Psalms 43

God, decide my case and speak up for me against a nation that does not honor you. Rescue me from the man who lies and treats people unfairly.

1Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

NoteIn Hebrew manuscripts this psalm carries no heading of its own, and it repeats the refrain of Psalm 42; many read the two as a single poem split in copying. "Plead my cause" is courtroom language: the singer asks God to be both the judge who rules on his case and the advocate who argues it for him. The "nation that does not honor you" translates a word for a people lacking the loyalty and mercy expected within the covenant community.

2You are the God who is my strength. So why have you pushed me away? Why do I walk around sad because my enemy keeps crushing me?

2For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "strength" means a stronghold or fortress, safety in the sense of a place you can retreat to, not just power. "Cast me off" is the language of rejecting someone you had accepted.

3Send out your light and your truth. Let them be my guides. Let them bring me to your holy hill, and to the place where you live.

3O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

NoteThe "holy hill" is Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the ridge on which the temple stood. The King James "thy tabernacles" is plural, but the Hebrew plural here is an intensive form meaning the one dwelling-place, the sanctuary itself, not several tents. The singer is somewhere far from it and wants to be brought back.

4Then I will go to God's altar, to God, who is my very great joy. I will play the harp and praise you, God, my God.

4Then 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.

NoteAn altar was a raised stone platform in the temple courtyard where offerings were burned; going up to the altar was the normal way of speaking about going to worship. The instrument is the kinnor, a small lyre held in the arms with about ten strings, not the tall orchestral harp of today.

5Why are you so low, my soul? Why are you so restless inside me? Put your hope in God. I will praise him again. He is my Savior and my God.

5Why 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.

NoteThis verse repeats, word for word, the refrain that closes both halves of Psalm 42. "Health of my countenance" is a literal rendering of the Hebrew "the salvation of my face": the one who restores a face worn down by grief. The soul is addressed as a separate party because in Hebrew the word means the whole living self, so the singer is arguing with himself out loud.