. Deliver me from the crafty counsel which Ahithophel gives him; and from the open force whereby he seeks injuriously to take away my life, Ibid. Psa 17:1-2. For thou art the God of my strength, &c. — I have none to flee unto for safety and protection but thee alone; who hast ever hitherto been my mighty deliverer, and art now my only support.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv1–5Judge me, O God - This does not mean,…
Judge me, O God - This does not mean, Pronounce sentence upon me; but, Undertake my cause; interpose in my behalf; do justice in the case. He regarded his own cause as right; he felt that he was greatly wronged by the treatment which he received from people, and he asks to have it shown that he was not guilty of what his enemies charged on him; that he was an upright man, and a friend of God. See Psa 7:8, note; Psa 26:1, note.
And plead my cause - See the notes at Psa 35:1. “Against an ungodly nation.” Margin, unmerciful. Literally, “from a nation not merciful,” or not; religious. The idea is, that the nation or people referred to manifested none of the spirit of religion in their conduct toward him; that he was treated with severity and injustice. This entire description would agree well with the state of things in the time of the rebellion of Absalom, when David was driven from his home and his throne: 2 Sam. 15, following.
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O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man - Margin, as in Hebrew, from a man of deceit and iniquity. This would apply well to the case and character of Absalom, or perhaps more directly and properly to the character and counsel of Ahithophel, among the leading conspirators in the rebellion of Absalom, to whose counsels much of the rebellion was owing: 2Sa 15:31; compare 2Sa 16:23; 2Sa 17:14, 2Sa 17:23.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv2–4God of my strength--by covenant relation my stronghold (Psa…
God of my strength--by covenant relation my stronghold (Psa 18:1).
cast me off--in scorn.
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because--or, "in," that is, in such circumstances of oppression.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv1–41. Judge me, O God—It was David’s habit to…
1. Judge me, O God—It was David’s habit to appeal his cause to God, because he would be judged only by the divine law and justice. Psa_7:8; Psa_26:1.
Plead my cause—The petition is, that God would enter as a third person in the suit, or controversy, and argue and conduct it for the petitioner. It answers exactly to the idea of intercessor or advocate. See Psa_35:1; Heb_9:24; 1Jn_2:1.
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Ungodly nation—It may mean a nation devoid of piety, or one not kindly disposed, unmerciful, hostile. So Psa_12:1. Entering the controversy in behalf of David, God is asked to do, in word or deed, whatever the equity of the case, or the chosen mode of controversy, calls for.
Deceitful and unjust man—This may apply to Ahithophel, or, taking the noun collectively, to any man of his class.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–51. Judge me &c.] An appeal to God the…
1. Judge me &c.] An appeal to God the Judge to do him justice and vindicate his innocence by delivering him from the power of his insolent foes. For the language cp. Psa_7:8; Psa_26:1; Psa_35:1; Psa_35:24.
against an ungodly nation] Lit. from, i. e. by delivering me from, a nation without lovingkindness; heathen destitute of all feeling of humanity. For the meaning of châsîd see notes on Psa_4:3; Psa_12:1; and Appendix, Note 1.
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the deceitful and unjust man] The leader of the heathen, who had distinguished himself by treachery and malignity, may be meant. But it is better to understand the words collectively as a further description of the ‘inhuman nation’ in general, men of deceit and malignity.
1, 2. Prayer for deliverance, grounded upon God’s relation to him.
Psa_43:1-5. A passionate prayer for deliverance from his enemies and restoration to the privileges of the sanctuary.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3, 4(1) An ungodly nation.—In the Hebrew simply a negative…
XLIII.
(1) An ungodly nation.—In the Hebrew simply a negative term, a nation not khasîd, i.e., not in the covenant. But naturally a positive idea of ungodliness and wickedness would attach to such a term.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv1–5THE close connection of this psalm with the preceding…
THE close connection of this psalm with the preceding has been already noticed. (see the introduction to Ps 42) We must not, however, suppose an accidental detachment. Rather Ps 43, is a supplementary stanza, added subsequently by the same or a different writer. Being intended as a continuation, the psalm has naturally no title.
Judge me, O God. (comp. Psa_35:24) And plead my cause. (comp. Psa_35:1) God"s intervention is asked in the struggle between David and his enemies, on the assumed ground that he is in the right, and not they. God will, of course, only interpose if this is so. Against an ungodly nation; or, an unkind, unloving nation. Though called ywOig, as in Isa_1:4, still Israel is meant. They were "unloving," both towards God and towards their king. O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. Either Absalom or Ahithophel may be meant; or "man" may be used abstractedly for David"s enemies generally.
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HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE Vers. 1-5. God the salvation of the countenance; or, a light heart makes a bright face.
Dr. Binnie remarks, "The forty-second and forty-third psalms (which go together), were almost certainly written by the Korahites who accompanied David in his flight beyond the Jordan during Absalom"s rebellion." Nearly all modern critics consider that this and the preceding psalm formed originally but one. So the similarity of Psa_42:5, 11 and Psa_43:5 would suggest. There is a variation between some of the expressions in the former and those in the latter; but there is nothing in this psalm which needs elaborate explanation. There is, however, an expression in both of them, which contains in itself a doctrine of amazing depth, one of which thousands of living believers are perpetual illustrations and proofs, though, as a doctrine, it receives far too little notice. The doctrine is connected with the religion of the face, and is this that when Divine light shines in the soul of man, it will cause a radiance all its own to beam from the countenance; that God is indeed the salvation of a man"s features. An Irishman was once asked what made him look so happy after his conversion. "Oh," he said, "Christ lightens our hearts, and then he brightens our face." As Dickson quaintly remarks hereon, "As when the Lord withdraweth both the outward tokens of his favour and his inward consolation for a time, the countenance of the godly cannot but be heavy, cast down, and look sad, like a man that is sick; so when God returneth to comfort and to own his own, either both inwardly and outwardly, or inwardly only, the man"s face looketh cheerful: he is the health of my countenance. " The Rev. Joseph Cook, of Boston, U.S., in a remarkable lecture on Solar Self-Culture, says, "There is only one form of culture that gives supremacy, and that is the form which produces the solar look; and the solar look comes only from the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. It may be incontrovertibly proved, by the coolest induction from fixed natural law, that the highest culture must be that through which the solar look shines, and that this look is possible only when there exists in the soul glad self-surrender to the innermost holiest of Conscience. In that innermost holiest Christianity finds a personal Omnipotence." We are all familiar enough, indeed, with the generally admitted fact that the face is an index of character, but the truths underlying that fact demand from us closer attention than is sometimes given thereto.
I IT IS AN ORDINANCE OF GOD, THAT IN A WAY EITHER OF MERCY OR OF JUDGMENT, THE FACE SHOULD BE THE INDEX OF THE SOUL. When Moses had been on the mount, communing with God, his face shone. When Hannah had laid her burden before God, her countenance was no more sad. When Stephen was before the council, in the midst of hostile, angry men, his face was as the face of an angel. The late devout Samuel Martin, of Westminster, had a face so radiant through fellowship with God, that when a friend had called on him with Dean Stanley, the dean remarked afterwards, "I am glad you took me to call there; I have seen the face of an angel." The truth that communion with God lights up the face is recognized by Dante, who, speaking of Beatrice, says"...with such gladness, that God"s love Seem"d from her visage shining. (Carey"s Dante, p. 497: H. G. Bohn)
To work out this thought on its darker side would be as terrible as on its brighter side it is enchanting. How are some faces that once bid fair to be beautiful, spoilt by the deeply graven lines of vice and crime! Our present theme puts before us, however, the brighter side, and it is one on which we may well love to linger. For note further
II THAT THE DEVOUT SOUL LOVES TO COMMUNE WITH GOD. The whole of Psalm 42 and Ps 43, shows us this. And the experience of believers is perpetually verifying this, in prayer there is an upward look of the whole being. "Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul;" "Our eyes wait upon the Lord our God;" "I will lift up mine eyes to the hills." And in this uplooking of the man there is an entirely different set of mental and spiritual powers and energies at work than when the habit of looking downward or around, or even the habit of not looking at all, is in exercise. The soul is in communion with the best and dearest of Friends, enjoying a luxury of fellowship with which a stranger cannot intermeddle.
III WHEN THE SOUL THUS COMMUNES WITH GOD, GOD SENDS HIS GIFTS DOWN INTO THE SOUL. God reveals himself within, and makes us full of joy with his countenance; and in revealing himself he brings with him purity, peace, and power; and when such privilege is realized, the outer discomforts of life are forgotten in a joy unspeakable and full of glory. The temptations of the evil one cease to have power when God is near; the heaviest toil can be undertaken, and the weightiest cross be carried with cheerfulness and even with song; and since by the law of association we grow like those we love most, we, beholding the glory of the Lord, shall be changed into the same image, from glory to glory!
IV THE EFFECT OF ALL THIS WILL BE THE SALVATION OF THE FACE. Such is the remarkable expression in Psa_43:5; it is translated, "the health of my countenance;" literally it is, "the salvation of my face." Even so Christ is is now the Saviour of the body, and in the emancipation of the spirit from sin he is redeeming the face from ignoble marks and traits. How often have we known a man"s face marvellously changed at his conversion, not by evolution, but by regeneration. "He doesn"t look like the same man!" is an exclamation often heard. A well-known minister was converted while preaching. Such a radiance instantly shone into his face, that an enthusiastic Methodist jumped up and exclaimed, "The parson"s converted! The parson"s converted!" A brave Scotch soldier, whose countenance rarely wore a smile, and from whose lips never a word was heard as to his personal religion, suddenly beheld the glory of the words, "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out;" and as suddenly radiance gleamed from his face, the padlock fell off his lips, and he exclaimed, "rye Christ by the hand! I"ve Christ by the hand!" And in his second volume the Rev. J. G. Paten, writing of a convert from heathenism, says, "His once sullen countenance became literally bright with inner light" (p. 217). See also "Leaves from my Note-book," by Rev. Wm. Haslam (1890), p. 99. All the spiritual gifts which God bestows joy, peace, purity, strength will find corresponding expression in the lines and features of the countenance, giving demonstrative evidence of the present power of Divine grace even over the body, and yielding no dim prophetic forecast of the day when Christ shall alter the fashion of our bodies of humiliation, and transform them to the fixed type of his body of glory. Hence throughout the Book of Revelation, the purity of the blessed is indicated by their being robed in white, i.e. not the whiteness of snow, but the brightness of the star. If even here, with such partial sanctification, the bodily change is so great, what will it be when the purifying and glorifying processes are complete when every soul will be full of love, and every" face will be a perfect index of the soul? How beautiful must faces be when perfect love is reflected therefrom!
V THE SUBJECT IS NOT ONLY ONE OF GREAT DOCTRINAL INTEREST; IT IS ALSO FRAUGHT WITH DEEP PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE.
1. Let us cultivate the habit of observation, and make a religious study of the human face. The holiest men will never be mistaken for hardened atheists:
2. Let us each seek to realize the duty of letting the face speak for God. And it will, if we are constantly in talk with God. His peace, his purity, his power, imparted to the soul within, will certainly make their mark without.
3. Let the young take care of their faces. God made them to be beautiful, not with that beauty which is no deeper than the skin, but with the "beauty of holiness." Be true. Love and follow the right. Live to please God. In all your troubles speak to God. And your face wilt show the result; for God will be the "health of" your "countenance." Amen. C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-5. Strengthening the heart in God.
What Jonathan did for David when he went to him into the wood of Ziph, David does here for himself he strengthens his heart in God. (1Sa_23:16) "Hope in God." We learn here that
I HOPE IS BASED ON GOD"S REVELATION OF HIMSELF. We only know God as he is pleased to make himself known to us. In his works and in his Word we find the same character. The lesson comes to us from all sides that God is true, and that his laws should be trusted. Therefore we feel safe in putting ourselves in line with his will; in wholly surrendering ourselves to his guidance and keeping. Whatever may have been dark or dim in ancient days is now made clear in Christ. He hath revealed the Father. Therefore we say to our heart, "Hope in God.
II HOPE IS CHARACTERISTIC OF THE RIGHTEOUS. We cannot hope in God till we are reconciled to God. Hope is not a chance thing, but born of faith. We cannot hope in God but as we are of the same mind with God. Hope is not an easy thing, but requires the putting forth of our own strength and will. "Like the highest forms of courage, it is a refusal to be borne down and cowed and depressed by evil a refusal to indulge in the melancholy pleasure of looking and dwelling on the dark side of things." This is an achievement possible only to the righteous, who not only have faith in God, but are able to enlist imagination in aid of faith. (Joe_3:16 1Pe_1:21)
III HOPE IN GOD IS ESSENTIAL TO THE RIGHT DISCIPLINE OF LIFE. All kinds of trials come to us. There are troubles without and fears within. There are mistakes we cannot correct, losses we cannot repair, evils to ourselves and others sore to see, but sorer still because they cannot be remedied. Enemies rise up against us (ver. 1). Our hearts are ready to fail for fear, and "for looking after those things which are coming." What are we to do? Shall we give way to despondency, and cry, like Jacob, "All these things are against me"? or shall we let Hope have her perfect work in calming and sustaining our souls? The answer is clear, "Hope in God." Thus we gain strength (ver. 2); thus we secure guidance. God"s good angels of "light" and "truth" will lead us in the right way (ver. 3). Thus our path will be onward and upward, nearer to the serene heights and the pure air of heaven, where all is peace and love (ver. 4).
