Psalm 43: The Song of the Downcast Soul (Part 2)

“Vindicate me, O God…” (Psalm 43:1)

The Psalms build upon one another in a tapestry of praise, lament, and everything in between. One psalm alone is powerful and meaningful, but layering one onto another or reading related psalms side-by-side makes the testimony of prayer here so much richer.

The Woven Psalms is a reflective, unhurried, and practical podcast about praying every psalm in the Bible. This podcast is a ministry of Rock Hill Community Church in Duluth, MN. You can learn more about our work at www.wovenpsalms.com.

Mike Solis is our writer and host. Ethan Gibbs is our editor, producer, and composer of the theme music. Beau Walsh designed our logo. This episode features the song “Psalm 43” by Poor Bishop Hooper, and we want to thank them for allowing us to use the music from their EveryPsalm project. You can learn more about their music at www.poorbishophooper.com.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

Transcript

The Psalms build upon one another in a tapestry of praise, lament, and everything in between. One psalm alone is powerful and meaningful, but layering one onto another or reading related psalms side-by-side makes the testimony of prayer here so much richer.

Psalm 43

[1] Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
    against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
    deliver me!
[2] For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
    why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
    because of the oppression of the enemy?
    
[3] Send out your light and your truth;
    let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
    and to your dwelling!
[4] Then I will go to the altar of God,
    to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
    O God, my God.
    
[5] Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.

As we said in the last episode, Psalm 42 and 43 are distinct and yet intimately related. In the Hebrew Bible and the Greek translation (the Septuagint), they are separate, so they are probably different compositions that are still meant to be read together. It’s even possible that Psalm 43 was written as a response to 42, and they’re so seamlessly stitched together that Psalm 43 doesn’t even have an opening title. One just leads into the other. The most obvious connection between them is the refrain, which appears twice in Psalm 42 and once in Psalm 43: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” As we’ve said, this is an honest dialogue between the psalmist and his own soul. Without judgment or shame, the psalmist admits that he is low, sinking into the turmoil and chaos of his suffering. He reminds himself to hope, to trust, to believe that God is worthy of praise because he is the Savior. (And by the way, don’t we all at times need reminders to remember even the things that we already know?) Despite whatever is happening outside of me or within me, God is our only hope when we despair. He is our only safety when we are sinking. This chorus is the main similarity that connects Psalms 42 and 43, but what is the flow of thought between these psalms? Psalm 42 began with the psalmist yearning to be near God and experience the joy of worshipping with God’s people, and then the psalmist cried out that he feels abandoned by the God who has forgotten him. The ending has a tone of desperation… but then Psalm 43 begins. How will it bring these themes to a conclusion? Will the psalmist find his hope? Let’s begin at the beginning, in verse 1.

Psalm 43, verse 1: “Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!” There are three short prayers to God: vindicate me, defend me, and deliver me. All three have the sense of God judging rightly, of bringing justice in a situation where injustice is running rampant. In the Bible, justice is giving people exactly what they deserve, no more and no less, whether that is protection or punishment. The psalmist is suffering from the opposite: the ungodly (or literally “people without steadfast love”) are thriving by deceit and injustice. The psalmist pleads with God not to stand idle but to rise up and right the wrongs around him. But his prayers still seem like they are falling on deaf ears. Verse 2: “For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” There are echoes here of the last psalm, the grief under oppression and the desperate cry for divine help. One commentator notes that the phrase “go about” has the sense of “the slow deliberate gait of one who is lost in his own thoughts and feelings.” Just like the opening to Psalm 42, here the psalmist is stumbling and near to collapse, in a drought where there is no friend, no justice, and seemingly no God to bring relief.

Verse 3 continues the flurry of rapid-fire prayers, but the tone is suddenly very different: “Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!” Whether the psalmist is asking for a literal homecoming (as in, “Bring me back to the temple in Jerusalem”) or it’s a spiritual return (“Bring me back to intimacy with you”), even when we are in exile, we can enjoy the blessing of God’s presence. Notice what will guide us back to God: light and truth as our guides, searching for the right path, keeping us from pitfalls, always ahead of us to lead us. Light is a metaphor for everything that is good and pure, for warmth and heat, for justice and righteousness, for casting out whatever darkness surrounds us. The result is a promise and a hope for a better future in verse 4: “Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.” After a parched soul and bittersweet memories of worshiping God in the temple, the psalmist gets out his guitar and starts to sing again. Finally, the chorus one more time: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” In five short verses, the psalmist has moved from the bitterness of injustice to the joy of praise, and yet nothing in his circumstances has changed, only his perspective. It’s similar to the storyline of Psalm 73 in which the psalmist wrestled with the prosperity of the wicked until he went to the LORD, because then he had the hope that God will at one time resolve every injustice. Therefore, the last repetition of the refrain is less desperately defiant and more confident in the sure, steadfast salvation of God. God is answering the prayer: his light and his truth are leading us to hope, to praise, to joy.

One of the unique images of Psalm 43 is the personification of light and truth leading us, like they are agents or aspects of God’s own character that are moving and working. It’s with the revelation in the New Testament that we learn the identity of the Light of the World, the Way, the Truth, and the Life in the person of Jesus. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us, and therefore he brought the presence of God to sinful human beings in a way that we had never experienced. And yet despite his light and truth, despite his justice and holiness, he experienced slander, deceit, rejection, and oppression by those whom he came to save. Jesus was not given justice by the Jews or the Romans but was instead put to death on a cross. The sky went dark. The deceiver and accuser seemed to win. But the Father vindicated his Son by raising him from the dead, and he sent his Spirit to dwell within every believer to bring the good news of salvation to all. One day, Jesus will cast down our enemy, and our souls will never be cast down again. One day, our exceeding joy will never be marred by mourning. Until then, we hope in confidence for the light of the world to lead us through every turmoil.

How could these five short verses transform the way you pray? Here are a few ideas for when you could reflect on Psalm 43:

When you feel the sting of injustice keenly.

When the ungodly, the deceitful, and the unjust prosper. 

When you want truth to win out so your vindication can be public.

When you know that God is your refuge but he doesn’t feel very much like a refuge right now.

When you see that nothing but God’s intervention can bring justice to your situation.

When you are so weak and weary, just stumbling through life.

When you long for light, for life, for brilliance, for joy.

When you pick up an instrument, paintbrush, or pen to express your spiritual journey in art.

When you need to repeat your prayers over and over again, reminding and comforting yourself in the salvation of God.

Psalm 43

[1] Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
    against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
    deliver me!
[2] For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
    why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
    because of the oppression of the enemy?
    
[3] Send out your light and your truth;
    let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
    and to your dwelling!
[4] Then I will go to the altar of God,
    to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
    O God, my God.
    
[5] Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.

Thank you for listening to the Woven Psalms. This podcast is a ministry of Rock Hill Community Church in Duluth, MN.

I’m Mike Solis. I’m a pastor at Rock Hill and the writer of this podcast. Ethan Gibbs is our producer, editor, and composer of the theme music. Our logo was designed by Beau Walsh. This podcast uses the English Standard Version, published by Crossway.

We want to give a special thanks to Poor Bishop Hooper for allowing us to use the music from their EveryPsalm project.

If you’ve enjoyed the podcast, please share it with others. You can learn more about our work at wovenpsalms.com.