IV HOPE IN GOD IS A SURE PROPHET OF THE GOOD TIME COMING. Every hope is in a sense a prophecy. But often the prophecy is false. Bright gleams the vision in the distance, but nearer approach and closer scrutiny prove that it is a delusion and a snare. It is like the mirage, which leaves the desert all the barer and the gloomier when it fades into the light of common day. But it is otherwise with the Christian"s hope. It is real. It stands inquiry. It verifies itself by the moral effects which it produces. All the future, onward into the vast eternal spaces, is covered by it; and to come. "Christ in us the Hope of glory!" "Thus living, eternal life is begun in our hearts; thus and thus only, under the teaching and moulding of the Divine Regenerator of our nature, does the heavenly life in time anticipate and herald and prepare for, and, blending with it, at last is lost in, the life of heaven for eternity" (Archer Butler). W.F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv1–5Subject. On account of the similarity of the structure…
Subject. On account of the similarity of the structure of this Psalm to that of Psalm forty-two, it has been supposed to be a fragment wrongly separated from the preceding song; but it is always dangerous to allow these theories of error in Holy Scripture, and in this instance it would be very difficult to show just cause for such an admission. Why should the Psalm have been broken? Its similarity would have secured its unity had it ever been part and parcel of the forty-second. Is it not far more likely that some in their fancied wisdom united them wrongly in the few MSS in which they are found as one? We believe the fact is that the style of the poetry was pleasant to the writer, and therefore in after life he wrote this supplemental hymn after the same manner. As an appendix it needed no title. David complains of his enemies, and asks the privilege of communion with God as his surest deliverance from them.
Division. The psalmist cried to God in prayer, Ps 43:1-3. Promises praise in the anticipation of an answer, Ps 43:4, and chides himself for his despondency, Ps 43:5.
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Ver. 1. Judge me, O God. Others are unable to understand my motives, and unwilling to give me a just verdict. My heart is clear as to intent and therefore I bring my case before thee, content that thou wilt impartially weigh my character, and right my wrongs. If thou wilt judge, thy acceptance of my conduct will be enough for me; I can laugh at human misrepresentation if my conscience knows that thou art on my side; thou art the only one I care for; and besides, thy verdict will not sleep, but thou wilt see practical justice done to thy slandered servant. And plead my cause against an ungodly nation. One such advocate as the Lord will more than suffice to answer a nation of brawling accusers. When people are ungodly, no wonder that they are unjust; those who are not true to God himself cannot be expected to deal rightly with his people. Hating the King they will not love his subjects. Popular opinion weighs with many, but divine opinion is far more weighty with the gracious few. One good word from God outweighs ten thousand railing speeches of men. He bears a brazen shield before him whose reliance in all things is upon his God; the arrows of calumny fall harmlessly from such a buckler. O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. Deceit and injustice are boon companions: he who fawns will not fear to slander. From two such devils none can deliver us but God. His wisdom can outwit the craft of the vilest serpent, and his power can over match the most raging lion. Whether this was Doeg or Ahithophel is small matter, such double distilled villains are plentiful, and the only way of dealing with them is to refer the matter to the righteous Judge of all; if we try to fight them with their own weapons, we shall suffer more serious injury from ourselves than from them. O child of God, leave these thine enemies in better hands, remembering that vengeance belongeth not to thee, but to thy Lord. Turn to him in prayer, crying, "O deliver me, "and ere long you shall publish abroad the remembrance of his salvation.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm is evidently a continuation or supplement to the preceding. In some MSS of Kenicott and de Rossi's, they are united, and make one Psalm. George Phillips, B.D.
Ver. 1. Judge me, O God, and plead my cause, etc. Believers may appeal to God's justice, and plead God's righteousness.
1. Touching suffering wrongs of men.
2. Touching sin in relation to God's wrath.
1. Touching suffering wrongs of men, believers may appeal upon these three grounds:
1. The injustice that men do to believers, is as well against God's just nature, as against the believers' ease. So their appeals to God are agreeable to God's enmity against injustice; therefore, his enmity concurs with their appeals. Ro 1:18.
2. Justice in men is according to God's nature, as well as for the believer's welfare, and, therefore, the disposition and inclination of God's nature concurs with their prayers for deliverance. Ps 11:7 Lu 23:6-7.
3. Such wrong God who do wrong his people 2Ch 15:11 Zec 2:8 Ac 9:4-5; so that in deliverance God vindicates himself as well as the believers.
2. Touching sin in relation to God's wrath, a true believer may plead God's justice or righteousness on these three grounds:
1. Christ our Advocate or Attorney so pleads. Joh 17:24, etc. Now, the client may plead the same as the advocate, seeing it is in relation to the same party and the same issue.
2. Christ hath satisfied God's justice, so that on Christ was laid all the sins of all believers. He was "wounded" for them. Now, God cannot in justice punish twice; therefore, seeing Christ was wounded, believers must be healed. Isa 53:1-12.
3. Believers have God's righteousness imputed to them 2Co 5:1-21; therefore, God must deal with believers as he will deal with his own righteousness.
Useful is this doctrine two ways.
1. For terror to the enemies of believers. How many prevailing cries to the justice of God are against such enemies?
1. Their own sins cry.
2. Believers injuries cry.
3. Believer's prayers cry.
4. Christ's intercession cries over against their prayers and desires Re 6:9, compared with Re 8:3.
2. The second use is for comfort to believers, that as God's mercy is for them, so his justice to deliver them, not only from men, but from sin; and in and through Christ they may humbly plead justice as against sinners, so against sin; not only against the guilt but against the power, that seeing Christ died, sin should not live. Condensed from Nathanael Homes, 1652.
Ver. 1. Ungodly...deceitful...unjust. There are ungodly men who, being destitute of religious principle, will not scruple to injure us, when they can thereby gratify their passions or advance their worldly interests. There are deceitful men who will put on the garb of friendship, and acquire our confidence and esteem, and then treacherously cheat us out of our property, or our reputation, or our peace. There are unjust men, who by fraud or by violence, would rob us of our dearest rights and most valuable possessions, and not only reduce our powers and opportunities of doing good, but even diminish our means of comfortable subsistence. And there are oppressors, who taking advantage of our weakness or dependence, and trampling alike on the maxims of equity and humanity, may exact from us unreasonable services, impose upon us heavy burdens and cruel restraints, and ply us with insults, and harassments, and deprivations, from which we can make no escape, and for which we can find no redress. Andrew Thomson, D.D., in "Lectures on Portions of the Psalms." 1826.
Ver. 1. We apply to God
1. As our Judge:Judge me.
2. As our Advocate:Plead my cause.
3. As our Deliverer:O deliver me.
Ver. 1. Popular opinion outweighed by divine approbation.
Ver. 1. How the Lord pleads the cause of his people.
Ver. 1. Deceit and injustice twin vipers; their origin, their character, their folly, their end.
Ver. 1-2,4-5. Five mys:
1. My cause"plead it."
2. My strength"thou art."
3. My joyGod is.
4. My soul"why disquieted."
5. My God.
"Soul cordials against Sore Discomforts: in a Commentary or Explanations and Applications of the whole Forty-third Psalm, " pp. 312-562 of "The Works of Dr. Nathanael Homes, "1652 (folio).
In "Sabbaths at Home." by HENRY MARCH, there is an exposition of this Psalm. See "Treasury of David, "Vol. II, Page 323.
Psalms 43:2*
Ver. 1-2,4-5. Five mys:
1. My cause"plead it."
2. My strength"thou art."
3. My joyGod is.
4. My soul"why disquieted."
5. My God.
Ver. 1-2,4-5. Five mys:
1. My cause"plead it."
2. My strength"thou art."
3. My joyGod is.
4. My soul"why disquieted."
5. My God.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv1–5Judge me, O God, and plead my cause.
Psa_43:1-5
Judge me, O God, and plead my cause.
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The souls double appeal
I. An appeal to God.
1. For Divine vindication.
2. For Divine deliverance.
3. For Divine information.
4. For Divine guidance.
II. An appeal to self. He was conscious of--
1. The personality of his soul.
2. The sorrow of his soul.
3. The interests of his son! (Homilist.)
In exile
I. The exiles prayer.
1. For judgment against the accusations of an ungodly nation. Nothing uncommon for the Christian to be the target of wrong charges.
2. For deliverance from the deceitful and unjust man.
3. For light and truth to lead him back to Zion.
II. The exiles promise.
1. To go to the altar, i.e. for sacrifice, consecration, worship.
2. To seize the harp for thanksgiving and praise.
Religious services should be gladsome; those in the home as well as those in the sanctuary. Our hearts too often like muffled drums beating funeral marches, rather than like well-tuned harps sending forth strains of sweetest harmony and gladdest adoration, etc.
III. The exiles soliloquy.
1. A question.
2. A response.
Cast down!--Hope. Disquieted!--Praise. Praise Him who is the health, the beauty, the ruddy glow, the youth, of thy countenance, and thy God. (J. O. Keen, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v1This psalm was composed by the same author as…
INTRODUCTION
This psalm was composed by the same author as the preceding one, and has reference to the same occasion. It is fitted to impart help and encouragement to the afflicted and desponding in their troubles. The pious spirit of the author is clearly seen in the psalm.
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DEVOUT LONGINGS
The poet pours out his heart to God in petitions, expostulations, and promises; but the prevailing tone of the psalm is that of intense desire. He longs
I. For vindication and deliverance. “Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; O deliver me” (Psa_43:1-2). Notice—
1. The character of his enemies. “An ungodly nation, … the deceitful and unjust man.” The word which is translated “ungodly” is in the margin more correctly rendered “unmerciful.” Hengstenberg renders it “unloving.” It is a word which may most fitly be applied to the conduct of the Jewish nation at the time of the rebellion of Absalom, to which time the psalm most probably refers. In the conduct of an immense number of the people towards David, there was no love, no mercy; but base ingratitude, injustice, and cruelty. “The deceitful and unjust man” may have been said of many at the time to which we suppose the psalm to refer, and pre-eminently of Absalom and Ahithophel (Comp. 2 Samuel 15; 2 Samuel 16; 2 Samuel 17.) The Psalmist was contending against men who were cruel, treacherous, and unjust.
2. The dejection of his spirit. “Why dost Thou cast me off? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” The entire tone of the psalm forbids us to think that David felt himself rejected of God. But his circumstances at the time seemed inconsistent with the guardianship of God; and he, therefore, appeals to Him on the matter. See notes on Psa_42:9.
3. The nature of his petition. “Judge me, O God, and plead my cause.” The enemies of the poet were many and virulent. They persecuted him and reproached him as a man forsaken by God. And here he appeals to God for vindication. He could honestly and fearlessly appeal to the Lord to judge between him and his enemies. He had given no occasion to them for the treatment he received from them. And if God grant him deliverance from them, that will be an unmistakable evidence of the Divine judgment, a clear vindication of the persecuted and much-suffering poet. So he prays that God would interpose and deliver him and thus vindicate him. For this he longs.
4. The strength of his plea. “For Thou art the God of my strength.” Hengstenberg: “For Thou art my guardian-God.” The Psalmist pleads that he was looking to God for strength and protection; that he was trusting in the Lord. This plea is never urged sincerely and earnestly but what it avails with God.
II. For restoration to the tabernacle of God. “O send out Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me,” &c. (Psa_43:3-4). Notice—
1. He longs chiefly for restoration to the tabernacle of God. His great desire is to be brought again unto God’s “holy hill and tabernacles.” “The centre of all the Psalmist” wishes is his return to the sanctuary, because the exclusion from that was, of all the marks of the Divine displeasure under which he suffered, the most palpable. In his return to the sanctuary, he would find a matter-of-fact justification, a pledge of the return of God’s grace.—Hengstenberg. “His heart is set,” says Matthew Henry, “upon the holy hill and the tabernacles, not upon his family comforts, his court preferments, or his diversions; he could bear the want of these, but he is impatient to see God’s tabernacles again; nothing so amiable in his eyes as those,—thither he would gladly be brought back.”
2. He looks for the realisation of his longings through the favour and faithfulness of God. “O send out Thy light and Thy truth.” God’s light here is equivalent to His favour or mercy, and His truth to His faithfulness. And the Psalmist prays that through these he may be led back to the enjoyment of the privileges and blessings from which he was at present so cruelly exiled. Blessed is that man who, like David, sets his hope firmly in the favour and faithfulness of God. His hope shall attain unto splendid fruition.
3. He promises to avail himself of the opportunities of worship when he is restored to the tabernacles of God. “Then will I go unto the altar of God,” &c. He will worship
(1) With sacrifice. “I will go unto the altar of God,” with sacrifices for sin and offerings of gratitude.
(2) With delight. “Unto God my exceeding joy.” (See the sketch on this verse.)
(3) With praise. “Yea, upon the harp will I praise Thee, O God, my God.” Instrumental music was largely used by the Hebrews in their worship. “David excelled at the harp (1Sa_16:16-18), and with that in which he excelled he would praise God; for God is to be praised with the best we have; it is fit He should be, for He is the best.”—M. Henry.
4. He encourages his soul to expect the realisation of his longings. “Why art Thou cast down, O my soul?” &c. (Psa_43:5). (See homiletic sketch on Psa_43:5, and notes on Psa_43:5 and Psa_42:11 of the preceding psalm.)
CONCLUSION.—In this psalm the poet appears to us as a glorious example of a man whose hope is steadily fixed in God. Heroic was he in his trust in the Lord. In the first verse, we see him calmly trusting in the righteous judgment of God; in the second, he rests in God as his strength; in the third, he looks expectantly to God for restoration to his dearest privileges; in the fourth, he resolves to adore Him as his exceeding joy and his most treasured possession; in the fifth, he exults in confident anticipation of the enjoyment of all that he most deeply longed for; and all this at a time when circumstances seemed all against him, and when to the eye of sense his prospects were of the darkest. Brave, trustful poet, we cannot but admire thee! Let us also imitate him in this respect.
THE ALTAR OF GOD
(Psa_43:4.)
“Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.”
The text opens to us two important views.
I. The peculiar nature of that worship which God has authorised. It is going to the altar of our God. By the altar only can God be approached. Behold, then, the true character of acceptable worship.
1. There is in it a recognition of our sin. There was no altar in Paradise. When John beheld a vision of heaven, he “saw no temple therein.” But in the present state, in approaching God, we go to His altar. The sacrifice of Christ is made particularly prominent in the Christian scheme to remind us that we are sinful men, and cannot draw near to God in our own name.
2. An acknowledgment of our just liability to punishment. Worship is not a claim of right, but a plea for mercy. Sentence of death is denounced against every transgressor of the law of God, and in such a prayer as that of the publican its justice is acknowledged. The ancient offerer of sacrifice acknowledged this, and we do the same when we flee to Christ’s atonement.
3. The true worship of God recognises Him as propitious through an atonement appointed by Himself. It was not an altar of human device to which the Psalmist resolved to go, but to the altar of his God. The cross is “the altar of God,” His Son is the victim; the precious blood of Christ is the accepted atonement; and coming to Him in faith, our sin is purged and our persons are accepted.
4. Our worship being an approach to the altar of God, we are assured of constant access to Him. The priests had their courses, that there might be no intermission in the service. The fire of the altar was never extinct. The altar was always there to receive the sacrifice, and the altar of incense was an emblem of the acceptance of perpetual prayer. The sacrifice of Christ needs never to be repeated. It was offered “once for all,” for “by one offering He hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified.” Our High Priest never dies, but “hath obtained an unchangeable priesthood.” Access to the throne of grace is ever given, and our prayers are always accepted.
II. The emphatic description which is given us of the joy which results from it. “To God my exceeding joy.” “Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest,” &c. “How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!”
Contemplate the sources of this joy, that you may aspire after it.
1. We are placed in the presence of a Being of infinite glory and perfection. The joy in question supposes reconciliation with God, and when that is effected all our intercourse with Him may be adoring gratitude. We cannot approach the sublime of nature, we cannot be brought into the presence of an elevated character, without a deeply interested and joyous impression; but here God reveals Himself to man. Infinite beauty, glory, purity, and perfection says, “Come up to me in the holy mount;” and in answer to our prayer, “I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory,” He makes all His goodness pass before us. David anticipated this joy (Psa_63:1-2).
2. True worship enables us to appropriate this display of glory to ourselves. There is an inexpressible emphasis in the words “My God.” All His glory is ours. Is He the everlasting God? Then, because He lives, I shall live also. Is His fulness infinite? Then my supplies are secure. “All my springs are in Thee.” Is He omnipotent? Then, “if God be for us, who can be against us?” And whatever other perfections He has are mine. Mine is His wisdom, His mercy, and His love.
3. It is the joy of confidence. The very reason why we seek God is the want of confidence in everything beside, and in Him we may confide absolutely. God in Christ assures us of this. The philosopher tells me to span the heavens. I am an atom, a nothing. I look upon God incarnate, and all my chilling calculations fly. I am not unnoticed among His works. He came to this world, minify it as you may, to seek and to save that which was lost. When I go “to the altar of my God,” I see that He is love. He that so loved me can never be indifferent to me, and can never forget me.
4. The joy of renewed assurances of His favour to us. Doubts and fears may oppress and chill, till we steadfastly behold His beauty in the sanctuary, and by renewed acts of faith obtain richer manifestations of His love, when our peace flows like a river. Comp. Psa_73:16-17; Psa_73:28.
5. There is the joy of hope. The tabernacle was an emblem of heaven.—Richard Watson, abridged.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible1900 · Public DomainOn v1The forty-second and forty-third Psalms give us an insight…
Psa 43:3
The forty-second and forty-third Psalms give us an insight into the very heart of the Psalmist. David there appears as the man whose affections were set upon God, and who in all the changes, and chances, and dangers of a chequered life looked upward, aspired for closer communion with God; and it is for this that he is our teacher and our example.
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I. We need to have this teaching and this example in this life of weary toil. We need to have our spirits lifted up, not to be always earthward bound, but raised, elevated, borne up to the contemplation of higher things, higher and also more lasting. That is one great corrective of worldliness, one great protection for our soul, amid the temptations, pursuits, business, and pleasures of this present world—to look upward.
II. Observe how entirely Christian the prayer is, for what is it we here ask of God? We ask for His light and for His truth. What is this but to ask for Christ to dwell in our hearts? When we pray for God’s light and God’s truth to lead us, we pray that Jesus Christ may dwell in us, and work in us, and rule in us, to the sanctifying and saving of our soul.
III. The dwelling of God, where is it? In the highest heaven. Even those words are inadequate to convey a just idea of His habitation. "Behold, the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him." God is present in all places, at all times, but is present according to His true promise wheresoever two or three are gathered together in His name.
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 3rd series, p. 158.
Reference: Psa 43:3, Psa 43:4.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, pp. 108, 120.
Psa 43:4
I. The text pronounces one good word—joy. "The joy of the Lord is strength." The cheerful spirit is the healthful and the dutiful spirit. I do not mean the spirit of animal jollity, nor the merriment of indifference, but that subdued, cheerful spirit which fronts its duties.
II. He pronounces with greater emphasis the word "God." For God alone is exceeding joy. Sensuality cloys, but never satisfies; ambition is disturbed and dissatisfied; refined intelligence and taste leave something unknown, and cloud joy by debate and doubt. "All things are full of labour." God alone is surpassing joy. (1) Joy undisturbed by any fear of coming to an end, for that is the spectre at the feast—the end. (2) If calamity and reproach blast our good name with men, and we are exposed to shame and ignominy, God is exceeding joy; He is not imposed upon by misrepresentation; we have His approbation.
III. The text leads to an important discrimination between thinking about God and enjoying Him. Some have God only in idea, in fancy, in opinion; some have God only in the perception of law; but the living God is essential life, and being essential life, is essential joy.
IV. Here breaks in the appropriating power for which the Psalms are so remarkable. There is a spreading out of the hands to the Infinite—"O God." There is a closing of the hands upon the heart—"my God." There is no joy unless God is appropriated.
V. Exceeding joy. Yet once more. This is the quality of it. This can be said of no other joy; all other beauties have their boundaries; all other glories have their glooms. Watch then your best joys, that they do not leave you, treasure your joys, and strive for the "meetness of the inheritance of the saints in light;" part with all that you have for that pearl and that field.
E. Paxton Hood, Dark Sayings on a Harp, p. 101.
References: Psa 43:4.—J. P. Gledstone, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 364; H. Scott Holland, Logic and Life, p. 99. Psa 43:5.—H. P. Liddon, Old Testament Outlines, p. 111. Psa 43:1-3.—R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons in Country Churches, 2nd series, p. 69. Psa 44:1.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 263; R. W. Dale, Evangelical Revival, p. 2; H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 113, and Old Testament Outlines, p. 113; J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons, No. 90; Parker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiii., p. 216, and Fountain, June 16th, 1881. Psa 45:1, Psa 45:2.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xi., p. 331.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant1903 · Public DomainOn v1Deliverance sought from Antichrist and his adherents.
Deliverance sought from Antichrist and his adherents.
The forty-third psalm goes back to Jerusalem and the state of things there. In the former one; the "enemy" seems naturally to be rather the outside foe, the Gentile. In the present, it is the ungodly nation and the man of deceit and iniquity; with whom they are identifying themselves; -that is; Antichrist. He is "the liar," as the apostle John says, who denying altogether the Father and the Son, -that is, the Christian revelation, -denies also, as to the Jewish, not that there is a Christ (a Messiah), but "that Jesus is the Christ" (1Jn 2:22). Thus the psalmist now prays, "Send out Thy light and truth" and "they shall lead me; they shall bring me to Thy holy hill and to Thy tabernacles." Gloriously will these be indeed displayed when the true Christ shall be revealed from heaven, and with the breath of His lips destroy the wicked one. Deliverance will then have come for the godly ones among the people, as in a moment; Israel’s holy places be restored, and their worship be resumed, never again to know interruption.
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As to the rest of the psalm, it is largely a repetition of the previous one; and in these outline-notes we need hardly dwell upon it.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn v5
Psalms
THE PSALMIST’S REMONSTRANCE WITH HIS SOUL
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Psa 43:5.
This verse, which closes this psalm, occurs twice in the previous one. It is a kind of refrain. Obviously this little psalm, of which my text is a part, was originally united with the preceding one. That the two made one is clear to anybody that will read them, by reason of structure, and tone, and similarity of the singer’s situation, and the recurrence of many phrases, and especially of these significant words of my text.
The Psalmist is in circumstances of trouble and sorrow. We need not enter upon them particularly, but the thing that I desire to point out is that three times does the Psalmist take himself to task and question himself as to the reasonableness of the emotions that are surging in his soul, and checks these by higher considerations. Thrice he does it; twice in vain, for the trouble and anxiety come rolling back upon him in spite of the moment’s respite, but the third time he triumphs.
I. We note, then, first, that moods and emotions should be examined and governed by a higher self.
In the Psalmist’s case, his gloom and despondency, which could plead good reasons for their existence, had everything their own way at first, and swept over his soul like the first rush of waters which have burst their bounds. But, presently, the ruling part of his nature wakes, and brings the feebler lower soul to its tribunal, and says, in effect, ‘Now! now that I am here, what hast thou to say about these sorrows that thou hast been complaining about? Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted? . . . Hope in God!’
I shall have a word or two to say presently about the details of this remonstrance, but the main point that I make, to begin with, is just this, that however strong and reasonably occasioned by circumstances a man’s emotions and feelings, either of the bright or the dark kind, may be, they are not to be indulged, unless they have passed muster and examination by that higher and better self. It is necessary to keep a very tight hand upon all our feelings, whether they be the natural desires of the sensuous part of our nature, or whether they be the sentiments of sadness, or doubt, or anxiety, or perplexity, which are the natural results of outward circumstances of trial; or whether, on the contrary, they be the bright and buoyant ones which come, like angels, along with prosperous hours. But that necessity, commonplace as it is of all morals and all religion, is yet a thing which, day by day, we so forget that we need to be ever and anon reminded of it.
There are hosts of people who, making profession of being Christians, do not habitually put the brake on their moods and tempers, and who seem to think that it is a sufficient vindication of gloom and sadness to say that things are going badly with them in the outer world, and who act as if they supposed that no joy can be too exuberant and no elation too lofty if, on the other hand, things are going rightly. It is a miserable travesty of the Christian faith to suppose that its prime purpose is anything else than to put into our hands the power of ruling ourselves because we let Christ rule us.
And so, dear brethren! though it be the A B C of Christian teaching, suffer this word of exhortation. It is only ‘milk for babes,’ but it is milk that the babes are very unwilling to take. Learn from this verse before us the solemn duty of rigid control, by the higher self, of the tremulous, emotional lower self which responds so completely to every change of temperature or circumstances in the world without. And remember that there should be a central heat which keeps the temperature substantially the same, whatever be the weather outside. As the wheel-house, and the steering gear, and the rudder of the ship proclaim their purpose of guidance and direction, so eloquently and unmistakably does the make of our inward selves tell us that emotions and moods and tempers are meant to be governed, often to be crushed, always to be moderated, by sovereign will and reason. In the Psalmist’s language, ‘My soul’ has to give account of its tremors and flutterings to ‘Me,’ the ruling Self, who should be Lord of temperament, and control the fluctuations of feeling.
II. Note that there are two ways of looking at causes of dejection and disquiet.
The whole preceding parts of both the psalms, before this refrain, are an answer to the question which my text puts. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ ‘My soul’ has been talking two whole psalms, to explain why it is cast down. And after all the eloquent torrent of words to vindicate and explain its reasons for sadness-separation from the sanctuary, bitter remembrances of bright days, which the poet tells us are ‘a sorrow’s crown of sorrow,’ taunts of enemies and the like-after all these have been said over and over again, the Psalmist says to himself: ‘Come now, let us hear it all once more. Why art thou cast down? Why art thou disquieted within me? Thou hast been telling the reasons abundantly. Speak them once again, and let us have a look at them.’
There is a court of appeal in each man, which tests and tries his reasons for his moods; and these, which look very sufficient to the flesh, turn out to be very insufficient when investigated and tested by the higher spirit or self. We should ‘appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober.’ And if a man will be honest with himself, and tell himself why he is in such a pucker of terror, or why he is in such a rapture of joy, nine times out of ten the attempt to tell the reasons will be the condemnation of the mood which they are supposed to justify. If men would only bring the causes or occasions of the tempers and feelings which they allow to direct them, to the bar of common sense, to say nothing of religious faith, half the furious boilings in their hearts would stop their ebullition. It would be like pouring cold water into a kettle on the fire. It would end its bubbling. Everything has two handles. The aspect of any event depends largely on the beholder’s point of view. ‘There’s nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.’ ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?’ The answer is often very hard to give; the question is always very salutary to ask.
III. Note that no reasons for being cast down are so strong as those for elation and calm hope.
‘Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance and my God.’ I need not deal here with the fact that the first of the three occurrences of this refrain is, in our Bible, a little different from the other two. That is probably a mistake in the text. In all three cases the words ought to stand the same.
Try to realise what God is to yourselves-’My God’ and ‘the health of my countenance.’ That will stimulate sluggish feeling; that will calm disturbed emotion. He that can say ‘My God!’ and in that possession can repose, will not be easily moved, by the trivialities and transitorinesses of this life, to excessive disquiet, whether of the exuberant or of the woful sort. There is a wonderful calming power in realising our possession of God as our portion-not stagnating, but quieting. I am quite sure that the troubles of our lives, and the gladnesses of our lives, which often distract, would be far less operative in disturbing, if we felt more that God was ours and that we were God’s.
Brethren! ‘there is no joy but calm.’ To be at rest is better than rapture. And there is no way of getting and keeping a fixed temper of still tranquillity unless we go into that deep and hidden chamber, in the secret place of the Most High, where we cannot ‘hear the loud winds when they call,’ but dwell in security, whatever storms harass the land. ‘Why art thou cast down,’ or lifted ‘up,’ and, in either case, ‘disquieted’? ‘Hope in God,’ and be at rest.
IV. Note that the effort to lay hold on the truth which calms is to be repeated in spite of failures.
The words of our text are thrice repeated in these two psalms. In the two former instances they are followed by a fresh burst of pained feeling. A moment of tranquillity interrupts the agitation of the Psalmist’s soul, but is soon followed by the recurrence of ‘the horrible storm’ that ‘begins afresh.’ A tiny island of blue appears in his sky, and then the pale, ugly, grey rack drives across it once more. But the guiding self keeps the hand firm on the tiller, notwithstanding the wash of the water and the rolling of the ship, and the dominant will conquers at last, and at the third time the yielding soul obeys and is quiet, because the Psalmist’s will resolved that it should be quiet, and it hopes in God because He, by a dead lift of effort, lifts it up to hope.
No effort at tranquillising our hearts is wholly lost; and no attempt to lay hold upon God is wholly in vain. Men build a dam to keep out the sea, and the winter storms make a breach in it, but it is not washed away altogether, and next season they will not need to begin to build from quite so low down; but there will be a bit of the former left, to put the new structure upon, and so by degrees it will rise above the tide, and at last will keep it out.
Did you ever see a child upon a swing, or a gymnast upon a trapeze? Each oscillation goes a little higher; each starts from the same lowest point, but the elevation on either side increases with each renewed effort, until at last the destined height is reached and the daring athlete leaps on to a solid platform. So we may, if I might say so, by degrees, by reiterated efforts, swing ourselves up to that steadfast floor on which we may stand high above all that breeds agitation and gloom. It is possible, in the midst of change and circumstances that excite sad emotions, anxieties, and fears-it is possible to have this calmness of hope in God. The rainbow that spans the cataract rises steadfast above the white, tortured water beneath, and persists whilst all is hurrying change below, and there are flowers on the grim black rocks by the side of the fall, whose verdure is made greener and whose brightness is made brighter, by the freshening of the spray of the waterfall. So we may be ‘as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing,’ and may bid dejected and disquieted souls to hope in God and be still.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn v11. An ungodly nation] RM 'an unmerciful nation,' a…
1. An ungodly nation] RM 'an unmerciful nation,' a loveless, heathen people.
2. Cp. Psa_42:9.
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3. Thy holy hill] the Temple on Mt. Zion. Thy tabernacles] or dwelling-place.
4. O God my God] instead of 'O Lord my God'—showing that the Ps. is 'Elohistic'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein1922 · Public DomainOn v1Psalm 43
Psalm 43
The Cry Against the Ungodly Nation and Antichrist
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1. The cry to God (Psa 43:1-2)
2. Send out Thy light and truth (Psa 43:3-5)
Here their enemies are mentioned, the ungodly nation, serving the beast (Rev 13:11-18). The deceitful and unjust man, is that coming man of sin, the son of perdition, who then has taken his seat in the temple of God in Jerusalem (2Th 2:1-17). They realize their help must come from the Lord to lead them to the holy hill and the sanctuary. They call for the coming of Him who is “the Light and the Truth.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v1Conclusion of the Preceding Psalm.
Conclusion of the Preceding Psalm.
The psalmist again opens with an appeal, followed by a vow of faithfulness to Jehovah and His worship.
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v. 1. Judge me, O God, vindicating his cause, and plead my cause, as the all-wise advocate against wickedness, against an ungodly nation, a generation of men not in God’s favor. O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man, who is full of falsehood and wickedness, devoid of every idea of right and justice.
v. 2. For Thou art the God of my strength, his Refuge and Stronghold by virtue of his trust in Him; why dost Thou cast me off, turning away from him in scorn, as from something loathsome? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Cf Psa 42:9.
v. 3. O send out Thy light, that of His grace and mercy tending toward the salvation of men, and Thy truth, the faithfulness which keeps His promises without fail; let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, where His Sanctuary had been erected, and to Thy tabernacles, where the Lord dwelled in the midst of His people, letting the light of His essence appear in the revelation of His love in the Messiah, Joh 1:14.
v. 4. Then will I go unto the altar of God, to the place of His worship, unto God, my exceeding Joy, in whom all the highest delights of the believer are personified; yea, upon the harp will I praise Thee, a small zither-like instrument used in divine worship, O God, my God, the emphasis again being placed upon the personal relation of the believer to his God, his highest Good. The believer having reached this point of assurance, he admonishes himself for the third time:
v. 5. Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the Health of my countenance and my God. All believers will guard against coming to their place of worship in a mechanical, dead manner, their hearts rather being united with God in the fellowship of true faith, exulting in Him as their greatest delight.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1, 3, 5General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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the God of my strength
Possible meanings are 1) "the God who protects me" or 2) "the God who gives me strength."
Why have you rejected me? Why do I go about in mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
The writer asks these questions in order to complain to God and express his emotions, not to receive an answer. (See: Rhetorical Question)
Why do I go about in mourning
To "go about in mourning" is to perform customs related to being very sad.
because of the oppression of the enemy
The word "oppression" can be translated as a verb. AT: "because my enemy oppresses me" (See: Abstract Nouns)
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4 1 Judge me, O God! David, in the first…
1 Judge me, O God! David, in the first place, complains of the extreme cruelty of his enemies; but in the verses which immediately follow, he shows that there was nothing which he felt to be more grievous, than to be deprived of the opportunity of access to the sanctuary. We have an evidence of his enjoying the testimony of a good conscience in this, that he commends the defense of his cause to God. The term judge, which he first makes use of, is nothing else than to undertake the defense of one’s cause; and he expresses his meaning more clearly by adding, plead my cause The substance and object of his prayer, indeed, were, that he might be delivered from the wicked and malicious men by whom he was undeservedly persecuted. But as it is to the miserable and guiltless, who are wrongfully afflicted, that God promises his help, David, in the first place, submits himself to be examined by him, that, having discovered and thoroughly proved the rectitude of his cause, he may at length grant him aid. And as it is a most cheering source of consolation for us to find that God disdains not to take cognisance of our cause, so also, it is vain for us to expect that he will avenge the injuries and wrongs which are done to us, unless our own integrity be so manifest as to induce him to be favorable to us against our adversaries. By the unmerciful nation is to be understood the whole company of David’s enemies, who were cruel, and destitute of all the feelings of humanity. What follows, concerning the deceitful and wicked man, might indeed be applied to Saul; but it seems rather to be a form of speech in which, by enallage, the singular number is used for the plural.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5 He desireth God to undertake his cause against the…
He desireth God to undertake his cause against the enemies but chiefly that he would restore him to the Tabernacle.
That is, the cruel company of mine enemies.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–5 Psa 43:1 Judge me, O God, and plead my…
Psa 43:1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
Ver. 1. Judge me, O God] This psalm is, as it were, an epitome or an appendix to the former, and little differing in words or matter.
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Plead my cause] See Psa 35:1.
Against an ungodly nation] Heb. a nation not mild or merciful; so he calleth Absalom’s complices, who sought and would have sucked his blood. Such are a people of God’s wrath and of his curse.
O deliver me, &c.] From Absalom, or Ahithophel, or the whole faction.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4 Judge me; or, judge or give sentence for me,…
Judge me; or, judge or give sentence for me, as this phrase is used, Psa 26:1, and elsewhere.
Ungodly, or unmerciful, i.e. cruel or inhuman; for it is a meiosis. Nation; so he calls the company of his enemies for their great numbers, and because they were the far greatest part, and almost the whole body of the nation.
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Deceitful and unjust; who covereth his wicked designs with fair and false pretences; which sort of men are hateful to thee, and to all good men.
Man; either Saul; or rather, Ahithophel or Absalom. For he speaks of the holy hill of Zion, Psa 43:3, which was not so till after Saul’s time. Or man may be put collectively for the men of that time.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 David here makes application to God, by faith and…
David here makes application to God, by faith and prayer, as his judge, his strength, his guide, his joy, his hope, with suitable affections and expressions.
I. As his Judge, his righteous Judge, who he knew would judge him, and who (being conscious of his own integrity) he knew would judge for him (Psa 43:1): Judge me, O God! and plead my cause. There were those that impeached him; against them he is defendant, and from their courts, where he stood unjustly convicted and condemned, he appeals to the court of heaven, the supreme judicature, praying to have their judgment given against him reversed and his innocency cleared. There were those that had injured him; against them he is plaintiff, and exhibits his complaint to him who is the avenger of wrong, praying for justice for himself and upon them. Observe, 1. Who his enemies were with whom he had this struggle. Here was a sinful body of men, whom he calls an ungodly or unmerciful nation. Those that are unmerciful make it appear that they are ungodly; for, those that have any fear or love of their master will have compassion on their fellow-servants. And here was one bad man the head of them, a deceitful and unjust man, most probably Saul, who not only showed no kindness to David, but dealt most perfidiously and dishonestly with him. If Absalom was the man he meant, his character was no better. As long as there are such bad men out of hell, and nations of them, it is not strange that good men, who are yet out of heaven, meet with hard and base treatment. Some think that David, by the spirit of prophecy, calculated this psalm for the use of the Jews in their captivity in Babylon, and that the Chaldeans are the ungodly nation here meant; to them it was very applicable, but only as other similar scriptures, none of which are of private interpretation. God might design it for their use, whether David did or no. 2. What is his prayer with reference to them: Judge me. As to the quarrel God had with him for sin, he prays, "Enter not into judgment with me, for then I shall be condemned;" but, as to the quarrel his enemies had with him he prays, "Lord, judge me, for I know that I shall be justified; plead my cause against them, take my part, and in thy providence appear on my behalf." He that has an honest cause may expect that God will plead it. "Plead my cause so as to deliver me from them, that they may not have their will against me." We must reckon our cause sufficiently pleaded if we be delivered, though our enemies be not destroyed.
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II. As his strength, his all-sufficient strength; so he eyes God (Psa 43:2): "Thou art the God of my strength, my God, my strength, from whom all my strength is derived, in whom I strengthen myself, who hast often strengthened me, and without whom I am weak as water and utterly unable either to do or suffer any thing for thee." David now went mourning, destitute of spiritual joys, yet he found God to be the God of his strength. If we cannot comfort ourselves in God, we may stay ourselves upon him, and may have spiritual supports when we want spiritual delights. David here pleads this with God: "Thou art the God on whom I depend as my strength; why then dost thou cast me off?" This was a mistake; for God never cast off any that trusted in him, whatever melancholy apprehensions they may have had of their own state. "Thou art the God of my strength; why then is my enemy too strong for me, and why go I mourning because of his oppressive power?" It is hard to reconcile the mighty force of the church's enemies with the almighty power of the church's God; but the day will reconcile them when all his enemies shall become his footstool.
III. As his guide, his faithful guide (Psa 43:3): Lead me, bring me to thy holy hill. He prays, 1. That God by his providence would bring him back from his banishment, and open a way for him again to the free enjoyment of the privileges of God's sanctuary. His heart is upon the holy hill and the tabernacles, not upon his family-comforts, his court-preferments, or his diversions; he could bear the want of these, but he is impatient to see God's tabernacles again; nothing so amiable in his eyes as those; thither he would gladly be brought back. In order to this he prays, "Send out thy light and thy truth; let me have this as a fruit of thy favour, which is light, and the performance of thy promise, which is truth." We need desire no more to make us happy than the good that flows from God's favour and is included in his promise. That mercy, that truth, is enough, is all; and, when we see these in God's providences, we see ourselves under a very safe conduct. Note, Those whom God leads he leads to his holy hill, and to his tabernacles; those therefore who pretend to be led by the Spirit, and yet turn their backs upon instituted ordinances, certainly deceive themselves. 2. That God by his grace would bring him into communion with himself, and prepare him for the vision and fruition of himself in the other world. Some of the Jewish writers by the light and truth here understand Messiah the Prince and Elias his forerunner: these have come, in answer to the prayers of the Old Testament; but we are still to pray for God's light and truth, the Spirit of light and truth, who supplies the want of Christ's bodily presence, to lead us into the mystery of godliness and to guide us in the way to heaven. When God sends his light and truth into our hearts, these will guide us to the upper world in all our devotions as well as in all our aims and expectations; and, if we conscientiously follow that light and that truth, they will certainly bring us to the holy hill above.
IV. As his joy, his exceeding joy. If God guide him to his tabernacles, if he restore him to his former liberties, he knows very well what he has to do: Then will I go unto the altar of God, Psa 43:4. He will get as near as he can unto God, his exceeding joy. Note, 1. Those that come to the tabernacles should come to the altar; those that come to ordinances should qualify themselves to come, and then come to special ordinances, to those that are most affecting and most binding. The nearer we come, the closer we cleave, to God, the better. 2. Those that come to the altar of God must see to it that therein they come unto God, and draw near to him with the heart, with a true heart: we come in vain to holy ordinances if we do not in them come to the holy God. 3. Those that come unto God must come to him as their exceeding joy, not only as their future bliss, but as their present joy, and that not a common, but an exceeding joy, far exceeding all the joys of sense and time. The phrase, in the original, is very emphatic - unto God the gladness of my joy, or of my triumph. Whatever we rejoice or triumph in God must be the joy of it; all our joy in it must terminate in him, and must pass through the gift to the giver. 4. When we come to God as our exceeding joy our comforts in him must be the matter of our praises to him as God, and our God: Upon the harp will I praise thee, O God! my God. David excelled at the harp (Sa1 16:16, Sa1 16:18), and with that in which he excelled he would praise God; for God is to be praised with the best we have; it is fit he should be, for he is the best.
V. As his hope, his never-failing hope, Psa 43:5. Here, as before, David quarrels with himself for his dejections and despondencies, and owns he did ill to yield to them, and that he had no reason to do so: Why art thou cast down, O my soul? He then quiets himself in the believing expectation he had of giving glory to God (Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him) and of enjoying glory with God: He is the health of my countenance and my God. That is what we cannot too much insist upon, for it is what we must live and die by.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–5 Judge me, O God,.... The Targum adds, with the…
Judge me, O God,.... The Targum adds, with the judgment of truth; see Rom 2:2;
and plead my cause; which was a righteous one; and therefore he could commit it to God to be tried and judged by him, and could put it into his hands to plead it for him; See Gill on Psa 35:1;
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against an ungodly nation; meaning either the Philistines, among whom he was; or his own nation, when they joined his son Absalom in rebellion against him: some understand it of the great numbers that were with Saul, when he was persecuted by him;
O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man; either Absalom, who, under pretence of a vow he had vowed in Hebron, got leave of David to go thither, and then engaged in a conspiracy against him; or Ahithophel, who had been his friend and acquaintance, but now joined with Absalom. It is true of Saul, who, under pretence of friendship, sought his ruin, and to whom he expressed himself almost in the same words here used; see Sa1 18:17.
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John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 The psalmist appeals to God, ver. 1, 2. Prays…
The psalmist appeals to God, ver. 1, 2. Prays to be restored to the public ordinances, and trusts in God, ver. 3-5.
Nation - So he calls the company of his enemies for their great numbers. Man - Probably Achitophel or Absalom.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–5 The psalmist begs God to take his part against…
PSALM XLIII
The psalmist begs God to take his part against his enemies,
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1, 2;
to send his light and truth to guide him to the tabernacle, 3;
promises, if brought thither, to be faithful in the Divine
service, 4;
chides himself for despondency, and takes courage, 5.
NOTES ON PSALM XLIII
There is no title to this Psalm in the Hebrew, nor in the Chaldee. The Syriac says it was composed "by David when Jonathan told him that Saul intended to slay him." The Arabic says of this, as of the preceding, that it is a prayer for the backsliding Jews. It is most evidently on the same subject with the forty-second Psalm, had the same author or authors, and contains the remaining part of the complaint of the captive Jews in Babylon. It is written as a part of the forty-second Psalm in forty-six of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.
Verse 1. Judge me, O God, and plead my cause] ריבה ריבי ribah ribi, a forensic term, properly enough translated, plead my cause, be my counsellor and advocate.
Ungodly nation] The Babylonians; the impious, perfidious, wicked, and deceitful Babylonians.
The deceitful and unjust man.] Nebuchadnezzar.
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Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 Psa 43:1-2. Judge me, O God, &c. — “O…
Psa 43:1-2. Judge me, O God, &c. — “O God, the supreme Judge of the whole world, I appeal to thee, in this contest between me and a seditious people, who, void of piety and humanity,” (so the phrase לא חסיד, lo chasid, here rendered ungodly, means,) “are risen up in rebellion against me, beseeching thee to vindicate my innocence, and defend me from their violence.” — Bishop Patrick. He calls the company of his enemies a nation, because of their great numbers: for they were the far greater part, and almost the whole body of the nation. Deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man — Who hath covered his wicked designs with fair and false pretexts, pretending devotion when he went to make an insurrection, 2Sa 15:7; 2Sa 15:10. Deliver me from the crafty counsel which Ahithophel gives him; and from the open force whereby he seeks injuriously to take away my life, Ibid. Psa 17:1-2. For thou art the God of my strength, &c. — I have none to flee unto for safety and protection but thee alone; who hast ever hitherto been my mighty deliverer, and art now my only support.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–5 Judge me, O God - This does not mean,…
Judge me, O God - This does not mean, Pronounce sentence upon me; but, Undertake my cause; interpose in my behalf; do justice in the case. He regarded his own cause as right; he felt that he was greatly wronged by the treatment which he received from people, and he asks to have it shown that he was not guilty of what his enemies charged on him; that he was an upright man, and a friend of God. See Psa 7:8, note; Psa 26:1, note.
And plead my cause - See the notes at Psa 35:1. “Against an ungodly nation.” Margin, unmerciful. Literally, “from a nation not merciful,” or not; religious. The idea is, that the nation or people referred to manifested none of the spirit of religion in their conduct toward him; that he was treated with severity and injustice. This entire description would agree well with the state of things in the time of the rebellion of Absalom, when David was driven from his home and his throne: 2 Sam. 15, following.
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O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man - Margin, as in Hebrew, from a man of deceit and iniquity. This would apply well to the case and character of Absalom, or perhaps more directly and properly to the character and counsel of Ahithophel, among the leading conspirators in the rebellion of Absalom, to whose counsels much of the rebellion was owing: 2Sa 15:31; compare 2Sa 16:23; 2Sa 17:14, 2Sa 17:23.
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Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–4 God of my strength--by covenant relation my stronghold (Psa…
God of my strength--by covenant relation my stronghold (Psa 18:1).
cast me off--in scorn.
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because--or, "in," that is, in such circumstances of oppression.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–4 1. Judge me, O God—It was David’s habit to…
1. Judge me, O God—It was David’s habit to appeal his cause to God, because he would be judged only by the divine law and justice. Psa_7:8; Psa_26:1.
Plead my cause—The petition is, that God would enter as a third person in the suit, or controversy, and argue and conduct it for the petitioner. It answers exactly to the idea of intercessor or advocate. See Psa_35:1; Heb_9:24; 1Jn_2:1.
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Ungodly nation—It may mean a nation devoid of piety, or one not kindly disposed, unmerciful, hostile. So Psa_12:1. Entering the controversy in behalf of David, God is asked to do, in word or deed, whatever the equity of the case, or the chosen mode of controversy, calls for.
Deceitful and unjust man—This may apply to Ahithophel, or, taking the noun collectively, to any man of his class.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–5 1. Judge me &c.] An appeal to God the…
1. Judge me &c.] An appeal to God the Judge to do him justice and vindicate his innocence by delivering him from the power of his insolent foes. For the language cp. Psa_7:8; Psa_26:1; Psa_35:1; Psa_35:24.
against an ungodly nation] Lit. from, i. e. by delivering me from, a nation without lovingkindness; heathen destitute of all feeling of humanity. For the meaning of châsîd see notes on Psa_4:3; Psa_12:1; and Appendix, Note 1.
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the deceitful and unjust man] The leader of the heathen, who had distinguished himself by treachery and malignity, may be meant. But it is better to understand the words collectively as a further description of the ‘inhuman nation’ in general, men of deceit and malignity.
1, 2. Prayer for deliverance, grounded upon God’s relation to him.
Psa_43:1-5. A passionate prayer for deliverance from his enemies and restoration to the privileges of the sanctuary.
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Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4 (1) An ungodly nation.—In the Hebrew simply a negative…
XLIII.
(1) An ungodly nation.—In the Hebrew simply a negative term, a nation not khasîd, i.e., not in the covenant. But naturally a positive idea of ungodliness and wickedness would attach to such a term.
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The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–5 THE close connection of this psalm with the preceding…
THE close connection of this psalm with the preceding has been already noticed. (see the introduction to Ps 42) We must not, however, suppose an accidental detachment. Rather Ps 43, is a supplementary stanza, added subsequently by the same or a different writer. Being intended as a continuation, the psalm has naturally no title.
Judge me, O God. (comp. Psa_35:24) And plead my cause. (comp. Psa_35:1) God"s intervention is asked in the struggle between David and his enemies, on the assumed ground that he is in the right, and not they. God will, of course, only interpose if this is so. Against an ungodly nation; or, an unkind, unloving nation. Though called ywOig, as in Isa_1:4, still Israel is meant. They were "unloving," both towards God and towards their king. O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. Either Absalom or Ahithophel may be meant; or "man" may be used abstractedly for David"s enemies generally.
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HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE Vers. 1-5. God the salvation of the countenance; or, a light heart makes a bright face.
Dr. Binnie remarks, "The forty-second and forty-third psalms (which go together), were almost certainly written by the Korahites who accompanied David in his flight beyond the Jordan during Absalom"s rebellion." Nearly all modern critics consider that this and the preceding psalm formed originally but one. So the similarity of Psa_42:5, 11 and Psa_43:5 would suggest. There is a variation between some of the expressions in the former and those in the latter; but there is nothing in this psalm which needs elaborate explanation. There is, however, an expression in both of them, which contains in itself a doctrine of amazing depth, one of which thousands of living believers are perpetual illustrations and proofs, though, as a doctrine, it receives far too little notice. The doctrine is connected with the religion of the face, and is this that when Divine light shines in the soul of man, it will cause a radiance all its own to beam from the countenance; that God is indeed the salvation of a man"s features. An Irishman was once asked what made him look so happy after his conversion. "Oh," he said, "Christ lightens our hearts, and then he brightens our face." As Dickson quaintly remarks hereon, "As when the Lord withdraweth both the outward tokens of his favour and his inward consolation for a time, the countenance of the godly cannot but be heavy, cast down, and look sad, like a man that is sick; so when God returneth to comfort and to own his own, either both inwardly and outwardly, or inwardly only, the man"s face looketh cheerful: he is the health of my countenance. " The Rev. Joseph Cook, of Boston, U.S., in a remarkable lecture on Solar Self-Culture, says, "There is only one form of culture that gives supremacy, and that is the form which produces the solar look; and the solar look comes only from the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. It may be incontrovertibly proved, by the coolest induction from fixed natural law, that the highest culture must be that through which the solar look shines, and that this look is possible only when there exists in the soul glad self-surrender to the innermost holiest of Conscience. In that innermost holiest Christianity finds a personal Omnipotence." We are all familiar enough, indeed, with the generally admitted fact that the face is an index of character, but the truths underlying that fact demand from us closer attention than is sometimes given thereto.
I IT IS AN ORDINANCE OF GOD, THAT IN A WAY EITHER OF MERCY OR OF JUDGMENT, THE FACE SHOULD BE THE INDEX OF THE SOUL. When Moses had been on the mount, communing with God, his face shone. When Hannah had laid her burden before God, her countenance was no more sad. When Stephen was before the council, in the midst of hostile, angry men, his face was as the face of an angel. The late devout Samuel Martin, of Westminster, had a face so radiant through fellowship with God, that when a friend had called on him with Dean Stanley, the dean remarked afterwards, "I am glad you took me to call there; I have seen the face of an angel." The truth that communion with God lights up the face is recognized by Dante, who, speaking of Beatrice, says"...with such gladness, that God"s love Seem"d from her visage shining. (Carey"s Dante, p. 497: H. G. Bohn)
To work out this thought on its darker side would be as terrible as on its brighter side it is enchanting. How are some faces that once bid fair to be beautiful, spoilt by the deeply graven lines of vice and crime! Our present theme puts before us, however, the brighter side, and it is one on which we may well love to linger. For note further
II THAT THE DEVOUT SOUL LOVES TO COMMUNE WITH GOD. The whole of Psalm 42 and Ps 43, shows us this. And the experience of believers is perpetually verifying this, in prayer there is an upward look of the whole being. "Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul;" "Our eyes wait upon the Lord our God;" "I will lift up mine eyes to the hills." And in this uplooking of the man there is an entirely different set of mental and spiritual powers and energies at work than when the habit of looking downward or around, or even the habit of not looking at all, is in exercise. The soul is in communion with the best and dearest of Friends, enjoying a luxury of fellowship with which a stranger cannot intermeddle.
III WHEN THE SOUL THUS COMMUNES WITH GOD, GOD SENDS HIS GIFTS DOWN INTO THE SOUL. God reveals himself within, and makes us full of joy with his countenance; and in revealing himself he brings with him purity, peace, and power; and when such privilege is realized, the outer discomforts of life are forgotten in a joy unspeakable and full of glory. The temptations of the evil one cease to have power when God is near; the heaviest toil can be undertaken, and the weightiest cross be carried with cheerfulness and even with song; and since by the law of association we grow like those we love most, we, beholding the glory of the Lord, shall be changed into the same image, from glory to glory!
IV THE EFFECT OF ALL THIS WILL BE THE SALVATION OF THE FACE. Such is the remarkable expression in Psa_43:5; it is translated, "the health of my countenance;" literally it is, "the salvation of my face." Even so Christ is is now the Saviour of the body, and in the emancipation of the spirit from sin he is redeeming the face from ignoble marks and traits. How often have we known a man"s face marvellously changed at his conversion, not by evolution, but by regeneration. "He doesn"t look like the same man!" is an exclamation often heard. A well-known minister was converted while preaching. Such a radiance instantly shone into his face, that an enthusiastic Methodist jumped up and exclaimed, "The parson"s converted! The parson"s converted!" A brave Scotch soldier, whose countenance rarely wore a smile, and from whose lips never a word was heard as to his personal religion, suddenly beheld the glory of the words, "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out;" and as suddenly radiance gleamed from his face, the padlock fell off his lips, and he exclaimed, "rye Christ by the hand! I"ve Christ by the hand!" And in his second volume the Rev. J. G. Paten, writing of a convert from heathenism, says, "His once sullen countenance became literally bright with inner light" (p. 217). See also "Leaves from my Note-book," by Rev. Wm. Haslam (1890), p. 99. All the spiritual gifts which God bestows joy, peace, purity, strength will find corresponding expression in the lines and features of the countenance, giving demonstrative evidence of the present power of Divine grace even over the body, and yielding no dim prophetic forecast of the day when Christ shall alter the fashion of our bodies of humiliation, and transform them to the fixed type of his body of glory. Hence throughout the Book of Revelation, the purity of the blessed is indicated by their being robed in white, i.e. not the whiteness of snow, but the brightness of the star. If even here, with such partial sanctification, the bodily change is so great, what will it be when the purifying and glorifying processes are complete when every soul will be full of love, and every" face will be a perfect index of the soul? How beautiful must faces be when perfect love is reflected therefrom!
V THE SUBJECT IS NOT ONLY ONE OF GREAT DOCTRINAL INTEREST; IT IS ALSO FRAUGHT WITH DEEP PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE.
1. Let us cultivate the habit of observation, and make a religious study of the human face. The holiest men will never be mistaken for hardened atheists:
2. Let us each seek to realize the duty of letting the face speak for God. And it will, if we are constantly in talk with God. His peace, his purity, his power, imparted to the soul within, will certainly make their mark without.
3. Let the young take care of their faces. God made them to be beautiful, not with that beauty which is no deeper than the skin, but with the "beauty of holiness." Be true. Love and follow the right. Live to please God. In all your troubles speak to God. And your face wilt show the result; for God will be the "health of" your "countenance." Amen. C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-5. Strengthening the heart in God.
What Jonathan did for David when he went to him into the wood of Ziph, David does here for himself he strengthens his heart in God. (1Sa_23:16) "Hope in God." We learn here that
I HOPE IS BASED ON GOD"S REVELATION OF HIMSELF. We only know God as he is pleased to make himself known to us. In his works and in his Word we find the same character. The lesson comes to us from all sides that God is true, and that his laws should be trusted. Therefore we feel safe in putting ourselves in line with his will; in wholly surrendering ourselves to his guidance and keeping. Whatever may have been dark or dim in ancient days is now made clear in Christ. He hath revealed the Father. Therefore we say to our heart, "Hope in God.
II HOPE IS CHARACTERISTIC OF THE RIGHTEOUS. We cannot hope in God till we are reconciled to God. Hope is not a chance thing, but born of faith. We cannot hope in God but as we are of the same mind with God. Hope is not an easy thing, but requires the putting forth of our own strength and will. "Like the highest forms of courage, it is a refusal to be borne down and cowed and depressed by evil a refusal to indulge in the melancholy pleasure of looking and dwelling on the dark side of things." This is an achievement possible only to the righteous, who not only have faith in God, but are able to enlist imagination in aid of faith. (Joe_3:16 1Pe_1:21)
III HOPE IN GOD IS ESSENTIAL TO THE RIGHT DISCIPLINE OF LIFE. All kinds of trials come to us. There are troubles without and fears within. There are mistakes we cannot correct, losses we cannot repair, evils to ourselves and others sore to see, but sorer still because they cannot be remedied. Enemies rise up against us (ver. 1). Our hearts are ready to fail for fear, and "for looking after those things which are coming." What are we to do? Shall we give way to despondency, and cry, like Jacob, "All these things are against me"? or shall we let Hope have her perfect work in calming and sustaining our souls? The answer is clear, "Hope in God." Thus we gain strength (ver. 2); thus we secure guidance. God"s good angels of "light" and "truth" will lead us in the right way (ver. 3). Thus our path will be onward and upward, nearer to the serene heights and the pure air of heaven, where all is peace and love (ver. 4).
IV HOPE IN GOD IS A SURE PROPHET OF THE GOOD TIME COMING. Every hope is in a sense a prophecy. But often the prophecy is false. Bright gleams the vision in the distance, but nearer approach and closer scrutiny prove that it is a delusion and a snare. It is like the mirage, which leaves the desert all the barer and the gloomier when it fades into the light of common day. But it is otherwise with the Christian"s hope. It is real. It stands inquiry. It verifies itself by the moral effects which it produces. All the future, onward into the vast eternal spaces, is covered by it; and to come. "Christ in us the Hope of glory!" "Thus living, eternal life is begun in our hearts; thus and thus only, under the teaching and moulding of the Divine Regenerator of our nature, does the heavenly life in time anticipate and herald and prepare for, and, blending with it, at last is lost in, the life of heaven for eternity" (Archer Butler). W.F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–5 Subject. On account of the similarity of the structure…
Subject. On account of the similarity of the structure of this Psalm to that of Psalm forty-two, it has been supposed to be a fragment wrongly separated from the preceding song; but it is always dangerous to allow these theories of error in Holy Scripture, and in this instance it would be very difficult to show just cause for such an admission. Why should the Psalm have been broken? Its similarity would have secured its unity had it ever been part and parcel of the forty-second. Is it not far more likely that some in their fancied wisdom united them wrongly in the few MSS in which they are found as one? We believe the fact is that the style of the poetry was pleasant to the writer, and therefore in after life he wrote this supplemental hymn after the same manner. As an appendix it needed no title. David complains of his enemies, and asks the privilege of communion with God as his surest deliverance from them.
Division. The psalmist cried to God in prayer, Ps 43:1-3. Promises praise in the anticipation of an answer, Ps 43:4, and chides himself for his despondency, Ps 43:5.
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Ver. 1. Judge me, O God. Others are unable to understand my motives, and unwilling to give me a just verdict. My heart is clear as to intent and therefore I bring my case before thee, content that thou wilt impartially weigh my character, and right my wrongs. If thou wilt judge, thy acceptance of my conduct will be enough for me; I can laugh at human misrepresentation if my conscience knows that thou art on my side; thou art the only one I care for; and besides, thy verdict will not sleep, but thou wilt see practical justice done to thy slandered servant. And plead my cause against an ungodly nation. One such advocate as the Lord will more than suffice to answer a nation of brawling accusers. When people are ungodly, no wonder that they are unjust; those who are not true to God himself cannot be expected to deal rightly with his people. Hating the King they will not love his subjects. Popular opinion weighs with many, but divine opinion is far more weighty with the gracious few. One good word from God outweighs ten thousand railing speeches of men. He bears a brazen shield before him whose reliance in all things is upon his God; the arrows of calumny fall harmlessly from such a buckler. O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. Deceit and injustice are boon companions: he who fawns will not fear to slander. From two such devils none can deliver us but God. His wisdom can outwit the craft of the vilest serpent, and his power can over match the most raging lion. Whether this was Doeg or Ahithophel is small matter, such double distilled villains are plentiful, and the only way of dealing with them is to refer the matter to the righteous Judge of all; if we try to fight them with their own weapons, we shall suffer more serious injury from ourselves than from them. O child of God, leave these thine enemies in better hands, remembering that vengeance belongeth not to thee, but to thy Lord. Turn to him in prayer, crying, "O deliver me, "and ere long you shall publish abroad the remembrance of his salvation.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm is evidently a continuation or supplement to the preceding. In some MSS of Kenicott and de Rossi's, they are united, and make one Psalm. George Phillips, B.D.
Ver. 1. Judge me, O God, and plead my cause, etc. Believers may appeal to God's justice, and plead God's righteousness.
1. Touching suffering wrongs of men.
2. Touching sin in relation to God's wrath.
1. Touching suffering wrongs of men, believers may appeal upon these three grounds:
1. The injustice that men do to believers, is as well against God's just nature, as against the believers' ease. So their appeals to God are agreeable to God's enmity against injustice; therefore, his enmity concurs with their appeals. Ro 1:18.
2. Justice in men is according to God's nature, as well as for the believer's welfare, and, therefore, the disposition and inclination of God's nature concurs with their prayers for deliverance. Ps 11:7 Lu 23:6-7.
3. Such wrong God who do wrong his people 2Ch 15:11 Zec 2:8 Ac 9:4-5; so that in deliverance God vindicates himself as well as the believers.
2. Touching sin in relation to God's wrath, a true believer may plead God's justice or righteousness on these three grounds:
1. Christ our Advocate or Attorney so pleads. Joh 17:24, etc. Now, the client may plead the same as the advocate, seeing it is in relation to the same party and the same issue.
2. Christ hath satisfied God's justice, so that on Christ was laid all the sins of all believers. He was "wounded" for them. Now, God cannot in justice punish twice; therefore, seeing Christ was wounded, believers must be healed. Isa 53:1-12.
3. Believers have God's righteousness imputed to them 2Co 5:1-21; therefore, God must deal with believers as he will deal with his own righteousness.
Useful is this doctrine two ways.
1. For terror to the enemies of believers. How many prevailing cries to the justice of God are against such enemies?
1. Their own sins cry.
2. Believers injuries cry.
3. Believer's prayers cry.
4. Christ's intercession cries over against their prayers and desires Re 6:9, compared with Re 8:3.
2. The second use is for comfort to believers, that as God's mercy is for them, so his justice to deliver them, not only from men, but from sin; and in and through Christ they may humbly plead justice as against sinners, so against sin; not only against the guilt but against the power, that seeing Christ died, sin should not live. Condensed from Nathanael Homes, 1652.
Ver. 1. Ungodly...deceitful...unjust. There are ungodly men who, being destitute of religious principle, will not scruple to injure us, when they can thereby gratify their passions or advance their worldly interests. There are deceitful men who will put on the garb of friendship, and acquire our confidence and esteem, and then treacherously cheat us out of our property, or our reputation, or our peace. There are unjust men, who by fraud or by violence, would rob us of our dearest rights and most valuable possessions, and not only reduce our powers and opportunities of doing good, but even diminish our means of comfortable subsistence. And there are oppressors, who taking advantage of our weakness or dependence, and trampling alike on the maxims of equity and humanity, may exact from us unreasonable services, impose upon us heavy burdens and cruel restraints, and ply us with insults, and harassments, and deprivations, from which we can make no escape, and for which we can find no redress. Andrew Thomson, D.D., in "Lectures on Portions of the Psalms." 1826.
Ver. 1. We apply to God
1. As our Judge:Judge me.
2. As our Advocate:Plead my cause.
3. As our Deliverer:O deliver me.
Ver. 1. Popular opinion outweighed by divine approbation.
Ver. 1. How the Lord pleads the cause of his people.
Ver. 1. Deceit and injustice twin vipers; their origin, their character, their folly, their end.
Ver. 1-2,4-5. Five mys:
1. My cause"plead it."
2. My strength"thou art."
3. My joyGod is.
4. My soul"why disquieted."
5. My God.
"Soul cordials against Sore Discomforts: in a Commentary or Explanations and Applications of the whole Forty-third Psalm, " pp. 312-562 of "The Works of Dr. Nathanael Homes, "1652 (folio).
In "Sabbaths at Home." by HENRY MARCH, there is an exposition of this Psalm. See "Treasury of David, "Vol. II, Page 323.
Psalms 43:2*
Ver. 1-2,4-5. Five mys:
1. My cause"plead it."
2. My strength"thou art."
3. My joyGod is.
4. My soul"why disquieted."
5. My God.
Ver. 1-2,4-5. Five mys:
1. My cause"plead it."
2. My strength"thou art."
3. My joyGod is.
4. My soul"why disquieted."
5. My God.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1–5 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause.
Psa_43:1-5
Judge me, O God, and plead my cause.
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The souls double appeal
I. An appeal to God.
1. For Divine vindication.
2. For Divine deliverance.
3. For Divine information.
4. For Divine guidance.
II. An appeal to self. He was conscious of--
1. The personality of his soul.
2. The sorrow of his soul.
3. The interests of his son! (Homilist.)
In exile
I. The exiles prayer.
1. For judgment against the accusations of an ungodly nation. Nothing uncommon for the Christian to be the target of wrong charges.
2. For deliverance from the deceitful and unjust man.
3. For light and truth to lead him back to Zion.
II. The exiles promise.
1. To go to the altar, i.e. for sacrifice, consecration, worship.
2. To seize the harp for thanksgiving and praise.
Religious services should be gladsome; those in the home as well as those in the sanctuary. Our hearts too often like muffled drums beating funeral marches, rather than like well-tuned harps sending forth strains of sweetest harmony and gladdest adoration, etc.
III. The exiles soliloquy.
1. A question.
2. A response.
Cast down!--Hope. Disquieted!--Praise. Praise Him who is the health, the beauty, the ruddy glow, the youth, of thy countenance, and thy God. (J. O. Keen, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 This psalm was composed by the same author as…
INTRODUCTION
This psalm was composed by the same author as the preceding one, and has reference to the same occasion. It is fitted to impart help and encouragement to the afflicted and desponding in their troubles. The pious spirit of the author is clearly seen in the psalm.
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DEVOUT LONGINGS
The poet pours out his heart to God in petitions, expostulations, and promises; but the prevailing tone of the psalm is that of intense desire. He longs
I. For vindication and deliverance. “Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; O deliver me” (Psa_43:1-2). Notice—
1. The character of his enemies. “An ungodly nation, … the deceitful and unjust man.” The word which is translated “ungodly” is in the margin more correctly rendered “unmerciful.” Hengstenberg renders it “unloving.” It is a word which may most fitly be applied to the conduct of the Jewish nation at the time of the rebellion of Absalom, to which time the psalm most probably refers. In the conduct of an immense number of the people towards David, there was no love, no mercy; but base ingratitude, injustice, and cruelty. “The deceitful and unjust man” may have been said of many at the time to which we suppose the psalm to refer, and pre-eminently of Absalom and Ahithophel (Comp. 2 Samuel 15; 2 Samuel 16; 2 Samuel 17.) The Psalmist was contending against men who were cruel, treacherous, and unjust.
2. The dejection of his spirit. “Why dost Thou cast me off? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” The entire tone of the psalm forbids us to think that David felt himself rejected of God. But his circumstances at the time seemed inconsistent with the guardianship of God; and he, therefore, appeals to Him on the matter. See notes on Psa_42:9.
3. The nature of his petition. “Judge me, O God, and plead my cause.” The enemies of the poet were many and virulent. They persecuted him and reproached him as a man forsaken by God. And here he appeals to God for vindication. He could honestly and fearlessly appeal to the Lord to judge between him and his enemies. He had given no occasion to them for the treatment he received from them. And if God grant him deliverance from them, that will be an unmistakable evidence of the Divine judgment, a clear vindication of the persecuted and much-suffering poet. So he prays that God would interpose and deliver him and thus vindicate him. For this he longs.
4. The strength of his plea. “For Thou art the God of my strength.” Hengstenberg: “For Thou art my guardian-God.” The Psalmist pleads that he was looking to God for strength and protection; that he was trusting in the Lord. This plea is never urged sincerely and earnestly but what it avails with God.
II. For restoration to the tabernacle of God. “O send out Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me,” &c. (Psa_43:3-4). Notice—
1. He longs chiefly for restoration to the tabernacle of God. His great desire is to be brought again unto God’s “holy hill and tabernacles.” “The centre of all the Psalmist” wishes is his return to the sanctuary, because the exclusion from that was, of all the marks of the Divine displeasure under which he suffered, the most palpable. In his return to the sanctuary, he would find a matter-of-fact justification, a pledge of the return of God’s grace.—Hengstenberg. “His heart is set,” says Matthew Henry, “upon the holy hill and the tabernacles, not upon his family comforts, his court preferments, or his diversions; he could bear the want of these, but he is impatient to see God’s tabernacles again; nothing so amiable in his eyes as those,—thither he would gladly be brought back.”
2. He looks for the realisation of his longings through the favour and faithfulness of God. “O send out Thy light and Thy truth.” God’s light here is equivalent to His favour or mercy, and His truth to His faithfulness. And the Psalmist prays that through these he may be led back to the enjoyment of the privileges and blessings from which he was at present so cruelly exiled. Blessed is that man who, like David, sets his hope firmly in the favour and faithfulness of God. His hope shall attain unto splendid fruition.
3. He promises to avail himself of the opportunities of worship when he is restored to the tabernacles of God. “Then will I go unto the altar of God,” &c. He will worship
(1) With sacrifice. “I will go unto the altar of God,” with sacrifices for sin and offerings of gratitude.
(2) With delight. “Unto God my exceeding joy.” (See the sketch on this verse.)
(3) With praise. “Yea, upon the harp will I praise Thee, O God, my God.” Instrumental music was largely used by the Hebrews in their worship. “David excelled at the harp (1Sa_16:16-18), and with that in which he excelled he would praise God; for God is to be praised with the best we have; it is fit He should be, for He is the best.”—M. Henry.
4. He encourages his soul to expect the realisation of his longings. “Why art Thou cast down, O my soul?” &c. (Psa_43:5). (See homiletic sketch on Psa_43:5, and notes on Psa_43:5 and Psa_42:11 of the preceding psalm.)
CONCLUSION.—In this psalm the poet appears to us as a glorious example of a man whose hope is steadily fixed in God. Heroic was he in his trust in the Lord. In the first verse, we see him calmly trusting in the righteous judgment of God; in the second, he rests in God as his strength; in the third, he looks expectantly to God for restoration to his dearest privileges; in the fourth, he resolves to adore Him as his exceeding joy and his most treasured possession; in the fifth, he exults in confident anticipation of the enjoyment of all that he most deeply longed for; and all this at a time when circumstances seemed all against him, and when to the eye of sense his prospects were of the darkest. Brave, trustful poet, we cannot but admire thee! Let us also imitate him in this respect.
THE ALTAR OF GOD
(Psa_43:4.)
“Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.”
The text opens to us two important views.
I. The peculiar nature of that worship which God has authorised. It is going to the altar of our God. By the altar only can God be approached. Behold, then, the true character of acceptable worship.
1. There is in it a recognition of our sin. There was no altar in Paradise. When John beheld a vision of heaven, he “saw no temple therein.” But in the present state, in approaching God, we go to His altar. The sacrifice of Christ is made particularly prominent in the Christian scheme to remind us that we are sinful men, and cannot draw near to God in our own name.
2. An acknowledgment of our just liability to punishment. Worship is not a claim of right, but a plea for mercy. Sentence of death is denounced against every transgressor of the law of God, and in such a prayer as that of the publican its justice is acknowledged. The ancient offerer of sacrifice acknowledged this, and we do the same when we flee to Christ’s atonement.
3. The true worship of God recognises Him as propitious through an atonement appointed by Himself. It was not an altar of human device to which the Psalmist resolved to go, but to the altar of his God. The cross is “the altar of God,” His Son is the victim; the precious blood of Christ is the accepted atonement; and coming to Him in faith, our sin is purged and our persons are accepted.
4. Our worship being an approach to the altar of God, we are assured of constant access to Him. The priests had their courses, that there might be no intermission in the service. The fire of the altar was never extinct. The altar was always there to receive the sacrifice, and the altar of incense was an emblem of the acceptance of perpetual prayer. The sacrifice of Christ needs never to be repeated. It was offered “once for all,” for “by one offering He hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified.” Our High Priest never dies, but “hath obtained an unchangeable priesthood.” Access to the throne of grace is ever given, and our prayers are always accepted.
II. The emphatic description which is given us of the joy which results from it. “To God my exceeding joy.” “Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest,” &c. “How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!”
Contemplate the sources of this joy, that you may aspire after it.
1. We are placed in the presence of a Being of infinite glory and perfection. The joy in question supposes reconciliation with God, and when that is effected all our intercourse with Him may be adoring gratitude. We cannot approach the sublime of nature, we cannot be brought into the presence of an elevated character, without a deeply interested and joyous impression; but here God reveals Himself to man. Infinite beauty, glory, purity, and perfection says, “Come up to me in the holy mount;” and in answer to our prayer, “I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory,” He makes all His goodness pass before us. David anticipated this joy (Psa_63:1-2).
2. True worship enables us to appropriate this display of glory to ourselves. There is an inexpressible emphasis in the words “My God.” All His glory is ours. Is He the everlasting God? Then, because He lives, I shall live also. Is His fulness infinite? Then my supplies are secure. “All my springs are in Thee.” Is He omnipotent? Then, “if God be for us, who can be against us?” And whatever other perfections He has are mine. Mine is His wisdom, His mercy, and His love.
3. It is the joy of confidence. The very reason why we seek God is the want of confidence in everything beside, and in Him we may confide absolutely. God in Christ assures us of this. The philosopher tells me to span the heavens. I am an atom, a nothing. I look upon God incarnate, and all my chilling calculations fly. I am not unnoticed among His works. He came to this world, minify it as you may, to seek and to save that which was lost. When I go “to the altar of my God,” I see that He is love. He that so loved me can never be indifferent to me, and can never forget me.
4. The joy of renewed assurances of His favour to us. Doubts and fears may oppress and chill, till we steadfastly behold His beauty in the sanctuary, and by renewed acts of faith obtain richer manifestations of His love, when our peace flows like a river. Comp. Psa_73:16-17; Psa_73:28.
5. There is the joy of hope. The tabernacle was an emblem of heaven.—Richard Watson, abridged.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 The forty-second and forty-third Psalms give us an insight…
Psa 43:3
The forty-second and forty-third Psalms give us an insight into the very heart of the Psalmist. David there appears as the man whose affections were set upon God, and who in all the changes, and chances, and dangers of a chequered life looked upward, aspired for closer communion with God; and it is for this that he is our teacher and our example.
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I. We need to have this teaching and this example in this life of weary toil. We need to have our spirits lifted up, not to be always earthward bound, but raised, elevated, borne up to the contemplation of higher things, higher and also more lasting. That is one great corrective of worldliness, one great protection for our soul, amid the temptations, pursuits, business, and pleasures of this present world—to look upward.
II. Observe how entirely Christian the prayer is, for what is it we here ask of God? We ask for His light and for His truth. What is this but to ask for Christ to dwell in our hearts? When we pray for God’s light and God’s truth to lead us, we pray that Jesus Christ may dwell in us, and work in us, and rule in us, to the sanctifying and saving of our soul.
III. The dwelling of God, where is it? In the highest heaven. Even those words are inadequate to convey a just idea of His habitation. "Behold, the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him." God is present in all places, at all times, but is present according to His true promise wheresoever two or three are gathered together in His name.
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 3rd series, p. 158.
Reference: Psa 43:3, Psa 43:4.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, pp. 108, 120.
Psa 43:4
I. The text pronounces one good word—joy. "The joy of the Lord is strength." The cheerful spirit is the healthful and the dutiful spirit. I do not mean the spirit of animal jollity, nor the merriment of indifference, but that subdued, cheerful spirit which fronts its duties.
II. He pronounces with greater emphasis the word "God." For God alone is exceeding joy. Sensuality cloys, but never satisfies; ambition is disturbed and dissatisfied; refined intelligence and taste leave something unknown, and cloud joy by debate and doubt. "All things are full of labour." God alone is surpassing joy. (1) Joy undisturbed by any fear of coming to an end, for that is the spectre at the feast—the end. (2) If calamity and reproach blast our good name with men, and we are exposed to shame and ignominy, God is exceeding joy; He is not imposed upon by misrepresentation; we have His approbation.
III. The text leads to an important discrimination between thinking about God and enjoying Him. Some have God only in idea, in fancy, in opinion; some have God only in the perception of law; but the living God is essential life, and being essential life, is essential joy.
IV. Here breaks in the appropriating power for which the Psalms are so remarkable. There is a spreading out of the hands to the Infinite—"O God." There is a closing of the hands upon the heart—"my God." There is no joy unless God is appropriated.
V. Exceeding joy. Yet once more. This is the quality of it. This can be said of no other joy; all other beauties have their boundaries; all other glories have their glooms. Watch then your best joys, that they do not leave you, treasure your joys, and strive for the "meetness of the inheritance of the saints in light;" part with all that you have for that pearl and that field.
E. Paxton Hood, Dark Sayings on a Harp, p. 101.
References: Psa 43:4.—J. P. Gledstone, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 364; H. Scott Holland, Logic and Life, p. 99. Psa 43:5.—H. P. Liddon, Old Testament Outlines, p. 111. Psa 43:1-3.—R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons in Country Churches, 2nd series, p. 69. Psa 44:1.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 263; R. W. Dale, Evangelical Revival, p. 2; H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 113, and Old Testament Outlines, p. 113; J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons, No. 90; Parker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiii., p. 216, and Fountain, June 16th, 1881. Psa 45:1, Psa 45:2.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xi., p. 331.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Deliverance sought from Antichrist and his adherents.
Deliverance sought from Antichrist and his adherents.
The forty-third psalm goes back to Jerusalem and the state of things there. In the former one; the "enemy" seems naturally to be rather the outside foe, the Gentile. In the present, it is the ungodly nation and the man of deceit and iniquity; with whom they are identifying themselves; -that is; Antichrist. He is "the liar," as the apostle John says, who denying altogether the Father and the Son, -that is, the Christian revelation, -denies also, as to the Jewish, not that there is a Christ (a Messiah), but "that Jesus is the Christ" (1Jn 2:22). Thus the psalmist now prays, "Send out Thy light and truth" and "they shall lead me; they shall bring me to Thy holy hill and to Thy tabernacles." Gloriously will these be indeed displayed when the true Christ shall be revealed from heaven, and with the breath of His lips destroy the wicked one. Deliverance will then have come for the godly ones among the people, as in a moment; Israel’s holy places be restored, and their worship be resumed, never again to know interruption.
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As to the rest of the psalm, it is largely a repetition of the previous one; and in these outline-notes we need hardly dwell upon it.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v5
Psalms
THE PSALMIST’S REMONSTRANCE WITH HIS SOUL
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Psa 43:5.
This verse, which closes this psalm, occurs twice in the previous one. It is a kind of refrain. Obviously this little psalm, of which my text is a part, was originally united with the preceding one. That the two made one is clear to anybody that will read them, by reason of structure, and tone, and similarity of the singer’s situation, and the recurrence of many phrases, and especially of these significant words of my text.
The Psalmist is in circumstances of trouble and sorrow. We need not enter upon them particularly, but the thing that I desire to point out is that three times does the Psalmist take himself to task and question himself as to the reasonableness of the emotions that are surging in his soul, and checks these by higher considerations. Thrice he does it; twice in vain, for the trouble and anxiety come rolling back upon him in spite of the moment’s respite, but the third time he triumphs.
I. We note, then, first, that moods and emotions should be examined and governed by a higher self.
In the Psalmist’s case, his gloom and despondency, which could plead good reasons for their existence, had everything their own way at first, and swept over his soul like the first rush of waters which have burst their bounds. But, presently, the ruling part of his nature wakes, and brings the feebler lower soul to its tribunal, and says, in effect, ‘Now! now that I am here, what hast thou to say about these sorrows that thou hast been complaining about? Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted? . . . Hope in God!’
I shall have a word or two to say presently about the details of this remonstrance, but the main point that I make, to begin with, is just this, that however strong and reasonably occasioned by circumstances a man’s emotions and feelings, either of the bright or the dark kind, may be, they are not to be indulged, unless they have passed muster and examination by that higher and better self. It is necessary to keep a very tight hand upon all our feelings, whether they be the natural desires of the sensuous part of our nature, or whether they be the sentiments of sadness, or doubt, or anxiety, or perplexity, which are the natural results of outward circumstances of trial; or whether, on the contrary, they be the bright and buoyant ones which come, like angels, along with prosperous hours. But that necessity, commonplace as it is of all morals and all religion, is yet a thing which, day by day, we so forget that we need to be ever and anon reminded of it.
There are hosts of people who, making profession of being Christians, do not habitually put the brake on their moods and tempers, and who seem to think that it is a sufficient vindication of gloom and sadness to say that things are going badly with them in the outer world, and who act as if they supposed that no joy can be too exuberant and no elation too lofty if, on the other hand, things are going rightly. It is a miserable travesty of the Christian faith to suppose that its prime purpose is anything else than to put into our hands the power of ruling ourselves because we let Christ rule us.
And so, dear brethren! though it be the A B C of Christian teaching, suffer this word of exhortation. It is only ‘milk for babes,’ but it is milk that the babes are very unwilling to take. Learn from this verse before us the solemn duty of rigid control, by the higher self, of the tremulous, emotional lower self which responds so completely to every change of temperature or circumstances in the world without. And remember that there should be a central heat which keeps the temperature substantially the same, whatever be the weather outside. As the wheel-house, and the steering gear, and the rudder of the ship proclaim their purpose of guidance and direction, so eloquently and unmistakably does the make of our inward selves tell us that emotions and moods and tempers are meant to be governed, often to be crushed, always to be moderated, by sovereign will and reason. In the Psalmist’s language, ‘My soul’ has to give account of its tremors and flutterings to ‘Me,’ the ruling Self, who should be Lord of temperament, and control the fluctuations of feeling.
II. Note that there are two ways of looking at causes of dejection and disquiet.
The whole preceding parts of both the psalms, before this refrain, are an answer to the question which my text puts. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ ‘My soul’ has been talking two whole psalms, to explain why it is cast down. And after all the eloquent torrent of words to vindicate and explain its reasons for sadness-separation from the sanctuary, bitter remembrances of bright days, which the poet tells us are ‘a sorrow’s crown of sorrow,’ taunts of enemies and the like-after all these have been said over and over again, the Psalmist says to himself: ‘Come now, let us hear it all once more. Why art thou cast down? Why art thou disquieted within me? Thou hast been telling the reasons abundantly. Speak them once again, and let us have a look at them.’
There is a court of appeal in each man, which tests and tries his reasons for his moods; and these, which look very sufficient to the flesh, turn out to be very insufficient when investigated and tested by the higher spirit or self. We should ‘appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober.’ And if a man will be honest with himself, and tell himself why he is in such a pucker of terror, or why he is in such a rapture of joy, nine times out of ten the attempt to tell the reasons will be the condemnation of the mood which they are supposed to justify. If men would only bring the causes or occasions of the tempers and feelings which they allow to direct them, to the bar of common sense, to say nothing of religious faith, half the furious boilings in their hearts would stop their ebullition. It would be like pouring cold water into a kettle on the fire. It would end its bubbling. Everything has two handles. The aspect of any event depends largely on the beholder’s point of view. ‘There’s nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.’ ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?’ The answer is often very hard to give; the question is always very salutary to ask.
III. Note that no reasons for being cast down are so strong as those for elation and calm hope.
‘Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance and my God.’ I need not deal here with the fact that the first of the three occurrences of this refrain is, in our Bible, a little different from the other two. That is probably a mistake in the text. In all three cases the words ought to stand the same.
Try to realise what God is to yourselves-’My God’ and ‘the health of my countenance.’ That will stimulate sluggish feeling; that will calm disturbed emotion. He that can say ‘My God!’ and in that possession can repose, will not be easily moved, by the trivialities and transitorinesses of this life, to excessive disquiet, whether of the exuberant or of the woful sort. There is a wonderful calming power in realising our possession of God as our portion-not stagnating, but quieting. I am quite sure that the troubles of our lives, and the gladnesses of our lives, which often distract, would be far less operative in disturbing, if we felt more that God was ours and that we were God’s.
Brethren! ‘there is no joy but calm.’ To be at rest is better than rapture. And there is no way of getting and keeping a fixed temper of still tranquillity unless we go into that deep and hidden chamber, in the secret place of the Most High, where we cannot ‘hear the loud winds when they call,’ but dwell in security, whatever storms harass the land. ‘Why art thou cast down,’ or lifted ‘up,’ and, in either case, ‘disquieted’? ‘Hope in God,’ and be at rest.
IV. Note that the effort to lay hold on the truth which calms is to be repeated in spite of failures.
The words of our text are thrice repeated in these two psalms. In the two former instances they are followed by a fresh burst of pained feeling. A moment of tranquillity interrupts the agitation of the Psalmist’s soul, but is soon followed by the recurrence of ‘the horrible storm’ that ‘begins afresh.’ A tiny island of blue appears in his sky, and then the pale, ugly, grey rack drives across it once more. But the guiding self keeps the hand firm on the tiller, notwithstanding the wash of the water and the rolling of the ship, and the dominant will conquers at last, and at the third time the yielding soul obeys and is quiet, because the Psalmist’s will resolved that it should be quiet, and it hopes in God because He, by a dead lift of effort, lifts it up to hope.
No effort at tranquillising our hearts is wholly lost; and no attempt to lay hold upon God is wholly in vain. Men build a dam to keep out the sea, and the winter storms make a breach in it, but it is not washed away altogether, and next season they will not need to begin to build from quite so low down; but there will be a bit of the former left, to put the new structure upon, and so by degrees it will rise above the tide, and at last will keep it out.
Did you ever see a child upon a swing, or a gymnast upon a trapeze? Each oscillation goes a little higher; each starts from the same lowest point, but the elevation on either side increases with each renewed effort, until at last the destined height is reached and the daring athlete leaps on to a solid platform. So we may, if I might say so, by degrees, by reiterated efforts, swing ourselves up to that steadfast floor on which we may stand high above all that breeds agitation and gloom. It is possible, in the midst of change and circumstances that excite sad emotions, anxieties, and fears-it is possible to have this calmness of hope in God. The rainbow that spans the cataract rises steadfast above the white, tortured water beneath, and persists whilst all is hurrying change below, and there are flowers on the grim black rocks by the side of the fall, whose verdure is made greener and whose brightness is made brighter, by the freshening of the spray of the waterfall. So we may be ‘as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing,’ and may bid dejected and disquieted souls to hope in God and be still.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 1. An ungodly nation] RM 'an unmerciful nation,' a…
1. An ungodly nation] RM 'an unmerciful nation,' a loveless, heathen people.
2. Cp. Psa_42:9.
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3. Thy holy hill] the Temple on Mt. Zion. Thy tabernacles] or dwelling-place.
4. O God my God] instead of 'O Lord my God'—showing that the Ps. is 'Elohistic'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 43
Psalm 43
The Cry Against the Ungodly Nation and Antichrist
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1. The cry to God (Psa 43:1-2)
2. Send out Thy light and truth (Psa 43:3-5)
Here their enemies are mentioned, the ungodly nation, serving the beast (Rev 13:11-18). The deceitful and unjust man, is that coming man of sin, the son of perdition, who then has taken his seat in the temple of God in Jerusalem (2Th 2:1-17). They realize their help must come from the Lord to lead them to the holy hill and the sanctuary. They call for the coming of Him who is “the Light and the Truth.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Conclusion of the Preceding Psalm.
Conclusion of the Preceding Psalm.
The psalmist again opens with an appeal, followed by a vow of faithfulness to Jehovah and His worship.
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v. 1. Judge me, O God, vindicating his cause, and plead my cause, as the all-wise advocate against wickedness, against an ungodly nation, a generation of men not in God’s favor. O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man, who is full of falsehood and wickedness, devoid of every idea of right and justice.
v. 2. For Thou art the God of my strength, his Refuge and Stronghold by virtue of his trust in Him; why dost Thou cast me off, turning away from him in scorn, as from something loathsome? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Cf Psa 42:9.
v. 3. O send out Thy light, that of His grace and mercy tending toward the salvation of men, and Thy truth, the faithfulness which keeps His promises without fail; let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, where His Sanctuary had been erected, and to Thy tabernacles, where the Lord dwelled in the midst of His people, letting the light of His essence appear in the revelation of His love in the Messiah, Joh 1:14.
v. 4. Then will I go unto the altar of God, to the place of His worship, unto God, my exceeding Joy, in whom all the highest delights of the believer are personified; yea, upon the harp will I praise Thee, a small zither-like instrument used in divine worship, O God, my God, the emphasis again being placed upon the personal relation of the believer to his God, his highest Good. The believer having reached this point of assurance, he admonishes himself for the third time:
v. 5. Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the Health of my countenance and my God. All believers will guard against coming to their place of worship in a mechanical, dead manner, their hearts rather being united with God in the fellowship of true faith, exulting in Him as their greatest delight.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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the God of my strength
Possible meanings are 1) "the God who protects me" or 2) "the God who gives me strength."
Why have you rejected me? Why do I go about in mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
The writer asks these questions in order to complain to God and express his emotions, not to receive an answer. (See: Rhetorical Question)
Why do I go about in mourning
To "go about in mourning" is to perform customs related to being very sad.
because of the oppression of the enemy
The word "oppression" can be translated as a verb. AT: "because my enemy oppresses me" (See: Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
God
plea
godly
nation
mourn
oppress
adversary
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 5 43:1-4 The psalmist turns to the Lord for rescue…
43:1-4 The psalmist turns to the Lord for rescue from his troubles, for guidance, for restoration, and for vindication.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.